Davis 3L taking questions Forum

[davis3l]

There are a few good restaurants. That's about all I go to Sac for. It's not a bad place, but if you're looking for weekend entertainment, you should either just hit up bars in Davis, or go to Tahoe or SF.

[Zannie1986]

so you wouldn't really call sacramento a liveable city (vs. davis)?

[Inygma]

so you wouldn't really call sacramento a liveable city (vs. davis)?

I personally liked Davis more. Downtown Davis has plenty of boutique restaurants and bars if you are into that scene. Sacramento was ok when I visited, but its not a big city like SF or LA.

[davis3l]

so you wouldn't really call sacramento a liveable city (vs. davis)?

Livable for what purpose? If you're attending King Hall, it's certainly much more preferred to live in Davis. But if I was an attorney working in downtown Sac, I would MAYBE rather live in Sac.

The only thing Sac has that Davis doesn't is a large mall/shopping center.

[20160810]

so you wouldn't really call sacramento a liveable city (vs. davis)?

Livable for what purpose? If you're attending King Hall, it's certainly much more preferred to live in Davis. But if I was an attorney working in downtown Sac, I would MAYBE rather live in Sac.

The only thing Sac has that Davis doesn't is a large mall/shopping center.

Sac is much more of a city than Davis, but Davis has pretty much everything you need, and a whole lot less Affliction-shirt-wearing douchebags in its bars. As was mentioned, the main draws of Sac would be shopping and food. Having grown up there, I have an affinity for the place and find that it's very "livable," but more in the sense of being a decent place to raise a family. If you're going to King Hall, it's going to be much more convenient to live in Davis vs. Sac.

That said, there are some pretty cool bars/plaes to go out in Midtown, and Second Saturday is usually a good time.

[Inygma]

so you wouldn't really call sacramento a liveable city (vs. davis)?

Livable for what purpose? If you're attending King Hall, it's certainly much more preferred to live in Davis. But if I was an attorney working in downtown Sac, I would MAYBE rather live in Sac.

The only thing Sac has that Davis doesn't is a large mall/shopping center.

Sac is much more of a city than Davis, but Davis has pretty much everything you need, and a whole lot less Affliction-shirt-wearing douchebags in its bars. As was mentioned, the main draws of Sac would be shopping and food. Having grown up there, I have an affinity for the place and find that it's very "livable," but more in the sense of being a decent place to raise a family. If you're going to King Hall, it's going to be much more convenient to live in Davis vs. Sac.

That said, there are some pretty cool bars/plaes to go out in Midtown, and Second Saturday is usually a good time.

I was trying to find the sketchy areas of Sac when I was up there, but it is hard to do (considering I live near LA and have been through the bad areas there). The worst I found was K Street Mall across from the capital. Lots of homeless and what appeared to be drug dealers.

Where is the "ghetto" in Sac?

[davis3l]

Where you were is the closest thing to "ghetto" I know of in Sac. I guess some areas south of downtown are a bit rough too (near McGeorge).

There aren't any areas in Sac that compare to Oakland or SF Tenderloin. I'm not sure how it compares to LA though.

[20160810]

There are some pretty bad neighborhoods in Sac. Downtown is pretty much all OK (although the K street area will always be sleazy). Midtown is fine. Your best bet if you want a bad neighborhood (and some amazing Mexican food) is the area south/southeast of Sac City College. Take either Florin or Fruitridge east from Freeport and after about 10 minutes you'll find yourself starting to get into some sketchy areas. Then turn onto a sidestreet, and that's where the real fun begins!

A rule of thumb that (sadly) tends to work also applies in Sacramento: Find the streets named after famous figures from the civil rights movement, and you've found the bad neighborhoods.

[Governor]

Does Davis have a summer class for incoming students?

Kind of.

