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I am beginning law school this year as a non-traditional student. I am 29 years old and am already married and have a family - ok, no kids, but I have two dogs. I am curious as to how much people actually find themselves holed up in a library to study, or if studying at home works just as well.

My husband will not be living with me during 1L, as he is in the military and will not be stationed near my school. I will have our two dogs, and I do not want to leave them at home all day every day, so I am hoping that I can do my studying and prep at home for the most part. Any insight into this?? Did you study at home or in the library? If I have the E&Es, casebooks, hornbooks, etc. already, will I need to live at the library?

Nah. It's perfectly reasonable to do well at home, and without letting it consume your life. Every once in a while you'll read a law school guide on here by some dude who slept for like 4.5 hours a night and spent the rest in the library. That's not remotely the level of dedication necessary to do well.

bmiller wrote:I am beginning law school this year as a non-traditional student. I am 29 years old and am already married and have a family - ok, no kids, but I have two dogs. I am curious as to how much people actually find themselves holed up in a library to study, or if studying at home works just as well.

My husband will not be living with me during 1L, as he is in the military and will not be stationed near my school. I will have our two dogs, and I do not want to leave them at home all day every day, so I am hoping that I can do my studying and prep at home for the most part. Any insight into this?? Did you study at home or in the library? If I have the E&Es, casebooks, hornbooks, etc. already, will I need to live at the library?

I was in the same boat as you—married with two dogs and a couple years older than most of my classmates. I rarely studied in the library and pretty much always studied at home. You will not need to be in the library at all if you don't want to be. I managed to walk my dogs three times a day while in law school; it's not as intense as everyone says it is, except for the couple of weeks or so before finals. And then, the dogs are honestly nice because they force you to take a break for 20-30 minutes a couple times a day.

Thank you for your input! I think this has been the one thing stressing me out the most about going to law school! I have worked a full time job (still am at this point) and my dogs are used to being alone for about 9 hours a day on a regular basis, but I don't want them to be home alone all day and again all night. My German Shepherd is very high energy, and she needs at least 5 minutes of Frisbee time each day . I'm no stranger to long hours and working hard - I just want to be able to do it from the comfort of my own home! This makes me feel better about that possibility!

bmiller wrote:I am beginning law school this year as a non-traditional student. I am 29 years old and am already married and have a family - ok, no kids, but I have two dogs. I am curious as to how much people actually find themselves holed up in a library to study, or if studying at home works just as well.

My husband will not be living with me during 1L, as he is in the military and will not be stationed near my school. I will have our two dogs, and I do not want to leave them at home all day every day, so I am hoping that I can do my studying and prep at home for the most part. Any insight into this?? Did you study at home or in the library? If I have the E&Es, casebooks, hornbooks, etc. already, will I need to live at the library?

I was in the EXACT same situation you are in (minus one dog). PM me if you have any questions

Find what is most helpful to you. I did 0 work at home. My SO did 100% at home.

I was K-JD and never studied in the library. I think studying at home is a lot more efficient.

I barely passed the only the semester that I studied in the library (this is more for drama value than anything else). I've learned that I do better at home studying with a TV running the background.

I will echo the above. Did almost all my studying at home and did very well. If anything it benefitted me being able to get out of the law school bubble to study which will often turn into a cesspool of stress/anxiety during exams. Especially during 1L.

It's really all about whether you can focus as well at home. These things are habitual so if you have a tougher time being productive when you're not with other people/being watched then it will be tougher to study at home in law school.

Madmen321 wrote:I will echo the above. Did almost all my studying at home and did very well. If anything it benefitted me being able to get out of the law school bubble to study which will often turn into a cesspool of stress/anxiety during exams. Especially during 1L.

Spot on.

Do people still check books out of the law library or is that not a thing anymore?

The top student in my class and the class ahead both lived in the library. 10+ hours a day, 5-7 days a week all semester.

stego wrote:Do people still check books out of the law library or is that not a thing anymore?

There is no much use for it as most materials are available online. Most of the books I checked out were for journal work or seminars. If you are curious, most of the books in the reading room of my library are just court decisions (really handy if you don't have an all-you-can research Westlaw/Lexis account).

For references, Westlaw and Lexis are really big databases that give you access to cases/journal articles/statutes/etc. They are monumentally expensive and basically a luxury to people practicing, but are the norm for law students and mid/big firms.

stego wrote:Do people still check books out of the law library or is that not a thing anymore?

We had a part of our library that was swipe in for law students only and all the books couldn't be taken out/were on reserve, so I used all/any supplements from there, and when I didn't bring textbooks I would read there.

But to answer OP, yeah you're not going to be living in the library

BNA wrote:The top student in my class and the class ahead both lived in the library. 10+ hours a day, 5-7 days a week all semester.

However, it definitely is not necessary to do this to earn great grades. You do you. Your study habits do not need to match the highly individualized study habits of others to do as well.

bmiller wrote:I am beginning law school this year as a non-traditional student. I am 29 years old and am already married and have a family - ok, no kids, but I have two dogs. I am curious as to how much people actually find themselves holed up in a library to study, or if studying at home works just as well.

My husband will not be living with me during 1L, as he is in the military and will not be stationed near my school. I will have our two dogs, and I do not want to leave them at home all day every day, so I am hoping that I can do my studying and prep at home for the most part. Any insight into this?? Did you study at home or in the library? If I have the E&Es, casebooks, hornbooks, etc. already, will I need to live at the library?

As long as you're not distracted by things at home, including your dogs, you should be fine. I never studied in the library, but I was in a studio apt by myself, so no distractions.

jphiggo wrote:

BNA wrote:The top student in my class and the class ahead both lived in the library. 10+ hours a day, 5-7 days a week all semester.

