Harvard Student(s) Answering Your Questions Forum

[Lysis]

You can cross-register directly into any class at FAS, the school containing the Gov and Phil depts. If a class is really law-related, it's often cross-listed at HLS so you don't even need to crossregister (e.g. like you mentioned, Sandel often teaches joint Gov/HLS classes). Of course, most graduate-level courses require prereqs and/or the professor's permission--this could be the more significant barrier if you want to study with certain superstar (read: very oversubscribed) profs at FAS.

Awesome! Thank you very much for this information! I just used Sandel because I remember seeing his name in the HLS course catalog, but this is very encouraging to hear overall. The strength of the Gov and Phil departments in law-related areas is definitely something I'm excited to take advantage of at Harvard.

No problem! I have similar interests and will be taking my first Gov class this Fall (2L), which is pretty much my first opportunity. It's possible to do it 1L Spring, but very difficult (you only have 1 elective and I think it takes a special petition to get it to be an outside class). Like someone mentioned, you can only take a total of 10 or 12 credits (about 3 classes) at other H schools, and have to maintain a minimum load of law classes any given semester, but I still think it's a great perk of being at HLS that we can access the rest of the university.

[Doorkeeper]

You can cross-register directly into any class at FAS, the school containing the Gov and Phil depts. If a class is really law-related, it's often cross-listed at HLS so you don't even need to crossregister (e.g. like you mentioned, Sandel often teaches joint Gov/HLS classes). Of course, most graduate-level courses require prereqs and/or the professor's permission--this could be the more significant barrier if you want to study with certain superstar (read: very oversubscribed) profs at FAS.

Awesome! Thank you very much for this information! I just used Sandel because I remember seeing his name in the HLS course catalog, but this is very encouraging to hear overall. The strength of the Gov and Phil departments in law-related areas is definitely something I'm excited to take advantage of at Harvard.

No problem! I have similar interests and will be taking my first Gov class this Fall (2L), which is pretty much my first opportunity. It's possible to do it 1L Spring, but very difficult (you only have 1 elective and I think it takes a special petition to get it to be an outside class). Like someone mentioned, you can only take a total of 10 or 12 credits (about 3 classes) at other H schools, and have to maintain a minimum load of law classes any given semester, but I still think it's a great perk of being at HLS that we can access the rest of the university.

I totally agree. 1L spring is pretty awesome. I wasn't expecting anything until 2L. Is there any way to petition for more courses if they're law-related? I guess if there's a lot of cross-registration that won't really be a problem. I want to make sure I can take one class 2L and 3L in phil/theory of law stuff.

[kaganator]

I asked this on another thread, but thought I'd ask here too. I'm deciding between living in North or getting my own place off campus but very nearby. Benefits of living off campus include having more space and my own kitchen, but will I miss out on socializing and study groups if I'm not in a dorm?

[094320]

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[ECRBaller]

I'm deciding between possibly living at North Hall (if I can get a place) or Gropius dorms. Does anyone have any general recommendations... Also, can anyone tell me how the social life compares or differs between the two places. Thank you!

[Blessedassurance]

Has anyone here been an RA before?

[englawyer]

I'm deciding between possibly living at North Hall (if I can get a place) or Gropius dorms. Does anyone have any general recommendations... Also, can anyone tell me how the social life compares or differs between the two places. Thank you!

asked and answered here http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 5&start=75

[thederangedwang]

so took a look at the grocery stores near HLS and all of them appear to have mixed reviews (people complaining about high prices etc)...wheres a good place to get groceries...like a major chain preferably so they wont jack up prices

wouldnt mind going a bit farther out as long as its near a t stop

[vanwinkle]

so took a look at the grocery stores near HLS and all of them appear to have mixed reviews (people complaining about high prices etc)...wheres a good place to get groceries...like a major chain preferably so they wont jack up prices

wouldnt mind going a bit farther out as long as its near a t stop

Shaw's is nice, and right next to Porter, one stop up. When the weather's nice it's just a long long walk away from anywhere the Harvard/Porter/Davis area.

[GeePee]

Has anyone here been an RA before?

