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I assume other NYU'ers will join in. I'm researching and bored. Questions?

What would you recommend for living arrangements? On campus? Brooklyn?

birdlaw117 wrote:What would you recommend for living arrangements? On campus? Brooklyn?

Depends on your interests. I don't anticipate staying in NYC after law school, so I stayed on campus so I didn't have to buy furniture, I didn't know anything about NYC, convenience, etc. But its definitely more expensive. If you have time to search for a decent apt. in Brooklyn and are interested in saving the $$, you definitely should.

Staying off campus often makes people less inclined to come back for social events. But I've noticed that people seem to get more done who live off campus AT school because they don't want to lug books.

Its a personal preference IMO.

Do you have any 1L tips, either generally or NYU-centric?

How feasible is extracurricular involvement during 1L? Is it something that most people forgo but that gunners and ambitious students do?

Are you trying for law review or any secondary journals? If so, what's the process been like?

Probably not the best person to ask about Journals since I have done zero research for them so far.

There are a number of people involved in extracurriculars, but I think you have to know your self. I didn't get involved in much first semestre outside of affinity groups and even my involvement here was limited because I knew I needed to focus on classes. A lot of my friends were involved in some of cool programs that let you represent those seeking benefits or students who had been suspended.

In terms of 1L tips you'd have to be more specific....

In terms of 1L tips you'd have to be more specific....

I very frequently hear that 1L year is the most difficult because incoming students don't quite know what's expected of them or how to succeed. Specifically, they don't know how to take law exams. With one round of finals behind you, can you share tips on how to succeed in your first semester of classes? Did you find study groups to be helpful or a waste of time? Did you use hornbooks or old outlines? How did you maintain a healthy work-life balance? Etc.

Thanks for answering questions, by the way.

sgtgrumbles wrote:Are you trying for law review or any secondary journals? If so, what's the process been like?

The process is pretty standard: at the end of 1L year, you receive a 100 (or so) page packet of reading material--cases, academic articles, news articles, etc. From that packet, you write a brief comment (about 5 pages). You also complete a Bluebooking exercise (fixing bad citations), and you submit a personal statement and resume. You have two weeks to complete all of this.

Different journals value different parts of your submission in different ways. You rank the journals you're interested in, and you receive an offer (about mid-July) from the highest journal you ranked that accepted you.

It's a bit of hassle, but at two weeks, you have plenty of time to do a decent job.

ETA: Volokh has a book on academic legal writing that includes a good chapter on journal competitions. There's no need for it as a 0L, but it's worth flipping through before the competition.

sgtgrumbles wrote:

In terms of 1L tips you'd have to be more specific....

I very frequently hear that 1L year is the most difficult because incoming students don't quite know what's expected of them or how to succeed. Specifically, they don't know how to take law exams. With one round of finals behind you, can you share tips on how to succeed in your first semester of classes? Did you find study groups to be helpful or a waste of time? Did you use hornbooks or old outlines? How did you maintain a healthy work-life balance? Etc.

Thanks for answering questions, by the way.

No prob. I followed the advice in XEOH's thread on TLS and did alright save for getting seriously ill first semestre. I wish I had done study groups earlier though...so much more helpful then I thought they would be.

You can either be hardcore from the start or more chill. Either way, near finals, everyone is insane.

Anastasia Dee Dualla wrote:I wish I had done study groups earlier though...so much more helpful then I thought they would be.

Can you elaborate on this? I've heard that they often just devolve into pity parties (about the difficulty of finals and whatnot). How were they helpful? For fleshing out concepts you didn't understand, that sort of thing?

Also, did you use any of the other TLS 1L threads? Why'd you choose XEOH's? Would you suggest synthesizing material from different 1L guides?

sgtgrumbles wrote:

Anastasia Dee Dualla wrote:I wish I had done study groups earlier though...so much more helpful then I thought they would be.

Can you elaborate on this? I've heard that they often just devolve into pity parties (about the difficulty of finals and whatnot). How were they helpful? For fleshing out concepts you didn't understand, that sort of thing?

Also, did you use any of the other TLS 1L threads? Why'd you choose XEOH's? Would you suggest synthesizing material from different 1L guides?

Anytime you have the opportunity to try to explain something to a group of people, it allows you to see the gaps in your reasoning. Inside of your head ppl are inclined to say "oh I knew that, I just didn't write it down." Study groups force you to have a well fleshed out concept. They can dissolve into whining if you let them. But just put the kibosh on that right away if you notice it. Also, if I had questions, someone was likely to have understood the concept out of the five of us.

I just selected one that seem to fit with my personality the best. You can synthesize different programme's if you are so inclined, but I just opted to maintain simplicity. I didn't use any of the other threads because I didn't want to be overwhelmed.