Northwestern 1L/2L/3L/Grads Taking Questions and Challenges Forum

[Holly Golightly]

Miss you, bjs. So does my old doorman.

[crumpetsandtea]

Fuck mal he can get over it lol. Everyone is invited.

[Wildcats17]

Over/under odds of a snow day tomorrow....?

[Fabulist]

I'd be pretty surprised if we were closed.

[rinkrat19]

Over/under odds of a snow day tomorrow....?

Lol nope.
The university has closed for bad weather fewer than 10 days since 1892 or whatever. Couple inches of snow in temps near freezing isn't gonna do it. Last year we closed a few days when the windchill was in the negative 30s and it was getting sort of dangerous to be outdoors. This is just uncomfortable, not dangerous.

[Mal Reynolds]

Woah woah woah. I don't care who comes. That sounds fun.

[bjsesq]

Miss you, bjs. So does my old doorman.

<3

It's a weird thing to think that the one thing I have over you from law school is that a guy you wanted to sleep with probably blew me. Go us.

[Cobretti]

Miss you, bjs. So does my old doorman.

<3

It's a weird thing to think that the one thing I have over you from law school is that a guy you wanted to sleep with probably blew me. Go us.

lol wut?

[bjsesq]

At a party. Holly has a doorman she wants to bang. He comes up to party after work. Holly and friend put in work to get his D. Turns out to be gay. We all drink to the wee hours of the morning and then pass out. I wake up and my cock and balls are pulled above my waistline on my jeans. Doorman is conspicuously absent.




World keeps on spinnin

[Cobretti]

[bjsesq]

I went and got tested a couple of days later. The Northwestern Difference meant I didn't have herpes.

[Cobretti]

I went and got tested a couple of days later. The Northwestern Difference meant I didn't have herpes.

i guess its no herpes no foul then

[Micdiddy]

Not to derail this thrilling discussion, but Justice Kagan is on campus today. Maybe we could talk about that ...

[bjsesq]

Not to derail this thrilling discussion, but Justice Kagan is on campus today. Maybe we could talk about that ...

You should ask her about sexual assault and being blown by the doorman whilst you are sleeping, and then ask what implications this has on King v. Burwell. You know, keep it topical.

[Desert Fox]

I'm a little offended I was only one couch over and was unmolested.

[bjsesq]

I'm a little offended I was only one couch over and was unmolested.

Bro did not know what he was missing out on.

[marcopolo1254]

1L here. Can someone shine some light on the “provisional membership” programs offered by the three journals that had the meeting today (JTIP, JLSP, and JIHR)?

As I understand them, you join the journal as a “provisional member” during the second semester of 1L and do assignments for the journal over the course of the semester. If you do what you’re told, you are allowed to join that journal as a full member without having to do the Writing Competition.

My questions are: (1) does Law Review have a provisional membership program?; (2) if Law Review doesn’t have a provisional membership program, does working as a provisional member on another journal increase your odds of making Law Review if you do the Writing Competition?; (3) is provisional membership on JTIP, JLSP, or JIHR a smart “hedge” in that it almost guarantees me a spot on that journal? I am hoping a 2L or 3L journal member can provide some answers. Thanks!

[Desert Fox]

1L here. Can someone shine some light on the “provisional membership” programs offered by the three journals that had the meeting today (JTIP, JLSP, and JIHR)?

As I understand them, you join the journal as a “provisional member” during the second semester of 1L and do assignments for the journal over the course of the semester. If you do what you’re told, you are allowed to join that journal as a full member without having to do the Writing Competition.

My questions are: (1) does Law Review have a provisional membership program?; (2) if Law Review doesn’t have a provisional membership program, does working as a provisional member on another journal increase your odds of making Law Review if you do the Writing Competition?; (3) is provisional membership on JTIP, JLSP, or JIHR a smart “hedge” in that it almost guarantees me a spot on that journal? I am hoping a 2L or 3L journal member can provide some answers. Thanks!

It is total flame. JTIP, JLSP, and JIHR don't turn people down during write on. It doesn't help you get law review. It is a waste of time. Don't do it.

[rinkrat19]

1L here. Can someone shine some light on the “provisional membership” programs offered by the three journals that had the meeting today (JTIP, JLSP, and JIHR)?

As I understand them, you join the journal as a “provisional member” during the second semester of 1L and do assignments for the journal over the course of the semester. If you do what you’re told, you are allowed to join that journal as a full member without having to do the Writing Competition.

My questions are: (1) does Law Review have a provisional membership program?; (2) if Law Review doesn’t have a provisional membership program, does working as a provisional member on another journal increase your odds of making Law Review if you do the Writing Competition?; (3) is provisional membership on JTIP, JLSP, or JIHR a smart “hedge” in that it almost guarantees me a spot on that journal? I am hoping a 2L or 3L journal member can provide some answers. Thanks!

