UChi Students & Alumni Taking Questions Forum

[beepboopbeep]

I didn't talk about journal once in any of my interviews.

Not doing write on or journal work during 2L is a great, great decision.

Mine actually came up a fair bit, mostly because a lot of my interviewers were former lawl reviews types

How much it'll matter probably depends on how much you want to gun for boutiques/wachtell types and that kinda shit

It's almost definitely not worth the shit that journal will put you through. Lawl review at least. I've heard the others aren't quite as bad.

[Mal Reynolds]

I didn't talk about journal once in any of my interviews.

Not doing write on or journal work during 2L is a great, great decision.

Mine actually came up a fair bit, mostly because a lot of my interviewers were former lawl reviews types

How much it'll matter probably depends on how much you want to gun for boutiques/wachtell types and that kinda shit

It's almost definitely not worth the shit that journal will put you through. Lawl review at least. I've heard the others aren't quite as bad.

Yeah but the question was about corporate and journal. You interviewed for lit, so I imagine the question came up a bit more. In fact the only time it ever came up in an interview for me was when I was interviewing with a firm that was almost entirely all lit and IP lit.

[Ron Don Volante]

Hey dudes

any transfer students ITT? Or people who'd have advice for a 1L considering a transfer? Please PM me, if so. (Also please don't quote)

thanks

[skers]

I didn't talk about journal once in any of my interviews.

Not doing write on or journal work during 2L is a great, great decision.

Mine actually came up a fair bit, mostly because a lot of my interviewers were former lawl reviews types

How much it'll matter probably depends on how much you want to gun for boutiques/wachtell types and that kinda shit

It's almost definitely not worth the shit that journal will put you through. Lawl review at least. I've heard the others aren't quite as bad.

Yeah, like Mal said, I was pretty much just addressing whether or not it mattered if you did it at all, and it never came up in my interviews. You did journal and it's on your resume and shit. For the most part lawl interviews are them just looking at your resume and finding something to talk about. Idk if there's a difference between what's expected of corp or lit people, but it doesn't seem to matter at all for corp.

[everything_bagel]

Hello all! I was recently admitted and am obviously beyond thrilled. I can't make it to ASW so i was hoping to ask some questions here.

I'm focused on PI (employment? affordable housing? i dunno for sure yet) and would love to hear about current/former UChi students' experiences doing PI at UChi. Have any of you RA'd for any professors who do interesting work in these areas? Any particularly cool clinics? What kinds of PI jobs are you or friends landing? I imagine students/faculty are more left-leaning than their reputation (because demographics) but will I be made fun of for believing in affirmative action and critical race theory or for being skeptical of some applications of law and economics?

edited for anonymity

[UnicornHunter]

censored

[DontStopBeliebin]

There are actually two clinics at UChicago about affordable housing! There's the Housing Initiative above, and also the LAF Housing clinic:

This clinic, conducted over two sequential quarters, exposes students to the practice of poverty law work by giving them the opportunity to work on housing cases at LAF, which provides free legal services to indigent clients in civil matters. Students will spend twelve hours per week in LAF’s Housing Practice Group, and may be asked to attend administrative grievance hearings, represent defendants in eviction actions, prevent landlords from performing lockouts or refusing to make necessary repairs, and participate in ongoing federal litigation. All students will be expected to interview clients, prepare written discovery, and draft motions. In addition to working at LAF, students will attend a weekly two-hour class at which they will learn about poverty law, subsidized housing programs, eviction actions, housing discrimination, the intersection between domestic violence and housing, using the bankruptcy code to preserve subsidized tenancies, challenging barred lists and "no trespass" policies, jury trial practice, and the extensive and often misunderstood connection between criminal law and subsidized housing.

The Housing Initiative one I've heard gives more transactional experience, and the LAF one more litigation experience, so you can do whichever you take a fancy to.

bagel, you can feel free to PM me about fair housing law and UChicago.

[everything_bagel]

Thanks a ton for the input, y'all. Those clinics do indeed sound awesome.

[UnicornHunter]

Thanks a ton for the input, y'all. Those clinics do indeed sound awesome.

Np. And I wouldn't worry at all about Chicago's reputation for conservatism. There's far more of the save the world types in the faculty and student body than there are hard-core conservatives.

