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http://blackbooklegal.blogspot.com/2010 ... ional.html

I know this kind of stuff must happen all over the place, but no required legal writing course? A 1L class that curves to a 3.8?

You gotta think more than a few employers would shy away from hiring someone who never even took a class on How to Write a Brief, but then again maybe they become distracted by the super high GPAs.

bees wrote:http://blackbooklegal.blogspot.com/2010 ... ional.html

I know this kind of stuff must happen all over the place, but no required legal writing course? A 1L class that curves to a 3.8?

You gotta think more than a few employers would shy away from hiring someone who never even took a class on how to write a brief, but then again maybe they become distracted by the super high GPAs.

I have no idea, sorry. Your thread reminded me of a page (LinkRemoved) I found a few months ago. Figured I'd share.

UT has a required 1L legal writing class. LRW is a year long course which is required in your first year. In LRW you learn how to draft memos which is what most people will be doing in their 1L year. The brief writing class they are talking about is an additional class. While the legal writing program is not as bad as the article makes it sound UT realizes it is a corner stone of any legal education and has actually been making changes to their program. This year they made it so are LRW classes are in your small section, so that the class only has 25 students.

As far as the class with a 3.8 curve, that is not a 1L only class. It is an elective which 1Ls can take. While people do take it, that kind of gaming of the system and grade inflation happens everywhere.

blackknight wrote:As far as the class with a 3.8 curve, that is not a 1L only class. It is an elective which 1Ls can take. While people do take it, that kind of gaming of the system and grade inflation happens everywhere.

Do you really believe that? I don't think there's any way I could have gamed the system to get a guaranteed A in my first year here at NYU.

badfish wrote:

blackknight wrote:As far as the class with a 3.8 curve, that is not a 1L only class. It is an elective which 1Ls can take. While people do take it, that kind of gaming of the system and grade inflation happens everywhere.

Do you really believe that? I don't think there's any way I could have gamed the system to get a guaranteed A in my first year here at NYU.

Yep. It's also prevented at UVA by the universal 3.3 mean. They shouldn't let 1Ls take electives if they're going to follow a different curve.

Oh, that article was a total smear job. The authors used a quotes that were either unsourced or dated and out of context, plus some shady figures, to make it sound like UT was going to hell.

The sad part is that the school, and the writing program in particular, has been improving drastically, and the authors glossed over that. In the past 15 years class sizes have decreased to 380 from 550. We place 15-20 COA clerks each year, as opposed to 5-10 just about 5 years ago. We now have year long small section LRW classes of 25 students each, and they are moving to make brief writing mandatory. (currently 1/4 of the 1L class takes brief writing, as a spring elective, and many others take it in 2L year).

I think the authors simply had axes to grind.

badfish wrote:

blackknight wrote:As far as the class with a 3.8 curve, that is not a 1L only class. It is an elective which 1Ls can take. While people do take it, that kind of gaming of the system and grade inflation happens everywhere.

Do you really believe that? I don't think there's any way I could have gamed the system to get a guaranteed A in my first year here at NYU.

Seriously! Why would anyone who cares about getting a job NOT take the easy-A class their first year?

TTTexas is part of the TTT-14 now, you best recognize

That was such a bad article, the authors should really be ashamed. For that matter, so should the Editors of the Daily Texan. Not a single quote for attribution, not a single figure that was backed up by any relevant source . Really piss-poor job all around.

Esc wrote:Oh, that article was a total smear job. The authors used a quotes that were either unsourced or dated and out of context, plus some shady figures, to make it sound like UT was going to hell.

The sad part is that the school, and the writing program in particular, has been improving drastically, and the authors glossed over that. In the past 15 years class sizes have decreased to 380 from 550. We place 15-20 COA clerks each year, as opposed to 5-10 just about 5 years ago. We now have year long small section LRW classes of 25 students each, and they are moving to make brief writing mandatory. (currently 1/4 of the 1L class takes brief writing, as a spring elective, and many others take it in 2L year).

I think the authors simply had axes to grind.

?

Eazy E wrote:

Esc wrote:Oh, that article was a total smear job. The authors used a quotes that were either unsourced or dated and out of context, plus some shady figures, to make it sound like UT was going to hell.

The sad part is that the school, and the writing program in particular, has been improving drastically, and the authors glossed over that. In the past 15 years class sizes have decreased to 380 from 550. We place 15-20 COA clerks each year, as opposed to 5-10 just about 5 years ago. We now have year long small section LRW classes of 25 students each, and they are moving to make brief writing mandatory. (currently 1/4 of the 1L class takes brief writing, as a spring elective, and many others take it in 2L year).

I think the authors simply had axes to grind.

?

The inference being that a smaller class size allows generally better quality of education, more chance to get to know professors, etc.

badfish wrote:

blackknight wrote:As far as the class with a 3.8 curve, that is not a 1L only class. It is an elective which 1Ls can take. While people do take it, that kind of gaming of the system and grade inflation happens everywhere.

Do you really believe that? I don't think there's any way I could have gamed the system to get a guaranteed A in my first year here at NYU.

It may not be literally everywhere, but it's not isolated to UT. 1L's at Michigan can take a two-credit elective in the spring, and I believe there are at least a few available that are uncurved & have high medians (seminars). I don't see why anyone would get worked up about it since 1) two credits won't ultimately make much difference factored into the 24 credits from your substantive legal courses, and 2) the people taking them will have a fair amount of extra work to do, so it's not like the A is totally "free". If they were really that big of an advantage, I'm sure more people would take one (most people here don't).

Esc wrote:

Eazy E wrote:

Esc wrote:Oh, that article was a total smear job. The authors used a quotes that were either unsourced or dated and out of context, plus some shady figures, to make it sound like UT was going to hell.

The sad part is that the school, and the writing program in particular, has been improving drastically, and the authors glossed over that. In the past 15 years class sizes have decreased to 380 from 550. We place 15-20 COA clerks each year, as opposed to 5-10 just about 5 years ago. We now have year long small section LRW classes of 25 students each, and they are moving to make brief writing mandatory. (currently 1/4 of the 1L class takes brief writing, as a spring elective, and many others take it in 2L year).

I think the authors simply had axes to grind.

?

The inference being that a smaller class size allows generally better quality of education, more chance to get to know professors, etc.

That bolded part read a little wierd, although it is grammatically correct. I would have said "...decreased from 550 to 380."