Harvard Student(s) Answering Your Questions Forum

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CHaNT

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Re: Harvard Student(s) Answering Your Questions

Post by CHaNT » Tue Jul 25, 2017 2:33 pm

I posted this on another thread, but haven't received a response and am getting a little antsy (apologies!). Are 1L students automatically registered for classes in the fall term? I have found no information on the web about how to register or choose classes for 1L fall term. It just seems strange, with it already being late July, and I have no enrolled classes for the fall term. I did get the bill, however... :lol:

agnes_bean

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Re: Harvard Student(s) Answering Your Questions

Post by agnes_bean » Tue Jul 25, 2017 2:46 pm

CHaNT wrote:I posted this on another thread, but haven't received a response and am getting a little antsy (apologies!). Are 1L students automatically registered for classes in the fall term? I have found no information on the web about how to register or choose classes for 1L fall term. It just seems strange, with it already being late July, and I have no enrolled classes for the fall term. I did get the bill, however... :lol:
Yep. You'll be assigned a section, and you'll have all your fall classes with your section. I believe section assignments and schedules go out mid-August or so.

CHaNT

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Re: Harvard Student(s) Answering Your Questions

Post by CHaNT » Tue Jul 25, 2017 9:13 pm

Thanks a lot! Also, I am trying to book my Christmas holiday flight, and noticed that the academic calendar says that the 1L Final Exam period is from December 8-15. Does this mean that 1L students do not need to be on campus after December 15? Or might there be final exams/essays/other necessary activities I am unaware of which take place after the 15th? Sorry if there is no real answer to this -- I simply do not know where else to ask.

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theconsigliere

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Re: Harvard Student(s) Answering Your Questions

Post by theconsigliere » Tue Jul 25, 2017 9:16 pm

CHaNT wrote:Thanks a lot! Also, I am trying to book my Christmas holiday flight, and noticed that the academic calendar says that the 1L Final Exam period is from December 8-15. Does this mean that 1L students do not need to be on campus after December 15? Or might there be final exams/essays/other necessary activities I am unaware of which take place after the 15th? Sorry if there is no real answer to this -- I simply do not know where else to ask.
If it's like last year you will have tests on 8, 11, 13, 15 and you'll be done with everything as soon as the last one ends

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Re: Harvard Student(s) Answering Your Questions

Post by agnes_bean » Wed Jul 26, 2017 8:06 am

theconsigliere wrote:
CHaNT wrote:Thanks a lot! Also, I am trying to book my Christmas holiday flight, and noticed that the academic calendar says that the 1L Final Exam period is from December 8-15. Does this mean that 1L students do not need to be on campus after December 15? Or might there be final exams/essays/other necessary activities I am unaware of which take place after the 15th? Sorry if there is no real answer to this -- I simply do not know where else to ask.
If it's like last year you will have tests on 8, 11, 13, 15 and you'll be done with everything as soon as the last one ends
Yeah, once 1Ls exams are done in the fall, 1ls are done with any requirements. (I suppose a 1L could stick around to like, work on a case for a SPO or something, but that would be strictly voluntary and I don't remember any of my friends doing it my 1L year.)

FYI CHaNT, the same goes in the spring unless you decide to do the law review writing competition, which happens after exams. But all papers, exams, etc. will be over by the end of your 1L exam period.

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CHaNT

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Re: Harvard Student(s) Answering Your Questions

Post by CHaNT » Wed Jul 26, 2017 11:31 pm

Thank you for the help! I didn't expect such detailed/clear answers, and I don't know where else to look, so I really appreciate it.

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taxman14

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Re: Harvard Student(s) Answering Your Questions

Post by taxman14 » Sat Jul 29, 2017 10:23 am

Any thoughts on difficulty of finding 1L summer employment - I know it's tough to find work that first summer but didn't know how that applied to H students. Is it mostly big law focused or working for judges too ?

tomwatts

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Re: Harvard Student(s) Answering Your Questions

Post by tomwatts » Sat Jul 29, 2017 10:37 am

taxman14 wrote:Any thoughts on difficulty of finding 1L summer employment - I know it's tough to find work that first summer but didn't know how that applied to H students. Is it mostly big law focused or working for judges too ?
Biglaw summer associate positions for 1Ls are scarce. You can work for a judge over the summer only if the judge pays you, which is uncommon; HLS's summer funding does not extend to unpaid internships with judges.

