JD Law Students Blog

As noted by several other bloggers, it’s midterm time.  Last week we had two midterms, a paper, and a research project.  Next week is another midterm and two more papers.   That puts me in the eye of the proverbial storm right now.  Knowing there’s still more work to do makes it hard to relax, but some small break is essential to mental health.

I think it’s hard in law school to strike the proper balance between school work and recreation.  It’s easy, especially right after midterms, to postpone assignments for a few days, then a week, and then discover that you’re hopelessly behind.  On the other hand, it’s almost as easy to spend every afternoon in the library.  The middle path is narrow and elusive.

My philosophy?  Keep up with school work, but set aside some personal time every day.  Even if I haven’t finished an assignment entirely, I consider it a priority to do something each day for my mental health.  Even if it’s just doing a little reading for pleasure, watching a television program or DVD, or playing a game with friends or family, it helps me stay sane.  For now, at least.  Next week I could be a babbling lunatic.

Compounding the general intensity of midterms was the Red Sox World Series run.  Why did the games start at 8:30?  The productivity of the entire northeast must have suffered in favor of Fox’s ratings.  Luckily the Sox swept, minimizing the damage (unless you jumped on the Rockies bandwagon).  That’s a subject for an entirely different type of blog, though.

I don’t know why I didn’t notice until now, but midterms are actually “midterms”. I don’t know if it’s planned or not, but I have a midterm every week for about a month. Obviously, most of those are not actually mid-term. The latest one is on November 6th. That’s more like a pre-final. Anyway, all this keeps me in an intense study mode every single week. Uh…I guess that’s…good? No really, it’s good. Exams are actually consolidation opportunities. In other words, studying for an exam allows one to consolidate all the different bits of information into something coherent. Also, studying for an exam forces a more engaged interaction with the material. So, I’m not complaining because I’m learning a lot, and I’m enjoying all of this because I enjoy studying law.

Enjoying studying law is really the key to success. Before applying to any law school, ask yourself this question: Will I do my homework because I have to or because studying law is my idea of good time? If you’re only doing your homework because you have to, don’t come to law school. On the other hand, if you really enjoy reading, discussing, and writing about law, then this is the place for you.

So, how do you know if you’ll enjoy it? Well, I’d say visiting campus is a good first step in figuring that out. Sit in a class and see how the conversation goes. Even better, sit in a study group and see how that conversation goes. There’s no need to follow the entire conversation. If it sounds interesting, if it sounds like a conversation that’s worth hours of studying to participate in, then law school is a good choice. On the other hand, if it sounds boring, if you wonder why people care about that stuff, consider a different career path. Personally, I’m having the time of my life. I know I’m in the right place.

I got a C on my Con Law midterm.  I promised that I’d tell you, so there it is. 

I wonder how I should feel about that grade - elated because its not lower?  Elated because I am in the average category and that I can learn how to get better?  I’d love to feel those things, but so far the feelings were temporary.  The pace keeps moving and I’m on to my next assignments. 

Vermont is a great law school.  As I said before, I picked it blind… so many of my particular challenges are unique to my situation.  I certainly could have been wiser in how I approached the process, but I still think, knowing what I know, that I would be here.  I just would have been more prepared if I had visited first.

 So here’s my recommendation.  Come visit Vermont Law School.  Come take a look.  Ignore our number one ranking for our Environmental Law and just peek at our classes.  Meet our deans.  See our campus - come up to see the fall foliage or ski at Killington and pop in to VLS.  Take a walk around the campus. 

 When you do, watch the people - watch the students.  Can you see yourself in their place?  How do they appear to feel about Vermont Law?  Better yet, ask one how they feel!

Come visit and experience our culture.

As many prospective law students know or will soon realize, the first year of legal education at any ABA-approved school involves a broad grounding in fundamental topics. There are numerous practical reasons why this ‘common ground’ policy exists, and I don’t need to highlight them here. What is clear to me after several weeks of law school, though, is that this teaching method requires a great deal of flexibility and adaptation.

Case in point, today’s schedule involved discussing slip-and-fall personal injury cases within an hour of having examined constitutional issues raised in the President’s creation of special military tribunals. First-year students are in a unique predicament as we don’t get to pick and choose which issues we’d like to examine — if we wanted to do that, we might take a non-JD course examining an area of the law but not leading to a bar qualification.

