Wake Law Students taking Questions!!! Forum

[Incubateus]

Our career services office is great. My advisor is Francie Scott and she is incredible. They are all very realistic and tell you to do simple, basic things that lead to jobs. The big one for most people I know is asking an alumni or local attorney to get coffee with you so you can pick their brain. CSO has a list of these types of people. I did that a few times, shadowed some people in the city where I wanted to work, and ended up having several offers. I highly recommend it; it has a much higher rate of return than anything else. Also, it's not uncommon to go to a professor and ask them if they know anyone hiring in X market. They usually are very helpful with that.

As to our alumni, they are pretty awesome. Every student is assigned an alumni mentor, and you can request what market you want them to be in. My mentor has come down a few times, we talk every month or so, and he has given me a list of friends of his to contact.

Honestly, I think that the biggest thing you can do is go hang out at your local courthouse or wherever, meet an attorney or two, tell them your plans and just try to shadow them. If you can establish a solid relationship with even one attorney before law school, when you go home one Christmas break or spring break, just ask to shadow them again. Ask if they have friends that you could shadow. Almost everyone I've met has been receptive and open to help you out. I did that same stuff and I really had no problem getting the job I wanted.

[tstyler98]

Yes. Absolutely. This is going to sound ridiculous, but I really don't know a single person who didn't get a job where they wanted to even for there first summer. It might not have been their dream job, but everyone I know ended up where they wanted to be. That being said, I just finished 1L, but I still know a good bit of people.

That's great to hear. Was the alumni network instrumental in placing people in their respective desired markets? The one con that I have consistently heard about Wake is the career services, that's why I'm curious...

I think people look down on them because career services doesn't get you a job, which I think many people think career services will do. Instead, they simply provide tools and advice on how to find a job yourself. I didn't have much interaction with career services outside the stuff we're required to attend and having them read through my resume and cover letter.

[moandersen]

Im shocked it took so long for the Skinner story to make ATL. I still have no idea whats going on with that though.... Dude is fighting a losing battle.

I wouldnt be surprised if wake makes ATL again this fall when word of the incoming 1L class size is made public. Looks like another "mistake" with scholarships. I feel bad for the people who actually believed wake wasnt going to increase class size once the b-school left.

Career services at wake is probably the same as every other law school. They are far from great and the best career services people leave for other jobs. Ive met with extremely helpful people (who are now gone), and extremely unhelpful people (who are still there). Dont be misled by the 1L's statements though. Everyone gets a job 1L summer, usually in the city they want to practice, because 90% of them are working for free. A 1L summer job is not the end goal - permanent employment is.

[shaynislegend]

Im shocked it took so long for the Skinner story to make ATL. I still have no idea whats going on with that though.... Dude is fighting a losing battle.

I wouldnt be surprised if wake makes ATL again this fall when word of the incoming 1L class size is made public. Looks like another "mistake" with scholarships. I feel bad for the people who actually believed wake wasnt going to increase class size once the b-school left.

Career services at wake is probably the same as every other law school. They are far from great and the best career services people leave for other jobs. Ive met with extremely helpful people (who are now gone), and extremely unhelpful people (who are still there). Dont be misled by the 1L's statements though. Everyone gets a job 1L summer, usually in the city they want to practice, because 90% of them are working for free. A 1L summer job is not the end goal - permanent employment is.

Implying...?

[pifhib2]

Im shocked it took so long for the Skinner story to make ATL. I still have no idea whats going on with that though.... Dude is fighting a losing battle.

I wouldnt be surprised if wake makes ATL again this fall when word of the incoming 1L class size is made public. Looks like another "mistake" with scholarships. I feel bad for the people who actually believed wake wasnt going to increase class size once the b-school left.