1Ls at Davis take a week-long "Intro Week" course in the end of August, just before school starts. There, you're taught how to take notes, how to outline. You get a general overview of the structure of the legal system in the United States. If you've seen advertisements for those $3,000 Kaplan two-week "prep" courses, this is kind of the same thing -- except it's included in your tuition. This is pretty unique to Davis.

[Governor]

how often do people leave davis on weekends?

1. Weekends - pretty often...most students go to either SF or Tahoe about once a month. People that have family in SF leave almost every weekend.

Most? I wouldn't say most. Some do. Maybe even a lot do. But not "most." Especially not those from SoCal who spend their free weekends in LA.

[jmaan]

sac>davis to club

the park/mix

[20160810]

sac>davis to club

the park/mix

I just threw up in my mouth a little bit. Clubs in Sacramento are awesome if you like assholes who wear Tapout shirts.

[DoctorNick189]

Davis vs. WUSTL. Who gets the nod?

[davis3l]

Davis vs. WUSTL. Who gets the nod?

This is 100% a question of where you want to work after law school. Don't let anyone else tell you otherwise. If you go to Davis, you'll have like a 5% chance of working somewhere other than CA. If you go to WUSTL, you won't get hired anywhere outside the midwest.

[Great Satchmo]

This may be a tired comparison, but given the choice, at sticker, for work in the bay area, does Davis or Hastings seem to have an advantage?

I imagine Hastings, purely for geographic locale, has an edge. However, for some reason it's my impression that resources may be better at Davis.

Thoughts? Is there a pro/con list, or simply is this a "six of one, half a dozen of the other" sort of choice?

[davis3l]

This may be a tired comparison, but given the choice, at sticker, for work in the bay area, does Davis or Hastings seem to have an advantage?

I imagine Hastings, purely for geographic locale, has an edge. However, for some reason it's my impression that resources may be better at Davis.

Thoughts? Is there a pro/con list, or simply is this a "six of one, half a dozen of the other" sort of choice?

Some people think Hastings is better for SF Biglaw. Others think Davis is better for public interest. I think both sides are dillusional.

Davis v. Hastings should be decided almost entirely based on where you'd rather live for three years. I think it helps to really consider what kind of person you are. Do you need stress and excitement to motivate you? Do you crave the stimulation of an urban lifestyle? If so, Hastings might be better. If you're more of a "quality of life" type fellow, go to Davis.

[hoodence]

I'm so happy this thread exists. As decision dates approach, I need to nail down a school to attend. I do appreciate the collective help from all of you.

From looking at Hastings' most recent employment stats on their website, it seems 25-30% get clerkships/biglaw with a market value salary. What percentage of Davis students get biglaw (the answer always seems to be slippery and amorphic)?

How expectant are students about getting summer associate positions and how many actually do get them, to your knowledge?

Lastly, how congealed is the law school student body? One of the main draws about Davis for me is how small the student body is, which I assume leads to a tighter sense of community. Do people go out and party together? Have each other over for dinner?

Okay. Thanks for any input. I'm starting to get excited about the prospect of going King Hall. Wow.

[davis3l]

I'm so happy this thread exists. As decision dates approach, I need to nail down a school to attend. I do appreciate the collective help from all of you.

From looking at Hastings' most recent employment stats on their website, it seems 25-30% get clerkships/biglaw with a market value salary. What percentage of Davis students get biglaw (the answer always seems to be slippery and amorphic)?

How expectant are students about getting summer associate positions and how many actually do get them, to your knowledge?

Lastly, how congealed is the law school student body? One of the main draws about Davis for me is how small the student body is, which I assume leads to a tighter sense of community. Do people go out and party together? Have each other over for dinner?

Okay. Thanks for any input. I'm starting to get excited about the prospect of going King Hall. Wow.

You should be excited, it's an awesome place.

1. Biglaw - the best answer I can give here is, during my OCI in 2008, if you were top 30-35%, you'd have a decent chance at getting Biglaw interviews. I believe about 20% of my class ended up getting either true Biglaw or OC/Sac/San Diego market (100-140k range). Overall the Biglaw chances are nearly identical between Hastings and Davis.

