Chicago 3L Taking Questions. Forum

[A Fern Port]

What are some advantages of a larger class size? I've been under the impression that smaller is better.

Well, I chose Chicago in part due to smaller class size. So I might not be an expert here, but larger class size offers:
- more people in school to befriend, so potentially a bit more diversity
- larger alumni network
- more classes to choose from, especially seminars (possibly mitigated if larger class size means that you have to lottery into core classes, but I don't know if that is the case anywhere)

I'm sure there are other benefits as well. I think it's just A Question of Choice.

[hownowbrowncow]

I've heard UC really emphasizes economics in its courses. Is this true?

How's your experience been with the administration? I've been seeing a lot of posts saying the financial aid people have been curt with the admits for this year.

Congrats on almost graduating!

[A Fern Port]

I've heard UC really emphasizes economics in its courses. Is this true?

How's your experience been with the administration? I've been seeing a lot of posts saying the financial aid people have been curt with the admits for this year.

Congrats on almost graduating!

There are economics aspects to certain professors' teaching styles, but no one expects you to do actual math-based economics. I don't know how much more L&E focus there is than other schools, but I didn't find myself getting too much law & econ in my courses here.

The administration is okay. Financial aid people are just busy, I reckon, although I have little experience with them, so can't really speak to that.

Thanks. A few more exams, and I'm done!

[hiromoto45]

When do you get your booklist?
Can you buy all your books at the campus bookstore?
Does the bookstore carry the supplements like hornbooks etc? Which supplements do you recommend?
Or do you get everything online?

[Mr. T6]

When do you get your booklist?
Can you buy all your books at the campus bookstore?
Does the bookstore carry the supplements like hornbooks etc? Which supplements do you recommend?
Or do you get everything online?

You'll get it about a week before school starts, along with the first assignments.

Yes, you can buy all of them.

The bookstore carries some supplements, but not all, and at inflated prices. Many students order them off Amazon. I would not buy the supplements until a few weeks into the quarter. You don't know yet which courses are confusing, which are being taught in a supplement-unfriendly matter (*cough* Crim *cough), and which supplements do the best job of tracking the professor.

My little secret is that I haven't bought books since winter quarter of 1L. I read everything in the Reserve Room.

[A Fern Port]

When do you get your booklist?
Can you buy all your books at the campus bookstore?
Does the bookstore carry the supplements like hornbooks etc? Which supplements do you recommend?
Or do you get everything online?

Book list comes out a week or two before the quarter, as ^^ said.

I usually buy books used from Amazon or wherever is cheapest (using Bookfinder.com). But then, I don't mind books with highlighting. (Actually, I sometimes prefer highlighting, if it's done well, so I can just read the important parts...) New books are also cheaper online. Worst case, you won't have a book for a week or two, so you can borrow one from a friend or read it in the reserve room.

I didn't use any supplements first year, except E&E for Civ Pro as it was on our book list as a required book. I haven't used any supplements since then either. So, I'm not in a position where I can fairly judge which supplements are best.

[swampthang]

As a side note, did you call Chicago and tell them about the Columbia scholarship? I feel like if our administration ever matches any school's scholarships (which they do), it should be Columbia. Because, if you could get 37.5k from Chicago, so it was 17.5k cheaper than Columbia, my analysis basically reverses, so you'd need a compelling reason to attend Columbia.

I tried... Karla Vargas turned me down in 2 hrs with 2 sentences

I experienced exactly the same thing. Took them money from NYU and she asked me to write her a long "Why Chicago?" For my 2,000 words I got a simple, "Sorry, nothing I can do."

In the end I still chose Chicago, but I don't think I would have in your situation. 37.5k is a slight bump up from what I got and I consider Chicago and Columbia equals (unlike my perceptions of NYU).

Yeah, they really were amazingly unhelpful and unwilling to budge in these situations. Positively shocking.

[freeflowfox]

Karla vargas... ugh... She has to live with turning people down cold, who sincerely want to do PI and don't have the money to not be enslaved by a bank. I could never do her job, don't know how she sleeps at night... for her "institutional concerns" trump humanity. They've really got the perfect, stone-cold, gate keeper for their treasury.

[A Fern Port]

Karla vargas... ugh... She has to live with turning people down cold, who sincerely want to do PI and don't have the money to not be enslaved by a bank. I could never do her job, don't know how she sleeps at night... for her "institutional concerns" trump humanity. They've really got the perfect, stone-cold, gate keeper for their treasury.

I think Chicago has a decent public interest loan repayment plan, and there are always rumblings of it improving. (Although I don't know how much faith I'd put in rumblings.)

I also think it'd be difficult to tell people who really want to do public interest work apart from those who wouldn't mind doing public interest work, but will ultimately be enticed by the money offered by law firms.

[freeflowfox]

The result of that is the decision making process re: scholarships is unfair for everybody.

I am seriously hoping they ramp this loan repayment stuff up, and it's not all just talk.

[manifestdestiny]

Have you, or do you know of anyone using income earned from a SA to pay debt/expenses for law school? If so, assuming you work in a major market large firm for the summer how much do you think is reasonable to be able to save over the summer?

[Mr. T6]

Have you, or do you know of anyone using income earned from a SA to pay debt/expenses for law school? If so, assuming you work in a major market large firm for the summer how much do you think is reasonable to be able to save over the summer?

Don't count on it.

[manifestdestiny]

Could you elaborate?

[ToTransferOrNot]

They don't give much scholarship money because there isn't much to give. UChicago law's endowment really isn't that big. The money they do have goes to convince Harvard-bound folks to come to Chicago instead. They have a small enough class size that they don't really need to compete for the affections of CN cross-admits.

[A Fern Port]

Have you, or do you know of anyone using income earned from a SA to pay debt/expenses for law school? If so, assuming you work in a major market large firm for the summer how much do you think is reasonable to be able to save over the summer?

You'll be paid $3070-ish per week at a good major-market firm. You'll probably work 8-12 weeks during summer.

From there, you can use a paycheck calculator and knowledge of rental prices to determine how much you might be able to save.

I am not sure how much I saved over the 2L summer. But it should be fairly easy to figure out how much you could potentially save, should you choose to work at a big firm.

[jimmyd11011]

If you (or anyone) is still around, can you elaborate on this "topic access" method of getting on LR?

[Emma.]

If you (or anyone) is still around, can you elaborate on this "topic access" method of getting on LR?

I'm just an 0L, but I'm pretty sure this is if you write an article that is selected for publication in LR.

[ChaotiCait]

I don't think anyone asked this yet, but if so, sorry. Do you guys buy a monthly pass for public transportation, or are the free bus lines around hyde park enough? Do people go into downtown enough that getting a pass is worth it?

[usaojeff]

I wouldn't get a monthly pass. They're pretty expensive so you'd have to ride the bus a lot in order to justify the expense.

They have this card called a "Chicago Card" or something like that, which is the best, in my view. It makes bus rides cheaper, I think, and makes cheap transfers possible. In other words, if you don't have this card, you have to pay full-fare each time you use a different bus/El train.

The card is especially nice because you can set it online such that it automatically refills to some value you designate once it gets depleted to some other level you designate -- mine is set to refill to $20 every time it gets down to $10, so it gets refilled quite often without any service charge.