My advice is not to go, and devote yourself to some other endeavor.
There used to be a water taxi at the Camden Aquarium that would take you across to Reading Market.
The NJ is the battleship; the Olympia is the one that looks like the Monopoly battleship (but its the only one that fires its guns now. USS-NJ > Veterans Stadium > Don’t Ask)
Check out if WMMR is having an MMR-BQ of bands, as its always good.
Huh? My school had monthly socials with alcohol–and there were informal gatherings either a local dive bar or at someone’s apartment. There was a epic, blowout bash comparable to the toga party in Animal House at the end of the first year. And for those that wished to indulge, there were other substances available. .
So did mine. And for those who couldn’t wait until the next month, the local pub did a roaring business.
My school had those too. And all my classmates who drank like that back then are now dead as a doornail unless they started going to meetings. The actual stress of law school is nothing compared to the stress of practice and teaching drinking as a way of dealing with it is a huge mistake.
What did you think of the prescription eyeglasses recommendation?
Thanks for the advice, guys. It sounds like I’ll be spending the next 8 months of my life reading and whatever free time I do have isn’t really free time but time I should spend observing court proceedings. I don’t wear glasses so that’s one less thing to worry about I suppose.
Agreed. Is there anything preventing you from taking out student loans for spending money? Given that you aren’t going to a top-ten school, your rank is going to be incredibly important. Take on ~$15k of loans to buy food/gas/books without distracting yourself from your studies, instead.
I went to law school in very similar circumstances to you. Midrange school which is moderately well known in the region, on a tasty scholarship. I graduated in 2009 and it was a great choice for me. Contrary to what’s being said here, success in the law does not inherently depend on your ability to gain clients. That’s only if that’s the type of practice you’re in. I don’t have any clients, and I don’t want any clients, and I never want to have any clients – I work in general counsel to a government agency. A lot of people would rather stab themselves in the face than do what I did in my first job (very esoteric regulatory law) but I liked it. It’s all about what you’re good at, and technicalities are my bag, baby. There are way more ways to be a lawyer than most people suppose.
I assume you have to maintain a certain GPA to keep your scholarship. If so, getting those grades IS your full time job. How will you feel about the couple thousand you made driving at night, when you lose your 25k scholarship? You probably think it is no big deal to maintain a 3.3 GPA… it is a big deal if your law school uses a forced curve wherein no more than 10% may receive As. To maintain that average plus a margin of safety (because there will be things you actually suck at, Corporations was my white whale) you’re going to have to consistently be in the top 15% of your class. So my first piece of advice is to really understand your law school’s grading policies and what you have to do in order to keep your scholarship. Keep your eyes on that prize above all others. Despite what I say below, there is nothing you can do for yourself in law school that’s more important than keeping your scholarship.
I agree that “biglaw” ain’t all its cracked up to be, in fact in my opinion it literally drains your soul and leaves you an empty husk of a human being. That said it is NOT the case that you can get a government job or not-for-profit job or a boutique firm job or a small firm job or really any kind of job without top qualifications in the current hiring climate. To get my job in municipal government, I had to not only have law review and be in the top 10% of my class, I had to win a writing competition among the top candidates, and have a demonstrated record of commitment to public service through volunteer work. And this is not a prestige position like AUSA but the kind of job that, in the public eye, is a walk-on job for semi-literate morons (the public is really, really wrong).
You should expect and plan to do around two of the following every semester of 2L & 3L years:
Clinic
Law review
Moot Court Team
Mock Trial Team
Arbitration Team
Externship (internship for credit, done during the school year)
Research Assistantship for a Professor
One-off Volunteer work (a hands-on program with a minor time commitment, like a citizenship drive, election day voter registration appeals, Restraining Order assistance in Family court, etc.)
NITA Trial Techniques program
Leadership position with a bar association committee
National Legal Writing competitions/awards
+a summer legal job or internship in which you produce at least one solid writing sample, such as a motion or brief that is actually filed, or gain hands-on experience in court.
And after busting your butt on good grades, clinic, and a law review/moot court/trial team, remember you still have to have something left in the tank for the Bar exam. Law school is about consistently putting one foot in front of the other for 3 years without losing pace, without burning out… it’s a marathon and a mental game where you are your own opponent.
