Vandy 2L Taking Question Forum

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do_me_a_favor

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Re: Vandy 2L Taking Question

Post by do_me_a_favor » Fri Dec 23, 2016 5:04 am

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Re: Vandy 2L Taking Question

Post by Right2BearArms » Thu Dec 29, 2016 3:53 pm

do_me_a_favor wrote:do any of you have experience with SERKIN (property), KAY (crim law), or SITARAMAN (reg state)??? any recommended supplements or exam advice? sorry for being a big fat gunner :P
Did not have Serkin - cant remember anything being said good or bad about him by friends who did.

Kay: Nice woman; on the disorganized side; her passion is the clinics and I think that shows in her classroom presence (i.e. I am not sure large groups are her thing-but lets be real, she is far from the worst). Class will be pretty lively and she is not scary when she calls on you (usually). I would get the Lexis Crim-Law supplement. I started reading that about a month before the exam and it helped a ton, I believe this is the supplement she recommends as well. Not the best professor I ever had, but far, far from the worst.

Sitaraman... what to say other than he is brilliant and intense, but in a way that you end up liking him. READ for his class. He will call on you. Every. Single. Day. Most days he got to everyone in our section twice. He worked for Sen. Warren, so he is quite liberal, but he is fantastic at holding everyone to the same standard regardless of whether he agrees with you or not. If you take a position, be prepared to back it up and do not ever rely on platitudes or anecdotes as support, you will get shut down. Also, learn how to pronounce the Latin phrases, really. End of the day, he was great. Exam is (or at least was my year) a shit show. Had no idea how to prepare, didn't prepare, wrote something and got median, that was good enough for me.

Happy to answer any followup's or PMs if you have any further questions.

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Re: Vandy 2L Taking Question

Post by somedeadman » Fri Dec 30, 2016 12:45 am

rad lulz wrote:
Stupe wrote:
rad lulz wrote:
Stupe wrote:^Disappointing. For me, the whole point of going to Vandy would be getting a Nashville jerb. Otherwise it seems like you're better off going to a) a state school w/ $$ if you want regional work or b) a T14 if you want big law.
Or you could get into Vandy with money.
If you're getting good money from Vandy you've already got pretty killer numbers though, which would probably get you money elsewhere. To me, Vandy's in an awkward stage. Great school, but still not as good nationally as the T14. Dominates the region, but tuition is too fucking high if all you want is something in the region. $150k debt isn't pretty when you're pulling sub-$60k/yr anyway.

Eh, whatever. Vanderbilt is still my #1 target simply because I have no plans of leaving the South. Just wish that shit was cheaper (lol, really just higher education in general).
If you're above medians you can get some solid ass monies.

Also "national mobility" is a flame. There are a lot of threads about this and ties, so I won't bother explaining that here.
Would love to hear more about this. It's hard to land Nashville big law as a vandy grad? Is this because they hunt for t14 students or because there are few big law jobs in Nashville?

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Re: Vandy 2L Taking Question

Post by Right2BearArms » Fri Dec 30, 2016 1:16 am

somedeadman wrote:
rad lulz wrote:
Stupe wrote:
rad lulz wrote:
Stupe wrote:^Disappointing. For me, the whole point of going to Vandy would be getting a Nashville jerb. Otherwise it seems like you're better off going to a) a state school w/ $$ if you want regional work or b) a T14 if you want big law.
Or you could get into Vandy with money.
If you're getting good money from Vandy you've already got pretty killer numbers though, which would probably get you money elsewhere. To me, Vandy's in an awkward stage. Great school, but still not as good nationally as the T14. Dominates the region, but tuition is too fucking high if all you want is something in the region. $150k debt isn't pretty when you're pulling sub-$60k/yr anyway.

Eh, whatever. Vanderbilt is still my #1 target simply because I have no plans of leaving the South. Just wish that shit was cheaper (lol, really just higher education in general).
If you're above medians you can get some solid ass monies.

