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Fire away with any questions you have about the school, life here in Palo Alto, academics at SLS, general questions about the application process, etc.

To give some context: we're currently taking 4 doctrinal classes--Civ Pro, Contracts, Torts and Crim--as well as LRW. I (along with much of the 1L class), live on-campus in the new Munger graduate residence. I'm also on one of the secondary journals, and involved in a couple of campus organizations.

The weather here is beautiful, my classmates are terrific, the professors are interesting and challenging yet humane, and I'm pretty thrilled to be here every day. Generic love of the school aside, I'm happy to talk about anything and everything

Kretzy wrote:Fire away with any questions you have about the school, life here in Palo Alto, academics at SLS, general questions about the application process, etc.

To give some context: we're currently taking 4 doctrinal classes--Civ Pro, Contracts, Torts and Crim--as well as LRW. I (along with much of the 1L class), live on-campus in the new Munger graduate residence. I'm also on one of the secondary journals, and involved in a couple of campus organizations.

The weather here is beautiful, my classmates are terrific, the professors are interesting and challenging yet humane, and I'm pretty thrilled to be here every day. Generic love of the school aside, I'm happy to talk about anything and everything

How much kool aid did they give you to drink at orientation?

Veyron wrote:
How much kool aid did they give you to drink at orientation?

No Kool-Aid, just a lot of wine.

Kretzy wrote:

Veyron wrote:
How much kool aid did they give you to drink at orientation?

No Kool-Aid, just a lot of wine.

Was that to dull the pain of being too dumb to get into anything but a junior law school?

Veyron wrote:

Kretzy wrote:

Veyron wrote:
How much kool aid did they give you to drink at orientation?

No Kool-Aid, just a lot of wine.

Was that to dull the pain of being too dumb to get into anything but a junior college?

Precisely the reason.

And Kretzy, I'm here to join you.

yay! i'll hang out too just cuz there wasn't enough SLS representation when i was applying...

Deferred 0.5L here. Do most people start participating in a lot of stuff (secondary journals, volunteer work, student organizations) during their 1L fall quarter, are a lot of people solely concentrating on figuring out law classes first?

Do any single students not live in Munger? Is your sense that it's definitely worth the extra money to be there over EV, Rains, etc?

Why did the offense decide not to play a second half last week?

Do you guys have a lot of social events? If so are there always food and drinks? Good food and good drinks?

I don't think I have any academic questions to ask

I'll chime in -- also, I'm married with a kid on the way, so if anyone has any "balancing law school and family" type questions, or anything along those lines, I'd be happy to offer my perspective.

DeepSeaLaw wrote:Deferred 0.5L here. Do most people start participating in a lot of stuff (secondary journals, volunteer work, student organizations) during their 1L fall quarter, are a lot of people solely concentrating on figuring out law classes first?

Do any single students not live in Munger? Is your sense that it's definitely worth the extra money to be there over EV, Rains, etc?

Why did the offense decide not to play a second half last week?

1. There seems to be quite a few 1Ls who opted to do secondary journal work. There was also a good turn out for the different pro-bono opportunities here. While most people seem to be very focused on their 1L fall classes, there is also a lot of extracurricular activity.

2. I know several single students who do not live in Munger and they seem to enjoy where they're at. Not being single, I can't really comment too much on whether it's worth it or not to be in Munger, but it seems like they have a nice community there. There are definite pros and cons living 20 yards from the law school.

3. I have no idea what you're talking about. Was there a football game last week?

anmo wrote:I'll chime in -- also, I'm married with a kid on the way, so if anyone has any "balancing law school and family" type questions, or anything along those lines, I'd be happy to offer my perspective.

What resources are available to spouses and/or children? What's a rough percentage of the people on law review who have families? Would you consider SLS a "family friendly" school? Was it easy for your spouse to make the transition?

What's the progress on the new building? Is it under construction now? Going to be done for Fall 2011?

GotYourselfAStewGoin wrote:What's the progress on the new building? Is it under construction now? Going to be done for Fall 2011?

