University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law Forum

[Matokah]

stellenboschmaties: Let's hear it for the Midwesterners!

What part of Indiana are you from, if it's alright to ask? My boyfriend wanted to know because he grew up in South Bend and went to undergrad in Evansville.

Yes, we'll definitely get through this mini-financial crisis of ours if we can just hold out a little longer. As my friend said, that's what credit cards are for. (still don't like the idea of living off them like that, but I suppose once our loans come in, they can be paid back pretty quickly).

As for the gym at Pacific, to my knowledge we can use it to our heart's content. A current student said it's pretty empty since everyone is so busy, so that's a plus. When I'm not skating, maybe I'll be running on the elliptical. There's even a tiny outdoor pool, if I remember correctly.

Speaking of books. . .can anyone recommend a good one (other than Harry Potter, since I'd need to start from the first one, and I don't think I can read 7 books in the time before law school starts!)? I might just go to Borders and browse around sometime soon.

And with that, I, too, am off to bed!

[aldicarb]

well everyone, I just finished my short summer class tonight and took the final in Professional Responsibility... egh oh so fun! lol Hopefully I did well ;/

[OregonGirl07]

Congrats on finishing!!! I'm sure you did awesome!

Anyone who wants to join us at pub night is fine with me. If you want a really easy, but super good, read I would suggest My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult. It was a really addicting book and I recommend it to anyone who hasn't read it before.

I finished book 6 in like 3 days and from what I've heard 7 is about the same page length so I think it's definitely doable.

I am totally in the same situation with living stuff. My mom is being great but my dad swears he's not going to help me out anymore. Oh goody.

[dannyk1101]

CONCERNING MACBOOKS: So AGAIN, just to save everyone the trouble of asking.. MACBOOKS do in fact run the exam software using bootcamp:

The exam software has been certified to work in this fashion, but, to the best of my knowledge, McGeorge does not allow this configuration at this time. http://www.examsoft.com/generic/frame.asp?faq It would be best to check with the faculty secretaries as they are the administrators of this system. They can be reached at (916) 739-7101.

stellenboschmaties: dude i cannot wait for transformers!! i wanted an optimus prime so bad when i was a kid but could never find one =(

acurde: thomas pynchon?? lol. i tried reading one of his books long ago "gravity's rainbow" never got through it but perhaps i'll try again! =) ... and thx for the advice for first year but be gentle with the bubble bursting - we're excited first years here =T

HARRY POTTER? i read the first one and then jumped off the bandwagon.. are they really that good y'all?? did i quit too early?

anyways, i'm in vegas for the first time with my grandma of all people. good times.. good times..

goodnight everyone. can't wait for our little get together before school starts, i'm totally down for whatever.

also for you AIMers: deoadjuvante1101

[stellenboschmaties]

danny- i KNOW! i wanted an optimus prime and a rodimus prime (thank you original transformers movie) so bad i could taste it as a kid! i've looked on ebay a couple hundred times but i just can't force myself to buy one without feeling like a TOTAL geek...

matokah- born and bred in southern indiana! i went to undergrad at the University of Evansville, where did your bf go?

yes, danny, you did jump off the bandwagon waaaaaaay to early, harry potter is one of the seminal book series of all time. you can not beat it in terms of rich storytelling, truly realized characters and genuine emotion. god, i sound like an infomercial.

it's nice to know i'm not going to be the only one living on borrowed credit until loans come in. i spoke with joe pinkus at financial aid and he stated that they were hoping to get the student loan checks disbursed by the first week of classes (he said second day, but i sincerely doubt we'll be that lucky...)

next question...what are you guys going to do about medical insurance?

samm

[schadenfreude]

Speaking of books. . .can anyone recommend a good one (other than Harry Potter, since I'd need to start from the first one, and I don't think I can read 7 books in the time before law school starts!)? I might just go to Borders and browse around sometime soon.

Yann Martel "Life of Pi" -- perfect summer book
Natsuo Kirino "Out" ---Literary crime thriller/Japan culture critique

[Artful_Dodger]

Hi! I guess I'm months late! I'm going to be attending McGeorge in the Fall, but am confused about the Perkins Loan thing. Anybody figure that out? and it's nice to me you all!

[acurde]

Sorry Danny,

I forget how naive I was before I started law school - for instance, "it will be just like everything else!" Actually, you should party your ass off before school starts. Orientation sucks. It's a rude awakening to the next 9 months of your life. If I remember correctly, I spent nearly 3 hours briefing Tunkl vs. UC Regents (jesus i can't believe I remember that).

