UVA Law Students Taking Questions Forum

[North]

I just want to join the chorus of people advising to never ever EVER take a class from Stone. Complete joke. Worst professor I've ever had. He's a huge donor, which is likely why he got to teach. Don't underestimate the power of donors, so it's possible he'll be back in the future. If that happens, stay away.

So what's the story here? That he was late with grades?

[20170322]

To the students in this thread, would you have taken a Dillard scholarship or Harvard, and why?

[lookingin]

I just want to join the chorus of people advising to never ever EVER take a class from Stone. Complete joke. Worst professor I've ever had. He's a huge donor, which is likely why he got to teach. Don't underestimate the power of donors, so it's possible he'll be back in the future. If that happens, stay away.

So what's the story here? That he was late with grades?

The course evaluations are juicy.

[anon sequitur]

The course evaluations are juicy.

Wow, they are. Worth a read. Would quote them here if it wouldn't get around. TL;DR: he told stories all semester, never really taught anything. Funny thing is, numerically the ratings are not really that low, it's just the comments that are harsh.

[lawhoo16]

I just want to join the chorus of people advising to never ever EVER take a class from Stone. Complete joke. Worst professor I've ever had. He's a huge donor, which is likely why he got to teach. Don't underestimate the power of donors, so it's possible he'll be back in the future. If that happens, stay away.

So what's the story here? That he was late with grades?

Yeah, we got normal grades. I got my B+ (all I was asking for) but a poster above seemed to be saying that few broke median. Pure speculation, but maybe he got pressured into giving 90% of the class a B+ since so many complained.

[North]

The course evaluations are juicy.

Wow, they are. Worth a read. Would quote them here if it wouldn't get around. TL;DR: he told stories all semester, never really taught anything. Funny thing is, numerically the ratings are not really that low, it's just the comments that are harsh.

I read a handful and came across this gem:

I was uncomfortable with his racial and/or ethnic comments at times, such as singling out the black students to ask if they were African, or using the term "yellow people" one class to describe a racial group. I did not care that he made political comments, but maybe that's because we share political views. Very uncomfortable at times.

lol

[uvheylaw]

To the students in this thread, would you have taken a Dillard scholarship or Harvard, and why?

If you're the type of person who would ask this question here, you should probably go to Harvard.

[swampman]

To the students in this thread, would you have taken a Dillard scholarship or Harvard, and why?

If you're the type of person who would ask this question here*, you should probably go to Harvard.

*Before applying to either of these schools, taking the LSAT, or finishing your sophomore year of college.

This is legit depressing, SweetTort. Go make out with that coed down the hall, you don't need to be doing this now.

[Yardbird]

To the students in this thread, would you have taken a Dillard scholarship or Harvard, and why?

Graduating debt free is pretty big. I know one student who turned down Yale for a named scholly at UVA. Unless you want to teach, UVA will open most of the same doors (including clerkships) and you'd be debt free.

[First Offense]

To the students in this thread, would you have taken a Dillard scholarship or Harvard, and why?

Depends on what scholly you get need-based from Harvard. Assuming sticker, Dillard all day.

[First Offense]

yeah didn't you guys see the email sent by the SBA? apparently it's an effort by the university to minimize our 'drinking culture.' Cuz yanno we are so connected the problems the university has...

That's such fucking bullshit. Read about it in the law weekly. We're not the fucking rapists on Central Grounds.

To anyone considering UVA - this type of shit makes me want to tell you not consider it. If the keg is gone, Dandelion, Feb Club, all that shit isn't far behind.

[North]

yeah didn't you guys see the email sent by the SBA? apparently it's an effort by the university to minimize our 'drinking culture.' Cuz yanno we are so connected the problems the university has...

That's such fucking bullshit. Read about it in the law weekly. We're not the fucking rapists on Central Grounds.

To anyone considering UVA - this type of shit makes me want to tell you not consider it. If the keg is gone, Dandelion, Feb Club, all that shit isn't far behind.

Yeah I almost never go to the keg and I'm still really pretty pissed about this. $55k a year should buy us a pass on this bullshit.

[Tgoin]

I just want to join the chorus of people advising to never ever EVER take a class from Stone. Complete joke. Worst professor I've ever had. He's a huge donor, which is likely why he got to teach. Don't underestimate the power of donors, so it's possible he'll be back in the future. If that happens, stay away.

So what's the story here? That he was late with grades?

Yeah, we got normal grades. I got my B+ (all I was asking for) but a poster above seemed to be saying that few broke median. Pure speculation, but maybe he got pressured into giving 90% of the class a B+ since so many complained.

This speculation is way off. The grades are everywhere from C and above

[lawhoo16]

I just want to join the chorus of people advising to never ever EVER take a class from Stone. Complete joke. Worst professor I've ever had. He's a huge donor, which is likely why he got to teach. Don't underestimate the power of donors, so it's possible he'll be back in the future. If that happens, stay away.

So what's the story here? That he was late with grades?

Yeah, we got normal grades. I got my B+ (all I was asking for) but a poster above seemed to be saying that few broke median. Pure speculation, but maybe he got pressured into giving 90% of the class a B+ since so many complained.