(1) No. Only those three journals (JLSP and JIHR are new to it this year).
(2) I don't think so, except for whatever practice you get doing your 1L journal work and its minimal benefit on your write-on. (It'd probably only help you on the editing portion of the write-on, and minimally at that.)
(3) Yes, it's a hedge. But if you want to go for LR via the write-on, I believe you give up the 2L spot on the journal you earned by doing 1L provisional membership and get dumped back into the general pool. I don't think you get to keep your earned spot while waiting to find out if you get invited to LR. (This is something that the people running it would be better able to answer.)

Basically, the journal gets some work from you 1L year and hopefully fewer write-ons to grade over the summer, and you get to (probably) get on a journal without doing write-on, which is not all that difficult but is utterly miserable. If all you're worried about is getting on any old journal, then a good-faith effort at write-on is enough. If you really want LR, provisional membership won't help much. If you really want to skip write-on and don't care about getting LR/don't think you have any hope of LR, do provisional.

[NY8456]

1L here. Can someone shine some light on the “provisional membership” programs offered by the three journals that had the meeting today (JTIP, JLSP, and JIHR)?

As I understand them, you join the journal as a “provisional member” during the second semester of 1L and do assignments for the journal over the course of the semester. If you do what you’re told, you are allowed to join that journal as a full member without having to do the Writing Competition.

My questions are: (1) does Law Review have a provisional membership program?; (2) if Law Review doesn’t have a provisional membership program, does working as a provisional member on another journal increase your odds of making Law Review if you do the Writing Competition?; (3) is provisional membership on JTIP, JLSP, or JIHR a smart “hedge” in that it almost guarantees me a spot on that journal? I am hoping a 2L or 3L journal member can provide some answers. Thanks!

I am a 3L on the Law Review, and these are my thoughts on this topic: First off, the Law Review does not have a provisional membership program. The only way to become a member of the Law Review is by participating in the Writing Competition. Second, the Law Review does not take into account whether a given Writing Competition participant did provisional membership work for another journal during 1L2. Competition grading is blind, so journals won’t even know if a given participant did one of the provisional membership programs.

Your last question—whether provisional membership on JTIP, JLSP, or JIHR is a smart “hedge” in that it almost guarantees you a spot on that journal—is a great question that all 1Ls interested in journal membership should be asking. As part of the Writing Competition, you rank the six journals in the order that you’d like to join them (leaving unranked any journal which you do not wish to join). Last year (and based on discussions with previous members, this is sounds like pretty much the norm), I heard that every participant (literally 100%) was offered membership on either their first or second choice of journal. What this means is that you can, to a pretty certain extent, be assured that you will receive an offer from JTIP, JLSP, or JIHR (the journals that offer provisional membership) even if you (1) do not do their provisional membership program, and (2) rank a different journal first for the Writing Competition (almost all Competition participants rank the Law Review as their first choice). Again, this is because Competition statistics very strongly suggest that if you do not receive an offer from your first-ranked journal, you will almost certainly receive an offer from your second-ranked journal.

That said, I guess that provisional membership may indirectly increase your odds of getting on your first-ranked journal through the Writing Competition in that provisional membership projects involving technical editing may help you score better on the editing (Bluebooking) portion of the Competition. But again, any benefit derived from provisional membership in this regard would be indirect.

In any event, I’d definitely recommend joining one of the journals. It’s a great experience!

[irishballa]

How is the writing competition graded? How important is your gpa for getting on journals? 50/50?

[Micdiddy]

How is the writing competition graded? How important is your gpa for getting on journals? 50/50?

10 write-on spots for law review. Besides that it's about 50/50 (some are 40/60 favoring writing I think).
Provisional membership seems like an insane waste of time. Everyone who wants to be on journal will get on one through write-on.

[Fabulist]

Yeah the only reason to do it is if you want to not go through the hassle of write-on (instead going through the hassle of a provisional program) and are ok without a shot at law review.

[lemons]

sorry if this is a dumb question, but does our LR have grade-on and write on? How many spots are there for each class year?

[franklyscarlet]

sorry if this is a dumb question, but does our LR have grade-on and write on? How many spots are there for each class year?

A few spots are just write on (can't remember how many) and the rest is a mix of grades/writing. There will be a meeting sometime soon that goes over all of this in detail for you.

Re: the provisional program, I just want to back up what people said above; you don't need it to secure a spot on a journal as a back-up, and the non-provisional journals don't take that work into account in any way (I guess it might improve your bluebooking for write-on just through practice). The only reason to do it is if you have no desire for law review and one of those three is your second choice. If you want to try for law review or if JCLC/JILB is your second choice, do write-on: odds are very high you'll get your second choice and you will certainly get a journal.