Yes -- it varies heavily by professor, but feel free to shoot me any questions.

so took a look at the grocery stores near HLS and all of them appear to have mixed reviews (people complaining about high prices etc)...wheres a good place to get groceries...like a major chain preferably so they wont jack up prices

wouldnt mind going a bit farther out as long as its near a t stop

Good luck with that. For "cheap" groceries, the best bet in the (sort of) area is Market Basket, which is up on Somerville Avenue. Unfortunately, it is a little off the beaten track.

The Trader Joe's in Central has some good deals, but I'm generally quite underwhelmed with the freshness of TJ's produce, mostly because the majority comes all the way from Chile, I think.

Shaw's is fine and convenient, but it is quite expensive.

[concurrent fork]

Re: groceries -- as mentioned above, anything close to the T tends to be sub par. If you're just concerned about survival and not picky about meats and produce, there are a handful of Shaw's/Star Markets near Porter and east of campus.

If you cook a lot, there are two decent chain stores in the cambridgeport area: The huge whole foods on river street and the TJ's on memorial drive. Neither is near a T stop, but there's probably a bus route that gets pretty close. I would just make friends with someone who has a car.

[thederangedwang]

thanks yall

one more question..im gonna be living at terry terrace and apparently they have harvard internet there....does this mean its only hooked up and so i need to bring a router/ethernet cord...or does this mean the internet is fully set up already and so i dont have to bring anything?

[094320]

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[AllTheLawz]

so took a look at the grocery stores near HLS and all of them appear to have mixed reviews (people complaining about high prices etc)...wheres a good place to get groceries...like a major chain preferably so they wont jack up prices

wouldnt mind going a bit farther out as long as its near a t stop

If you buy a lot of groceries at a time the answer is grocery delivery. There are many options better than Peapod that a lot of people use and it usually has a fair amount of coupons for free delivery.

[Mista Bojangles]

Just to confirm this, because this is the sense I have at this point - it's pretty much impossible/unheard of to fail out of HLS, correct? From reading this thread it sounds like LP (which of course is a low pass) is the shittiest it realistically gets. Does anyone know anybody, or any second or thirdhand stories of anybody failing courses (or, more dramatically, leaving the school for academic reasons)?

I'm mostly just asking this out of morbid curiosity I guess.

More realistically though, I confess I'm a little intimidated about the fall. My undergrad was extremely uncompetitive both in setup/format and feel - I took a third of my classes pass/fail and the remaining courses were graded on a generous A/B/C scale. Maybe a bit concerned that this fall will be a headfirst dive into a peer group of brilliant and hardcore grinders with educational pedigrees about 100x more rigorous than mine.

How many of you current students have had at least one experience where you felt certain you were the slowest / most incompetent person in your class? I'm half expecting my experience this fall to be a series of these.

[AllTheLawz]

Just to confirm this, because this is the sense I have at this point - it's pretty much impossible/unheard of to fail out of HLS, correct? From reading this thread it sounds like LP (which of course is a low pass) is the shittiest it realistically gets. Does anyone know anybody, or any second or thirdhand stories of anybody failing courses (or, more dramatically, leaving the school for academic reasons)?

I'm mostly just asking this out of morbid curiosity I guess.

More realistically though, I confess I'm a little intimidated about the fall. My undergrad was extremely uncompetitive both in setup/format and feel - I took a third of my classes pass/fail and the remaining courses were graded on a generous A/B/C scale. Maybe a bit concerned that this fall will be a headfirst dive into a peer group of brilliant and hardcore grinders with educational pedigrees about 100x more rigorous than mine.

How many of you current students have had at least one experience where you felt certain you were the slowest / most incompetent person in your class? I'm half expecting my experience this fall to be a series of these.

Im really anti-discussing grades so I dont know the particulars of anyone else's situation but I have never even heard a story of anyone failing. The only reason I am even somewhat sure that LPs exist is because I have heard from other people that they know of a person who got one(though I have never actually confirmed with anyone or heard a specific name).

You really shouldn't worry about sounding like an idiot in class because I doubt it has a strong correlation with grades. I pretty much stopped going/paying much attention to one of my classes spring semester because the prof was completely incompetent and I somehow ended up with an H in the class despite the fact that I most definitely was not one of the "smartest" in the subject. Really, all you can do is try your best on every exam. Everyone is so smart that the middle 70% or so of exams are fairly similar so it probably all comes down to whether you got some random thing that the prof thought was particularly important (or read the supplement that talked about it).