Are any of you first years from San Francisco?

[acurde]

Oh I almost forgot, last year, exam soft (the program you install on your laptop computer for finals) was not compatible with the new windows operating system. And Macs didn't work at all.

Not sure if they fixed that, but just so you 1L's know...

By the way, I live in Midtown, which is the best area of sacramento. Don't live near campus, the area is a hell-hole.

[Artful_Dodger]

Hi Matokah! It's me! Your future roomie

Anyway, I just wanted to say hi. And see if anyone else on here knows of any good places to go hang out and/or study in the area besides the library. I get sleepy in libraries for some reason. No clue.. I think it's from going to the library during my undegrad study seeing all those tired people sleeping on the sofas by the window.

[aldicarb]

Artful_Dodger - the only place I have studied off campus is Coffee Garden, and of course my apartment(w/ study friends). The library is pretty good if you can reserve a room and such.

in reference to what acurde said - I remember briefing Tunkl as well for McGeorge's orientation week, exeedingly annoying to do! lol As I have said before, I believe briefing is one of the most useless and inane skills you will learn in law school. It has very little purpose besides learning to distill a case down to its small parts - which you should be able to do without a brief eventually. This relates to the entire problem of the broken method that law school is taught in - the case method. You will quickly realize that reading cases is the worst way to learn the law in any area (far too specific and facts oriented for general principles) - usually you learn the law from the professor or supplements. But anyway, thats my rant, lol!


Hope you all are doing well.

[Artful_Dodger]

aldicarb,
I guess I'm getting even more nervous getting on this forum. I hear law school is hard core and now I hear that it's boring. Is there anything fun and interesting about law school? Good classes to recommend? Good professors? I'm interested in International Law but that might change later on. Who knows?

I'm sure I'll be completely engrossed in law school, but I just don't want to be bored with it. And in regards to what acurde said about living near campus, I agree. I heard it's pretty much on the ugly side of things. Which is not a huge problem for me since I won't be living in that area. But for future reference, should I move around more... where should I stay away from... And I don't really know the "areas" of Sacramento. I'll learn eventually, but for now... North of which street? West of where? That sort of direction would be a bit more useful to me.

Thanks! Hope everyone is having a good time for the remaining 3 weeks before we begin. For now... it's back to the office for me :S[/b]

[aldicarb]

artful_dodger don't worry, you won't have time to consider whether law school is boring. Which it definitely is not, at least for me. It may get tiring after a while, but that is why we have summer and holidays. In terms of your professors/classes, that will all be assigned to you automatically your first year. You probably won't know your section letter yet but when you do, I can tell you who your professors will be and what they are like. I think law school has been pretty fun intellectually.

In terms of the areas... the school is in Oak Park, which is the yucky area. Its really not THAT bad.. I mean it doesn't hold a candle to areas of Los Angeles... lol. It is not a very big area either. Just a couple miles from the school you run into large mansions and such.

Where are you moving from, by the way?

[ashleyshac]

Thanks everyone!


aldicarb: How is the rec center/gym at McGeorge?

[JarrettN]

I just finished an entire year of working with lots of tie for liesure reading so to the person that asked here are a few I liked a lot this year

life of Pi
kiterunner
Audacity of Hope (political book)
Fountainhead
Do androids dream of electric sheep
everything is illuminated
Ludmilas broken english
the futurist
sirens of titan (classic vonnegut)
confessions of an economic hitman
and thats the short list

anyway so everyone seems to be ok with the 5th I'll look into it.

and yes zocalo does a free tequila tasting the first monday of every month. They might start charging soon but I'm a founder of a tasting club so I got the hook if you guys are interested.

And aldi is right midtown is a fun place to live.

[Matokah]

stellenboschmaties: My boyfriend went to University of Evansville for undergrad, too! If you're at our bar meet-up, you might get to see him since he's helping me move. I *think* he graduated in 1999 with a degree in Archaeology and a minor in art history or something like that.

Thanks for the book recommendations, everyone! I've read a bunch of those books already like "Life of Pi", "Everything is Illuminated" and "My Sister's Keeper". Right now I'm reading "Haven: The Dramatic Story of 1,000 World War II Refugees and How They Came to America" by Ruth Gruber. I like it so far. Anyone who's interested should sign up for goodreads.com (I think that's what it is). Then again, we might not have time when we're in law school!

