UC Irvine Class of 2018 Forum

[james_byrd74]

Anyone looking for roommates/housing in or around Irvine? I was hoping to find one or two roommates to get an apartment with in the Orange/Tustin/Santa Ana area or (distant second) split an apartment in the graduate housing on campus. I'm looking to move in around the second week of August. Also, I live just 30 miles away and would be happy to meet up with anyone and discuss. Feel free to PM me with any questions or comments.

Thanks.

[iguazu]

Anyone looking for roommates/housing in or around Irvine? I was hoping to find one or two roommates to get an apartment with in the Orange/Tustin/Santa Ana area or (distant second) split an apartment in the graduate housing on campus. I'm looking to move in around the second week of August. Also, I live just 30 miles away and would be happy to meet up with anyone and discuss. Feel free to PM me with any questions or comments.

Thanks.

I'm not interested in a roommate but wanted to get this thread going for the matriculating c/o 2018

[rion91]

Anyone looking for roommates/housing in or around Irvine? I was hoping to find one or two roommates to get an apartment with in the Orange/Tustin/Santa Ana area or (distant second) split an apartment in the graduate housing on campus. I'm looking to move in around the second week of August. Also, I live just 30 miles away and would be happy to meet up with anyone and discuss. Feel free to PM me with any questions or comments.

Thanks.

I'm not interested in a roommate but wanted to get this thread going for the matriculating c/o 2018

Same. What you guys wearing to ASW?

[iguazu]

It freaking snowed on my way to work today. Can't wait to live somewhere that doesn't happen on the regular.

[rion91]

ASW next week!! Where you guys staying?

[iguazu]

One more week

[rion91]

That schedule is looking awesome. Nerd in me can't stop thinking about what it's gonna be like to see chem lecture

[civalj]

Anyone looking for roommates/housing in or around Irvine? I was hoping to find one or two roommates to get an apartment with in the Orange/Tustin/Santa Ana area or (distant second) split an apartment in the graduate housing on campus. I'm looking to move in around the second week of August. Also, I live just 30 miles away and would be happy to meet up with anyone and discuss. Feel free to PM me with any questions or comments.

1L at UCI Law here with some thoughts about finding housing:

1. For 1L year, I highly recommend grad housing, specifically Verano Place or Palo Verde. The convenience of rolling out of bed and sitting in class within 15 minutes (5 if I ride my longboard) without worrying about traffic, finding parking, etc., is well worth forgoing other options during your busiest on-campus year of law school. The school (at least this year) gives on-campus housing students something like 60 FREE FULL-DAY PRIORITY parking passes as long as you sign up for the "sustainable transit" incentive. The most expensive grad-housing is similar to the cheapest rates in Newport and Costa Mesa, and some is well below that as well (~$550/mo, including utilities, internet and parking). I've heard of happy people living off-campus who are either 1) living with/financed by parents 2) married, or 3) UCI undergrad alums. They still have to pay for gas, parking (~$10/day), and leave a few minutes earlier, but I understand why those 3 categories might prefer off-campus. Everyone else should live in grad housing for their 1L year.

2. That being said, the actual process of getting a grad-apartment is pretty restrictive. Odds of living in the exact apartment you want or with someone you know are practically zilch unless you want to live with a friend already there, and even then you probably should have applied before April. You may also end up paying more than is necessary if you haven't already applied. I applied for housing right at the April deadline, and was only offered move-in dates around July 4th (classes start in August). However, this extra month of rent was worth not paying gas, parking, and time like I would anywhere else.

I don't really check TLS often, so if you have any other questions, ask them to any 1L at ASW. I'll be manning the "Barley Legal" Beer Society booth at the organization fair if you want to find me specifically. Good luck in starting law school!

[rion91]

I'll be manning the "Barley Legal" Beer Society booth at the organization fair if you want to find me specifically.

Oh man you're my favorite tlser already lol

[Finalfan]

FB page?

[rion91]

AFAIK there is no Feb page for us yet

[rion91]

UC Irvine employment #s are out:

c/o 2014 had 93 graduating students.

86% employed (80/93).
79 of those 80 are employed full time.
69 got bar passage required jobs (74% up from 64.3% last year), and the remaining 10 got JD Advantaged jobs.
10 Federal clerkships out of 93 (10.8%, down from 17.9% last year)
BigLaw up to 17.2% this year, versus 15.5% last year.

http://www.law.uci.edu/careers/students ... -2014.html

[iguazu]

Is there a detailed ASW schedule out there somewhere?

[rion91]

Is there a detailed ASW schedule out there somewhere?

There's a tentative schedule in the RSVP email. They want us there at 7AM Friday. Lol. Thank God I'll be somewhat jetlagged from Central time

[iguazu]

Ok, I'll be matriculating. Anyone else?

[Kayak1277]

Ok, I'll be matriculating. Anyone else?

Me!

[spencercross]

Asked this in the applicant's thread as well, but did anyone get any need-based aid from UCI? I find it strange that I received some need-based aid from UCLA but not from UCI. As UC schools, shouldn't they be using similar parameters?

[spencercross]

Anyone else deposited at Davis but still considering Irvine? I keep logging into the SIR page and looking at it, but still haven't convinced myself to leave $40k+ on the table at Davis.