My point here, largely addressed to someone who might be considering law school in general, is that it’s not always ‘right up your alley.’ I haven’t really met anyone who is deeply interested in all elements of ‘the law,’ as they are essentially infinite and corresponding to all facets of our lives. There is a certain willingness required, however, to engage at least to the point of establishing a basic understanding in the fundamentals.

I don’t mean to say that this is a tedious experience or boring — many of the areas are very interesting — but it is certainly a case of learning the rudiments on the snare drum before you rock out on a hair metal-sized drum kit with dual bass drums and twelve crash cymbals. As we all know, of course, rocking out in full force is the most fun. It’s also something to look forward to. Here’s to looking ahead.

Everything I learn in ConLaw goes against what I think.

I’ve almost always been a fairly liberal person (except for that 2 year stretch of living on the dark side).  I’ve thought that the federal government should play a very important and active role in social policy.  However, the more I read the constitution, the more I question that.  It really seems like the founding fathers didn’t want it that way.  I find myself disagreeing very often with the outcome of cases striking down key legislation, but I see the reasoning as more legitimate than the arguments for upholding the laws.

Who knows.  My brain is so overloaded.  I can barely keep a single thought in my head.

This week has been loaded with everything that comes with midterms. I’ve been sharing my free advice with my classmates: eight hours of sleep minimum and no intoxicants. That seems like Captain Obvious kind of stuff to me, but I receive quite a variety of responses. One of my classmates admitted to sleeping for only two hours one night. Wow. I hope that works for her. Thursday night, I was feeling especially not prepared for my Contracts midterm. I thought Stay up late studying or just go to bed? I decided to just go to bed. My thinking was that a functional brain without much in it would be better than a full brain that can’t remember what to do with the information. I must’ve been right. I scored ninety percent correct. Normally, I wouldn’t go blabbing about my grades, but here it illustrates a good point: If you’ve been doing at least a moderate amount of studying during the term, sleep is more important than studying. In fact, I’ve heard that dreams are your brain processing information, so you would actually be learning while you sleep. This is my strategy. I do my reading; I pay attention in class; and I sleep a lot.

I hear ya: That’s good for you, but I don’t work like that. Just give it a try. One day this week, one of my classmates arrived with an unusual glow about him. He seemed especially engaged with every aspect of his surroundings. I had the idea that his brain would automatically process any concept that happened to float into the room. Of course, I was curious, so I said, “How ya doin’?”

He said, “Great! I went to bed at 9:30 last night. It’s amazing.”

Smiling, I said, “Welcome to the club.”

Thank God for TV.

Here’s the irony - for the first 31 years of my life, I never had cable TV (and for part of that, I never even had a TV at all - the one I currently have I bought for $10 on craigslist and it has a 10″ screen).  I rarely watched TV in general (except for my sappy addiction to Grey’s and Lost, and sometimes late-night Law & Order…) and there were more than a few weeks, nay months, in a row when the TV was never turned on in my home.  I’m a reader and a doer - sitting around watching TV always seemed like *such* a waste of time to me, never mind the pathetic nature of having my brain turned to mush by most of the inanity of it.

 But then I came to law school.  Now, my brain is pretty much mush all the time.  I still don’t turn the TV on very much during the week but come Fri. night, all I look forward to is zoning out in front of the ‘boob tube’ for 3-4 hours and completely decompressing from the prior week. 

I wasn’t actually planning on getting cable TV when I got here, since I had never had it and still feel that is is wrong to PAY for TV, but when I learned that my Internet would be cheaper if I got it with the TV package, I said, why not?

And thank God I did.  I hate to admit it, but TV is now my very good friend on Fri. evenings (oh ya, and now Thur. nights at 9 now that Grey’s is back on…).  It lets my brain unwind.  It’s as if my brain had been benchpressing all week, non-stop, and the TV lets it put the weights down and feel the pressure come off.  And so far, I don’t seem to be addicted to the TV in the sense that I’ve started watching it other nights as well (mm, again, except for Grey’s….) so I don’t hate the TV as much as I thought I would.  I was scared it would take over.  But luckily there’s no chance of that in law school.

Anyway, for all you fellow TV-haters out there, I have to say that law school has really made me appreciate it more than I ever thought possible!  Enjoy!

