Pittsburgh 2011 Forum

[BarbellDreams]

This is a little more doom and gloom than I was aiming for.

Sorry, I will refrain from trying to give 0Ls a real picture of it and go back to the sugarcoating OGR3 and I have recently discussed:

Median salary is at 6 figures.
Employment is 96% nine months after graduation.
Based on the above everyone is going to be a lawyer and make bank!!!

[Dr. Review]

In an effort to turn this around... the study rooms in Barco are nice. I suggest you take a look at them when you visit. I am currently in one.

[dreakol]

all of the holier-than-thou replies to corvette are more annoying than enlightening. Are you just bored? I dont think what he said is really worth this much ranting. His points were perfectly valid either way. and he never SAID he was guaranteed top 10% in law school, just that he knows how top 3% worked for engineering.

this is for prospective students and I'd love seeing you current students transfer your awesome posts to a "discuss your law school" thread.

cr

[LeDique]

This is a little more doom and gloom than I was aiming for.

Sorry, I will refrain from trying to give 0Ls a real picture of it and go back to the sugarcoating OGR3 and I have recently discussed:

Median salary is at 6 figures.
Employment is 96% nine months after graduation.
Based on the above everyone is going to be a lawyer and make bank!!!

And! There's Pitt people in 40 different countries. You could work literally wherever you want!

[BarbellDreams]

This is a little more doom and gloom than I was aiming for.

Sorry, I will refrain from trying to give 0Ls a real picture of it and go back to the sugarcoating OGR3 and I have recently discussed:

Median salary is at 6 figures.
Employment is 96% nine months after graduation.
Based on the above everyone is going to be a lawyer and make bank!!!

And! There's Pitt people in 40 different countries. You could work literally wherever you want!

How could I forget, well done.

Glad I got to meet you on your visit btw, how did the visit to IU-B go?

[LSATclincher]

Still UR as of 1/19/11. I'd withdraw at this point, but I just want to see my decision and scholarship offer, if applicable.

[kk19131]

Good bars...?

[HeavenWood]

Good bars...?

Most definitely.

[LeDique]

How could I forget, well done.

Glad I got to meet you on your visit btw, how did the visit to IU-B go?

Word. I haven't visited IUB yet - I'm going to their ASW in late March.

Pitt was the one ASW I can't make easily, since it's on a Friday. My Friday class this semester *actually* cares about attendance, and there was no way I could avoid that class. Hence why I was visiting on a Thursday. I've going to be using up all my Friday absences flying West. Luckily I basically got out of my Tuesday/Thursday class for a month there, so I took advantage of that.

[VTOrange19]

Do most of the 1Ls here live....

1) alone?
2) with a roommate?
3) with a fellow 1L roommate?
4) other?

I am just pondering the prospect of possibly having a smart, 1L roommate to bounce ideas off of and kep shit interesting, or would I hate being around another law school student all the time?

[OGR3]

Do most of the 1Ls here live....

1) alone?
2) with a roommate?
3) with a fellow 1L roommate?
4) other?

I am just pondering the prospect of possibly having a smart, 1L roommate to bounce ideas off of and kep shit interesting, or would I hate being around another law school student all the time?

I live with my non-law student fiancee. It's nice to not talk about law all the time, but I know I annoy her sometimes with all my talk of school.

I have quite a few friends who live with roommates who are also law students. A bunch of people found roommates through the Pitt 2013 Facebook group. I haven't really heard of anyone having issues living with another law student.

[BarbellDreams]

I'd say the majority of people live with either a roommate or significant other. People ended up finding each other through that Pitt Law group that will most like be opened up once they more or less finalize acceptances. I think living with someone versus living alone has its advantages but I think it can be hard to know you'll click with someone before meeting them. Though everyone I know who randomly lived together haven't had any problems.

[bport hopeful]

Heres a scenario running through my head I'd like to run by everyone else. Pitt was the first school I applied to. I know I got a late start, but whatever. Ive been UR since 1.20. Still no news. I am sort of expecting to get into Pitt, and honestly, its the school I'd most like to attend, but I would really rather not pay sticker if that is what they ask me to do.

I have been expected to Emory with a 30k scholarship. I do believe that Emory is misplaced in the rankings (22 or something), but it is significantly higher than Pitt. If I do get into Pitt (god I hope so) with no scholarship (god I hope not), do you think that this Emory scholarship is decent leverage.

3.12/166.

I know this is a difficult question to answer, but im game for some decent speculation.