Getting a government/public interest internship is usually not all that hard, though; I had a horrible experience with it (didn't get a job until early May), but my experience was unusual. It helps that you come with funding already (for anything but a judicial internship).

Even so, there are some really competitive/early deadline internships, and if you want one of those, you have to be pretty on top of it pretty early on.

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taxman14

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Re: Harvard Student(s) Answering Your Questions

Post by taxman14 » Sat Jul 29, 2017 11:05 am

tomwatts wrote:
taxman14 wrote:Any thoughts on difficulty of finding 1L summer employment - I know it's tough to find work that first summer but didn't know how that applied to H students. Is it mostly big law focused or working for judges too ?
Biglaw summer associate positions for 1Ls are scarce. You can work for a judge over the summer only if the judge pays you, which is uncommon; HLS's summer funding does not extend to unpaid internships with judges.

Getting a government/public interest internship is usually not all that hard, though; I had a horrible experience with it (didn't get a job until early May), but my experience was unusual. It helps that you come with funding already (for anything but a judicial internship).

Even so, there are some really competitive/early deadline internships, and if you want one of those, you have to be pretty on top of it pretty early on.
Got it any idea of what most HLS students do during that summer then (despite most positions being competitive)?

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agnes_bean

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Re: Harvard Student(s) Answering Your Questions

Post by agnes_bean » Sat Jul 29, 2017 11:28 am

taxman14 wrote:
tomwatts wrote:
taxman14 wrote:Any thoughts on difficulty of finding 1L summer employment - I know it's tough to find work that first summer but didn't know how that applied to H students. Is it mostly big law focused or working for judges too ?
Biglaw summer associate positions for 1Ls are scarce. You can work for a judge over the summer only if the judge pays you, which is uncommon; HLS's summer funding does not extend to unpaid internships with judges.

Getting a government/public interest internship is usually not all that hard, though; I had a horrible experience with it (didn't get a job until early May), but my experience was unusual. It helps that you come with funding already (for anything but a judicial internship).

Even so, there are some really competitive/early deadline internships, and if you want one of those, you have to be pretty on top of it pretty early on.
Got it any idea of what most HLS students do during that summer then (despite most positions being competitive)?
Not tomwatts (obviously), and I bet there's someone out there with actual stats on this, but as tomwatts suggested, my 1L year most people either did government jobs (DOJ, AUSA, AG offices) or public interest types jobs (varies a lot. Most common seemed to be legal aid and PD type work, though there were also people going to organizations focused on environment, education, immigration, plus a few to big name gigs like ACLU). There was a lot of variety. I knew three or four people who worked in international organizations abroad. And I actually knew a fair number of people who landed paid SA gigs at firms, though most (maybe all?) were either through diversity programs, or they were IP jobs and the person had a strong hard science background (by which I mean at least a masters in a hard science). The only thing people didn't do was work for judges -- unlike many schools, Harvard's career services really discourages that, because they think it's better to work somewhere where you can get a sense of what working in a particular field as an attorney is like.

FWIW, I can confirm tomwatts's assurance that getting a 1L gig is easy for most folks. I was deciding between two public interest offers before J-term was over, and I had no relevant background at all (though I did have unrelated work experience, which I think helped). While I was on the early side amongst my friends I was hardly the only one who was set in early January, and almost everyone I knew had jobs lined up by the end of February.

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cantorb

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Re: Harvard Student(s) Answering Your Questions

Post by cantorb » Sat Jul 29, 2017 9:48 pm

During EIP, is there any advantage to scheduling screeners during a specific time of day? I still have an option to switch the time of some of my interviews.

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Re: Harvard Student(s) Answering Your Questions

Post by wubwubwub » Sat Jul 29, 2017 10:19 pm

taxman14 wrote:
tomwatts wrote:
taxman14 wrote:Any thoughts on difficulty of finding 1L summer employment - I know it's tough to find work that first summer but didn't know how that applied to H students. Is it mostly big law focused or working for judges too ?
Biglaw summer associate positions for 1Ls are scarce. You can work for a judge over the summer only if the judge pays you, which is uncommon; HLS's summer funding does not extend to unpaid internships with judges.

