Top Law Schools

Anyone applying? I sent it in 10/31, mailed the signed checklist the next day. Havent heard anything yet.

I snail-mailed my application in on the 5th and got an email today confirming receipt.

I would imagine they would follow the same timeline as last year and the year before. Acceptances for autoadmits (numbers-wise, anyway) started rolling out early-mid January (phone call). I wouldn't expect to hear anything until a decision is rendered.

On another note (I don't think they publicized this as much as they did in previous years), they're offering 1/3 scholarships to all admitted! I visited last year and it's a beautiful campus..and the law building is brand new. Definitely worth a visit.

Good luck, everyone

msch0i wrote:I would imagine they would follow the same timeline as last year and the year before. Acceptances for autoadmits (numbers-wise, anyway) started rolling out early-mid January (phone call). I wouldn't expect to hear anything until a decision is rendered.

On another note (I don't think they publicized this as much as they did in previous years), they're offering 1/3 scholarships to all admitted! I visited last year and it's a beautiful campus..and the law building is brand new. Definitely worth a visit.

Good luck, everyone

Yes Irvine campus is gorgeous (it's very modernistic as far as the architecture goes) - I went to UC Irvine as an undergrad, so if anyone has questions about the campus itself and where to find the best off campus housing feel free to ask. Also, I took a class with Dean Chemerinsky as a undergraduate. Very interesting. It was on Constitutional Law.

Great places to run and bike as well around the campus. Plenty of trails + lots of sunshine on most days.

Currently a 1L at UCI. Feel free to ask questions if you have them. I just wanted to mention that UCI has hired a new Dean of Admissions and she won't be starting until January. In our last coffee with the Dean we were told that no decisions will be made until she is on board. So please be patient. Good luck to everyone applying - I highly recommend visiting the school if you can. If you visit this semester, I would recommend sitting in on contracts if you can. Contracts is MoTuTh 2:50-4:10.

uci2013 wrote:Currently a 1L at UCI. Feel free to ask questions if you have them. I just wanted to mention that UCI has hired a new Dean of Admissions and she won't be starting until January. In our last coffee with the Dean we were told that no decisions will be made until she is on board. So please be patient. Good luck to everyone applying - I highly recommend visiting the school if you can. If you visit this semester, I would recommend sitting in on contracts if you can. Contracts is MoTuTh 2:50-4:10.

Hi~ I have a couple of questions.

1. What is "coffee with the Dean?"
2. How did UCI fare for summer placement?
3. Please clarify - No application reviewing till new dean of admissions or no final decisions till the new dean starts in january?
4. Where do most of the students live?

Thanks in advance for answering.

uci2013 wrote:Currently a 1L at UCI. Feel free to ask questions if you have them. I just wanted to mention that UCI has hired a new Dean of Admissions and she won't be starting until January. In our last coffee with the Dean we were told that no decisions will be made until she is on board. So please be patient. Good luck to everyone applying - I highly recommend visiting the school if you can. If you visit this semester, I would recommend sitting in on contracts if you can. Contracts is MoTuTh 2:50-4:10.

Thanks for the info everyone. I guess I'll just have to be patient like everyone else.

Made the drive down to Irvine a couple of weeks ago to check out the new housing for grad students. The building looks great and the location is very close to the law school and a supermarket. It's a shame how expensive rent is in Irvine though..although I guess if you were willing to share with someone it wouldn't be that big of a deal.

Henchman21 wrote:

uci2013 wrote:Currently a 1L at UCI. Feel free to ask questions if you have them. I just wanted to mention that UCI has hired a new Dean of Admissions and she won't be starting until January. In our last coffee with the Dean we were told that no decisions will be made until she is on board. So please be patient. Good luck to everyone applying - I highly recommend visiting the school if you can. If you visit this semester, I would recommend sitting in on contracts if you can. Contracts is MoTuTh 2:50-4:10.

Hi~ I have a couple of questions.

1. What is "coffee with the Dean?"
2. How did UCI fare for summer placement?
3. Please clarify - No application reviewing till new dean of admissions or no final decisions till the new dean starts in january?
4. Where do most of the students live?

Thanks in advance for answering.

Hi there,

1. Coffee with Dean is an awesome thing. Our super busy Dean meets with students twice a month, once before classes and a couple weeks later after classes and chats about whatever the students want to talk about. Topics range from opinions on the election, to curriculum concerns, to library hours, to asking them to reduce the LOR requirement to two in the application process. Any concern or question is fine to bring up and he has amazing follow-up to addressing expressed concerns. You couldn't ask for a more approachable Dean.

2. Last year 100% of the 1Ls found jobs. I am actually not sure how the 2Ls are doing this year. I do know there are a number if large firm placements, including with O'Melveny & Myers and Knobbe Martens. A number of students chose to bypass OCI (I expect I will next year) because they have no interest in firm work. But I can't speak to the number of students landing 2L summer firm gigs versus those who wanted them. In general though, I haven't heard much grumbling about jobs. 1Ls can't start looking until 12/1 and some won't start looking until after finals.