Also "national mobility" is a flame. There are a lot of threads about this and ties, so I won't bother explaining that here.
Would love to hear more about this. It's hard to land Nashville big law as a vandy grad? Is this because they hunt for t14 students or because there are few big law jobs in Nashville?
Nashville (and Tennessee as a whole for that matter) simply isn't that big of a legal market. Its is very saturated with Vandy grads, especially at the biglaw and "prestigious" non-biglaw firms, but the summer class sizes really aren't that big and, despite not having a huge class, Vandy has far more students that will get hired each year in Nashville. Nashville is probably easier to land from Vandy than just about any school not HYS though. (Really, networking for Nashville does itself for you due to all the firm sponsored events).

That being said, Vandy has good mobility in the South/Texas and does ok into NYC, DC and Chicago all things considered. Plenty in my class stayed in Nashville and TN, a lot went to Birmingham or ATL. Several went to Dallas, several more (including myself) to Houston. I know people who landed biglaw in NYC, Boston, Chicago, CA and across most of the Midwest (think KC/Cincinnati etc.).

I chose Vandy because I did not want six figures of debt at graduation. I don't advise going into much more debt than I did because BigLaw is not a sure thing from Vandy, but for me it was the best and correct choice looking back.

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Re: Vandy 2L Taking Question

Post by The Abyss » Fri Dec 30, 2016 1:22 am

When do grades typically get posted for 1Ls? Should I just stop looking at YES until the new year?

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Re: Vandy 2L Taking Question

Post by Right2BearArms » Fri Dec 30, 2016 9:57 am

The Abyss wrote:When do grades typically get posted for 1Ls? Should I just stop looking at YES until the new year?
IIRC there is (was) a 20 day deadline from the end to the exam period for grades to be posted. Most professors take most of that time, especially for fall grades (holidays and whatnot). My last 1L grade wasn't posted until like Jan 15. Probably worth checking out for a few days and enjoying the rest of break.

Remember, there isn't anything you can do about the exam or your grade now, so no use in worrying about it.

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Re: Vandy 2L Taking Question

Post by somedeadman » Fri Dec 30, 2016 2:07 pm

Right2BearArms wrote:
Nashville (and Tennessee as a whole for that matter) simply isn't that big of a legal market. Its is very saturated with Vandy grads, especially at the biglaw and "prestigious" non-biglaw firms, but the summer class sizes really aren't that big and, despite not having a huge class, Vandy has far more students that will get hired each year in Nashville. Nashville is probably easier to land from Vandy than just about any school not HYS though. (Really, networking for Nashville does itself for you due to all the firm sponsored events).

That being said, Vandy has good mobility in the South/Texas and does ok into NYC, DC and Chicago all things considered. Plenty in my class stayed in Nashville and TN, a lot went to Birmingham or ATL. Several went to Dallas, several more (including myself) to Houston. I know people who landed biglaw in NYC, Boston, Chicago, CA and across most of the Midwest (think KC/Cincinnati etc.).

I chose Vandy because I did not want six figures of debt at graduation. I don't advise going into much more debt than I did because BigLaw is not a sure thing from Vandy, but for me it was the best and correct choice looking back.
Awesome, thanks for the detailed response!

What do you think of the idea that national mobility is BS, as one poster earlier in the thread mentioned?

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Re: Vandy 2L Taking Question

Post by Right2BearArms » Fri Dec 30, 2016 6:24 pm

somedeadman wrote:
Right2BearArms wrote:
Nashville (and Tennessee as a whole for that matter) simply isn't that big of a legal market. Its is very saturated with Vandy grads, especially at the biglaw and "prestigious" non-biglaw firms, but the summer class sizes really aren't that big and, despite not having a huge class, Vandy has far more students that will get hired each year in Nashville. Nashville is probably easier to land from Vandy than just about any school not HYS though. (Really, networking for Nashville does itself for you due to all the firm sponsored events).

That being said, Vandy has good mobility in the South/Texas and does ok into NYC, DC and Chicago all things considered. Plenty in my class stayed in Nashville and TN, a lot went to Birmingham or ATL. Several went to Dallas, several more (including myself) to Houston. I know people who landed biglaw in NYC, Boston, Chicago, CA and across most of the Midwest (think KC/Cincinnati etc.).

I chose Vandy because I did not want six figures of debt at graduation. I don't advise going into much more debt than I did because BigLaw is not a sure thing from Vandy, but for me it was the best and correct choice looking back.
Awesome, thanks for the detailed response!