[rion91]

Anyone else deposited at Davis but still considering Irvine? I keep logging into the SIR page and looking at it, but still haven't convinced myself to leave $40k+ on the table at Davis.

SIR is not binding

[spencercross]

Anyone else deposited at Davis but still considering Irvine? I keep logging into the SIR page and looking at it, but still haven't convinced myself to leave $40k+ on the table at Davis.

SIR is not binding

I didn't realize that. Good to know.

[zot1]

Spencer,

What's holding you back?

[spencercross]

Spencer,

What's holding you back?

I thought I was pretty clear, but to reiterate...

I keep logging into the SIR page and looking at it, but still haven't convinced myself to leave $40k+ on the table at Davis.

And by "myself," I mostly mean my wife, who is not nearly as swayed by UCI's many compelling attributes as she is by not spending an extra year's worth of PI salary and its accrued interest on my going back to school.

If I were younger or had a different career path in mind, I would fight harder for UCI, but I have zero interest in big money biglaw jobs and I have almost 20 years less career ahead of me to service debt (and more importantly, save for retirement). So, as much as I love UCI and as good of a fit as it is for me, I'm old enough to know that life is often about doing what you need to do rather than what you want to do.

[zot1]

Spencer,

What's holding you back?

I thought I was pretty clear, but to reiterate...

I keep logging into the SIR page and looking at it, but still haven't convinced myself to leave $40k+ on the table at Davis.

And by "myself," I mostly mean my wife, who is not nearly as swayed by UCI's many compelling attributes as she is by not spending an extra year's worth of PI salary and its accrued interest on my going back to school.

If I were younger or had a different career path in mind, I would fight harder for UCI, but I have zero interest in big money biglaw jobs and I have almost 20 years less career ahead of me to service debt (and more importantly, save for retirement). So, as much as I love UCI and as good of a fit as it is for me, I'm old enough to know that life is often about doing what you need to do rather than what you want to do.

I know you mentioned the money, but there's always a story behind that, and I was curious to know.

Are you familiar with UCI's LRAP? Would that help at all? I'm got into some debt for law school, but I will be working in public service and using IBR and LRAP makes my debt considerably less burdensome.

Also, FWIW and knowing you can't count on this, there are many outside scholarship opportunities during your first and second years.

But I'm not want to say UCI or nothing. If Davis seems better to you, then jump there and don't look back.

Sorry if I'm getting this discussion a little off topic.

[spencercross]

Spencer,

What's holding you back?

I thought I was pretty clear, but to reiterate...

I keep logging into the SIR page and looking at it, but still haven't convinced myself to leave $40k+ on the table at Davis.

And by "myself," I mostly mean my wife, who is not nearly as swayed by UCI's many compelling attributes as she is by not spending an extra year's worth of PI salary and its accrued interest on my going back to school.

If I were younger or had a different career path in mind, I would fight harder for UCI, but I have zero interest in big money biglaw jobs and I have almost 20 years less career ahead of me to service debt (and more importantly, save for retirement). So, as much as I love UCI and as good of a fit as it is for me, I'm old enough to know that life is often about doing what you need to do rather than what you want to do.

I know you mentioned the money, but there's always a story behind that, and I was curious to know.

Are you familiar with UCI's LRAP? Would that help at all? I'm got into some debt for law school, but I will be working in public service and using IBR and LRAP makes my debt considerably less burdensome.

Also, FWIW and knowing you can't count on this, there are many outside scholarship opportunities during your first and second years.

But I'm not want to say UCI or nothing. If Davis seems better to you, then jump there and don't look back.

Sorry if I'm getting this discussion a little off topic.

Just to make sure I'm not giving the wrong impression, Davis absolutely does not seem better to me. In fact, it's hard to imagine a school that's a better fit for me than UCI. But the difference in scholarship money (and, more importantly, my total indebtedness at graduation) is substantial. Substantial as in I wouldn't have any debt when I graduate from Davis. Thanks to my age and my need to accommodate my family's concerns and the kind of work I want to do debt unfortunately plays a much heavier role in my decision that it would if I were much young and single and had different goals. So it's not about "better," but, like I said, need vs. want.

I'm very familiar with LRAP. It's not as compelling of a program for me personally for a few reasons. For one, again, I'm old. I'll be 44 at graduation. I can't afford to wait 10 years to pay off my debt before I'm able to start saving significantly for retirement. For two, it ties me to a very specific set of jobs. I tend to be entrepreneurial in my career and life choices and if I decide after a few years I want to do something different I'll still have a significant amount of debt left to pay because they've only been making PAYE-level payments when I could've been dumping most of my income into paying them off that whole time. Also, my mother was a Federal employee for 25 years, so I have lots of experience with the capricious nature of the Federal budget. Relying on PSLF to be here and stable in 14 years scares me (again, mostly because I have less working years to correct if something goes wrong with PSLF). There's more I could say about LRAP for me personally, but you get the picture.

Anyway, that said UCI is still not totally off the table for me, or else I probably wouldn't be here bugging you guys!

[zot1]

That's fair. I understand your predicament. Funny enough, UCI offered me the least amount of money compared to other schools. That was a bummer, but UCI was my top choice so I just dealt with it.

Good luck making a decision