Getting a government/public interest internship is usually not all that hard, though; I had a horrible experience with it (didn't get a job until early May), but my experience was unusual. It helps that you come with funding already (for anything but a judicial internship).

Even so, there are some really competitive/early deadline internships, and if you want one of those, you have to be pretty on top of it pretty early on.
Got it any idea of what most HLS students do during that summer then (despite most positions being competitive)?
FWIW, I'm not sure that "competitive" means that you need to have great pre-law school credentials. Like any job/internship, there are some you'll get and some you won't, but it seems pretty much random. I had interesting pre-law school WE and got something related to that WE that people would probably consider competitive, but friends who went straight through or had unrelated WE also got "competitive" positions. I wouldn't rule yourself out from anything based on pre-law school credentials or lack thereof. I would apply as soon as possible after 12/1 (the first date 1Ls are permitted to apply), though. The "competitive" positions requiring early apps tend to be things like:
*DOJ in DC
*US Attorneys in desirable districts like the New York area (maybe all US Attorneys, I'm not quite sure)
*Big blue state AGs like NY or CA (especially so under Trump)
*DA/public defense offices in desirable areas like Manhattan
*ACLU chapters and other name-brand non-profits
*Maybe certain international/human rights things? I don't know anything about that, but maybe someone else could chime in.

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flyingboy

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Re: Harvard Student(s) Answering Your Questions

Post by flyingboy » Sun Jul 30, 2017 5:31 pm

cantorb wrote:During EIP, is there any advantage to scheduling screeners during a specific time of day? I still have an option to switch the time of some of my interviews.
Based on my personal experience, I don't think the time you interview matters (in term of getting callbacks) at all.

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sidequest

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Re: Harvard Student(s) Answering Your Questions

Post by sidequest » Sun Aug 06, 2017 11:21 am

Are the Harvard gyms open to non-students at all? I'm moving with a partner who will be looking for a new place to exercise.

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Re: Harvard Student(s) Answering Your Questions

Post by eck456 » Sun Aug 06, 2017 11:40 am

sidequest wrote:Are the Harvard gyms open to non-students at all? I'm moving with a partner who will be looking for a new place to exercise.
Yes you just have to pay for them...if you go onto the Harvard rec website it'll show you the partner rates for the school you're in (I think if you're a business student it's slightly different). Both my partner and I joined this year no problem

neptunian

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Re: Harvard Student(s) Answering Your Questions

Post by neptunian » Fri Aug 11, 2017 12:14 pm

Just got section assignment! What are your thoughts on Seligman,Greiner,Okediji, Sustein, and Donahue?

shao

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Re: Harvard Student(s) Answering Your Questions

Post by shao » Fri Aug 11, 2017 12:18 pm

Just assigned to Section 4! Anyone else?

Enrolled Courses
Civil Procedure 4 (Cohen) 4.00
Contracts 4 (Elhauge) 4.00
Criminal Law 4 (Gruber) 4.00
Legislation and Regulation 4 (Davies) 4.00
First Year Legal Research and Writing 4A (Frampton) 2.00

Any thoughts on this? THX!

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wubwubwub

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Re: Harvard Student(s) Answering Your Questions

Post by wubwubwub » Fri Aug 11, 2017 12:32 pm

neptunian wrote:Just got section assignment! What are your thoughts on Seligman,Greiner,Okediji, Sustein, and Donahue?
Congrats on Section 2! Greiner is fantastic, but assigns a massive amount of reading. Sunstein is one of the most prominent professors at HLS but I don't know anything about what he's like as a teacher. Donahue is probably the worst professor at HLS but surviving him will be a bonding experience for your section. Who's your LRW prof? If it's Ian Samuel you're in for a treat. Just wait until you discover his twitter.