In the last week alone we had lunch talks on topics like "Food Insecurity in Chicago" "Immigration and Domestic Violence" "Careers in Disability Advocacy" and "Rural Defense: Representing the America we Rarely See." Each of those talks brought practitioners working in PI positions to campus, and many of them included the chance to network with those people (the Rural defense guy was looking for 1Ls and 2Ls for the summer). There is PLENTY of opportunity to represent the public interest to your heart's content out of Chicago. The only challenge is that it's so (relatively) easy to get a firm job that you have to be really committed to the cause to forego that firm $$$.

[haplotype]

Two questions:

1) Are Chicago students happy? I feel like I read and hear a lot less--conspicuously less, whether in Chicago's promotional materials or here on TLS--about how much students love love love being at UChi, compared to most other T14s. I don't mean just UVA and Duke, but even, say, Columbia and Harvard. Is this just because Chicago prefers to emphasize the stoic-intellectual-powerhouse image, or is it actually because Chicago students don't love the bejeezus out of the place?

2) In this thread and others there's a lot of, "don't worry, Chicago's not that conservative, most students are liberal." So is the conventional wisdom closer to: a) Chicago's reputation as a more conservative community is anachronistic and the student body is about as left-leaning as at most other top schools, or b) Like at most other top schools, the large majority of the student body is liberal, but the right-wing minority here is somewhat larger/more vocal/better represented?

Thanks in advance!

[lawschool2014hopeful]

@Haplotype

1) People are fairly happy here. Even after when grades were released, no one was crying about it and everything was normal. Chicago is a great city, there is bunch of stuff to do. No one can really compare the happiness level of Chicago v other law schools, you would have to attend both schools. I would assume people at Stanford/Yale are happier, especially Yale, because of the whole no grades thing first semester.

2) I have no idea what anyone's political ideals are.

[AspiringAcademic]

Two questions:

1) Are Chicago students happy? I feel like I read and hear a lot less--conspicuously less, whether in Chicago's promotional materials or here on TLS--about how much students love love love being at UChi, compared to most other T14s. I don't mean just UVA and Duke, but even, say, Columbia and Harvard. Is this just because Chicago prefers to emphasize the stoic-intellectual-powerhouse image, or is it actually because Chicago students don't love the bejeezus out of the place?

2) In this thread and others there's a lot of, "don't worry, Chicago's not that conservative, most students are liberal." So is the conventional wisdom closer to: a) Chicago's reputation as a more conservative community is anachronistic and the student body is about as left-leaning as at most other top schools, or b) Like at most other top schools, the large majority of the student body is liberal, but the right-wing minority here is somewhat larger/more vocal/better represented?

Thanks in advance!

1.) I'm rather suspicious of anyone who says they love love love law school. Attending law school is one of the worst things you can do for your mental health. See, eg, http://prawfsblawg.blogs.com/prawfsblaw ... dents.html . I tend to assume that anyone who actively enjoys every day of their law school career either is on drugs or should be.
Given that I'm in law school, however, I'm quite happy to be here and I suspect I'd be less happy in other places. We probably just get different advice from marketing.
2.) I'd say that it's B, but I don't have data to back that up. The conservative-affiliated groups tend to be fairly active here, but the median student appears to be firmly left of center.

[beepboopbeep]

1 - I dunno. I like it. There's probably some self-selection of folks who would enjoy the lawl school experience anywhere--aspiring academics, etc--but there's also a lot of people who are ready to just get on and go to their firm already, speaking just of the other 2Ls. But I don't think either group is unhappy. The month before 1L spring quarter finals is really the time people hate their lives.

2 - Gotta distinguish between "Chicago has a more conservative student body than other law schools" and "Chicago has more conservative students than liberal students". The former is probably true. The latter probably untrue. I mean, for the comparative point, I only have conversations with friends to go by, but the conservative factions are definitely well-represented here. That doesn't really seem to be the case elsewhere.