I just noticed the conversation about the pro’s and con’s of living far from campus. I live an hour and a half from campus, so I thought I’d chime in on the seven points under consideration.

Point One: A 1/2 hour away is a hour of wasted study time each day.

Answer: Hardly. My commute time is some of the most valuable time of my day. I am an aural learner; I learn most by listening. I use various “study skills” technologies to put material into an aural format. Sometimes this is a compact disc; sometimes this is an audio file on my computer. Whatever it is, I can listen while I drive, so my 3 hours a day in the car are usually 3 hours of studying. However, I don’t always study in the car. Sometimes, I just need to think about something else or nothing at all. This is where a little time listening to the radio or talking on the phone (with a hands-free device of course) can save my sanity. I suppose studying 24/7 works for somebody, but it’s not me. I would burn out in less than a month. Then, I’d really have problems.

Point Two: The farther you are from town, the fewer and slower the internet connections.

Answer: Answer: Yes, but only if you live in a rural area. I live in Brattleboro, and I have Comcast Cable internet. It’s quite nice.

Point Three: Class is never cancelled for snow. That’s the word on the street. So you live in the boonies and get snowed in - you miss class.

Answer: Again, only if you live in a rural area. I live on a paved road in a neighborhood. I am approximately half a mile from the interstate. I drive on nice, smooth, paved, main roads all the way to the VLS parking lot.

Point Four: It’s more likely that you’ll need a 4 wheel drive or all-wheel-drive if you live in the boonies.

Answer: Again, living far from VLS does not require living in a rural area. I expect that my front wheel drive will serve me quite well.

Point Five: Law school is tough. What keeps me going, is seeing other people keep going. “If that person can hack it and is in the library studying, then why aren’t I there.” When I’m at my beautiful house in the boonies, its almost like I’m not at law school - and its very difficult to take things seriously. I pick up my daughter from daycare and then I take her home. And then I eat dinner and I go back to school to study.

Answer: This raises a very good point. The point is: Figure out what works for you. My performance goes way down when I focus on what other people are doing. also, I’m distractable enough on my own. Being surrounded by people just gives me more distractions. So, I generally study in solitude.

Point Six: If you are a poor self-motivator for studying… do NOT commute.

Answer: If you’re a poor self-motivator for studying, how did you get to law school in the first place? Okay, you must’ve had some reason for embarking on this ridiculous journey. Remember that reason; your motivation will flow from there. If you have no reason for attending law school, or if your reason does not motivate, I suggest rethinking your big picture plans.

Point Seven: There are a TON of on-campus activities that I REALLY REALLY wish I were around for, except I live a 1/2 hour away. All that undergrad club crap - in law school, its serious and you’re making connections and managing activities that you will actually put on your resume.

Answer: I guess I have a few answers for this. First, my undergrad activities were serious; they did build my social network; and they are on my resume. Second, I have found time to attend a variety of activities that happen during the day and in the early evening. Third, if I participated in everything that I wanted to participate in, I would have no time left for studying.

I would add: Check out the area and see where you want to live. It’s good to enjoy your moments away from campus. Also, if you have a romantic companion and/or children, where do they want to live? My romantic companion does not do well in the tiny village setting, so South Royalton was not really an option.

I hope that this additional perspective is useful for folks who are considering making the leap into law school. If you are one of those folks, I would say one more thing: VLS is fabulous. Really. Give it a closer look.

Ciao for now

Students come to South Royalton from a wide variety of personal and academic backgrounds, but there is at least one thing we all have in common: law school is an entirely new chapter in the story. There is a palpable feeling that the entire environment is different here; it’s not like going back to college with a new undergraduate major in law. Although getting acclimated to the new environs can be challenging at times, I think most students are enjoying the process and learning to thrive within the peaceful setting here in the Green Mountains.

One large change in most of our lives is that we are now living in a compact, community-oriented setting. This is not a place where it is easy to remain anonymous; nor is it a place where students segregate themselves into different academic majors or dorms. That being as it is, we all share common space to a greater degree than at a larger university.

