Georgetown 2016 Forum

[Rory19]

Also folks, I gave the admissions office a call about LRW assignments and small section assignments (ConLaw for us Section 5 types). They told me that we should find out which profs we're assigned the week of Aug 12-16, so at that time you should be able to purchase/rent books for that.

Wonderful! I thought we were going to have to wait until registration on the 28th. All of the ConLaw professors have assigned a different textbook so I was definitely anxious about that. Depending on that final puzzle piece I will hopefully be able to go completely digital this year. With the mile long walk from Noma, an iPad sounds much more appealing than those huge books.

Did you find ebook versions of the textbooks? My understanding was most law textbooks aren't available in ebook form. Or were you thinking about scanning all the pages to pdf and using that with the ipad?

I looked them all up on Amazon and almost every textbook Section 5 has been assigned has a digital version from the publisher that you can purchase on Amazon, frequently for about ~15 less than the hard copy.

[boredtodeath]

Probably a retarded question, but I want to make sure - If the estimated Financial Aid listed on your bill meets or exceeds the charges, you don't have to do anything further in terms of paying the first bill, correct?

[danielr]

One last thing - I'd like to do a bit of reading to familiarize myself with the US Constitution. Coming from Canada, I feel like I'm at a bit of a disadvantage with my knowledge (or lack thereof) in that subject. Can anyone recommend a book or two?

Bfalcon: I would personally recommend a few books not on the Constitution (apart from reading the actual Constitution) but on the Supreme Court.

I'm with Daniel. Scotus book would be more interesting and help give you an idea. I just finished A People's History of the Supreme Court by Peter Irons. Its modeled on Howard Zinn's book (Zinn writes the intro.) Its very well written and gives you an overview from the writing of the Constitution to about 2006 of major cases and areas of litigation while weaving in information about individual justices and the politics that influenced the court.

I have yet to read that book, but it has been on my list ever since I read Zinn's A People's History of the United States. I would recommend Zinn to anyone, as well as second your recommendation of Irons' book.

Around the time of the 4th, I read Thomas Paine's Common Sense. I can see why it was so extremely influential when it was published in January of 1776--it is very well written, in interesting and fiery rhetoric, and makes an appealing and persuasive case not only for independence of the colonies from Britain, but also against the very notion of monarchy. It's a fantastic little pamphlet.

@boredtodeath, if the estimated Financial Aid exceeds the bill total, you should see a negative value, meaning that the school "owes" you that value. That's the amount of financial aid that will be refunded to you once classes start, and my understanding is that we don't have to do anything more; the bill will be paid and the extra loan money refunded later once we request it through the Student Account site.

[Bfalcon]

Around the time of the 4th, I read Thomas Paine's Common Sense. I can see why it was so extremely influential when it was published in January of 1776--it is very well written, in interesting and fiery rhetoric, and makes an appealing and persuasive case not only for independence of the colonies from Britain, but also against the very notion of monarchy.

Paine writes extremely well; however, I'm inclined to disagree with him on the fundamentals of having a monarchy. Repping the Constitutional Monarchy here! Long live the Queen! (and our new little prince!)

[Bfalcon]

Also folks, I gave the admissions office a call about LRW assignments and small section assignments (ConLaw for us Section 5 types). They told me that we should find out which profs we're assigned the week of Aug 12-16, so at that time you should be able to purchase/rent books for that.

Wonderful! I thought we were going to have to wait until registration on the 28th. All of the ConLaw professors have assigned a different textbook so I was definitely anxious about that. Depending on that final puzzle piece I will hopefully be able to go completely digital this year. With the mile long walk from Noma, an iPad sounds much more appealing than those huge books.

Did you find ebook versions of the textbooks? My understanding was most law textbooks aren't available in ebook form. Or were you thinking about scanning all the pages to pdf and using that with the ipad?

I looked them all up on Amazon and almost every textbook Section 5 has been assigned has a digital version from the publisher that you can purchase on Amazon, frequently for about ~15 less than the hard copy.

Oh man...you're seriously making me consider an ipad purchase!! Anyone wanna throw in some points on the pros/cons for following Rory in her footsteps? (really digging the idea of portability!)

[boredtodeath]

@boredtodeath, if the estimated Financial Aid exceeds the bill total, you should see a negative value, meaning that the school "owes" you that value. That's the amount of financial aid that will be refunded to you once classes start, and my understanding is that we don't have to do anything more; the bill will be paid and the extra loan money refunded later once we request it through the Student Account site.