I can see it being built as we speak. It is supposed to be done by early next quarter. Even with delays, it will certainly be up by fall 2011.

r6_philly wrote:Do you guys have a lot of social events? If so are there always food and drinks? Good food and good drinks?

I don't think I have any academic questions to ask

Yes. There's an event (normally sponsored by a club or career services, featuring a speaker) most days of the week. The food has alternated between burritos (chipotle) and pizza.

DeepSeaLaw wrote:Deferred 0.5L here. Do most people start participating in a lot of stuff (secondary journals, volunteer work, student organizations) during their 1L fall quarter, are a lot of people solely concentrating on figuring out law classes first?

Do any single students not live in Munger? Is your sense that it's definitely worth the extra money to be there over EV, Rains, etc.

I'm one of the few 1L's not doing pro bono, but I think they said that 140 out of 180 of us are doing it this year. There were similar, possibly higher, numbers for secondary journals.

I'm also one of the few single 1L's not in Munger. I'm actually off campus, but I have friends in EV. The people I know in Munger tend to be more connected into the social pulse of the law school (and campus in general) than the ones in other buildings.

r6_philly wrote:Do you guys have a lot of social events? If so are there always food and drinks? Good food and good drinks?

Since Bar Review starts in about 3 hours, I thought I'd take a stab at answering the social question

(caveat: I'm a very social person. Like, brings-a-drink-to-the-library-style social...don't judge)

SLS is extremely social. Part of that is Munger, where over half of us live, where it's really easy for 10, or 20, or even 50 of us to get together at the drop of a hat. Part of that is also that almost everyone seems to go to Bar Review, and also hang out outside at barbeques or events on Fridays, or tailgating for football games on Saturday. There does seem to be a smaller group of the school (say, 40-50 people) who want to go out 3-4 nights a week, but we also front-load a lot of work during the week. It's definitely a work hard, play hard environment for a lot of us.

The school also seems to put on some events, though there haven't been as many as I would've thought yet. 2Ls have been on callbacks, and 3Ls are really absent (except for journals). I don't know if that's everywhere, but I can count the 3Ls I know on two hands, and I am really involved.

There are things like TGIF, where a student group puts on an event in the Law Lounge on Fridays, and the SLA (student gov't, essentially) gives them money for food and booze. It does seem that a majority of the social events are student-driven, rather than SLS-driven, though it could just be that I haven't been here long enough to know.

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I'll also jump to answer questions

longdaysjourney wrote:
What resources are available to spouses and/or children? What's a rough percentage of the people on law review who have families? Would you consider SLS a "family friendly" school? Was it easy for your spouse to make the transition?

I don't know much about specific resources, but I would estimate about 1/3 of my section are married or have a serious long-term relationship of some sort, and 2 or 3 (out of 30) have a child. Of course, my section has a lot of old fogeys. Because most people with children live in EV with other families, there seems to be an already-existing community available for spouses. Most married couples seem happy with the community, although not living in Munger can be a little isolating from the rest of the law school.

It might be different if you're female and your spouse is male, as most of the married couples are the other direction... Wives often hang out with each other, but there seems to be less interaction with law school husbands.

Of course, I'm not married so other people probably have more experience with this

I'm very happy with Stanford right now. I can't imagine going to a bigger law school, as even 180 students can be a little overwhelming (especially at bar review!) My professors are all amazing in totally different ways, the school makes it very easy to participate in different programs, and I feel like the focus is on teaching us to be actual lawyers and apply the stuff we learn in cool ways. (Four out of five of my professors/instructors have real legal experience, which makes me happy.) There's a lot of work, I won't lie - having 4 BLL classes is pretty brutal - but apparently class of 2013 is more laid-back than previous years. The reading seems very front loaded, with Sun-Tues pretty stressful and Wed-Sat relaxing.

And I also didn't have a targeted letter.

