Harvard Law School Class of 2018 Forum

[crookedjaws]

____________________

[Indifference]

Checking in!! So grateful and so excited!

Congrats and welcome

[antiworldly]

Checking in!! So grateful and so excited!

Congrats!

[foxes]

congrats to all the new admits

[crookedjaws]

___________________

[foxes]

Does anyone have advice for how to withdraw from a deposited school respectfully? Is there some kind of "form" that should be followed? Or is just an email fine?

an email is fine

[crookedjaws]

__________________________

[HorseThief]

Hey everyone,

Now that it's summer, I'm sure you are all thinking even more about next year. And I know that the traditional TLS wisdom is to do no work over the summer, but if you're like me, you're feeling like you should be doing at least something. While I think that the traditional wisdom has it's merits, I wanted to post three things that I think would be worthwhile if you feel a need to do some kind of work over the summer.

• Keep reading. You will have an immense workload right off the bat during 1L, and being able to read and comprehend quickly will be a big help. I did some light reading during the summer before (best one was Twain's Pudd'nhead Wilson) and even then I felt sluggish. I would approach 1L like the LSAT and make a habit of reading some moderate- to complicated materials. News articles, non fiction, some fiction to mix it up. Just keep on reading.
• Speed Typing. It's dumb, but I there is an advantage to being able to type more. Especially during 3hr exams, people will write 2,000-6,000 words, and usually it's people on the latter end of the spectrum who are getting H's and DS's (though not always). Part of that is simply having 6,000 things to say during an exam, but I still think it'll be helpful to be able to get those thoughts out asap. My personal fav is https://www.nitrotype.com/, but there are plenty of good programs out there.
• Law Movies. Not only are they fun, but profs tend to assume you have some background knowledge. I know my crim prof didn't cover any parts of the trial (not that they're supposed to do that in crim), but knowing how the trial works would have made understanding some of the doctrine easier. So watch Law & Order knowing that it really is doing you some good.

[Mack.Hambleton]

anyone know about housing for married folks? Also does being married affect FA calculations at all?

[ChemEng1642]

anyone know about housing for married folks? Also does being married affect FA calculations at all?

If you're going through Harvard you have to go through graduate housing - HUH. But most of those apartments are already gone . Still - it doesn't hurt to check especially if you're willing to take an early lease (mid-June) or a late one (in September).

And yes being married affects FA - they average your incomes I believe, when determining your aid.

[Indifference]

anyone know about housing for married folks? Also does being married affect FA calculations at all?

Thought I would throw in that it definitely isn't too late in the apartment hunt season to look for housing independent of Harvard. That will probably be a good bit cheaper, although it is obviously difficult if you can't make it here to see things. Looking a little further from campus will give you a lot more for the same amount of money, too, i.e. near Porter square, or, if you are adventurous and want to take a bus, north Allston could work. Craigslist shows places and allows for you to look by places listed directly by owners, if you want to avoid broker's fees. There are plenty of realty groups in the city, too. Feel free to PM me if you want a sense for any of the neighborhoods -- lived here for UG/still living here, so I have a pretty good feel for it.

[antiworldly]

anyone know about housing for married folks? Also does being married affect FA calculations at all?

We went with a 1 BR HUH in the graduate commons program, which seemed to be the best housing available for couples. No HLS housing was available for married couples.

Being married sucks for FA calculations. First, they pool assets and take a chunk of them, which means they want my wife to dig into her retirement savings to pay them. If your spouse makes over a certain threshold (~55k/yr) they are also supposed to contribute from their salary towards your tuition.

On the upside, if your spouse has an income (which HLS assumes they will) they can pay for housing, which means less loans are required. So long as you take out the base loan you aren't required to take any more out.

[radio1nowhere]

Checking in ahhhhhhhh

MACK! Congrats man.

[Mack.Hambleton]

Checking in ahhhhhhhh

MACK! Congrats man.

Thanks! Glad I can finally join

[dirkgently]

Hey everyone,

Now that it's summer, I'm sure you are all thinking even more about next year. And I know that the traditional TLS wisdom is to do no work over the summer, but if you're like me, you're feeling like you should be doing at least something. While I think that the traditional wisdom has it's merits, I wanted to post three things that I think would be worthwhile if you feel a need to do some kind of work over the summer.

• Keep reading. You will have an immense workload right off the bat during 1L, and being able to read and comprehend quickly will be a big help. I did some light reading during the summer before (best one was Twain's Pudd'nhead Wilson) and even then I felt sluggish. I would approach 1L like the LSAT and make a habit of reading some moderate- to complicated materials. News articles, non fiction, some fiction to mix it up. Just keep on reading.
• Speed Typing. It's dumb, but I there is an advantage to being able to type more. Especially during 3hr exams, people will write 2,000-6,000 words, and usually it's people on the latter end of the spectrum who are getting H's and DS's (though not always). Part of that is simply having 6,000 things to say during an exam, but I still think it'll be helpful to be able to get those thoughts out asap. My personal fav is https://www.nitrotype.com/, but there are plenty of good programs out there.
• Law Movies. Not only are they fun, but profs tend to assume you have some background knowledge. I know my crim prof didn't cover any parts of the trial (not that they're supposed to do that in crim), but knowing how the trial works would have made understanding some of the doctrine easier. So watch Law & Order knowing that it really is doing you some good.

[Mack.Hambleton]

lol at above

any recent admits receive info about housing/loan stuff yet?

[lulu88]

Hello! I'm a first time poster -- nice to meet everyone! I know some people are still looking for housing, so just wanted to let people know that I had a change of housing plans so my Terry Terrace 1-bd will become available starting at 3pm EST today through the HUH website. It's at 19 Everett and is a great unit!

Hope to meet everyone in the fall!

[lulu88]

anyone know about housing for married folks? Also does being married affect FA calculations at all?

I believe apartments rented through HUH (Harvard University Housing) are family friendly -- i.e. can live with spouses, family members or SO's. I spoke to the HUH law school housing coordinator today and she said the inventory is updated daily at 11 am and 3pm EST.

[ChemEng1642]

Hello! I'm a first time poster -- nice to meet everyone! I know some people are still looking for housing, so just wanted to let people know that I had a change of housing plans so my Terry Terrace 1-bd will become available starting at 3pm EST today through the HUH website. It's at 19 Everett and is a great unit!

Hope to meet everyone in the fall!

omg nooooooo I already picked my housing

[Anonymous User]

.

[radio1nowhere]

So, like, loans and stuff. If I'm gonna try to get a private loan with better terms than GradPLUS, should I go ahead and get on that? Is HLS gonna send me any more loan info? Haven't heard anything about money since my finaid award.

[wonka]

Post removed.

[foxes]

So, like, loans and stuff. If I'm gonna try to get a private loan with better terms than GradPLUS, should I go ahead and get on that? Is HLS gonna send me any more loan info? Haven't heard anything about money since my finaid award.

yeah, i vaguely remember hearing that more finaid stuff was supposed to go out in early june but ive got nothing so far. would like to get everything wrapped up in terms of money though

[DK21]

Can't wait to get started. I'm going up this weekend to check out some places to live. Do you have guys have a sense for how good the HUH system is? Everything online seems to say you need to be ready to move in ASAP, and I can't move in til mid-late August. Should I just be looking elsewhere, or will stuff on HUH open up as we move towards school? Obviously won't rely on it in that case, but is it a good resource even this late in the process?

[Kluge]

Was anyone else sort of blindsided by the health services deadline? Haha had to scramble today to set up an appointment.