Thanks. That's exactly what I thought - just wanted to hear it from someone else before I get kicked out of the class

[nickb285]

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[Psib337]

Oh man...you're seriously making me consider an ipad purchase!! Anyone wanna throw in some points on the pros/cons for following Rory in her footsteps? (really digging the idea of portability!)

I'm going with actual books and a laptop. I have a Kindle which is great for when I'm reading a novel and I get the New York Times on there too (I don't like holding actual newspapers) but for school I've always like having a real book. I can underline, write in the margins, and I think it's easier to go back and find things later. I didn't start using a laptop in class in college until my senior year and I liked it better for actual note taking. I have terrible handwriting so when I review handwritten notes half the time is spent trying to figure out what I already wrote. I did have some friends who did everything electronically and it worked for them, I think it really just depends on the person.

[justonemoregame]

I kind of like the idea of hand-writing notes, as I did that throughout undergrad, but as I've gotten older, my penmanship has tanked. arthritis? So, I'm going laptop.

Question about the "refund" disbursement - will it be $2,325 higher in Term 2 since we will have paid the annual health insurance fee up front? I'm assuming the estimated loan amounts are split in half between the two terms.

[nickb285]

.

[danielr]

Around the time of the 4th, I read Thomas Paine's Common Sense. I can see why it was so extremely influential when it was published in January of 1776--it is very well written, in interesting and fiery rhetoric, and makes an appealing and persuasive case not only for independence of the colonies from Britain, but also against the very notion of monarchy.

Paine writes extremely well; however, I'm inclined to disagree with him on the fundamentals of having a monarchy. Repping the Constitutional Monarchy here! Long live the Queen! (and our new little prince!)

Ugh...the "royal" baby. What a joke. He seems the same to me as every other baby does: an undeveloped mass of humanity with the exact same needs, potential, and instincts as all other newborns. Yet this one will receive every advantage that life has to offer--money and power, along with unqualified, lavish praise and attention--with absolutely none of the adversity that average people will face, simply because of who his parents are. If this is a feature of the modern constitutional monarchy, I don't know how you live with it.

[Bfalcon]

Ugh...the "royal" baby. What a joke. He seems the same to me as every other baby does: an undeveloped mass of humanity with the exact same needs, potential, and instincts as all other newborns. Yet this one will receive every advantage that life has to offer--money and power, along with unqualified, lavish praise and attention--with absolutely none of the adversity that average people will face, simply because of who his parents are. If this is a feature of the modern constitutional monarchy, I don't know how you live with it.

Meanwhile in the republic that is the United States...







I'd talk about the Kennedys or Rockefellers, but they definitely don't have praise or attention. At least not unqualified

[sambeber]

Oh man...you're seriously making me consider an ipad purchase!! Anyone wanna throw in some points on the pros/cons for following Rory in her footsteps? (really digging the idea of portability!)

I'm going with actual books and a laptop. I have a Kindle which is great for when I'm reading a novel and I get the New York Times on there too (I don't like holding actual newspapers) but for school I've always like having a real book. I can underline, write in the margins, and I think it's easier to go back and find things later. I didn't start using a laptop in class in college until my senior year and I liked it better for actual note taking. I have terrible handwriting so when I review handwritten notes half the time is spent trying to figure out what I already wrote. I did have some friends who did everything electronically and it worked for them, I think it really just depends on the person.

Georgetown 3L here. Some professors won't let you use a laptop or tablet in class.

[luxxe]

Ugh...the "royal" baby. What a joke. He seems the same to me as every other baby does: an undeveloped mass of humanity with the exact same needs, potential, and instincts as all other newborns. Yet this one will receive every advantage that life has to offer--money and power, along with unqualified, lavish praise and attention--with absolutely none of the adversity that average people will face, simply because of who his parents are. If this is a feature of the modern constitutional monarchy, I don't know how you live with it.

Meanwhile in the republic that is the United States...

I'd talk about the Kennedys or Rockefellers, but they definitely don't have praise or attention. At least not unqualified

Bfalcon, it seems that your knowledge of current/relevant American pop culture rather than our Constitution is what is lacking....

I have a textbook on my ipad for a summer class right now and I hate it. Never again.

[CourCour]

1 month to gee-whiz (thats what its called right?) move in! When should I start considering what to do with my car and apartment worth of stuff? Hmmm, I've got a week or two, right. Its all quite surreal.

[nickb285]

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[Rory19]

Oh man...you're seriously making me consider an ipad purchase!! Anyone wanna throw in some points on the pros/cons for following Rory in her footsteps? (really digging the idea of portability!)