This speculation is way off. The grades are everywhere from C and above

Good to know. For 0Ls who might be scared by this, this is a big deal because any C grades are extremely rare. Very few professors will dip below B- grades (especially for a class like PR). Hard to know for sure though since the school no longer gives info about professor curves.

[North]

I'd be LIVID if I got a C -- deserved or not. That's just not an okay thing to do ITE. I heard Geis requested a meeting with all the students in the class to discuss the exam and the course.

Calling dibs on the StoneNorth Dining Hall. It'll serve Chipotle and be open 24/7 and there'll be a keg every day at 4:00.

[anon sequitur]

back when the gradebook was available, there were only like 5-6 C+'s a year. I really only remember seeing 1 straight C. That's ridiculous for him to be giving multiple C/C+ grades. Don't they sometimes reject grades distributions and have professors regrade?

[5ky]

C level grades are relatively rare but not something to freak out about. Cohen gives multiple C level grades for each class, as does Coughlin (generally).

I saw a couple Fs. Maybe a D or two.

[sundance95]

yeah didn't you guys see the email sent by the SBA? apparently it's an effort by the university to minimize our 'drinking culture.' Cuz yanno we are so connected the problems the university has...

That's such fucking bullshit. Read about it in the law weekly. We're not the fucking rapists on Central Grounds.

To anyone considering UVA - this type of shit makes me want to tell you not consider it. If the keg is gone, Dandelion, Feb Club, all that shit isn't far behind.

Yeah I almost never go to the keg and I'm still really pretty pissed about this. $55k a year should buy us a pass on this bullshit.

What the actual fuck. Someone needs to run for sba prez on a platform with one plank: bring back the keg.

If this is you, pm me for $100 donation to your campaign. Not joking.

[Yardbird]

yeah didn't you guys see the email sent by the SBA? apparently it's an effort by the university to minimize our 'drinking culture.' Cuz yanno we are so connected the problems the university has...

That's such fucking bullshit. Read about it in the law weekly. We're not the fucking rapists on Central Grounds.

To anyone considering UVA - this type of shit makes me want to tell you not consider it. If the keg is gone, Dandelion, Feb Club, all that shit isn't far behind.

Yeah I almost never go to the keg and I'm still really pretty pissed about this. $55k a year should buy us a pass on this bullshit.

It's like they think we're getting drunk and doing keg stands from 4-6pm.

[Hootimestwo]

0L here with a question: do you feel like it makes a big difference living really close to the school? If you live further away, do you feel like you've missed anything? FWIW I'll be living with my spouse- anyone married/living with SO care to share thoughts?

[anon sequitur]

people who live close by generally do it because they value the things that you get from being a 5-minute walk from class. people who live far out value the things you get by being far away (much nicer places for reasonable prices). Don't second guess yourself, if you think you want to live close/far, you can make it work easily, and you won't miss out on anything that you really want to be a part of.

[monsterman]

Has anyone had Edmund Kitch for anything? I have him for a class now--his course reviews were pretty bad but I liked him the first day so I decided to stick it out. Now I'm not so sure. He rambles on about random shit for most of the class and barely touches the cases. So...does anyone know what his exams/grad distribution is like?

[jj2014]

How hard is it to get a job out west from UVA? Do many California or mountain-west firms recruit there? People I've talked to said it's possible, but it takes a little more effort than landing somewhere out east.

[Br3v]

Don't second guess yourself, if you think you want to live close/far, you can make it work easily

+1

[whats an updog]

0L here with a question: do you feel like it makes a big difference living really close to the school? If you live further away, do you feel like you've missed anything? FWIW I'll be living with my spouse- anyone married/living with SO care to share thoughts?

I would second the other posts that you can probably make it work wherever you live. Personally, I really value the convenience of the location. I live in the Copeley Hill family housing which is a 5 minute walk to the law school and an even quicker walk to my son's school. It's really easy to run home between classes to have lunch with my family or get a book if I forgot it. I also don't have to make any arrangements for being picked up by my wife after classes.

There is a significant amount of grassy area in Copeley Hill with playgrounds, a creek, and picnic benches which are great when the weather is good. It's also super close to JPJ arena which you can walk to for basketball games and other events during off season. Plus, all utilities including internet are free and the price ($1060 for a 3BRM) is pretty awesome. The central heating (which comes in through radiators in all the rooms) is actually way better than I'd anticipated and in the Winter we've been fine.

Downsides are that the quality of the apartment isn't the greatest. The paint on the walls has about 10 layers and will regularly chip and fall off. The bathroom fans are all incredibly noisy. At least in the 3BRM the floors are all linoleum which just doesn't look great and (imo) requires you do get some big rugs to keep it from being cave-like in it's echoyness/cold. Washer/dryer is shared and is $1.50 a load which can add up.

How hard is it to get a job out west from UVA? Do many California or mountain-west firms recruit there? People I've talked to said it's possible, but it takes a little more effort than landing somewhere out east.

Haven't gone through OCI yet, but my impression is that it isn't that much harder. There is a pretty good (and growing) support network for people going out West but the overall emphasis of firms that visit and have receptions are Richmond/DC/NYC.