horseshoe1 wrote:Thoughts on hastings vs. UCI? I'm looking into international human Rights/ public interest law in general. I'm also from the bay and prefer to live there in the long term.
Hmmm...I didn't really look at any law schools on the west coast (except UCI), so I know next to nothing about Hastings. UCI has a lot to offer with respect to both of your interests, but Hastings might also... no idea. Here's what I know about UCI:
Re: International human rights law... International Law (I-law) is a mandatory 1L class, but depth of coverage of human rights law varies greatly by professor, so it really depends who you get. The International Justice Clinic is one of our core (i.e., you have to take one before you graduate) clinics and I know that Professor Kaye's students think he walks on water. I also know that our Jessup (I-law) moot court team is pretty serious/competitive.
Re: Public interest... UCI was opened with an intentional public interest focus, which is talked about all the time, and there is a *very* large continent of students here with serious interests in PI work. Our pro bono program is a little crazy, in a good way--there's an incredible number of options (almost x10 as many options as most of the huge east coast law schools I was considering), which range from amazing and awesome to disorganized and awful (if you come here, be sure to talk to 2Ls and 3Ls before you sign up for pro bono to figure out which ones are awesome and which should be avoided), and there's a big push for students to participate, so almost everyone--even the less numerous big-law-or-bust students--participates in pro bono to some extent. The IRAP (Iraqi Refugee Assistance Project, or something like that) group is really well organized and it seems to be a favorite amongst students with interests in I-law/human rights. There's also a dedicated team of folks (a mix of professors and staff from career development) who help PI students prepare for the post-grad public interest fellowship application process, which is intense. There's also some funding available (from career development and from the Student Bar Association) for students to attend public interest events and conferences, so a bunch of us got funding to attend the Equal Justice Works conference/career fair in DC last fall. (Note: if you're serious about public interest, you should plan to attend EJW in fall of your 2L year no matter where you go to law school... I don't think it would be as helpful 1L year though.)
Aaaaand they have not yet given me my general merit based award money, was told theyd look it that after they make a fellowship decision. Is that normal? Does that mean I'm unlikely to get big $$$ from regular merit scholly?
