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I recall there being very little information out there when I applied, so I thought I'd make myself available to answer questions about our still-relatively-obscure little school. No propaganda, I'll answer as honestly as I can.

Thanks for answering our questions. I've been accepted and am seriously considering UCI pending a few other acceptances. I took a tour and sat in on Chemerinksy's 1L class and was very impressed. I do have a few questions though:

1. Do most law students socialize together after class and on weekends?
2. How is hiring for 1L's going for this summer?
3. Do you know if a lot of firms are participating in OCI?
4. Where do most students live? Do a lot of law students live in Puerta del Sol?
5. Are you happy with your choice?
6. Do you know 3L's are faring in their job searches?
7. Are most students public interest minded?

Do you get the feeling most job prospects are in OC or there is some reach throughout the state?

I'm not familiar with the area and would appreciate you expanding on Irvine and OC in general (I'm from NC so I'd imagine it would be a huge change)

odetojefferson wrote:Do you get the feeling most job prospects are in OC or there is some reach throughout the state?

I'm not familiar with the area and would appreciate you expanding on Irvine and OC in general (I'm from NC so I'd imagine it would be a huge change)

This q please!!

Any 1L/2L's need to sublet their apartment for the summer? I'm looking for a place because I'll be working in Irvine/Newport. PM me.

1. Do most law students socialize together after class and on weekends?

Absolutely. I have no basis for comparison, but most UCI students think we have an especially friendly school. There are several basketball teams (in fact I think they did an intra-school tournament), as well as a co-ed soccer team. People meet up frequently, either for study groups or just to hang out. I'm not much of a partier myself, but fairly large groups of people go to bars and stuff all the time.

Overall I'd say that if you're looking, there are more opportunities for a social life than you'll have time for.

2. How is hiring for 1L's going for this summer?

Personally I'm a bit behind, but the career center gives us a good deal of attention. I can't speak for everyone, but most people seem pretty confident (today was the Public Interest Career Day at UCLA, and a lot of us went). I'll probably have a clearer answer in a few weeks =D.

3. Do you know if a lot of firms are participating in OCI?

I don't...I've been looking at public interest summer jobs. I only see two private firms on the list at this moment, but I don't know how frequently it's updated or even how variable it is from time to time. I'll ask an older student and see if I can get back to you on that.

4. Where do most students live? Do a lot of law students live in Puerta del Sol?

I think there's a pretty even split. One fairly large group lives at Palo Verde (myself included), and another large group lives at Verano. Those two tend to be cheaper than the semi-privatized housing like Puerta, but plenty of people live there as well. Off-campus seems to be the most popular choice, by a small margin.

5. Are you happy with your choice?

Yes and no. At the time I was choosing between UCI, Boston University, and a year off to retake my LSAT. I'm still glad I didn't choose Boston, but there are times when the year off looks pretty good. Maybe that's just law school in general.

I'm also legitimately concerned that UCI won't ever have the name recognition that other t20's have. It's somewhat reassuring to know how hard Chem is working to fix that, though, and every other aspect of the school has been great.


6. Do you know 3L's are faring in their job searches?

In terms of clerkships, 14 of the 3L's received offers...a pretty decent spread, considering the class is only 60 people. That said, it would be fair to expect that proportion to go down as the class sizes increase.

http://www.uci.edu/features/2011/12/fea ... 111212.php

I also know of a few who have offers from firms, but I don't know how the rest are doing.

7. Are most students public interest minded?

Definitely. A significant portion of the faculty (Chem included) is working to instill a robust public interest culture here, and it shows. More than half of the students in my class want public interest summer jobs. It would be premature to say all those people want to work in public interest after school, but I wouldn't be surprised if a significant number did.

As an aside, I know they're working on a loan forgiveness program for graduates who do public interest work...I've been assured that it'll be in place by the time I graduate.

EDIT: I can't believe I forgot to mention this. The public interest encouragement isn't just implicit. There are two major parts of our curriculum that emphasize hands-on public interest work:

1. As part of our 1L Lawyering Skills course (a rough "legal writing" equivalent with a greater focus on practical skills that lawyers need) we get matched with public interest organizations to learn about lawyer-client interaction. I was matched with the local public defenders office, and I got the opportunity to observe a few intake interviews before conducting my own. It was a great experience, and I got some contacts with the office as a side benefit ;D.

2. We have a unique pro-bono program. As far as I know, UCI is the only law school that encourages (or even allows) 1L students to do pro-bono work. Typically, 90% or more of a class will participate. I was matched with the Legal Aid Society of Orange County (LASOC) to help combat homelessness.

odetojefferson wrote:Do you get the feeling most job prospects are in OC or there is some reach throughout the state?

