Top Law Schools

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Current Cornell 1L. I think that Cornell gets that reputation for a couple reasons. First, we take four substantive classes a semester + graded LRW, which is atypical and leads to people working really hard. Second, Cornell was number 1 on some Princeton Review survey for most hours studied.
I think its overblown. Yes, there are gunners here. However, there are gunners everywhere, especially in the T14. People are pretty relaxed here in general, as we know (as other T14 students do) that big law is not a zero sum game, since being in the top 10% is not a prerequisite for a job. 1Ls work hard at every school, but students do not undercut each other, tear pages out of books, etc.
As far as the special snowflake thing, every school likes to say that they are different and have a great culture. It is like when every firm claims that they are "collegial." Its a marketing ploy. Feel free to PM me if you have anything Cornell specific you're curious about.

I am a Cornell 1L and was pleasantly surprised by the lack of cutthroat-ness and the lack of gunners

ImNoScar wrote:First, we take four substantive classes a semester + graded LRW, which is atypical

NU is the same and pretty much everybody is chill and sociable. Cornell probably isn't that different, though I wonder if the WE/older student body has an effect.

I think the main thing is that law school is stressful anywhere and stress can cause some people to do some crazy things.

Samara wrote:

ImNoScar wrote:First, we take four substantive classes a semester + graded LRW, which is atypical

NU is the same and pretty much everybody is chill and sociable. Cornell probably isn't that different, though I wonder if the WE/older student body has an effect.

I think the main thing is that law school is stressful anywhere and stress can cause some people to do some crazy things.

Yeah I think there is some truth to that. I think that among T14s, student bodies will likely be fungible enough that it should not be a main point of consideration when picking schools.

I don't know. Those Michigan 1L's who had also done 1L at Cornell were probably on to something.

Tiago Splitter wrote:I don't know. Those Michigan 1L's who had also done 1L at Cornell were probably on to something.

I concur.

I don't understand. At these law schools, people use...library books? For what?

I am a gunner. Cornell is my reach. Beware.

gregfootball2001 wrote:I don't understand. At these law schools, people use...library books? For what?

What do you mean?

ImNoScar wrote:

gregfootball2001 wrote:I don't understand. At these law schools, people use...library books? For what?

What do you mean?

I mean, what does a library have that Westlaw/Bloomberg/Lexis doesn't? Why would anyone read something in a library book, much less tear a page out of one?

TheBiggerMediocre wrote:I am a gunner. Cornell is my reach. Beware.

A true gunner will never admit to being a gunner.

gregfootball2001 wrote:

ImNoScar wrote:

gregfootball2001 wrote:I don't understand. At these law schools, people use...library books? For what?

What do you mean?

I mean, what does a library have that Westlaw/Bloomberg/Lexis doesn't? Why would anyone read something in a library book, much less tear a page out of one?

hornbooks

redsox550 wrote:

gregfootball2001 wrote:

ImNoScar wrote:

gregfootball2001 wrote:I don't understand. At these law schools, people use...library books? For what?

What do you mean?

I mean, what does a library have that Westlaw/Bloomberg/Lexis doesn't? Why would anyone read something in a library book, much less tear a page out of one?

hornbooks

Most of those are online now, too. It's urban legend/holdover from when everything *was* books. (Also, my school's LW class made us do one assignment using books, so we'd know how. Don't remember a damn thing about it, but we went through the motions.)

Oh, and some LR cite-checks require using actual books. And maybe some seminar papers.

TheBiggerMediocre wrote:I am a gunner. Cornell is my reach. Beware.

Must not be a very good gunner if Cornell has to be your reach...

Doctor Who goes to Michigan?

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ImNoScar wrote:Current Cornell 1L. I think that Cornell gets that reputation for a couple reasons. First, we take four substantive classes a semester + graded LRW, which is atypical and leads to people working really hard.

That's the 1L schedule at a lot of schools. People tend to think their school's different.

I'm wondering the same thing. I went to NU's ASW and multiple speakers plus every student I spoke to kept saying that there are no gunners at NU and everyone is super nice. There were multiple stories about people emailing notes to someone who missed class without even being asked, sharing outlines ... It sounds awesome if true but then I wonder how much of it is something every school tells you ... For the record, I did speak to some people I knew at Columbia and GULC and those schools sounded pretty gunnery. Or at NU they said that U of Chicago publicized rank and name which has the effect of making people competitive. And it seems like schools that don't have regular A-F (more like A - B-) like Berkeley or Yale would be less gunnery?

lmsf wrote:I'm wondering the same thing. I went to NU's ASW and multiple speakers plus every student I spoke to kept saying that there are no gunners at NU and everyone is super nice. There were multiple stories about people emailing notes to someone who missed class without even being asked, sharing outlines ... It sounds awesome if true but then I wonder how much of it is something every school tells you ... For the record, I did speak to some people I knew at Columbia and GULC and those schools sounded pretty gunnery. Or at NU they said that U of Chicago publicized rank and name which has the effect of making people competitive. And it seems like schools that don't have regular A-F (more like A - B-) like Berkeley or Yale would be less gunnery?