[Canof09]

Two questions:

1) Are Chicago students happy? I feel like I read and hear a lot less--conspicuously less, whether in Chicago's promotional materials or here on TLS--about how much students love love love being at UChi, compared to most other T14s. I don't mean just UVA and Duke, but even, say, Columbia and Harvard. Is this just because Chicago prefers to emphasize the stoic-intellectual-powerhouse image, or is it actually because Chicago students don't love the bejeezus out of the place?

2) In this thread and others there's a lot of, "don't worry, Chicago's not that conservative, most students are liberal." So is the conventional wisdom closer to: a) Chicago's reputation as a more conservative community is anachronistic and the student body is about as left-leaning as at most other top schools, or b) Like at most other top schools, the large majority of the student body is liberal, but the right-wing minority here is somewhat larger/more vocal/better represented?

Thanks in advance!

1. I am a 1L and am generally happy. Everyone in my section (and really class as a whole) is cool and not overly competitive or gunner-ish. The weather sucks and it can definitely be stressful at times, but you know what you are getting in to with the weather and law school will probably be stressful wherever you go. I have heard that the Spring Quarter for 1Ls is pretty hellacious, but I'm not there yet so I can't comment on that.

2. It is 100% b. If you are defining "top schools" as HYSCCN then we are the most conservative school and it is not close. That being said though most people here are still left-of-center. If you are a conservative there will be more like minded people here than at peer schools, but if you aren't no worries you will still be solidly in the majority.

[Mack.Hambleton]

Any theories on why there's more conservatives? More Midwest representation?

[UnicornHunter]

Any theories on why there's more conservatives? More Midwest representation?

Home of some of the Law and Econ powerhouses of American jurisprudence.

e.g. Coase, Director, Posner, Easterbrook

[Mack.Hambleton]

Any theories on why there's more conservatives? More Midwest representation?

Home of some of the Law and Econ powerhouses of American jurisprudence.

e.g. Coase, Director, Posner, Easterbrook

Do 0Ls give a shit about law professors? lol

[elterrible78]

Any theories on why there's more conservatives? More Midwest representation?

Home of some of the Law and Econ powerhouses of American jurisprudence.

e.g. Coase, Director, Posner, Easterbrook

Do 0Ls give a shit about law professors? lol

Yes.

[UnicornHunter]

Any theories on why there's more conservatives? More Midwest representation?

Home of some of the Law and Econ powerhouses of American jurisprudence.

e.g. Coase, Director, Posner, Easterbrook

Do 0Ls give a shit about law professors? lol

I mean, not all- or even most- but the ones who do are probably going to be the ones who care about things like Chicago being a powerhouse in law & econ. So it explains why most of the student body leans left (law students are largely fungible and lean left as a group) and why the school attracts a larger cadre of passionate conservatives than other schools (the really passionate ones are going to be drawn to some of the faculty members). It seems like a way better theory than your "it's in the midwest" one. lol

[skers]

I mean, I think any opinion on how UChi compares with other t14s is going to be limited since we've all only gone here. Talking with friends at other schools there are originalist turds everywhere. Conveniently here you can just not take con law and avoid that whole thing. More importantly, your classmates' political preferences matter fuck all for your law school experience.

[Mal Reynolds]

I'm really happy here as a 2L. I was not so much happy as a 1L.

[beepboopbeep]

I'm really happy here as a 2L. I was not so much happy as a 1L.

I sorta liked 1L more overall? Probably an extremely minority opinion. Journal sucks. Seminars are pretty clutch, though.

[elterrible78]

I'm really happy here as a 2L. I was not so much happy as a 1L.

I sorta liked 1L more overall? Probably an extremely minority opinion. Journal sucks. Seminars are pretty clutch, though.

I bet something like 80% of the difference is directly attributable to journal, just knowing you and hearing what other people think of journal.

[2014]

I'm really happy here as a 2L. I was not so much happy as a 1L.

I sorta liked 1L more overall? Probably an extremely minority opinion. Journal sucks. Seminars are pretty clutch, though.

I function better when I'm busy and 1L was a pretty exciting time so I was probably more happy on the whole then too but it's close. I've enjoyed all three years.

[IPmaybe]

Howdy all. Since UChicago is one of my top choices, I was wondering how easy it is to find housing that would allow for a large dog in the area (I assume like for most big cities, hard...but it'd be nice if anyone had some personal info about it). Thanks!