Harvard Student(s) Answering Your Questions Forum

[DoubleChecks]

V50 with 1 H is super doable, but specific firms vary. As acrossthelake said, it depends on the firm and the rankings are not a very good metric per se (ex: plenty of V10 firms are easier to get into than W&C).

[slsorhls]

do students think employment opportunities are better from small schools like S or Y? Do they lament the large class size in that regard?

[094320]

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[slsorhls]

do students think employment opportunities are better from small schools like S or Y? Do they lament the large class size in that regard?

I mean employment opportunities *are* better at YLS. It's YLS. I don't lament the large class size, but I also haven't gone through EIP yet.

What about Stanford?

[094320]

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[Stinson]

Thanks for taking questions, everyone. In your experience, is there anything that noticeably distinguishes the top academic performers (the people who get most or nearly all H's) from those at the median? Do they work longer hours? Have different study habits?

What I guess I really want to know is - is there anything about their performance which is iterable?

My personal experience with grades is that they are random. At least for me; I don't know enough about other people's study habits or what grades they got to say whether that is true for everyone. But effort does not correlate to grades in my case, no. I have had classes where I worked really hard and destroyed the exam and gotten a P. I had a class I didn't go to half the time because it was early and I didn't find the discussions helpful, used someone else's outline on the exam, thought said exam was terrible, and got an utterly shocking DS.

The lack of fine gradations enhances the feeling of randomness; do not mistake that to mean, however, that I do not like the P/H/DS grading system. In general I like it.

[concurrent fork]

Thanks for taking questions, everyone. In your experience, is there anything that noticeably distinguishes the top academic performers (the people who get most or nearly all H's) from those at the median? Do they work longer hours? Have different study habits?

What I guess I really want to know is - is there anything about their performance which is iterable?

My personal experience with grades is that they are random. At least for me; I don't know enough about other people's study habits or what grades they got to say whether that is true for everyone. But effort does not correlate to grades in my case, no. I have had classes where I worked really hard and destroyed the exam and gotten a P. I had a class I didn't go to half the time because it was early and I didn't find the discussions helpful, used someone else's outline on the exam, thought said exam was terrible, and got an utterly shocking DS.

The lack of fine gradations enhances the feeling of randomness; do not mistake that to mean, however, that I do not like the P/H/DS grading system. In general I like it.

This is my experience exactly.

[slsorhls]

I am super impressed by the faculty at HLS. It seems to blow small schools out of the water...just having so many top names in one place. My question is this, though. Do you feel that you're able to connect to the professors?

I've heard that some professors are really hard to access--for instance, that even if you go to office hours, they will shoo you out quickly so they can deal with 50 other people at office hours. Is that true? Any other comments on this?

[094320]

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[englawyer]

do students think employment opportunities are better from small schools like S or Y? Do they lament the large class size in that regard?

there are two counter-arguments to the whole "small schools place better" thing:

(1) Harvard's EIP is literally massive, and thus more firms and offices come for interviews. i have no idea if it perfectly scales up in a #employers/#students sense, but it must be close. It is the largest law firm interview program in the country.

(2) Bigger school = more alumni = more depth in your options. For example, HALB (law and biz) sends out emails every once in a while with some alum looking for people to interview with their hedge fund etc.

[slsorhls]

Do you guys have any comments on the practical/theoretical divide in classes? From my limited perspective, it seems like Harvard is a bit more on the theoretical side (than Stanford, for instance), which I gravitate to.

I don't want to spend three years thinking about how lawyer A should have argued an 1843 property case. I'd rather think/talk about and discuss the larger issues involved in property law in general--theory behind it, comparison to other legal systems, etc. For instance, I find it very interesting to consider hypotheticals at the margins and really nail down the doctrine we're talking about--and to consider how the doctrine/law could have been different or is in fact applied differently.

Do you think that matches with what you get at HLS?

[PKozi]

What are your thoughts on Legislation and Regulation?

I know that's terribly open ended. I'm interested because (a) as of now I think I'd like to ultimately do legislative advocacy work and (b) while not completely unique to Harvard, it's not one of the traditional doctrinal classes.

[DoubleChecks]

Do you guys have any comments on the practical/theoretical divide in classes? From my limited perspective, it seems like Harvard is a bit more on the theoretical side (than Stanford, for instance), which I gravitate to.

I don't want to spend three years thinking about how lawyer A should have argued an 1843 property case. I'd rather think/talk about and discuss the larger issues involved in property law in general--theory behind it, comparison to other legal systems, etc. For instance, I find it very interesting to consider hypotheticals at the margins and really nail down the doctrine we're talking about--and to consider how the doctrine/law could have been different or is in fact applied differently.

Do you think that matches with what you get at HLS?

