Michigan 2011 Forum

[cornhusker]

I'm beginning to hate May already. 3 final papers, 2 exams (ftw?), AND waitlisted is worst of all.
I think I'll go with your idea "latebloomer" and go sit down with a pint of New York Super Fudge Chunk
with a shot of tequila

[hipstermafia]

Seriously?
The admin office is calling accepted students regarding missed deadlines for seat deposits?

Just to clear this up, I contacted the admissions office and they had no record of calling me.. So I guess it was someone else at Michigan calling me. I also officially withdrew, best of luck to those of you still waiting!

[sgtgrumbles]

I also withdrew recently. Good luck, folks.

[thedude221]

Hey, I got into U of M but withdrew my application so I can no longer get on the admitted students website. The reason I want to get on is so I can see the recommended reading list. Could anyone here supply me with that list?

[theturkeyisfat]

i'm not even admitted but i'd like to see that list too

[bigjinjapan]

Um, anybody else having problems logging into the status checker? I'm getting 'No record was found for the given UM ID and birth date.' If you get dropped from the WL, it shows up as DR, right...?

[jacmelmorning]

Um, anybody else having problems logging into the status checker? I'm getting 'No record was found for the given UM ID and birth date.' If you get dropped from the WL, it shows up as DR, right...?

i get the same thing. hopefully it's just routine maintenance...

[whirledpeas86]

A Little Light Reading

Every year, several admitted students will asked what they should read in the weeks before Law School. Our initial, strong impulse is to say: "Don't read anything -- just relax!" Many are dissatisfied with that response, though, so we've relented and done some informal polling of faculty, students, and alumni.

The answers varied widely, and were often completely contradictory. A significant number -– faculty as well as students, mind you! -– echoed the admonition to read nothing more taxing than contemporary fiction and every other book you've been putting off reading and won't get the chance to pick up while in law school. And people had lots of advice, in addition to specific suggestions. At least one student was concerned that people would feel compelled by the mere existence of a list to spend hundreds of dollars, and suggested an explicit reminder of the merits of the public library. And one wise student pointed out that while nothing on this list is likely to raise your GPA, it will improve the inside of your head (where you have to live for the rest of your life).

Although many people suggested works by those on the Michigan faculty (and no, the authors themselves were not the ones making the suggestion), we have not included any of those because it seemed just a tad too self-promoting, and definitely very un-Michigan.

So -- bearing in mind that this is not an Official List, and that there is no clear consensus on the issue -- here is a list, just for fun, in completely random order, of items you might want to consider.

Tony Honore, About Law: An Introduction

Lon L. Fuller, The Morality of Law

Jefferson Powell, A Community Built on Words: The Constitution in History and Politics

Aldous Huxley, Brave New World

George Orwell, 1984

John Hart Ely, Democracy and Distrust

Benjamin Cardozo, The Nature of the Judicial Process

Karl Llewellyn, The Bramble Bush (multiple votes, countered by a few strong recommendations NOT to read it)

Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War

D.H. Lawrence, Lady Chatterly's Lover

Richard Kluger, Simple Justice

Thomas Schelling, The Strategy of Conflict

Catherine Drinker Bowen, Miracle at Philadelphia

Eric Foner, Reconstruction

Leo Katz, Bad Acts and Guilty Minds

Stephen Ambrose, Nothing Like it in the World

Anthony Trollope, anything at all

Shakespeare, anything at all

The Bible, especially the first five books

Louis Auchincloss, Powers of Attorney

A.M. Polinsky, An Introduction to Law and Economics

Charles Dickens, Bleak House

Ntozake Shange, Sassafrass, Cypress and Indigo

Elizabeth Vrato, The Counselors

Confucius, The Analects

Jonathan Harr, A Civil Action

Steven Landsburg, Armchair Economist: Economics and Everyday Experience

Peter H. Irons, A People's History of the Supreme Court

Ed Lazarus, Closed Chambers

David Friedman, Law's Order

Duncan Kennedy, Legal Education and the Reproduction of Hierarchy: A Polemic Against the System

Elizabeth Becker, When the War was Over: Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge Revolution

Hermann Hesse, The Glass Bead Game

Taylor Branch, Parting the Waters

Anthony Lewis, Gideon's Trumpet

Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, Random Family

Fauziya Kassindja, Do They Hear You When You Cry

Mark Salzman, True Notebooks

Other:

The Wall Street Journal

The Economist Magazine

Alan Ginsburg, Howl

Verdi, Requiem (yep, music)

Your application essay(s)

[Flips88]

I like how they throw the Pentateuch in there like it's going to make you a more well rounded student.

[descartesb4thehorse]

I like how they throw the Pentateuch in there like it's going to make you a more well rounded student.

Considering most Western legal systems are largely influenced by those books, I'm going to say it would make you quite a bit more well-rounded as a law student. In fact, it's most (especially fundie) Christians who haven't read the Bible.

[rinkrat19]

Dinged on Friday. I thought I'd withdrawn, but apparently I forgot.

[DHB]

I'm calling to withdraw or defer tomorrow. Someone from the WL should get an offer. Sorry it's so late in the cycle. I loved Michigan when I visited, and the all people I've met throughout the admissions process were awesome, but am not going to be able to attend law school this fall. Best of luck to you all.