Being good at law school is kind of a different kind of "smart" than what you would typically recognize, so academic pedigree isn't all that important. People come from all different backgrounds and a person who dominated in economics or physics in undergrad might not necessarily excel on a law school exam. I took law school nowhere near as seriously as I should have and I made it through first year perfectly ok (though not remotely close to the top of the class).

[094320]

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[tomwatts]

I've heard (from not very authoritative sources) that professors need permission from someone (maybe the Dean?) to fail a student, and it the exam has to say something like, "[expletive] you awful professor youre mean" and nothing else (to which the Dean is supposed to say, "To be fair, you are kind of mean sometimes" before allowing the prof to fail you).

If you try at all, you're not going to fail out.

[Mista Bojangles]

the exam has to say something like, "[expletive] you awful professor youre mean" and nothing else (to which the Dean is supposed to say, "To be fair, you are kind of mean sometimes" before allowing the prof to fail you).

lol'd. Thanks for that.

[delusional]

Just to confirm this, because this is the sense I have at this point - it's pretty much impossible/unheard of to fail out of HLS, correct? From reading this thread it sounds like LP (which of course is a low pass) is the shittiest it realistically gets. Does anyone know anybody, or any second or thirdhand stories of anybody failing courses (or, more dramatically, leaving the school for academic reasons)?

I'm mostly just asking this out of morbid curiosity I guess.

More realistically though, I confess I'm a little intimidated about the fall. My undergrad was extremely uncompetitive both in setup/format and feel - I took a third of my classes pass/fail and the remaining courses were graded on a generous A/B/C scale. Maybe a bit concerned that this fall will be a headfirst dive into a peer group of brilliant and hardcore grinders with educational pedigrees about 100x more rigorous than mine.

How many of you current students have had at least one experience where you felt certain you were the slowest / most incompetent person in your class? I'm half expecting my experience this fall to be a series of these.

Im really anti-discussing grades so I dont know the particulars of anyone else's situation but I have never even heard a story of anyone failing. The only reason I am even somewhat sure that LPs exist is because I have heard from other people that they know of a person who got one(though I have never actually confirmed with anyone or heard a specific name).

You really shouldn't worry about sounding like an idiot in class because I doubt it has a strong correlation with grades. I pretty much stopped going/paying much attention to one of my classes spring semester because the prof was completely incompetent and I somehow ended up with an H in the class despite the fact that I most definitely was not one of the "smartest" in the subject. Really, all you can do is try your best on every exam. Everyone is so smart that the middle 70% or so of exams are fairly similar so it probably all comes down to whether you got some random thing that the prof thought was particularly important (or read the supplement that talked about it).

Being good at law school is kind of a different kind of "smart" than what you would typically recognize, so academic pedigree isn't all that important. People come from all different backgrounds and a person who dominated in economics or physics in undergrad might not necessarily excel on a law school exam. I took law school nowhere near as seriously as I should have and I made it through first year perfectly ok (though not remotely close to the top of the class).

Disagree about some of this, but only a little. There are LPs. The reason people don't hear about them is because people don't talk about them. One professor emailed his section that he gave out four LPs. I went over one of my exams with a professor, and he said he gave out several LPs.
Also, people do leave because of grades, although it is hard to tell whether it's because of bad grades, or super gunners who can't handle median. Not many people though - I know of one.

[sharktankdean]

Are grades curved by section or do they take into account the whole 1L class? Also are these sections randomly determined or do they try and make every section as unique/diverse as possible?

[094320]

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[concurrent fork]

Also, people do leave because of grades, although it is hard to tell whether it's because of bad grades, or super gunners who can't handle median. Not many people though - I know of one.

It's hard to imagine a situation where this would make sense, especially since LIPP mitigates the risk of taking on additional debt.

[ignatiusr]

I vaguely remember this question being asked before, either here or on Facebook, but I can't remember the answer--when were you first notified about your section number? The current Facebook group is just a mass of students, most of whom won't be in my section. It'd be much more interesting to figure out who I'll actually be taking classes with.

[delusional]

I vaguely remember this question being asked before, either here or on Facebook, but I can't remember the answer--when were you first notified about your section number? The current Facebook group is just a mass of students, most of whom won't be in my section. It'd be much more interesting to figure out who I'll actually be taking classes with.

According to my emails, I found out on August 10. Orientation was August 27th? or so.