Last thing: Know yourself and what YOU need to do to study and learn - don’t worry about what other people are doing. Chances are, they are idiots. I didn’t use outlines and I never briefed cases (I used flash cards and I annotated my case book)
There are a great many study guides out there, my particular favorites were:
Crunchtime for Civil procedure
Examples & Explanations in Evidence and in Constitutional Law
Aspen Law-in-a-Flash for Contracts and for Evidence. (this is a box of flash cards, your law library probably has a set to loan)
I never found a review source I really liked for Property 
Never use a study guide from last year in Criminal Procedure! the law is always changing.
Take the MPRE (the “ethics bar”) before you sit for the bar exam. If you leave it for after, you’ll be really hating life.
IF you plan to practice in NJ make sure you take an elective class in NJ Civil Procedure.
You will be doing so much reading that you should have Rx reading glasses. I didn’t have glasses until college, and I didn’t really use them until law school. Damn I was glad I had them. If you are going to be reading six hours a day, and you are, you want even the slightest advantage.
? I’m nearsighted all the time – since the 4th grade – and have worn glasses all the time ever since then. What advantage does having glasses give you? I’m mystified.
ETA: the exercise thing I can get behind. Definitely have a vigorous exercise routine. I recommend boxing or martial arts – some sport where you can punch the shit out of something. Beats drinking by a mile. FYI, 5 years out, I already know one classmate who’s been in rehab.
Having good Rx glasses and not having glasses, even with 20/20 vision will make a huge difference after reading for six hours. Even being a bit off in an Rx will strain the eyes. Not having tired eyes, and minimizing that tiredness, will help you get through the reading and in a good mood.
Right. If you need glasses, you should maintain a current prescription. That’s good advice. But generically advising everyone to get reading glasses is bizarre. If you don’t need glasses, glasses won’t help you (and will give you headaches). And even if you do need glasses, most young people are nearsighted and don’t need glasses to read. Reading glasses only help people who are farsighted.
Wearing unneeded glasses will not help with eyes strain. The opposite is true.
If you are an eye doctor, I would defer to you. Otherwise, not. Everyone attending law school should see an eye doctor and explain that they will be reading about six hours a day seven days a week and get an exam and advice based on that.
Your statement that reading glasses only help people who are farsighted is not accurate. I’ve a slight astigmatism, and when I got glasses it helped enormously with reading. There are numerous vision problems that can and should be examined for regularly even if a person doesn’t think there is a problem.
That is exactly what they should do.
What they should not do is go to the drug store and obtain OTC “reading glasses” (presbyopia - correcting glasses) because you said so. The term “reading glasses” normally refers to presbyopia-correcting glasses (farsightedness which makes it difficult to focus close, which particularly affects reading) and that’s how I understood your advice. Your glasses which correct astigmatism, are not “reading glasses” in this sense. They are astigmatism-correcting glasses, which you apparently only use for reading, but in reality the astigmatism affects your sight at all times.
Yes, agreed. Exactly.
IIRC it is an ABA rule that it requires of schools. Nobody ever checked; I’m sure that you could get away with it. I’m not sure what the penalty is for violation.
I’ll also add that every freaking event scheduled by the school had booze of some kind. Some of them even surprised me. So we have a noon speaker who was an attorney on the Lawrence case? Lunch with beer and wine served afterwards. On a Tuesday afternoon. If you have a drinking problem you will either have to abstain or grow into a larger drinking problem.
I’m not sure what people are talking about prescription glasses. I always heard that it was a myth that reading hurt your eyes. I’m 38 and still don’t have any type of corrective vision.
Appreciate the advice guys! I’ve also read that it’s a good idea to buy a “treatise” of the classes I’ll be taking so I can get a big picture, comprehensive look at the course and it’d help with the open ended nature of law school. Yea? Nay? Just take notes like mad?
Also, update - I received a last second better offer from Catholic University in DC and it looks like I’ll be going there instead of Rutgers-Camden.
Depends how fast you read, but I don’t think treatises are much help – unless you have to teach yourself the law from scratch because the professor is worthless … and even then, Examples & Explanations is more expeditious.
For example, I’m sitting here looking at the treatise on NY Civil Procedure (Siegel’s NY Practice); it’s 1100 pages long. Chemerinsky’s Constitutional Law is 1400 pages (everyone says they’re going to read it… No one ever does). Corbin on Contracts is 1200 pages. It’s unrealistic to think you’ll read multiple of these types of books in a semester. Or, really, in your life.
Your casebook was chosen by your professor to represent the law s/he intends to teach. Do your reading, ask questions in class (or after class, if you’re shy), find a study group of people smarter than yourself.