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The_Pluviophile

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Re: Harvard Student(s) Answering Your Questions

Post by The_Pluviophile » Fri Aug 11, 2017 12:58 pm

Hello! Just got section 7! Thoughts on Reynolds (Civ Pro), Rakoff (contracts), Freeman (Legislation and regulation), Smith (prop), and Tobin (LRW)??

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QuentonCassidy

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Re: Harvard Student(s) Answering Your Questions

Post by QuentonCassidy » Fri Aug 11, 2017 1:17 pm

wubwubwub wrote:
neptunian wrote:Just got section assignment! What are your thoughts on Seligman,Greiner,Okediji, Sustein, and Donahue?
Congrats on Section 2! Greiner is fantastic, but assigns a massive amount of reading. Sunstein is one of the most prominent professors at HLS but I don't know anything about what he's like as a teacher. Donahue is probably the worst professor at HLS but surviving him will be a bonding experience for your section. Who's your LRW prof? If it's Ian Samuel you're in for a treat. Just wait until you discover his twitter.
Seligman is their LRW professor. I didn't have him personally but the other half of my section did, and the reviews were pretty much universally negative, especially regarding the feedback he gives students. I definitely second what you said about Greiner though; fantastic prof.

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QuentonCassidy

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Re: Harvard Student(s) Answering Your Questions

Post by QuentonCassidy » Fri Aug 11, 2017 1:18 pm

shao wrote:Just assigned to Section 4! Anyone else?

Enrolled Courses
Civil Procedure 4 (Cohen) 4.00
Contracts 4 (Elhauge) 4.00
Criminal Law 4 (Gruber) 4.00
Legislation and Regulation 4 (Davies) 4.00
First Year Legal Research and Writing 4A (Frampton) 2.00

Any thoughts on this? THX!
Davies is amazing. Her classes can be a whole lot of fun.

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cantorb

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Re: Harvard Student(s) Answering Your Questions

Post by cantorb » Fri Aug 11, 2017 1:19 pm

shao wrote:Just assigned to Section 4! Anyone else?

Enrolled Courses
Civil Procedure 4 (Cohen) 4.00
Contracts 4 (Elhauge) 4.00
Criminal Law 4 (Gruber) 4.00
Legislation and Regulation 4 (Davies) 4.00
First Year Legal Research and Writing 4A (Frampton) 2.00

Any thoughts on this? THX!
None of these are the same as last year's Section 4, but people in other sections may have had some of them.

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cannonballer

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Re: Harvard Student(s) Answering Your Questions

Post by cannonballer » Fri Aug 11, 2017 1:21 pm

Guess I'll jump on the bandwagon and see if anyone has any feedback regarding profs for Section 3:

Rubenstein (CivPro)
Kennedy (Contracts)
Ristroph (Crim)
Mann (Property)
Encarnacion (LRW)

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flyingboy

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Re: Harvard Student(s) Answering Your Questions

Post by flyingboy » Fri Aug 11, 2017 1:26 pm

wubwubwub wrote:
neptunian wrote:Just got section assignment! What are your thoughts on Seligman,Greiner,Okediji, Sustein, and Donahue?
Congrats on Section 2! Greiner is fantastic, but assigns a massive amount of reading. Sunstein is one of the most prominent professors at HLS but I don't know anything about what he's like as a teacher. Donahue is probably the worst professor at HLS but surviving him will be a bonding experience for your section. Who's your LRW prof? If it's Ian Samuel you're in for a treat. Just wait until you discover his twitter.
I believe Sunstein is one of the worst rated professors at HLS too. Most people I talked to did not like him as a teacher.

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flyingboy

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Re: Harvard Student(s) Answering Your Questions

Post by flyingboy » Fri Aug 11, 2017 1:27 pm

cannonballer wrote:Guess I'll jump on the bandwagon and see if anyone has any feedback regarding profs for Section 3:

Rubenstein (CivPro)
Kennedy (Contracts)
Ristroph (Crim)
Mann (Property)
Encarnacion (LRW)
You wouldn't really learn Contracts from Kennedy, who will mostly just talk about whatever interests him. I've heard good things about Rubenstein as a teacher. For Bruce Mann, get a hornbook and read it before class, it will help you follow along with his questions and actually learn Property; Bruce will tell you not to get hornbooks, ignore him.

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