Thanks guys for the social answers! Not that it is a deal maker or breaker, but I feel it is important to have an enjoyable social life for 3 years. I guess I will have to visit and see for myself if I do get in. I was just wondering since the class is so small. What about other grad schools at Stanford, do you have integrated events or SLS just pretty much keeps to itself?

r6_philly wrote:Thanks guys for the social answers! Not that it is a deal maker or breaker, but I feel it is important to have an enjoyable social life for 3 years. I guess I will have to visit and see for myself if I do get in. I was just wondering since the class is so small. What about other grad schools at Stanford, do you have integrated events or SLS just pretty much keeps to itself?

We do sort of keep to ourselves. We do some events each term with the Business School or with the Med School, but honestly not that many. There are other grad students in Munger as well, but it seems like the law school does tend to self-select into hanging out with other law students. Could be a function of it being early in our time here, but it does seem to be the case even for the 2Ls I know.

The small class size, to me at least, is really nice. Everyone knows each other's names, you look out for each other when people get sick/miss class/etc. The small amount of gossip there is, though, can spread fast (and I imagine it will only increase in speed and size).

Kretzy wrote:

r6_philly wrote:Thanks guys for the social answers! Not that it is a deal maker or breaker, but I feel it is important to have an enjoyable social life for 3 years. I guess I will have to visit and see for myself if I do get in. I was just wondering since the class is so small. What about other grad schools at Stanford, do you have integrated events or SLS just pretty much keeps to itself?

We do sort of keep to ourselves. We do some events each term with the Business School or with the Med School, but honestly not that many. There are other grad students in Munger as well, but it seems like the law school does tend to self-select into hanging out with other law students. Could be a function of it being early in our time here, but it does seem to be the case even for the 2Ls I know.

The small class size, to me at least, is really nice. Everyone knows each other's names, you look out for each other when people get sick/miss class/etc. The small amount of gossip there is, though, can spread fast (and I imagine it will only increase in speed and size).

Small class size is indeed very nice. My school has less than 200 degree students, and it is very nice to know everyone. I must say I enjoy interacting with other grad students, but it is understandable that law students keep to themselves. Professional programs do have a different feel than regular academic grad programs I suppose.

Sounds great guys. Hopefully I will get a chance to check it out myself soon. I really hope so.

Kretzy wrote:We do sort of keep to ourselves. We do some events each term with the Business School or with the Med School, but honestly not that many. There are other grad students in Munger as well, but it seems like the law school does tend to self-select into hanging out with other law students.

Don't ever underestimate the great bonding power of Illusions Superclub™.

What's the availability of off campus housing, and what's the price range? 2+ bedrooms. What's parking like if commuting?

Any of you focusing or planning to focus on Cyberlaw/Internet Law? I would love to find out more about the opportunities in those areas beyond what's posted on the website.

How is being on the quarters system?

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theadw wrote:

r6_philly wrote:What's the availability of off campus housing, and what's the price range? 2+ bedrooms. What's parking like if commuting?

Off-campus housing is ungodly expensive. I'm coming from DC, and price per square foot isn't much different in Palo Alto proper and the quality of the space is generally much inferior. As to commuting, I haven't heard anyone complain about parking, but it's annoying to drive in. Better to bike if you're able (and the university will pay you!)

Thanks for the answer. What about less desirable locations? I haven't lived in nice area for almost 20 years, so if I can find a decently priced house (but undesirable by SLS standards) I would prefer it that way because my family would be in tow (that's 6 extra heads). Hence the question about commuting.

I can always ride my bikes (motorcycles) since the weather is nice

r6_philly wrote:What's the availability of off campus housing, and what's the price range? 2+ bedrooms. What's parking like if commuting?

You'll probably be in the 1400-2000/mo range. You can get off campus housing for about the same or a little cheaper than living in Escondido Village (which is way cheaper than Munger) if you're willing to drive. Mountain View is a family-friendly area with relatively cheap housing. East Palo Alto and Redwood City also have some bargains if you're not too worried about the scenery. Full disclosure: I lived in a not so great area in undergrad so I'm easy to impress.

Parking is ample and is cheaper than it was at my UG. Get yourself a C pass and you can park in the deck just outside of Munger.