I'm not familiar with the area and would appreciate you expanding on Irvine and OC in general (I'm from NC so I'd imagine it would be a huge change)

Great question. There's definitely some reach; before the school opened its doors, Chem literally called up a bunch of major firms to get them to promise to consider UCI grads. UCI won't close any doors for you in that regard, but there's a bit more of a local focus than I'd like...I get the impression that they're focused on developing their reputation/ties in the local area first, and then using that as a springboard for their national reputation. Most of the speakers/mentors/contacts are from OC, but maybe that's inevitable. In the end I'm not particularly concerned, and I definitely don't plan to live in OC after school.

Irvine/OC: Obviously the weather is pretty amazing...almost always sunny but not humid so no sweating/mosquitoes. If you aren't familiar with CA weather, an average winter night is between 50 and 60 degrees. Beach isn't far (15 minutes?), if that's your thing. Lots of shopping nearby (big malls in the immediate area, Carlsbad outlets a little ways to the south), plenty of cheap asian food. LA is about an hour north, and San Diego is about 1.5 hours south. It's generally regarded as a "conservative" county, but I'll tell you the law school itself isn't. For me the biggest drawback is the traffic. Between 3-6 it's a huge pain in the ass to get anywhere that requires the freeway.

Awesome! Thanks for answering. I do not think I would be happy settling in OC so your response made me feel better. And it's great to know they will have an LRAP in place.

lil bump

leprocrastinating wrote:lil bump

did you participate in the faculty-students bball game this year?

I am waitlisted at Irvine
Do you have any idea how many students are placed on Irvine's waitlist and the likelihood/3 of students being accepted off the waitlist?

Thoughts on the school competing with USC/UCLA?

I stopped by UC Irvine on Friday and I liked what I saw. I got to sit in the Con Law class taught by the Dean and tour the school. Will be back for ASW. Leprocrastinating, maybe I even met you or at least saw you.

LA626 wrote:I am waitlisted at Irvine
Do you have any idea how many students are placed on Irvine's waitlist and the likelihood/3 of students being accepted off the waitlist?

Unfortunately I don't have access to that kind of admissions information. What I can tell you is that I myself was admitted off the waitlist, and I didn't do very much to make it happen. I don't even think I answered the "do you still want to be on the waitlist?" email, since I was planning to take a year off at the time. So empirically, it's still possible to get in without any additional expression of interest...but obviously, you would be better off answering their emails and keeping in touch .

splitbrain wrote:Thoughts on the school competing with USC/UCLA?

Short answer: I would expect them to be ranked 1-6 slots higher than UCI ("high" meaning a rank closer to one).

Long answer: Tough to say. You'll notice our students' credentials are lower than USC/UCLA, but not drastically so. I would expect them to drop slightly for the next class, since the class-wide scholarships are no longer being offered and the class size is expected to increase. UCI has a higher ranked faculty, a better student/facuty ratio, and better clerkship placements...but much of this is attributable to incomplete class/faculty sizes. 14 clerkship placements out of 60 students is amazing, but it makes one wonder how well a class of 90 like mine, or the eventual (I think?) 250 would do. Similarly, Leiter's #9 in the country ranking for scholarly contribution was measuring a faculty with only 1/3 of the slots filled. As the faculty grows, the mathematical model should dilute the stunning contributions of the founding/senior faculty. I'd expect the ranking to eventually drop a bit, but who can say how much?

At this moment, UCI has stellar specs in all the categories I mentioned above (better than USC or UCLA in almost all of them)...given my 33% tuition reduction and the innovative curriculum, I definitely would have chosen it over USC and quite possibly would have chosen it over UCLA. Without the scholarship, and given the likelihood that some of the stats will drop, I'd say UCLA/USC may be slightly better long-term choices (taking into account their stable national reputations and alumni networks.) If you're going public interest though, I'd say UCI is still the best choice.

JDProspect wrote:I stopped by UC Irvine on Friday and I liked what I saw. I got to sit in the Con Law class taught by the Dean and tour the school. Will be back for ASW. Leprocrastinating, maybe I even met you or at least saw you.

That's very probable, since I've spoken with a few visitors so far. I hope you liked he Dean's class! I just wish it wasn't at 8:30am .

EDIT: I just noticed that there's another UCI thread. Here's a link, and if you have any more questions I'll be supplementing the responses of my very articulate colleagues. http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 4&t=150476