I'm going with actual books and a laptop. I have a Kindle which is great for when I'm reading a novel and I get the New York Times on there too (I don't like holding actual newspapers) but for school I've always like having a real book. I can underline, write in the margins, and I think it's easier to go back and find things later. I didn't start using a laptop in class in college until my senior year and I liked it better for actual note taking. I have terrible handwriting so when I review handwritten notes half the time is spent trying to figure out what I already wrote. I did have some friends who did everything electronically and it worked for them, I think it really just depends on the person.

Georgetown 3L here. Some professors won't let you use a laptop or tablet in class.

I am not using the tablet exclusively for note taking but rather as my universal textbook. Do those same profs also require you to bring the book to class knowing they assigned a textbook that comes in digital format?

[boredtodeath]

Oh man...you're seriously making me consider an ipad purchase!! Anyone wanna throw in some points on the pros/cons for following Rory in her footsteps? (really digging the idea of portability!)

Personally, I'm going entirely analog with most of my class stuff. I tried bringing a laptop to class for a while in undergrad and found myself constantly dicking around on the Internet anytime the professor was discussing something I already understood, which led to me not realizing he was discussing something I didn't understand until about 10 minutes after he started. I'm just too easily distracted to have the discipline for an iPad and/or a computer in class, plus handwriting seems to help me retain information a little better. So I'll be taking notes by hand, using real books, and typing everything up at home later into an outline. If you have more self-control than I do it's probably fine, otherwise you can join me as the class Luddites.

Yeah, I'm definitely going to be buying the physical textbooks. Professors will probably expect you to have them in class, easier to write stuff directly in the book, etc etc.

I'm torn on taking notes via my laptop or by hand. I feel the same way as you about distractions - I know I'll inevitably end up on facebook or something in class. I mean, I'm on TLS at work so.... I also fucking HATE the word processor on my computer. I have the shitty Apple Pages program that fucking sucks for literally everything. Makes note taking a pain. When I used my laptop to take notes in ugrad I used to use the TextEdit app because I hated Pages so much. I'm also a little OCD about formatting when I take notes and that is always easier to do by hand, especially when you need to write fast to keep up with a prof.

On the other hand, I feel like I want to have everything on my computer for studying/general organization purposes. And I really don't want to have to spend time copying my handwritten notes to my computer.

I guess if some profs don't allow laptops then the decision is pretty easy

[sambeber]

Oh man...you're seriously making me consider an ipad purchase!! Anyone wanna throw in some points on the pros/cons for following Rory in her footsteps? (really digging the idea of portability!)

I'm going with actual books and a laptop. I have a Kindle which is great for when I'm reading a novel and I get the New York Times on there too (I don't like holding actual newspapers) but for school I've always like having a real book. I can underline, write in the margins, and I think it's easier to go back and find things later. I didn't start using a laptop in class in college until my senior year and I liked it better for actual note taking. I have terrible handwriting so when I review handwritten notes half the time is spent trying to figure out what I already wrote. I did have some friends who did everything electronically and it worked for them, I think it really just depends on the person.

Georgetown 3L here. Some professors won't let you use a laptop or tablet in class.

I am not using the tablet exclusively for note taking but rather as my universal textbook. Do those same profs also require you to bring the book to class knowing they assigned a textbook that comes in digital format?

Off the top of my head, I can't think of any professors that I've heard of who require you to bring anything at all to class. But there will come a day when you're cold called and the professor asks who wrote the opinion, or to please read out loud a certain section of the case, or whether you agree with what Justice So-and-so wrote in the third line of his dissent, and on that day, you may regret it.

On the other hand, none of that shit matters in the end -- and most professors let you bring in whatever you want to class.

[sambeber]

Oh man...you're seriously making me consider an ipad purchase!! Anyone wanna throw in some points on the pros/cons for following Rory in her footsteps? (really digging the idea of portability!)

Personally, I'm going entirely analog with most of my class stuff. I tried bringing a laptop to class for a while in undergrad and found myself constantly dicking around on the Internet anytime the professor was discussing something I already understood, which led to me not realizing he was discussing something I didn't understand until about 10 minutes after he started. I'm just too easily distracted to have the discipline for an iPad and/or a computer in class, plus handwriting seems to help me retain information a little better. So I'll be taking notes by hand, using real books, and typing everything up at home later into an outline. If you have more self-control than I do it's probably fine, otherwise you can join me as the class Luddites.

Yeah, I'm definitely going to be buying the physical textbooks. Professors will probably expect you to have them in class, easier to write stuff directly in the book, etc etc.