What do you think of the idea that national mobility is BS, as one poster earlier in the thread mentioned?
Vandy is nationally mobile, but not for everyone. Of the non-t14s I think is likely the most mobile, though some of that is probably due to self-selection (lots of UT grads stay in Texas, lots of UCLA grads stay in Cali). Partially too it is out of necessity since the markets near Vandy are not that large.

I think that anywhere is possible from Vandy, but I think that there is almost always a school that will give you a better shot in a specific area or more overall national portability than Vandy.

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Re: Vandy 2L Taking Question

Post by studyingeveryday » Thu Jan 05, 2017 11:49 pm

Did anyone here get off the waitlist or know someone who did? Would visiting the school help, along with sending updated info/lots of LOCIs? Thank you!

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Re: Vandy 2L Taking Question

Post by Pure Applesauce » Sun Jan 08, 2017 9:40 pm

do_me_a_favor wrote:do any of you have experience with SERKIN (property), KAY (crim law), or SITARAMAN (reg state)??? any recommended supplements or exam advice? sorry for being a big fat gunner :P
Have never had Kay so idk about that.

Serkin is fantastic. The man is hilarious and engaging and friendly and all around great.

Also, he literally wrote a property supplement. Use it. I made my outline based on it. He follows it closely: https://www.amazon.com/Law-Property-Con ... 1634592999

Sitaraman is also a great professor, but one of those who maybe at first you are kind of intimidated by. He calls on every person every day, and sometimes it is hard to know what he wants. But you get the hang of it after a few classes.

Sitaraman also uses actual cases to write his exam (or he did in my year at least). So if there are any big admin-type cases going on in the DC Circuit you might want to know about them.

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Re: Vandy 2L Taking Question

Post by do_me_a_favor » Tue Jan 10, 2017 8:50 pm

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Re: Vandy 2L Taking Question

Post by Scalvert » Wed Jan 11, 2017 1:18 am

Anyone remember just how far into the second semester you have to wait to receive the last of your grades? The 30 days is up this weekend, surely it won't be longer than that.

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Re: Vandy 2L Taking Question

Post by Pure Applesauce » Wed Jan 11, 2017 1:59 pm

Scalvert wrote:Anyone remember just how far into the second semester you have to wait to receive the last of your grades? The 30 days is up this weekend, surely it won't be longer than that.
The deadline is Jan 16, so they should all be up by then. Have not heard of any profs going beyond the deadline

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Re: Vandy 2L Taking Question

Post by Scalvert » Sun Jan 15, 2017 5:35 pm

How/when do they let you know if you made Dean's List?

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Re: Vandy 2L Taking Question

Post by Pure Applesauce » Sun Jan 15, 2017 7:30 pm

Scalvert wrote:How/when do they let you know if you made Dean's List?
Likely by the end of the week the registrar will post cut offs on the intranet for each class (class of 2017/18/19). The cut offs I have seen have been as low as 3.71 and as high as 3.85.

The registrar will send an email when they cut offs are posted.

Also, if you make Dean's List, it will be listed under "awards/honor" on your YES page where your grades are displayed

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Re: Vandy 2L Taking Question

Post by Pure Applesauce » Thu Jan 19, 2017 6:07 pm

Scalvert wrote:How/when do they let you know if you made Dean's List?
it is posted on the intranet now

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Re: Vandy 2L Taking Question

Post by Scalvert » Thu Jan 19, 2017 9:16 pm

Pure Applesauce wrote:
Scalvert wrote:How/when do they let you know if you made Dean's List?
it is posted on the intranet now
Thanks, judging from the cutoffs you posted earlier, I probably shouldn't worry about it. But just in case, where do I find it? I looked under "Academic Life" and a couple of other places - I'm probably missing something obvious.

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Re: Vandy 2L Taking Question

Post by Pure Applesauce » Thu Jan 19, 2017 9:20 pm

Scalvert wrote:
Pure Applesauce wrote:
Scalvert wrote:How/when do they let you know if you made Dean's List?
it is posted on the intranet now
Thanks, judging from the cutoffs you posted earlier, I probably shouldn't worry about it. But just in case, where do I find it? I looked under "Academic Life" and a couple of other places - I'm probably missing something obvious.