Depends on the professor. To be honest, I wouldn't be able to tell you what the general trend is at HLS versus SLS. I'd imagine you'd have to spend some time at both, and even then, it may be simply determined by the handful of professors you were in contact with.

[094320]

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[DoubleChecks]

I am super impressed by the faculty at HLS. It seems to blow small schools out of the water...just having so many top names in one place. My question is this, though. Do you feel that you're able to connect to the professors?

I've heard that some professors are really hard to access--for instance, that even if you go to office hours, they will shoo you out quickly so they can deal with 50 other people at office hours. Is that true? Any other comments on this?

Hate to pull the 'depends on the professor' card again, but...lol. Some big names are kind of hard to get in touch with; other big names are extremely down to earth and helpful (ex: John Manning being the country's leading textualist and probably one of the most genuinely kind human beings I have met in my life).

[carne.asada]

Thanks for this thread guys! It's been really helpful.

A question on housing: I'm looking around the area and I keep seeing "laundry machines in basement" or "community laundry facilities" listed as amenities. They mean that they're coin-operated, right?

[PMan99]

Thanks for this thread guys! It's been really helpful.

A question on housing: I'm looking around the area and I keep seeing "laundry machines in basement" or "community laundry facilities" listed as amenities. They mean that they're coin-operated, right?

I think so, unless you live in Gropius, in which case they don't operate

[094320]

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[Nom Sawyer]

Thanks for this thread guys! It's been really helpful.

A question on housing: I'm looking around the area and I keep seeing "laundry machines in basement" or "community laundry facilities" listed as amenities. They mean that they're coin-operated, right?

I think so, unless you live in Gropius, in which case they don't operate

I've heard that some of them let you use Crimson Cash.

If you're referring to the laundry machines for the HLS dorms, these can be operated with your HLS ID (money u use for food/printing/ etc.)... Quite convenience in that you don't need $4 in quarters every time

[Stinson]

In my experience with Leg Reg, you will think the class is stupid and afterwards think it's useful. Leg Reg is, among other things, a primer on administrative law. Many, many classes do not require admin but are a lot easier if you understand it. Thus if you cannot or do not take admin until substantially later, leg reg can be very helpful. Because of scheduling I'm not taking admin until next year, but I've been taking environmental classes since spring of 1L. It was a lot easier to take environmental law because, when the professor asked what the court's Chevron analysis was in a given case, I actually had some notion what she meant.

[Lovely Ludwig Van]

Muchos gracias to all the HLS students taking time to answer questions.

My question is, how much partying goes on during the school year in Gropius/Hastings/North? I like to drink and screw around as much as the next guy, but this is law school and I don't want to have the same level of distraction I had in undergrad. It seems from visiting during ASW that the walls in those facilities aren't exactly sound-proof, so I would definitely consider other more expensive options if it would make a difference.

[094320]

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[Lovely Ludwig Van]

Muchos gracias to all the HLS students taking time to answer questions.

My question is, how much partying goes on during the school year in Gropius/Hastings/North? I like to drink and screw around as much as the next guy, but this is law school and I don't want to have the same level of distraction I had in undergrad. It seems from visiting during ASW that the walls in those facilities aren't exactly sound-proof, so I would definitely consider other more expensive options if it would make a difference.

Varies by floor. Some are dead quiet, others are more lively. I haven't heard anybody complain about it disrupting them though. If it were bothering you, you could also easily ask them to quiet down. This is law school, most people understand what's on the line.

Great, thanks for the quick response! Also, I was wondering where most students prefer to do their studying. It seemed like a lot of students hang out in Wasserstein during the day as opposed to going back to dorms. Is that generally the case most of the time?

[PMan99]

Thanks for this thread guys! It's been really helpful.

A question on housing: I'm looking around the area and I keep seeing "laundry machines in basement" or "community laundry facilities" listed as amenities. They mean that they're coin-operated, right?

I think so, unless you live in Gropius, in which case they don't operate

I've heard that some of them let you use Crimson Cash.

If you're referring to the laundry machines for the HLS dorms, these can be operated with your HLS ID (money u use for food/printing/ etc.)... Quite convenience in that you don't need $4 in quarters every time

I dunno about acrossthelake, but I was poasting disputing the "operate" part, not what they operate on. I think my dorm has had a full set of working machines for like one week out of the year.

[PMan99]

Muchos gracias to all the HLS students taking time to answer questions.

My question is, how much partying goes on during the school year in Gropius/Hastings/North? I like to drink and screw around as much as the next guy, but this is law school and I don't want to have the same level of distraction I had in undergrad. It seems from visiting during ASW that the walls in those facilities aren't exactly sound-proof, so I would definitely consider other more expensive options if it would make a difference.

Don't live on a floor with a lounge and you'll be set