Culture at CLS Forum

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KijiStewart

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Culture at CLS

Post by KijiStewart » Tue Jul 11, 2017 5:00 pm

Anything I need to know before I begin 2L as a transfer.

My IL TT is quite cooperative, people share notes and help each other. I assume Columbia will be more competitive, but I went to a T15 undergrad so I'm used to it.

I make my own outlines so if asking for hand-me downs is frowned upon that shouldn't offend me.

Anyways, feel free to comment or DM for anything I should know about including best place to live or classes/profs I should take.

I'm very excited!

packer_22

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Re: Culture at CLS

Post by packer_22 » Tue Jul 11, 2017 5:09 pm

KijiStewart wrote:Anything I need to know before I begin 2L as a transfer.

My IL TT is quite cooperative, people share notes and help each other. I assume Columbia will be more competitive, but I went to a T15 undergrad so I'm used to it.

I make my own outlines so if asking for hand-me downs is frowned upon that shouldn't offend me.

Anyways, feel free to comment or DM for anything I should know about including best place to live or classes/profs I should take.

I'm very excited!
Just the opposite. CLS is very relaxed. By September, 80% of the class will be checked out. Join a couple orgs with outline banks (FedSOC, BALSA, LALSA, etc) and you're good to go. Even among 1Ls, outlines (not yours, but upperclassman outlines) are liberally shared. Enjoy free lunch everyday (get in line early for FedSoc lunchs or anything with good food/non-pizza lunch). Join the Murder Mystery Club.

Overall, CLS students are smart, interesting people (IMO) and you can learn a lot from your peers.

Bach-City

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Re: Culture at CLS

Post by Bach-City » Tue Jul 11, 2017 5:12 pm

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Last edited by Bach-City on Mon Aug 28, 2017 12:46 am, edited 1 time in total.

KijiStewart

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Re: Culture at CLS

Post by KijiStewart » Tue Jul 11, 2017 8:43 pm

packer_22 wrote:
KijiStewart wrote:Anything I need to know before I begin 2L as a transfer.

My IL TT is quite cooperative, people share notes and help each other. I assume Columbia will be more competitive, but I went to a T15 undergrad so I'm used to it.

I make my own outlines so if asking for hand-me downs is frowned upon that shouldn't offend me.

Anyways, feel free to comment or DM for anything I should know about including best place to live or classes/profs I should take.

I'm very excited!
Just the opposite. CLS is very relaxed. By September, 80% of the class will be checked out.
As in nobody acts like a gunner anymore and chills out? (not sure what you mean by "checked out").

Thanks!

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ugg

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Re: Culture at CLS

Post by ugg » Tue Jul 11, 2017 8:59 pm

idk my 1L experience left me thinking that although people pretend to be chill and uncompetitive and will do some nice things like share outlines, most people are incredibly high strung and care very deeply about their performance and it's a pretty stressful environment. CLS people were way more uptight than the people i went to undergrad with and i was pretty shocked by this (T15 undergrad). it's not necessarily that anyone is openly competitive, but you can FEEL it when you walk in the classroom. i imagine 2L will be better.

you can also mitigate this by joining activities and clubs where more relaxed people tend to congregate, like the drinking clubs, law revue, murder mystery, etc.

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anonymous117

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Re: Culture at CLS

Post by anonymous117 » Tue Jul 11, 2017 9:33 pm

My experience is that no one tries to cut other people down and people are generally very supportive. I never experienced someone refusing to share an outline or pass along old exams or other materials. That said, as I imagine is true at most T14 schools, it's a bunch of type-A people who are used to doing well and achieving. Being surrounded by such people can get stressful at times, especially because some people like to talk about how much work they're doing/have to do or how they're outlining already. So most of the pressure I felt during 1L came from secondhand stress in that sense. But I never felt that people were directly competing with me or didn't want me to succeed. I still absolutely love CLS and my classmates. It just took some time to learn how to deal with it.

That being said, a lot of those super stressed people will likely chill out a bit after EIP, as they won't be worried about jobs or making law review, and the real gunners will have applied for clerkships already.

GreenEggs

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Re: Culture at CLS

Post by GreenEggs » Tue Jul 11, 2017 9:39 pm

I really think this is just individualized, it's not the school "culture" that made you feel a certain way. I didn't feel stressed out (outside the finals window) at all as a 1L and neither did some of my friends, and then other friends were unhappy/stressed all year. So if you didn't like law school much as a 1L, you might not like it much as a 2L either, unless you do it differently.
Last edited by GreenEggs on Fri Jan 26, 2018 8:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Nebby

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Re: Culture at CLS

Post by Nebby » Wed Jul 12, 2017 11:46 am

I transferred to CLS and it was very chill. Students are for the large part checked in out 2L/3L, except for those gunning for clerkships or those who generally enjoy law school. I got honors during 2L because I approached it with the same work ethic as 1L, so don't think that you're going to be at some sort of "intellectual" disadvantage by being a transfer. The combination of your own hard work and the fact that half the class will be checked out means you'll still excel, should you so desire. I recommend at least staying checked in at 2L, just so you can have good grades from both schools so employers can rest assured you're competent regardless of the environment.

It was also very easy to acclimate into the culture, even though as a transfer you miss out on the 1L experience. Most of the friends I made at CLS were non-transfer students. Obviously, I didn't have the same bond as those who shared 1L experience together. The strong bonds I made were through student groups like SPIN (Student Public Interest Network), where we all bond over our shared desire to do good in the world, get off work at 5:30PM :twisted:, etc.

As a transfer, you should definitely join a secondary journal that interests you (to meet people) and to get involved in student organizations on things you care about (to meet people).

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