I'm torn on taking notes via my laptop or by hand. I feel the same way as you about distractions - I know I'll inevitably end up on facebook or something in class. I mean, I'm on TLS at work so.... I also fucking HATE the word processor on my computer. I have the shitty Apple Pages program that fucking sucks for literally everything. Makes note taking a pain. When I used my laptop to take notes in ugrad I used to use the TextEdit app because I hated Pages so much. I'm also a little OCD about formatting when I take notes and that is always easier to do by hand, especially when you need to write fast to keep up with a prof.

On the other hand, I feel like I want to have everything on my computer for studying/general organization purposes. And I really don't want to have to spend time copying my handwritten notes to my computer.

I guess if some profs don't allow laptops then the decision is pretty easy

Just one thought, because I similarly thought I had to transcribe my handwritten notes when I was a 1L. Ask yourself why you're doing that. If it's for repetition, ok fine, but then it doesn't matter how you take notes in the first place. If it's for outlining purposes, most people just outline directly from their class notes + reading notes anyways, so there may be no extra benefit from transcribing in the first place before you're ready to start outlining. You would have to retype into your outline from your notes regardless, even if you took notes on the computer initially.

[CourCour]

I too am stuck in a handwriting v. computer notetaking quandary. (And if computer, evernote v. circus ponies.) I retain info better if I write it but unless I'm being conscientious about it my handwriting devolves into chicken scratch. Decisions, decisions.

[Bfalcon]

I too am stuck in a handwriting v. computer notetaking quandary. (And if computer, evernote v. circus ponies.) I retain info better if I write it but unless I'm being conscientious about it my handwriting devolves into chicken scratch. Decisions, decisions.

Evernote vs circus ponies eh? I'm not familiar with Evernote, just circus ponies. It's difficult to decide between notes on comp vs notes by hand. I'm not so worried about surfing the net etc - I hope I have enough self control to just not do it (and keep my phone off) while I'm in class. My biggest problem is having the freedom to format notes exactly how I would by hand. On a computer, I've found this to be tedious. That said, I haven't been in uni for a few years, so I'll have to check out these programs and see how they fare on my mac.

Bfalcon, it seems that your knowledge of current/relevant American pop culture rather than our Constitution is what is lacking....

Lol...I do my best to avoid American pop culture. Add to the mix that it takes a little longer than usual to hit my circles here in Canadaland and you have yourself a genuine dinosaur. Other than Community. That said, I was insinuating a point about every country having their own wealthy 'princes' and 'princesses', titular or not...

[boredtodeath]

Just one thought, because I similarly thought I had to transcribe my handwritten notes when I was a 1L. Ask yourself why you're doing that. If it's for repetition, ok fine, but then it doesn't matter how you take notes in the first place. If it's for outlining purposes, most people just outline directly from their class notes + reading notes anyways, so there may be no extra benefit from transcribing in the first place before you're ready to start outlining. You would have to retype into your outline from your notes regardless, even if you took notes on the computer initially.

Yeah, I guess it would just make sense to work with the paper notes up until you started outlining. I just wanted to have everything on my laptop so I wouldn't have to carry around notebooks. I also haven't worked with handwritten notes since HS because, tbh, I rarely took notes in ugrad.

[buttes]

I took notes by hand for the first month or so before switching to typing because my handwriting couldn't keep up. All the paper notes did after that was make it more difficult to get those sections into your outline. If you can write then transcribe and keep it up, I think it's a great system. But I overestimated my ability to write fast enough and my time to transcribe what I had written, and it just made things more difficult in the end.

That said, I think the repetition benefits of writing/transcribing are pretty solid if you can do it.

[danielr]

Lol...I do my best to avoid American pop culture. Add to the mix that it takes a little longer than usual to hit my circles here in Canadaland and you have yourself a genuine dinosaur. Other than Community. That said, I was insinuating a point about every country having their own wealthy 'princes' and 'princesses', titular or not...

At the risk of perpetuating what is probably an unwelcome and fairly silly argument on this thread, I will just simply say that your point doesn't insinuate what you think it does. There is a significant and crucial difference between celebrity or fame and royalty. Members of the monarchy are indeed famous and idolized by the media, but random celebrities in the United States are famous but not actual princes or princesses. I find an important political point to be made against having a genuine and powerful, or even just titular, monarchy. That's because I view royalty as more than just a glorified celebrity family, as you seemingly do.

This could be an interesting discussion in a different venue. Let's talk more in person when we are both at G'Town.