[gin]

The basics of it is that every single person in your incoming class will say they will work hard and do it. 100% of them. I don't know many people that blow off class (well, one comes to mind. Bedsole, wanna guess who I am thinking about?), don't do the reading, don't study late and don't outline or use supplements. Everyone does that, and everyone spends long hours on it. You can't bank on that getting you through this. You also can't bank on being intelligent getting you good grades here either. When you have your first socratic method you'll realize there are people in your section who are just as smart and smarter than you and they think and say things you barely understand. No matter how smart you are or think you are this will happen. Finally, you're not competing against just the test, you're competing against every single other person in the classroom taking the test. How much studying you do and how well you know the material doesn't really matter because in some class (Read: Torts) everything is so straight forward that everyone gets everything. Under Pitt's curve, 20% get As/A-s, so basically you can have the most amazing paper in the world and if another 20% also have an amazing paper you're screwed and you're getting a B+ even if you "studied real hard" or gunned or whatever.

The point is grades are at least somewhat arbitrary and unpredictable. Going to law school with the mindset of "I am going to outwork everyone and land in the top 10% because I've done it my whole life and can do it here too" is arguably the absolute worst mindset you can come to law school with. When parents say "My son/daughter is smart, I know he/she will land in the top 10%" they don't realize that the mom's of the other 90% are also saying the same thing. Everyone is smart enough, everyone will work just as hard as you, and everyone thinks they have what it takes, but 90% can't make it in so something has got to give.

I'm afraid I'll derail the threat again especially since I might not even get in but this kind of peaked my interest (+ god knows I love some good doom and gloom)
What's the break down for the grading curve? you said that 20% can get As. How many get Bs, Cs and so on

[HOPEFORCHANGE]

If you really want to be in Pittsburgh and what your reasons are for wanting to go to Pitt should factor into this. For me, besides location, it has everything I could ask for program-wise. But they say T10, T14, and T30 for a reason. Emory could afford you better chances nationally, because wrong or not, people take the rankings seriously. So I would consider that before you dismiss Emory altogether.

But to answer your question, people on this thread talked about how a Syracuse scholarship granted them leverage for scholarship money - so I am sure a scholarship at Emory would go even further. Something like, "I really love Pitt because....but Emory offered me a scholarship of 30K and I am concerned with cost." Perhaps someone could help you word this better.

In any case, goodluck to both of us. UR since 2/17 and your LSAT score is way better than mine. Sigh.

[pittlawstudent]

(For those of you who are concerned) Not everyone is like Barbelldreams here at Pitt. The majority of people are NOT d-bags...

[OGR3]

Heres a scenario running through my head I'd like to run by everyone else. Pitt was the first school I applied to. I know I got a late start, but whatever. Ive been UR since 1.20. Still no news. I am sort of expecting to get into Pitt, and honestly, its the school I'd most like to attend, but I would really rather not pay sticker if that is what they ask me to do.

I have been expected to Emory with a 30k scholarship. I do believe that Emory is misplaced in the rankings (22 or something), but it is significantly higher than Pitt. If I do get into Pitt (god I hope so) with no scholarship (god I hope not), do you think that this Emory scholarship is decent leverage.

3.12/166.

I know this is a difficult question to answer, but im game for some decent speculation.

Emory should be a really good bargaining chip, but just an FYI, Pitt maxes out scholarships at around $14,000 for most people.

[OGR3]

I'm afraid I'll derail the threat again especially since I might not even get in but this kind of peaked my interest (+ god knows I love some good doom and gloom)
What's the break down for the grading curve? you said that 20% can get As. How many get Bs, Cs and so on

20% A- and above
60% B range
20% C+ and below

It all comes out to a 3.0 median.

[OGR3]

Dear Pittlawstudent,

We had just gotten this thread back on track. Please don't insult people from an alt.

Sincerely,

Me

[BarbellDreams]

I'm afraid I'll derail the threat again especially since I might not even get in but this kind of peaked my interest (+ god knows I love some good doom and gloom)
What's the break down for the grading curve? you said that 20% can get As. How many get Bs, Cs and so on

20% A- and above
60% B range
20% C+ and below

It all comes out to a 3.0 median.

This. Also, this is how professors are "encouraged" to grade, they aren't mandated. A prof at their discretion certainly CAN give out more Bs or As than necessary but I have only heard of that happening once and that was a prof wanting to give out more than 20% Cs because he said the class didn't do as well as he expected.

(For those of you who are concerned) Not everyone is like Barbelldreams here at Pitt. The majority of people are NOT d-bags...

The fact that you took the time to create an alt to post this is in itself hilarious.

[ach24]

.

[pittlawstudent]

Don't worry BB, it only took a minute to create the alt. However, I felt it was very necessary to let the 0Ls out there know that you are not representative of the school. That is all.

PS: I would not find it "hilarious" if I were you. Sounds like a defense mechanism?

[HOPEFORCHANGE]

To all of you who are saying 14K is the scholarship max, wasn't there someone on here bragging a couple weeks ago that they received a full ride and a nice stipend?

[OGR3]

To all of you who are saying 14K is the scholarship max, wasn't there someone on here bragging a couple weeks ago that they received a full ride and a nice stipend?

That was from outside scholarships.

[Murray]

Accepted via Status Checker today. Under review since 12/08. Went to PITT for undergrad and still live in Pittsburgh, so in-state tuition makes this a tempting offer.