Career services at wake is probably the same as every other law school. They are far from great and the best career services people leave for other jobs. Ive met with extremely helpful people (who are now gone), and extremely unhelpful people (who are still there). Dont be misled by the 1L's statements though. Everyone gets a job 1L summer, usually in the city they want to practice, because 90% of them are working for free. A 1L summer job is not the end goal - permanent employment is.

Spill the details on the incoming class dude.

Also, this whole Skinner shit is lulztastic.

[InBetweenDays]

Im shocked it took so long for the Skinner story to make ATL. I still have no idea whats going on with that though.... Dude is fighting a losing battle.

I wouldnt be surprised if wake makes ATL again this fall when word of the incoming 1L class size is made public. Looks like another "mistake" with scholarships. I feel bad for the people who actually believed wake wasnt going to increase class size once the b-school left.

Career services at wake is probably the same as every other law school. They are far from great and the best career services people leave for other jobs. Ive met with extremely helpful people (who are now gone), and extremely unhelpful people (who are still there). Dont be misled by the 1L's statements though. Everyone gets a job 1L summer, usually in the city they want to practice, because 90% of them are working for free. A 1L summer job is not the end goal - permanent employment is.

Spill the details on the incoming class dude.

Also, this whole Skinner shit is lulztastic.

The incoming class is going to have ~160 students. I believe one of the 3 current (or just graduated) classes is similar size, while there is another that is significantly smaller. The largest 1L courses are capped at 45 students.

[YankeesFan]

Any other 2Ls have like half their grades go up and then watch the registrar just stop updating them? still missing a couple and its driving me nuts.....

[SteelyDan]

Any other 2Ls have like half their grades go up and then watch the registrar just stop updating them? still missing a couple and its driving me nuts.....

I'm probably missing the same 2 you are. With all the 3Ls in there I thought they HAD to be up.

[YankeesFan]

Whats killing me is I know 3ls in my class got their grade posted but the 2ls didnt. I know u need to get the 3l grades processed first but why not just do them all at the same time. Shennigans.

[tstyler98]

Any other 2Ls have like half their grades go up and then watch the registrar just stop updating them? still missing a couple and its driving me nuts.....

The Registrar people were at graduation, so that's probably why they weren't updating grades yesterday. I'm sure they'll be updating today.

[tstyler98]

Im shocked it took so long for the Skinner story to make ATL. I still have no idea whats going on with that though.... Dude is fighting a losing battle.

I wouldnt be surprised if wake makes ATL again this fall when word of the incoming 1L class size is made public. Looks like another "mistake" with scholarships. I feel bad for the people who actually believed wake wasnt going to increase class size once the b-school left.

Career services at wake is probably the same as every other law school. They are far from great and the best career services people leave for other jobs. Ive met with extremely helpful people (who are now gone), and extremely unhelpful people (who are still there). Dont be misled by the 1L's statements though. Everyone gets a job 1L summer, usually in the city they want to practice, because 90% of them are working for free. A 1L summer job is not the end goal - permanent employment is.

Spill the details on the incoming class dude.

Also, this whole Skinner shit is lulztastic.

The incoming class is going to have ~160 students. I believe one of the 3 current (or just graduated) classes is similar size, while there is another that is significantly smaller. The largest 1L courses are capped at 45 students.

160 isn't an abnormally large class. My class (the class that just graduated) started at about 165 or so. The current 2L class was much larger when they started, and the current 1L class was much smaller. 160 was the class size that they tried to have before, so I wouldn't worry if it's about that size. Plus, you'll have the entire building and extra class rooms.

[moandersen]

Im shocked it took so long for the Skinner story to make ATL. I still have no idea whats going on with that though.... Dude is fighting a losing battle.

I wouldnt be surprised if wake makes ATL again this fall when word of the incoming 1L class size is made public. Looks like another "mistake" with scholarships. I feel bad for the people who actually believed wake wasnt going to increase class size once the b-school left.