3. Regarding application review, I will ask next time I do coffee with the Dean and get back to you. I am not sure which and I should have clarified at the time.

4. Most of the 1Ls live in student housing. I scored by being patient and turning down my 1st assignment because money was more important to me than the amenities. I am in Verano Place and have a 2 bedroom with my husband which is very affordable. Verano Place is the least expensive, followed by Palo Verde. The newer privately owned complexes are more expensive and not worth the additional cost if you can get a placement into one of the older complexes. However I have no A/C and no dishwasher. The new apartments are very nice but I have a two bedroom for less than an efficiency in the newest building. I can give some advise on the housing front once people need to start filling out their housing forms. If one thing made me unhappy about UCI so far, it was the housing process. But I gambled and my gamble paid off and I am saving a lot of money on rent.

Hope this helps. . .

Also, I know someone who interviews for Shepherd Mullen. I met him through running club. He was VERY impressed with the UC Irvine law students.

The parking situation for housing can also be very bad...some of the apartment complexes only allow 2 cars, and not all of them have street parking...

I lived in a house my senior year. So much better for parking and for rent costs.

uci2013 wrote:

Henchman21 wrote:

uci2013 wrote:Currently a 1L at UCI. Feel free to ask questions if you have them. I just wanted to mention that UCI has hired a new Dean of Admissions and she won't be starting until January. In our last coffee with the Dean we were told that no decisions will be made until she is on board. So please be patient. Good luck to everyone applying - I highly recommend visiting the school if you can. If you visit this semester, I would recommend sitting in on contracts if you can. Contracts is MoTuTh 2:50-4:10.

Hi~ I have a couple of questions.

1. What is "coffee with the Dean?"
2. How did UCI fare for summer placement?
3. Please clarify - No application reviewing till new dean of admissions or no final decisions till the new dean starts in january?
4. Where do most of the students live?

Thanks in advance for answering.

Hi there,

1. Coffee with Dean is an awesome thing. Our super busy Dean meets with students twice a month, once before classes and a couple weeks later after classes and chats about whatever the students want to talk about. Topics range from opinions on the election, to curriculum concerns, to library hours, to asking them to reduce the LOR requirement to two in the application process. Any concern or question is fine to bring up and he has amazing follow-up to addressing expressed concerns. You couldn't ask for a more approachable Dean.

2. Last year 100% of the 1Ls found jobs. I am actually not sure how the 2Ls are doing this year. I do know there are a number if large firm placements, including with O'Melveny & Myers and Knobbe Martens. A number of students chose to bypass OCI (I expect I will next year) because they have no interest in firm work. But I can't speak to the number of students landing 2L summer firm gigs versus those who wanted them. In general though, I haven't heard much grumbling about jobs. 1Ls can't start looking until 12/1 and some won't start looking until after finals.

3. Regarding application review, I will ask next time I do coffee with the Dean and get back to you. I am not sure which and I should have clarified at the time.

4. Most of the 1Ls live in student housing. I scored by being patient and turning down my 1st assignment because money was more important to me than the amenities. I am in Verano Place and have a 2 bedroom with my husband which is very affordable. Verano Place is the least expensive, followed by Palo Verde. The newer privately owned complexes are more expensive and not worth the additional cost if you can get a placement into one of the older complexes. However I have no A/C and no dishwasher. The new apartments are very nice but I have a two bedroom for less than an efficiency in the newest building. I can give some advise on the housing front once people need to start filling out their housing forms. If one thing made me unhappy about UCI so far, it was the housing process. But I gambled and my gamble paid off and I am saving a lot of money on rent.

Hope this helps. . .

Thank you for responding. I will also be moving with my wife to law school and your information will be helpful if I get accepted to UCI.

Thanks again

Great thread - thanks for all the input so far. I've been undecided about applying here, but this has really confirmed that I should indeed put forward an app. Cheers

how do you apply to uci law?

it doesn't seem to be an option through LSAC?

Lasers wrote:how do you apply to uci law?

it doesn't seem to be an option through LSAC?

You have to download their application, print it out, fill out with a black or blue ball point pen and personally hand it in to the admissions office. They also conduct an hour interview on the spot while they review your application. You'll get your decision by the end of the interview.

haha I kid!

UCI is under non-member law schools in LSAC. However, the application can be found on their website (It helps to check)

http://www.law.uci.edu/prospective/applying.html

Download the pdf and fill it out. You can mail it in to this address:

Admissions Committee
University of California, Irvine
School of Law
401 East Peltason Drive, Suite 1000
Irvine, CA 92697-8000

Or you can join the new century and submit it online through their website, NOT LSAC. You can however, use LSAC to send your LOR's.

