Columbia students taking questions Forum

[Nebby]

I'm thinking about taking a 2 week vacation abroad following the end of my first semester. Is that reasonable? I know winter break is the time to apply for summer internships/jobs. What other kind of law school related commitments did you all have during that time? Thanks

Just apply to everything you're interested in on December 1st.

[GreenEggs]

It depends what places you want to go for the summer. I didn't apply anywhere until after winter break and it didn't effect me at all

[pinkiepie]

I'm thinking about taking a 2 week vacation abroad following the end of my first semester. Is that reasonable? I know winter break is the time to apply for summer internships/jobs. What other kind of law school related commitments did you all have during that time? Thanks

It's fine. If you have time over Thanksgiving to get ahead on summer applications, that will give you peace of mind, but it's not a big deal. I didn't start applying seriously until the end of winter break and it was fine.

[GoneSouth]

I don't have to do anything to affirmatively submit my bid lost, right? It just locks?

[help4lawschoolthx]

Has anyone ever quit a job early before attending law school? I am curious if anyone has, how that works, and what your opinions are about that

[Tiago Splitter]

Has anyone ever quit a job early before attending law school? I am curious if anyone has, how that works, and what your opinions are about that

I think it's pretty common. I gave myself a couple months.

[mathis1490]

Will not be cooking - is a meal plan a decent option?
If not, what is?

[jbagelboy]

Will not be cooking - is a meal plan a decent option?
If not, what is?

I have never met anyone IRL that did a Columbia university meal plan, and I think it would be a pretty silly idea, but people on TLS have confirmed that they did it as 1Ls and that it worked for them.

Why not cook?

As for alternatives, keep in mind that there's a shitload of free food for most of the year at the law school. You can feed yourself nearly all lunches and some dinners on weekdays.

[theconsigliere]

Will not be cooking - is a meal plan a decent option?
If not, what is?

I have never met anyone IRL that did a Columbia university meal plan, and I think it would be a pretty silly idea, but people on TLS have confirmed that they did it as 1Ls and that it worked for them.

Why not cook?

As for alternatives, keep in mind that there's a shitload of free food for most of the year at the law school. You can feed yourself nearly all lunches and some dinners on weekdays.

How good is the free lunch? And what do you have to do to get it, go to a talk or something?

[jbagelboy]

Will not be cooking - is a meal plan a decent option?
If not, what is?

I have never met anyone IRL that did a Columbia university meal plan, and I think it would be a pretty silly idea, but people on TLS have confirmed that they did it as 1Ls and that it worked for them.

Why not cook?

As for alternatives, keep in mind that there's a shitload of free food for most of the year at the law school. You can feed yourself nearly all lunches and some dinners on weekdays.

How good is the free lunch? And what do you have to do to get it, go to a talk or something?

usually pizza or sandwiches, sometimes thai food or bbq. not great but passable. lunches are served at talks, so yes you just show up and sit for 30-45 minutes and listen if you're interested or do your readings. An email called Lawcal will be distributed each morning to let you know what events are on that day and in which rooms, and the student organizations themselves that host the events will send out notifications a couple days in advance

[Nebby]

Will not be cooking - is a meal plan a decent option?
If not, what is?

Not cooking? Weird

[jbagelboy]

Will not be cooking - is a meal plan a decent option?
If not, what is?

Not cooking? Weird

Ya man cooking is ill

[GreenEggs]

Will not be cooking - is a meal plan a decent option?
If not, what is?

A year ago I would've thought you were kidding, but I've met law students who don't cook. It makes zero sense to me, but they exist. There's a lot of places you can get food at, and way more that you can get delivery from. I would counsel towards groceries because it's a lot cheaper, but if that's not your play you still have options. Meal plans just make zero sense. Either eat out everywhere, or just pay for Amazon fresh and get food delivered straight to your apartment.

[jbagelboy]

Will not be cooking - is a meal plan a decent option?
If not, what is?

A year ago I would've thought you were kidding, but I've met law students who don't cook. It makes zero sense to me, but they exist. There's a lot of places you can get food at, and way more that you can get delivery from. I would counsel towards groceries because it's a lot cheaper, but if that's not your play you still have options. Meal plans just make zero sense. Either eat out everywhere, or just pay for Amazon fresh and get food delivered straight to your apartment.

I mean rich ppl just seamless everything, but for normal folks if you aren't cooking, I don't know what you're up to

[Nebby]

Will not be cooking - is a meal plan a decent option?
If not, what is?

A year ago I would've thought you were kidding, but I've met law students who don't cook. It makes zero sense to me, but they exist. There's a lot of places you can get food at, and way more that you can get delivery from. I would counsel towards groceries because it's a lot cheaper, but if that's not your play you still have options. Meal plans just make zero sense. Either eat out everywhere, or just pay for Amazon fresh and get food delivered straight to your apartment.