Career services at wake is probably the same as every other law school. They are far from great and the best career services people leave for other jobs. Ive met with extremely helpful people (who are now gone), and extremely unhelpful people (who are still there). Dont be misled by the 1L's statements though. Everyone gets a job 1L summer, usually in the city they want to practice, because 90% of them are working for free. A 1L summer job is not the end goal - permanent employment is.

Spill the details on the incoming class dude.

Also, this whole Skinner shit is lulztastic.

The incoming class is going to have ~160 students. I believe one of the 3 current (or just graduated) classes is similar size, while there is another that is significantly smaller. The largest 1L courses are capped at 45 students.

From looking at your posts you are a 0L, so you must be getting your #s from admissions. Dont worry, we were all once as naive as you are now. Law school will jade you up a bit. You may be right ultimately (probably not), but administration is freaking out because of how many people deposited w/ substantial scholarships. Right now the number is above 300. Obviously it will go down some by the time August rolls around, but my guess is that it settles around the size of the rising 3L class when they first started (~200). Remember, the school has a whole new side of the building to occupy.

[InBetweenDays]

From looking at your posts you are a 0L, so you must be getting your #s from admissions. Dont worry, we were all once as naive as you are now. Law school will jade you up a bit. You may be right ultimately (probably not), but administration is freaking out because of how many people deposited w/ substantial scholarships. Right now the number is above 300. Obviously it will go down some by the time August rolls around, but my guess is that it settles around the size of the rising 3L class when they first started (~200). Remember, the school has a whole new side of the building to occupy.[/quote]

hahaha, look at you... "you're so naive that you believe admissions, but you should take what I (an anonymous person on a site riddled with trolls) say at face value... somehow I have unique access to Wake's admission files, and I know they have made more than 300 offers with significant schollys."

Maybe you were grossly naive as a 0L, but you should speak for yourself. Admissions officers are half sales people; anyone who has done an interview with one knows this...

I judged (read: did not take at face value) the reaction of the admissions officer that gave me the campus tour when I asked about the abnormally high number of deposits and whether the class size would grow to fill out the rest of the building. Most of the info I've gotten is from here, and other forums (which is how I know about the disparity in class sizes with the current and recently graduated students.) 200 may not be an unreasonable number, though I think it's more likely to be in the 160-180 range. Regardless, they've admitted to increasing the course sizes to a 45 student cap- a promise that they could certainly meet, even if the class size turns out to be ~200.

[moandersen]

hahaha, look at you... "you're so naive that you believe admissions, but you should take what I (an anonymous person on a site riddled with trolls) say at face value... somehow I have unique access to Wake's admission files, and I know they have made more than 300 offers with significant schollys."

Maybe you were grossly naive as a 0L, but you should speak for yourself. Admissions officers are half sales people; anyone who has done an interview with one knows this...

I judged (read: did not take at face value) the reaction of the admissions officer that gave me the campus tour when I asked about the abnormally high number of deposits and whether the class size would grow to fill out the rest of the building. Most of the info I've gotten is from here, and other forums (which is how I know about the disparity in class sizes with the current and recently graduated students.) 200 may not be an unreasonable number, though I think it's more likely to be in the 160-180 range. Regardless, they've admitted to increasing the course sizes to a 45 student cap- a promise that they could certainly meet, even if the class size turns out to be ~200.

Im not going to get in a pissing contest with you. Im just relaying information I have. Numerous people on this site can vouch that Im not a troll (and not anonymous) and in fact a good source of information. But thats cool. Im just a graduate. Like most things on TLS, people can sift through the information and come to their own conclusions. Wake was great for me, so dont confuse what Im trying to say as dissuading people from attending wake. It can be a good choice for many people.

FYI - the reason for the 45 cap is because of lack of space in the lecture rooms for 1Ls. Also, its not the section #s that should matter to you. Who cares if there are 30 or 60 people in a section? It should be the total class #s because that means more people competing for the same amount of jobs.