2. Summer associate jobs - pretty much same answer as above. I don't know anything about how this year's OCI went. I just know that about 20% of my class got summer associate gigs.

3. Small class size - the good thing about having only 200 people in your entire class is everyone is a "friend of a friend." So it's really easy to hang out with anyone because nobody is completely alien to you. It's also cool because it's easier to ask a favor from a friend of a friend than from a random Joe you've never heard of. Overall your social life here will be completely up to you...you can be friends with whoever you want, you can party as much or as little as you want. The downside, I guess, is since everyone sort of knows everyone, there is plenty of gossip. But that's part of law school fun!

[hoodence]

I'm so happy this thread exists. As decision dates approach, I need to nail down a school to attend. I do appreciate the collective help from all of you.

From looking at Hastings' most recent employment stats on their website, it seems 25-30% get clerkships/biglaw with a market value salary. What percentage of Davis students get biglaw (the answer always seems to be slippery and amorphic)?

How expectant are students about getting summer associate positions and how many actually do get them, to your knowledge?

Lastly, how congealed is the law school student body? One of the main draws about Davis for me is how small the student body is, which I assume leads to a tighter sense of community. Do people go out and party together? Have each other over for dinner?

Okay. Thanks for any input. I'm starting to get excited about the prospect of going King Hall. Wow.

You should be excited, it's an awesome place.

1. Biglaw - the best answer I can give here is, during my OCI in 2008, if you were top 30-35%, you'd have a decent chance at getting Biglaw interviews. I believe about 20% of my class ended up getting either true Biglaw or OC/Sac/San Diego market (100-140k range). Overall the Biglaw chances are nearly identical between Hastings and Davis.

2. Summer associate jobs - pretty much same answer as above. I don't know anything about how this year's OCI went. I just know that about 20% of my class got summer associate gigs.

3. Small class size - the good thing about having only 200 people in your entire class is everyone is a "friend of a friend." So it's really easy to hang out with anyone because nobody is completely alien to you. It's also cool because it's easier to ask a favor from a friend of a friend than from a random Joe you've never heard of. Overall your social life here will be completely up to you...you can be friends with whoever you want, you can party as much or as little as you want. The downside, I guess, is since everyone sort of knows everyone, there is plenty of gossip. But that's part of law school fun!

Thanks for the input. I'm teetering much more toward Davis now. I wish they would make a fraking decision already but I can always wait for good news. Please feel free to blab as much as you want about Davis. Good or bad, you already have a captivated audience in me.

[hoodence]

Hey, would you mind dropping in on the admissions office and asking them what's taking so long?

[davis3l]

Hey, would you mind dropping in on the admissions office and asking them what's taking so long?

We've had like a 20% increase in applications this year...that's one reason. But I know they've been reading a ton of files this week, so there might be some decisions coming soon.

[RSN_M3]

Are there a lot of hot Asian girls on campus?

[davis3l]

I'm not the best person to ask. All I know is that there are a lot of Asian girls on campus.

[Inygma]

I'm not the best person to ask. All I know is that there are a lot of Asian girls on campus.

No Yellow fever for you?

[drdolittle]

Thanks for doing this. And thanks to all others who've made constructive comments.

What's your impression of Davis vs. SCU, or other similarly ranked specialized T2 schools for that matter, for intellectual property law? Would this be a field where going to a lower ranked IP school with $$ make some sense? How much sense?

BTW, I'm a biomed PhD and will target IP, but I like the idea of going to a place like Davis. It would probably end up being more expensive than a lower ranked IP specialist school like SCU, though I get the sense that the overall caliber of the profs and students, and therefore the educational experience, at Davis would be better. What do you think?

Also, I've spent many years living in SF and could not agree more with your, SoftBoiledLife's and even the venerable Ken's posts on the Davis/Hastings debate. As you all mentioned, people should simply visit the two campuses to make an informed, personal decision.