It is actually no longer on there, so for some reason they took it down. But you go to intranet --> academic life tab (toward the top) --> awards and journals tab (on the left side) --> then you will see a link

I don't know why they took down the cut offs (they had them up earlier in the day), but if you go to YES and look at your grades, it will say "Dean's List" under "major"

I can't remember exactly, but the cut offs I saw earlier were close to:

3Ls: 3.85
2Ls: 3.838
1Ls: 3.74 (ish)

I'm not 100% sure, but I think that's pretty close.

Also, maybe they took them down because they will change or something, so don't take those numbers to the bank.

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Re: Vandy 2L Taking Question

Post by arklaw13 » Thu Jan 19, 2017 9:47 pm

It will be official when you see the designation on your transcript. It will be on there for each semester you get dean's list. Typically takes a week or so.

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Re: Vandy 2L Taking Question

Post by Scalvert » Thu Jan 19, 2017 9:51 pm

Pure Applesauce wrote:
Scalvert wrote:
Pure Applesauce wrote:
Scalvert wrote:How/when do they let you know if you made Dean's List?
it is posted on the intranet now
Thanks, judging from the cutoffs you posted earlier, I probably shouldn't worry about it. But just in case, where do I find it? I looked under "Academic Life" and a couple of other places - I'm probably missing something obvious.

It is actually no longer on there, so for some reason they took it down. But you go to intranet --> academic life tab (toward the top) --> awards and journals tab (on the left side) --> then you will see a link

I don't know why they took down the cut offs (they had them up earlier in the day), but if you go to YES and look at your grades, it will say "Dean's List" under "major"

I can't remember exactly, but the cut offs I saw earlier were close to:

3Ls: 3.85
2Ls: 3.838
1Ls: 3.74 (ish)

I'm not 100% sure, but I think that's pretty close.

Also, maybe they took them down because they will change or something, so don't take those numbers to the bank.
Thanks! I'm assuming if it changes, it will just be a couple of hundredths, so it won't matter. Ehhh. I'm ok with it.

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Re: Vandy 2L Taking Question

Post by arklaw13 » Thu Jan 19, 2017 10:01 pm

I've never seen the cutoffs change once they've been posted. Only thing that will be updated are the book awards when more profs add theirs to the list.

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Re: Vandy 2L Taking Question

Post by Pure Applesauce » Thu Jan 19, 2017 10:06 pm

arklaw13 wrote:I've never seen the cutoffs change once they've been posted. Only thing that will be updated are the book awards when more profs add theirs to the list.
Me either, so I don't think they will be. But they were also taken down (they are no longer posted) and I just wasn't sure why.

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Re: Vandy 2L Taking Question

Post by arklaw13 » Thu Jan 19, 2017 10:09 pm

Pure Applesauce wrote:
arklaw13 wrote:I've never seen the cutoffs change once they've been posted. Only thing that will be updated are the book awards when more profs add theirs to the list.
Me either, so I don't think they will be. But they were also taken down (they are no longer posted) and I just wasn't sure why.
There was a way to view the documents that had been uploaded to each page whether they currently showed up or not. I can't access the intranet page now, and I can't remember how to do it offhand, though.

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Re: Vandy 2L Taking Question

Post by Scalvert » Thu Jan 19, 2017 10:13 pm

arklaw13 wrote:I've never seen the cutoffs change once they've been posted. Only thing that will be updated are the book awards when more profs add theirs to the list.
Ok! Before the semester started, I would've been very disappointed to know what my GPA would be, but I'm good - it's an ok base to build on.

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Re: Vandy 2L Taking Question

Post by arklaw13 » Thu Jan 19, 2017 10:22 pm

Scalvert wrote:
arklaw13 wrote:I've never seen the cutoffs change once they've been posted. Only thing that will be updated are the book awards when more profs add theirs to the list.
Ok! Before the semester started, I would've been very disappointed to know what my GPA would be, but I'm good - it's an ok base to build on.
It'll never be as high as you want. But it will cease to matter eventually. I'm only a year out and I couldn't even tell you what my GPA was.

Seriously? What are you waiting for?

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