[SteelyDan]

I can vouch for the numbers, a lot of us have heard the same thing. It's important to remember that 300 or whatever is only first round deposits... a lot of people hedge their bets and put down deposits at multiple schools (I did 3). No one knows what the final yield will be.

They're certainly not worried because of space issues, but rather because they would need 1L profs to teach more sections, which faculty despise.

[pifhib2]

InBetweenDays, I would trust what Mo and Steely say far more than what you heard from admissions.

[SteelyDan]

I mean, you can just call Jenny and ask if you're really concerned. She doesn't pull any punches. When this happened 2 years ago they were very open with anyone who was interested.

[InBetweenDays]

InBetweenDays, I would trust what Mo and Steely say far more than what you heard from admissions.

I heard basically the same thing from admissions as what they said, except that Mo is arguing that they are purposely increasing class size because of the new space freed up from the B students vacating... Admissions said this was not true, though, I was skeptical of that response at first.

As others have said here, this isn't the first year they have made too many offers, so I'm not sure the claim that they purposely increased class size really holds water...
An equally plausible reason was that Wake didn't expect as many deposits per offer because they did not anticipate an 8 ranking USNWR jump this year.

[OzyM]

Hey prospective student here, I have a somewhat less serious and yet still as important question: Do those ping pong tables get real use from time to time, or is it kind of like the rec center at my undergrad that was really only used for showing new students on orientation and summer camps?

[SteelyDan]

Hey prospective student here, I have a somewhat less serious and yet still as important question: Do those ping pong tables get real use from time to time, or is it kind of like the rec center at my undergrad that was really only used for showing new students on orientation and summer camps?

They get used every day. Especially by the LLMs.

[IrwinM.Fletcher]

Hey prospective student here, I have a somewhat less serious and yet still as important question: Do those ping pong tables get real use from time to time, or is it kind of like the rec center at my undergrad that was really only used for showing new students on orientation and summer camps?

I played probably 500-700 games on those things during my law school career. Fucking. Serious. Biz.

[Wakelaw15]

About when are 1L grades posted?

[IrwinM.Fletcher]

About when are 1L grades posted?

I'd look for them late this week, probably Thursday or Friday afternoon.

[guyplus]

.......

[ash0117]

I'm transferring into Wake in the fall and I have a question about scheduling classes that hopefully someone can answer. I really would like to do Trial Practice & Civil Litigation Clinic but the spots available for the fall seem incredibly limited (only 40 total for trial practice). Are the spaces so limited for any particular reason? Are there more spots in Trial Practice in the Spring when 2Ls have earned their Evidence prerequisite? Is the Litigation Clinic typically just 3Ls?

I'm curious b/c if getting into Trial Practice & Civil Lit clinic is a crapshoot I don't want to register for Evidence, which would be my only class on Wednesday & Friday.

Oh, and does anyone on here have experience with how the Trial Team works? I really want to participate, but can't find much information about it online.

Welcome! I am about to start 2L at Wake.

Trial Practice is limited because of the nature of the class. There is a complete mock trial done. Each student is given personalized advice on their trial skills. Lit clinic is limited for similar reasons. There are only so many openings around the area in DAs, PDs, etc. and only so many slots for externs or clinic students. And there is also a class involved and assignments. The small class size is one of the best things about Wake, but it does limit some opportunities as far as scheduling. I don't know if there are more Trial Practice classes in the spring, since many 2Ls don't take evidence until Spring anyway. Lit clinic is nearly always 3Ls. The occasional 2Ls get in, but 3Ls are given priority in registration, which is different than course registration. You have to do trial practice either before or during lit clinic, and you have to have evidence to do both. So it may be a good idea to get evidence out of the way, if you want.

The trial teams have try outs for membership. I'm not sure how competitive it is, I know several people that got on last year. I think it's fairly competitive though, because I know several that don't make it. There will be an email sent out about try outs and what it entails.

Welcome again. Feel free to PM me if you have other questions.