Harvard Student(s) Answering Your Questions Forum

[tomwatts]

Would taking Klarman's Constitutional History as a 1L be biting off more than one could chew?

No. I sat in on a session as a 0L, and it was pretty easy to follow. But good luck getting in. Probably 30-40% of the 1L class will preference it #1.

That's not to say that you shouldn't try, just that you should have a backup plan.

[TripTrip]

do you guys recommend CALI for gleaning BLL from courses? or anything else?

Eh. CALI is theoretically a great idea. In practice I've never really found it helpful. It ends up just being a TON more material. In the end, half of 1L is just figuring out which things to spend time on. It's not possible to do everything and read everything out there for every class (and still exist in the real world).

[Micdiddy]

Anyone have an outline for Horwitz's History of Economic Regulation? He's visiting NU right now and I'm in that class.

[tomwatts]

Anyone have an outline for Horwitz's History of Economic Regulation? He's visiting NU right now and I'm in that class.

HLS Dope has a couple of exams, but no outlines. Not sure about other sources.

[Searchparty]

Would taking Klarman's Constitutional History as a 1L be biting off more than one could chew?

No. I sat in on a session as a 0L, and it was pretty easy to follow. But good luck getting in. Probably 30-40% of the 1L class will preference it #1.

That's not to say that you shouldn't try, just that you should have a backup plan.

I preferenced it #1 and was still so far down on the wait list (I think in the 200s), I wish I hadn't wasted my first preference on it. So if there's another class you really want, consider going for that one instead. Now of course, that's not to say you won't get it... people obviously have to get into the class and it could very well be you...

[HorseThief]

Would taking Klarman's Constitutional History as a 1L be biting off more than one could chew?

No. I sat in on a session as a 0L, and it was pretty easy to follow. But good luck getting in. Probably 30-40% of the 1L class will preference it #1.

That's not to say that you shouldn't try, just that you should have a backup plan.

I preferenced it #1 and was still so far down on the wait list (I think in the 200s), I wish I hadn't wasted my first preference on it. So if there's another class you really want, consider going for that one instead. Now of course, that's not to say you won't get it... people obviously have to get into the class and it could very well be you...

I'm just a 1L, so this may be little more than rumor, but my understanding is that each student gets a number which determines their spot in the 1L registration line. When your number gets called, they look at your first choice, and if you don't get it, they then look at your second choice, all the way down until you're in a class. So if you really want Klarman, you can rank it as your first choice without loosing your 'first choice' spot (if that makes any sense).

[tomwatts]

I'm just a 1L, so this may be little more than rumor, but my understanding is that each student gets a number which determines their spot in the 1L registration line. When your number gets called, they look at your first choice, and if you don't get it, they then look at your second choice, all the way down until you're in a class. So if you really want Klarman, you can rank it as your first choice without loosing your 'first choice' spot (if that makes any sense).

I can't find the place where it says this, but as I understand it, it works slightly differently than this. If your first choice is full, then they place you on the waitlist for that class and move down the line. Then they come back to you after they've dealt with everyone else once and go to your second choice. If that's also full, you're again put on the waitlist, and they go back down the line to everyone else who hasn't yet been put in a class (and ignoring the people who have). Then they come back to you for your third choice, and so on.

So there is some risk preferencing something first that you're unlikely to get, because it puts you behind everyone else before you get to your second choice.

[Pneumonia]

Yeah so I just spoke with the registrar about this and basically tomwatts is right- they look at everyone's first choice before anyone's second choice, but they look at second choices in reverse order (of students) that they looked at first choice.

[HorseThief]

Yeah so I just spoke with the registrar about this and basically tomwatts is right- they look at everyone's first choice before anyone's second choice, but they look at second choices in reverse order (of students) that they looked at first choice.

Well... shit. There goes my plan.

[Fred012]

don't put klarman first. waste of a spot

[wwwcol]

don't put klarman first. waste of a spot

I don't like absolute statements but even I think this is a fair statement. I've preferenced Klarman first on two occassions and have ended up in the 120s and in the 250s on waitlists. Of course someone will be the lucky person who gets in, but statistically it's exceedingly unlikely to be you. Better ranking something you actually have a chance at getting.

[pupshaw]

don't put klarman first. waste of a spot

I don't like absolute statements but even I think this is a fair statement. I've preferenced Klarman first on two occassions and have ended up in the 120s and in the 250s on waitlists. Of course someone will be the lucky person who gets in, but statistically it's exceedingly unlikely to be you. Better ranking something you actually have a chance at getting.