I mean rich ppl just seamless everything, but for normal folks if you aren't cooking, I don't know what you're up to

Stealing pizza boxes during lunch?

[kingpin101]

Will not be cooking - is a meal plan a decent option?
If not, what is?

[theconsigliere]

Kinda feel bad for this guy. Can't imagine he expected to receive this level of scorn for a seemingly innocuous question. That said I'd like to weigh in and say that I too find the "not cooking" strategy a bit odd. Neither of my roommates plan on cooking meals

[mathis1490]

Thanks for your responses. I did not anticipate the wave of "retake and reapply"-type recommendations, but perhaps I should do a better job of knowing my audience.

Would anyone be willing to share what a typical food budget looks like for the semester? It looks like CLS has assigned $2600 per semester for food costs.

[GreenEggs]

Thanks for your responses. I did not anticipate the wave of "retake and reapply"-type recommendations, but perhaps I should do a better job of knowing my audience.

Would anyone be willing to share what a typical food budget looks like for the semester? It looks like CLS has assigned $2600 per semester for food costs.

I mean this totally depends. A typical food budget for someone who only does groceries or a typical food budget for someone who doesn't cook?

[mathis1490]

Thanks for your responses. I did not anticipate the wave of "retake and reapply"-type recommendations, but perhaps I should do a better job of knowing my audience.

Would anyone be willing to share what a typical food budget looks like for the semester? It looks like CLS has assigned $2600 per semester for food costs.

I mean this totally depends. A typical food budget for someone who only does groceries or a typical food budget for someone who doesn't cook?

I should have been more clear - a food budget for someone who responded to my initial question. Since it seems that few people utilize the meal plan or don't cook, I'm curious what some other strategies look like.

[White Dwarf]

I spend ~$60-70 a week on groceries. I don't really "cook" outside of a rice cooker and a microwave.

[Nebby]

Thanks for your responses. I did not anticipate the wave of "retake and reapply"-type recommendations, but perhaps I should do a better job of knowing my audience.

Would anyone be willing to share what a typical food budget looks like for the semester? It looks like CLS has assigned $2600 per semester for food costs.

I mean this totally depends. A typical food budget for someone who only does groceries or a typical food budget for someone who doesn't cook?

I should have been more clear - a food budget for someone who responded to my initial question. Since it seems that few people utilize the meal plan or don't cook, I'm curious what some other strategies look like.

I think a very doable food budget is $400/month

[RSN]

So much not-cooking shaming. It's NYC, you can get cheap Seamless, street food, stuff from pizza places, and still keep a pretty good budget.

Also 0Ls, you'll discover this thing called box lunch, which is the greatest part of law school. No, actually, the greatest part is when you go to a student services lunch where there are extra boxes, and you can take one or two home to eat later. That's the best.

[iamgeorgebush]

You can get a meal (lunch or dinner) from Seamless for $12 to $15 at the cheapest. So if you do that every day for dinner plus add $5/day for breakfast, well, there are ~30 days/mo., you're looking at around $550/mo., plus lunch. For lunch, you can get food from events for free about 3 days/week for about 6 months out of the year, which means $400/mo. for the 6 months you can't get it free and $108/mo. for the 6 months you can get it free.

In sum, this strategy would cost you about $950/mo. for half the year and $658/mo. for the other half of the year. Of course, if you are willing to buy groceries that don't require "cooking" per se (like cereal for breakfast, pre-made salads for lunch or dinner, etc.), you could make things a bit cheaper (up to 50% less for the more expensive half of the year, probably).

[RSN]

You can get a meal (lunch or dinner) from Seamless for $12 to $15 at the cheapest. So if you do that every day for dinner plus add $5/day for breakfast, well, there are ~30 days/mo., you're looking at around $550/mo., plus lunch. For lunch, you can get food from events for free about 3 days/week for about 6 months out of the year, which means $400/mo. for the 6 months you can't get it free and $108/mo. for the 6 months you can get it free.

In sum, this strategy would cost you about $950/mo. for half the year and $658/mo. for the other half of the year. Of course, if you are willing to buy groceries that don't require "cooking" per se (like cereal for breakfast, pre-made salads for lunch or dinner, etc.), you could make things a bit cheaper (up to 50% less for the more expensive half of the year, probably).

Not necessarily - there are cheap Chinese/Indian/Thai places with huge portions where you can get 2 entrees for less than $30 with tip. For me that's typically 4 dinners, so that's $7.50/meal. $5 for breakfast is also nuts - a few $5 boxes of cereal last me for weeks.