However, it definitely is not necessary to do this to earn great grades. You do you. Your study habits do not need to match the highly individualized study habits of others to do as well.

Of the people I know who were at the top of the class, they would have done well regardless but there was a pretty obvious correlation in the sense that they'd get around a 4.0 the semester they tried really hard and anywhere from a 3.6-3.8 the other one.

1) There is literally no reason why you need to study in the library rather than at home. You can study anywhere you want. I rarely study at the library - I rarely did in undergrad either. There is nothing magic about the library!

2) You will have way more than enough free time to walk your dogs. At least for me (and I was very satisfied with how I did in my first year), law school is far less work than a full time job. I have a dog as well who needs WAY more than 5 minutes of active play per day and I had plenty of time to spend outside with her during 1L.

IMO the difficulty of law school is waaaay overblown. Some people may enjoy being really dedicated and spending 10 hours a day studying, but it's not actually necessary.

As long as you use your time efficiently (i.e. not looking at Instagram in Property class) then you'll have time for recreational activities and personal obligations outside of law school. I knew a classmate who got straight A's and passed the bar on his 1st attempt- and he was the best basketball player in the school.

During finals, you'll have to spend 12-14 hours a day studying. However, outside of those two weeks of misery, you won't have to study 24/7 if you know how to manage time.

HonestAdvice wrote:

jphiggo wrote:

BNA wrote:The top student in my class and the class ahead both lived in the library. 10+ hours a day, 5-7 days a week all semester.

However, it definitely is not necessary to do this to earn great grades. You do you. Your study habits do not need to match the highly individualized study habits of others to do as well.

Of the people I know who were at the top of the class, they would have done well regardless but there was a pretty obvious correlation in the sense that they'd get around a 4.0 the semester they tried really hard and anywhere from a 3.6-3.8 the other one.

Trying really hard doesn't require studying in the library, though.

I commuted ~1 hr to school so when I was on campus, I studied in the library sometimes, but I usually took off as soon as classes were over and studied at home (or in coffeeshops. I miss working in coffeeshops).

stego wrote:Do people still check books out of the law library or is that not a thing anymore?

I have never had a need to do this, but I'm not on a journal either.

But yeah, OP, studying in law school just means going over your case book, notes, and any supplements you're using. You can do that just as easily from your living room if you prefer.

catahoula wrote:
IMO the difficulty of law school is waaaay overblown. Some people may enjoy being really dedicated and spending 10 hours a day studying, but it's not actually necessary.

This. There's a lot of work come exam time, especially 1L, but the rest of the time it's pretty chill. Most of the people who talk about how they've been up for 36 hours straight are lying: they just think it's part of the law student persona they're supposed to adopt, or they're engaging in some silly stress arms race over Facebook to psych out their fellow gunners.

TheSpanishMain wrote:

stego wrote:Do people still check books out of the law library or is that not a thing anymore?

I have never had a need to do this, but I'm not on a journal either.

But yeah, OP, studying in law school just means going over your case book, notes, and any supplements you're using. You can do that just as easily from your living room if you prefer.

catahoula wrote:
IMO the difficulty of law school is waaaay overblown. Some people may enjoy being really dedicated and spending 10 hours a day studying, but it's not actually necessary.

This. There's a lot of work come exam time, especially 1L, but the rest of the time it's pretty chill. Most of the people who talk about how they've been up for 36 hours straight are lying: they just think it's part of the law student persona they're supposed to adopt, or they're engaging in some silly stress arms race over Facebook to psych out their fellow gunners.

Yeah I think this is the biggest reason. I'm sure there are some people who spend ridiculous amounts of time studying but there really is not that much content you have to learn in doctrinal classes (especially when most of them are open book). Outside of class time I probably spend about 1-1.5 hours a day studying (aside from legal writing), generally did it at home unless I had a big time gap at school, and even at exams I think you can do very well with ~6 hour days as long as you are pretty caught up throughout the year. The biggest thing is just knowing the second you fall behind in what is going on in the class--then I think you have to work hard to catch up because it will just become exponentially more work if you miss out on groundwork (going to office hours is probably TCR here).

But as I quoted, I think most of the stories are just "some silly stress arms race" I finished 1L with a 4.0 and I think it was because I didn't let myself get caught up in that cesspool of stress and just relaxed/studied at home--so study at home if it fits your schedule better.

I split my time and found both places to be productive. The advantage to being at home is that no one will bother you and the coffee supply is endless. The advantage to the library is that there *can* be a lot less distractions. Just depends on how disciplined you are. Sometimes, when I was at home a nap seemed a lot more tempting.

A. Nony Mouse wrote:

HonestAdvice wrote:

jphiggo wrote:

BNA wrote:The top student in my class and the class ahead both lived in the library. 10+ hours a day, 5-7 days a week all semester.

However, it definitely is not necessary to do this to earn great grades. You do you. Your study habits do not need to match the highly individualized study habits of others to do as well.

Of the people I know who were at the top of the class, they would have done well regardless but there was a pretty obvious correlation in the sense that they'd get around a 4.0 the semester they tried really hard and anywhere from a 3.6-3.8 the other one.

Trying really hard doesn't require studying in the library, though.

I commuted ~1 hr to school so when I was on campus, I studied in the library sometimes, but I usually took off as soon as classes were over and studied at home (or in coffeeshops. I miss working in coffeeshops).

Interested in this scenario specifically. I'll be commuting about the same distance, and plan to leave campus pretty quickly after instruction. Did you you ever try a Law Library? Did you find there to be a difference between studying at home v. Coffee shop v. Library?

Thanks for the input.