Quick question, sorry if its silly: are there power outlets for most seats in classrooms? My laptop has a shortish battery span and I'm wondering if I need to invest in a new one.

It's already on the Admitted Students site. Under the "Go to SLS" heading, click on "Apply for Loans." It has all the steps we need to take to get Perkins, Direct Unsubsidized, and Grad PLUS set up.

I only discovered it today. They haven't been great about announcing when we need to get that sort of stuff done. It looks like they need all the documentation by August 24th.

Also, if anyone can find the "comparison table" for Grad PLUS v. "Private Alternative" loans that's supposed to be up in July, I'd be grateful. Alternatively, if any current students want to chime in on whether most students get Grad PLUS or private loans, that'd be great.

Thanks for the advice so far! Are there any professors that each of you have particularly enjoyed and would recommend?

Edit: Also, how many of you guys check out the football games? What's the process like acquiring tickets?

You don't get to pick your profs the first quarter so...don't worry about it til you get on campus. We are not sure who is teaching the 1L classes, but it's kind of a style thing. People liked Fried, Kelman, Karlan, Sykes (he's leaving), Sklansky (maybe coming from Cal), Spaulding, Cole, etc. It really depends on your personality and whether you like their style.

My bad on that one - I'm actually a 2L transfer. So I guess this question would be directed to anyone who's taken upper-level courses. Aside from the typical bar courses, I'm hoping to focus on foundational business law stuff. Statutory Interpretation and Federal Courts also caught my eye.

How much did your fellowship decrease after your 1L big law clerkship?

Mine dropped by about 14,000; I ended up coming out narrowly ahead. If you aren't pressed for cash, I would highly recommend doing something public interest-y that you've always wanted to do. I kind of regret not running off to a job in Geneva or London or DC. I actually did like my biglaw SA that summer, but you're going to get that experience 2L summer, so I wouldn't rush it.

Older thread (Sept 09 originally) here: Stanford 1L taking questions

How was your finals experience?

Really weird. SLS has 4 doctrinal classes (Torts, Contracts, Crim, Civ Pro) and legal research and writing. 18 credits total, where the normal max is 14 (with 9 being minimum). SLS has an ABA waiver to make us take so many classes. From what I understand, other law schools have 3 doctrinal classes + research/writing. The upperclassmen and administration essentially tell you that you can't do 100 percent in all the classes. Almost everyone believes this, but there are a handful of people who tried. Not sure if this paid off for them or not.

This means you really need to strategize in how you prepare for exams. Because top 1/3 get Hs and everyone else gets Ps, you could potentially split your time equally and only get a P in every class (and perhaps you are the top P in every class). You'd have the same grade as someone who prepared very very little (or not at all), but the same grade. So the idea is that you "punt" one or two classes, and max out in other classes, giving yourself the best chance at an H in those, knowing that you'll be at the bottom of the Ps in the punted class.

Everyone has done the reading for all their classes and has attended class, since we are 1Ls and work like crazy anyway. So even if you punt a class (Crim for me), you can still barely study at all, and be able to write a 15 page exam paper. It might not be pretty, and it won't be H-worthy, but it should get you a P. 

As I mentioned, I planned on punting crim, and trying legitimately for Torts/Contracts/CivPro. I made my own outline for Torts (first exam) and Contracts (third), but by the time I got to CivPro I really was wiped out and only had 36 hours to prepare. So I effectively punted CivPro as well. The CivPro exam actually felt great, but we will see to what that actually translates.

Overall, it was really weird not working for a class (or two). In undergrad I gave pretty much everything 100%, but here it more of a "work smarter" mentality. Looking back, it was a really liberating feeling. I was less stressed during exam week than I had been during the first week of school. I think pretty much every other SLS 1L will say that it sucked, but was not as bad as expected. One night we had a wine party in the library to take a break. Fun stuff. I can't imagine being at a school with real grades, I'm confident that I would have been freaking the heck out. I’m looking forward to getting my exams back not for the grades but for the comments, so I can start to figure out what I was actually doing right or wrong during this last quarter.

(There technically are low passes, but they say you have to write less than a page or show active contempt for the professor to not pass a class.)

Mine dropped by about 14,000; I ended up coming out narrowly ahead. If you aren't pressed for cash, I would highly recommend doing something public interest-y that you've always wanted to do. I kind of regret not running off to a job in Geneva or London or DC. I actually did like my biglaw SA that summer, but you're going to get that experience 2L summer, so I wouldn't rush it.

Thanks for helping soon to be 1Ls! Do you mind sharing how you exam-prioritizing strategy worked out?