That means, in part, that a culture of civility is expected and enforced here. Activism and opinion are strongly encouraged, but it is key to remember that we are all members of a narrowly-focused community. Many of us may come from larger settings where the common tactic is to ridicule and dehumanize the opposition, portraying them as irrational and refusing to engage with their ideas. There are many places in the country where this has been perfected to a science — places where anyone seeking an honest discussion of issues must navigate through personal attacks and childish slogans on all sides.  I, for one, am glad South Royalton is not among those places.

 My esteemed colleague Eric Land recently pointed out several reasons not to live more than a half hour from VLS.  Lise Daniels provided something of a rebuttal, but I would like to add my own thoughts.  I live in East Montpelier, on a dirt road off of another dirt road (which is one-lane, but two-way), in what you could easily consider the boonies.  It takes me 15 minutes to reach the interstate, and 35 minutes to get to the school.  My advice: carpool if you can!  I meet my carpool at the I-89 exit 8 park and ride.  I carpool with four people, two of whom live in the Burlington area, a student who lives in Calais (near East Montpelier, also the boonies) and a girl who lives in downtown Montpelier.  It was not hard to find these carpool-mates.  I met them through classes, but VLS also provides a list server to facilitate creating carpools.  Although we have different schedules, if someone wants to stay late it is usually advantageous for the rest of us to hang around and do work.  I have found the carpool experience to be pleasant.  Riding with fellow students gives me a chance to wake up in the morning, and decompress after classes in the afternoon.Eric lays out a few specific reasons for not living too far from campus.  Here are my responses.

 1) A 1/2 hour away is a hour of wasted study time each day.

Riding with other students, we frequently talk about classes and try to flush out concepts we’re working on.  Also, you can’t spend all day every day studying.  It can be nice to decompress for an hour each day.  As Lise points out, you can also catch up with books on CD.  If you really want to make all your time productive, you can find study aids on CD.

2) The farther you are from town, the fewer and slower the internet connections.

This is true.  One guy in our carpool has no high speed internet (and no option to get high speed).  At our house, we only recently got the option for high speed internet.  So it’s improving, but don’t take it for granted.  Ditto for cell phone coverage.

3) Class is never cancelled for snow.  That’s the word on the street.  So you live in the boonies and get snowed in - you miss class.

Class is cancelled from time to time.  But if driving in the snow is a big concern or a big change for you, the boonies might not be your best option.  However, the road crews in Vermont are well-trained and get major roads cleared very quickly.  If you live near the interstate (in Montpelier, for instance) you shouldn’t have much of a problem.  Of course, you need to count on extra time for the drive.

4) It’s more likely that you’ll need a 4 wheel drive or all-wheel-drive if you live in the boonies.

My family has been here for about 18 years and never had a four or all wheel drive vehicle.  Oftentimes, people with 4 wheel drive think they can drive fast and furious on the snow-covered roads.  These people end up upside down or worse.  You can definitely manage with two-wheel drive.

5) Law school is tough.  What keeps me going, is seeing other people keep going.  “If that person can hack it and is in the library studying, then why aren’t I there.”  When I’m at my beautiful house in the boonies, its almost like I’m not at law school - and its very difficult to take things seriously.  I pick up my daughter from daycare and then I take her home.  And then I eat dinner and I go back to school to study. 

It can be nice to escape from the law school atmosphere.  I love getting home in the evening and being able to put law school out of my mind for just a few hours.  If you’re in South Royalton, law school becomes your life.  You see students all the time, you see the school all the time, you are surrounded with law.  Of course . . .

6) If you are a poor self-motivator for studying… do NOT commute. 

If you can’t convince yourself to study in the evening, the law school library atmosphere will be helpful if not necessary.  Of course, being surrounded by stressed-out law students can be a distraction, not a motivator at times.

7) There are a TON of on-campus activities that I REALLY REALLY wish I were around for, except I live a 1/2 hour away.  All that undergrad club crap - in law school, its serious and you’re making connections and managing activities that you will actually put on your resume. 

This is probably the single biggest negative for me.  There have been a number of events after classes I wish I could attend but just really wanted to go home and didn’t want to come back.  Of course, for events that I absolutely couldn’t miss, I just try to convince my carpool-mates to wait with me.  Still, I feel that I’m not as much a member of the VLS student community since I commute.

In summary, deciding where to live is a big choice.  A lot of it depends on your personal situation and preferences.  Get all the information, talk to students, but make the best decision for yourself.   You can make the best out of living anywhere.