This whole conversation was started by someone asking about Klarman's Constitutional History course, but I feel like we've shifted to talking about just Con Law. While this is probably true for Con Law, I think the Constitutional History course is easier to get into. I preferenced it tenth and I'm still ~100 on the waitlist.

[wwwcol]

don't put klarman first. waste of a spot

I don't like absolute statements but even I think this is a fair statement. I've preferenced Klarman first on two occassions and have ended up in the 120s and in the 250s on waitlists. Of course someone will be the lucky person who gets in, but statistically it's exceedingly unlikely to be you. Better ranking something you actually have a chance at getting.

This whole conversation was started by someone asking about Klarman's Constitutional History course, but I feel like we've shifted to talking about just Con Law. While this is probably true for Con Law, I think the Constitutional History course is easier to get into. I preferenced it tenth and I'm still ~100 on the waitlist.

Ah, I did have ConLaw in mind, so my anecdote should be taken with a grain of salt if there is a meaningful difference in getting into ConLaw vs Con history

[Inboston]

Thanks for all the responses. I think I'm gonna go for it and hope for the best.

[kcam1991]

Can you take take home finals out of Cambridge?

[CicerBRo]

You can take home finals outside of Cambridge. You can take them in Hawaii. I took all of mine at home last year.

[jingosaur]

How likely is a 1L to get off the Negotiation Workshop wait list?

Asking for a friend.

[sjgonzalez3]

How likely is a 1L to get off the Negotiation Workshop wait list?

Asking for a friend.

At the info meeting for the workshop, the head guy (Bob?) said that in past years they have had a range at best of everybody eventually getting in to the worst of rejecting a total of around 8 1Ls.

That being said, they could be fudging the numbers to keep people interested, but I doubt they need to do that given the seemingly fervent demand for the class. Their wait-list email also mentioned a greater-than-normal volume of applicants this year, but that could also just be stock language.

Unfortunate really. Time to go look at some other electives in the meantime.

[Pneumonia]

For sure think there was number fudging. Extrapolating from my section's results (that I know of), there are currently 75+ on the waitlist.

[Fred012]

when do u get ur final lrw grades and is it weighted equally with other courses?

[jingosaur]

For sure think there was number fudging. Extrapolating from my section's results (that I know of), there are currently 75+ on the waitlist.

God damn it. I knew my [friend's] essay should have started with, "The sole reason I came to law school is to become a negotiations professor."

[despina]

One variable for Negotiation is that in some years, some sections have class schedules that overlap. In spring 2013, two sections were ineligible to apply for Negotiation because of conflict, and so almost everyone who applied got in. If that's not the case this year, there may be a longer waitlist.

when do u get ur final lrw grades and is it weighted equally with other courses?

LRW grades come out with all the other grades, in January and June. All courses are weighted in your GPA according to how many credits / "hours" each course is. LRW is two credits per semester for a total of four credits, while regular 1L doctrinal courses are four credits in a single semester. So LRW "counts" as half a class in each semester, equivalent one 1L doctrinal course total. You can get a different grade in the fall and spring LRW.

So your 1L fall GPA is (for example): (4*TORTS + 4*CONTRACTS + 4*CIVPRO + 4*LEGREG + 2*LRW) / 18, where you substitute the name of each class with the GPA points earned for each grade (DS = 5, H = 4, P = 3, LP = 2).

Your GPA for each of your three years are calculated separately and then averaged to calculate your final GPA, which means that each 1L class is weighted slightly less than each 2L or 3L class toward your final GPA (since 1Ls take 36-38 hours for the year while 2Ls and 3Ls typically take 26-30 hours).

More info on calculating grades: http://law.harvard.edu/current/careers/ ... index.html

[Fred012]

wow, i did not realize LRW was worth half of all our other classes....

do teachers informally give semester grades back with the open memo markups? i mean you pretty much know then right?

[tomwatts]

do teachers informally give semester grades back with the open memo markups? i mean you pretty much know then right?

I didn't get the open memo back until late January. Well, I didn't pick it up anyway, but I wouldn't have been able to get it back until late January.

[polareagle]

wow, i did not realize LRW was worth half of all our other classes....

do teachers informally give semester grades back with the open memo markups? i mean you pretty much know then right?

This varies by section. If you get the grade on the memo back in December (like my section did), you can almost certainly figure it out. But, you might have to wait until January. Though, I doubt they would officially give you your final grade before grades actually come out.

As far as LRW being worth half, that is definitely true as far as Latin Honors goes. As far as employers and clerkships go, I wouldn't count on them differentiating. Common wisdom is that they just count H's, so an LRW H is worth as much as any other. There are some people that say your LRW grade may even be more important for litigation/clerkships, but I didn't hear about anyone actually treating it differently during EIP this year.