Chicago publishes your name and class rank?!

scifiguy wrote:

lmsf wrote:I'm wondering the same thing. I went to NU's ASW and multiple speakers plus every student I spoke to kept saying that there are no gunners at NU and everyone is super nice. There were multiple stories about people emailing notes to someone who missed class without even being asked, sharing outlines ... It sounds awesome if true but then I wonder how much of it is something every school tells you ... For the record, I did speak to some people I knew at Columbia and GULC and those schools sounded pretty gunnery. Or at NU they said that U of Chicago publicized rank and name which has the effect of making people competitive. And it seems like schools that don't have regular A-F (more like A - B-) like Berkeley or Yale would be less gunnery?

Chicago publishes your name and class rank?!

I seriously doubt this. I also don't have anything to compare it to, but Columbia is extremely un-gunnery.

lmsf wrote:I'm wondering the same thing. I went to NU's ASW and multiple speakers plus every student I spoke to kept saying that there are no gunners at NU and everyone is super nice. There were multiple stories about people emailing notes to someone who missed class without even being asked, sharing outlines ... It sounds awesome if true but then I wonder how much of it is something every school tells you ... For the record, I did speak to some people I knew at Columbia and GULC and those schools sounded pretty gunnery. Or at NU they said that U of Chicago publicized rank and name which has the effect of making people competitive. And it seems like schools that don't have regular A-F (more like A - B-) like Berkeley or Yale would be less gunnery?

I'm a current NU student, so take this for what it's worth, but people truly are that nice. There's no competitiveness and gunning is very minimal.

scifiguy wrote:Chicago publishes your name and class rank?!

I take that back. According to their website is appears that they don't rank students: http://www.law.uchicago.edu/employers/policies
I heard it from another student when I was visiting NU so I assumed. I guess now I learned what happens when you assume ... Sorry Chicago, I will now withdraw my application in shame ... plz don't sue me for libel, that would be a c&f issue (wait, would it? I guess depends on if it was in civil or criminal court right? see? I need your law school wisdom!)

Tiago Splitter wrote:I seriously doubt this. I also don't have anything to compare it to, but Columbia is extremely un-gunnery.

Thanks, Tiago. That's good to know. I've spoken to someone who's also a current student and described CLS as very competitive and cutthroat so I was worried about that. Good to have another perspective ... I'm going to be visiting NY shortly and plan to visit NYU and Columbia while I'm there in the very off-chance I get off the WL.

Samara wrote:I'm a current NU student, so take this for what it's worth, but people truly are that nice. There's no competitiveness and gunning is very minimal.

Thanks! I loved ASW. I think I'm most likely going to be at NU next year.

From what I gather, every school says pretty much the exact same thing during ASW.

"Unlike OTHER T-14 schools, we don't really have gunners here. Everyone's really nice and I got notes for class and didn't even ask!?!"

At the end of the day, each law school is going to have similar types of people. The people at these law schools are very intelligent and are very driven, but they're also people. Super gunnerish activities probably leave you sitting alone at the lunch table, and no one wants that.

scifiguy wrote:

lmsf wrote:I'm wondering the same thing. I went to NU's ASW and multiple speakers plus every student I spoke to kept saying that there are no gunners at NU and everyone is super nice. There were multiple stories about people emailing notes to someone who missed class without even being asked, sharing outlines ... It sounds awesome if true but then I wonder how much of it is something every school tells you ... For the record, I did speak to some people I knew at Columbia and GULC and those schools sounded pretty gunnery. Or at NU they said that U of Chicago publicized rank and name which has the effect of making people competitive. And it seems like schools that don't have regular A-F (more like A - B-) like Berkeley or Yale would be less gunnery?

Chicago publishes your name and class rank?!

Absolutely not. We're never ranked, and we aren't allowed to put our GPA on our resumes, and they're not calculated on our transcripts.

The difference between schools is vastly overstated, the same kinds of students get into all of them. Biggest differences are location and class size, IMO.