Just wanted to also make a shout-out to Artful_Dodger! Hello, future roomie! Don't worry about law school being scary or boring. We'll make it fun. And no, I don't usually make a point of being up at 3a.m. like I am right now, but I konked out at 9p.m. tonight and just now woke up. D'oh!

Speaking of whoever mentioned medical insurance, my parents' company is fighting some of my bills tooth and nail right now, and it's driving me crazy (they want proof that my insurance didn't lapse between my full-time job and their insurance. . .they're really messing up my schedule this week, as I now have to cancel my MRI appointment until I know for sure they're going to cover it. GRR! ). So, yeah, my parents are nice enough to let me use their insurance until I turn 25. . .then I'm not sure what I'm going to do about it. Maybe the school has some recommendations?

[Ipsa Dixit]

I'm getting pretty excited for law school. Only about a month left, crazy! I have been looking for an apartment in midtown so hopefully I will find one soon that suits me. Planning to view some this weekend.

Artful_Dodger, I am puzzled about Perkins as well. One of the papers that McGeorge sent said to go to --LinkRemoved--
after July 1 to get instructions for completing the loan application. However, I do not see any such instructions on that site aside from instructions for filing the FAFSA and the requirement for attending loan counseling. Anyway, I am going to call the Financial Aid office by Friday and ask them about it.

[OregonGirl07]

Ipsa be sure to let me know if you figure anything out with the Perkins.

I really love true crime books so I have read just about everything by Ann Rule. My favorites are Every Breath You Take, The Stranger Beside Me and Green River Running Red. So, I would recommend any of those.

[Sejal319]

Heyy everyone

For those people that are still concerned with housing - I suggest http://www.apartments.com

It's pretty cool because you can click your preferences and it finds what you want based on that, etc. I'm going to check a bunch out this Saturday in Sacramento - anyone going to be there?

No word from any of my wait listed schools but now I'm getting pretty excited about McGeorge.

[Matokah]

Oh, yes. . .the Perkins loan! Can't forget about that. Yeesh.

I highly recommend mynewspace.com to search for apartments, too. I really liked their apartments by location feature.

Thanks for the book recommendations, guys! I think I *just* got my moving truck situation figured out, so things are moving forward. Oh yeah, and I have a 6a.m. skating lesson tomorrow morning so I can save $12 in ice time (I have a prepaid card to the 6a.m. session). The things I do to save money, honestly.

[Matokah]

It's official! My loans have been approved (except the perkins which I still need to figure out). Good to know I can actually afford to go to law school officially now.

[saleen]

Hey guys, I went into the financial aid office late last week to get some things squared away and they said that the perkins info should be online either late this week or early next.

[Matokah]

Just so others who might be interested can see, I found what seems to be all 3 sections' schedules for the Fall semester. Get excited: --LinkRemoved--

I actually have a question for aldicarb or any other McGeorge law student out there. I noticed on section A (and possible B and C, but I haven't really looked at those yet) that there are what seems to be 2 separate contracts courses with different professors and everything. One is from 10:30-12 on Mon and Wed while the other is 9-10a.m. MWF. Do we really take 2 separate K courses or are the sections split up into two groups with one going in the earlier slot and the other on the later one? Just curious! I assume it's the latter, but I have no real idea, so I thought I'd ask.

[aldicarb]

the separate courses you cite are smaller sections, section A will get split in half (for example) into two contracts classes. I would have died having to take K twice ;D

[Artful_Dodger]

aldicarb Sorry for the late reply. I've been busy getting all my loans set and trying to find a laptop that still offers XP that is in my price range.

Anyway, I'm moving from the central valley which is pretty much surrounded by nothing, cows, and orchards. Everything looks pretty much the same wherever you go, and not as much ghetto as some of the larger cities. But still, it's been a while since I've been to a bigger city so I may be amazed. ick.

I'd be thrilled to hear more about the professors and what to expect. My theory is once you "know" your professor, you'll know what to expect and what to pay the most attention to. Just a theory and not yet a proven fact, but it seemed to work in undergrad.

Matokah thanks for the shout out! I figure we'll spend some nights studying till 3 am so I don't mind the lateness at all! IT probably looks like I'm on here at all hours of the day since I'm on pacific time. Anyway, I asked about the Perkins loan and I was told they'd tell us what to do and how to apply for that at orientation. Way to increase the anticipation.

P.S. Does anyone know about books? I'd like to figure out what texts we'll be using since it may be cheaper to buy them off of Amazon or something like that. Any knowledge of this... advice?