UCI was featured in the National Jurist this month:

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/cypress ... st1110/#/4

The article highlights the fact that UCI ranks 9th in the nation in terms of faculty (by scholarly impact), only a mere 2 citations from the number 8 spot.

"[Scholarly] Impact tells you things that reputation doesn't. Reputation tends to be yesterday's news- what happened 25 years ago. I think [this study] is useful for students who care about the academic experience." - Brian Leiter

Henchman21 wrote:

Lasers wrote:how do you apply to uci law?

it doesn't seem to be an option through LSAC?

You have to download their application, print it out, fill out with a black or blue ball point pen and personally hand it in to the admissions office. They also conduct an hour interview on the spot while they review your application. You'll get your decision by the end of the interview.

haha I kid!

UCI is under non-member law schools in LSAC. However, the application can be found on their website (It helps to check)

http://www.law.uci.edu/prospective/applying.html

Download the pdf and fill it out. You can mail it in to this address:

Admissions Committee
University of California, Irvine
School of Law
401 East Peltason Drive, Suite 1000
Irvine, CA 92697-8000

Or you can join the new century and submit it online through their website, NOT LSAC. You can however, use LSAC to send your LOR's.

Make sure you add UCI as one of your non-member schools on LSAC and pay for the $12 report fee. Then go to the LOR page to pick the LORs you'd likke to send to UCI.
After you apply to UCI (through the method mentioned above), they will ask LSAC for your report, which LSAC will forward provided that you purchased the report. This will include your LOR, Transcript, LSAT score.

queenlizzie13 wrote:
The parking situation for housing can also be very bad...some of the apartment complexes only allow 2 cars, and not all of them have street parking...

Verano Place has good parking from what I can see, at least the lot near me always has plenty of parking. Palo Verde assigns garages. PDS, the newer building, has plenty of parking but the parking is not right where the apartments are. You have to park near the gym.

The private complexes by the school are supposed to have worse parking.

Definitely sit in on the contracts class if you get a chance - the professor seemed really awesome. I love the UCI campus. I just submitted my app yesterday - it's going to be such a long wait.

Henchman21 wrote:

uci2013 wrote: 3. Please clarify - No application reviewing till new dean of admissions or no final decisions till the new dean starts in january?

Have some clarification from the dean on this one. The admissions committee is going through and reviewing applications. There may be a few decisions made before Dean Austin, our new admissions dean arrives - but the "vast majority" of decisions will be made after the new dean starts. So be patient. And good luck to everyone who has applied or will be applying

uci2013 wrote:

Henchman21 wrote:

uci2013 wrote: 3. Please clarify - No application reviewing till new dean of admissions or no final decisions till the new dean starts in january?

Have some clarification from the dean on this one. The admissions committee is going through and reviewing applications. There may be a few decisions made before Dean Austin, our new admissions dean arrives - but the "vast majority" of decisions will be made after the new dean starts. So be patient. And good luck to everyone who has applied or will be applying

Thanks for clarifying. I guess that explains why I have heard next to nothing after submitting. I guess I'll just sit tight and fret over other schools that are actively accepting/rejecting people now.

I am still getting my application together for UCI, but am stuck on the "Why UCI" essay portion. I just don't know how to go about constructing it, as I don't want my reasons to sound insincere. Did the rest of you find it difficult at all? Thanks!

conroyc wrote:I am still getting my application together for UCI, but am stuck on the "Why UCI" essay portion. I just don't know how to go about constructing it, as I don't want my reasons to sound insincere. Did the rest of you find it difficult at all? Thanks!

Yes, I did find myself sounding insincere which is why I'm just going to bail on that application and say goodbye to my $12 reporting fee. USNWR might rank UCI to make their wildest dreams come true and they're T14. On the other hand, if I say goodbye to some unbelievable school and USNWR comes back with #55, I'd hang myself with a piano wire.

lisjjen wrote:

conroyc wrote:I am still getting my application together for UCI, but am stuck on the "Why UCI" essay portion. I just don't know how to go about constructing it, as I don't want my reasons to sound insincere. Did the rest of you find it difficult at all? Thanks!

Yes, I did find myself sounding insincere which is why I'm just going to bail on that application and say goodbye to my $12 reporting fee. USNWR might rank UCI to make their wildest dreams come true and they're T14. On the other hand, if I say goodbye to some unbelievable school and USNWR comes back with #55, I'd hang myself with a piano wire.

Or, you can always apply now and decide not to go later. There's always that.

HeavenWood wrote:
Or, you can always apply now and decide not to go later. There's always that.

Fine. I guess if I'm going to frequent a law school forum, I can listen to some common sense.

Has anyone gone complete here? I submitted 11/11 and sent my form in priority mail the next day. Still haven't heard anything aside from the auto-generated app received e-mail.