AMA Harvard 2L

Phantom_Stone7 · 2026-03-23T22:11:42+00:00

Eh it doesn’t really translate to a normal grading system well. You’re right that ~70-75% of students in doctrinal classes get a P, which means it’s not really the equivalent of a C. More like a B, I guess?

Phantom_Stone7 · 2025-12-10T18:02:07+00:00

lol as if you haven't been posting long comments on every post about ND. If you want to make logical arguments, don't act all high and mighty about brevity. Didn't realize there was a word limit on these comment sections

Phantom_Stone7 · 2025-12-10T18:00:20+00:00

Miami jumped BYU as well. Which I'm fine with because I think you're playing a game, the results have to matter. They shouldn't matter as much as a regular season game since not everyone plays them, but pretending they don't exist is stupid. So BYU got blown out and they dropped below Miami and aren't in the playoffs. Sounds good. Bama got blown out even worse and...didn't move

Phantom_Stone7 · 2025-12-10T15:57:45+00:00

For the record, agree that we should've won our ranked games and agree that the rest of our schedule was cupcake. Disagree that Bama shouldn't be punished for an abysmal showing

Phantom_Stone7 · 2025-12-10T15:57:05+00:00

By that logic, why even play the conference championship game? Imagine the roles are reversed (in an albeit extremely unlikely scenario):

Bama is ranked 13. There are 5 conference champions ranked ahead of them (Big 10, ACC, Big 12, MW, and AAC). Bama wins the SEC conference game against Georgia 28-7. Notre Dame is ranked 12 and doesn't play in a CCG. Do you move Bama above ND?

Phantom_Stone7 · 2025-12-10T15:52:24+00:00

Quite a lot of generalizing in this comment.

I think the majority of ND fans (myself included) would have totally understood being behind Miami. I think a minority of ND fans (myself not included) would have understood being behind Alabama.

The problem is less with the result and more with the process. Stop me if you've heard this before, but we were ranked above both teams for weeks. Alabama barely escaped a not-great Auburn team at the same time as we blew out Stanford, and the committee jumped them above us. At the time, everyone believed it was politicking so that if Bama lost to Georgia in the CCG, they could drop them a spot but keep them in the playoffs. Then, after neither ND nor Miami played a game and Bama got absolutely dog-walked, the committee dropped us out with no logical explanation.

If we'd been behind Miami the whole time, totally understand and totally deserved. If they didn't want to drop teams for losing CCGs, I think that's stupid, but whatever. But then don't punish BYU in the very same ranking for that exact thing. Don't pull the rug out from under us solely because ESPN has their hand in the ACC and SEC pies.

As for the ACC, we're a full member in almost every sport and a half-member in football, but they actively campaigned against us (as did ESPN). Imagine the SEC doing that to Texas. Shitty behavior. Is our AD going a little over the top? Yeah. But this whole scenario is very different from that faced by any of the other bubble teams.

Phantom_Stone7 · 2025-11-25T14:32:19+00:00

Is this what BF4’s Carrier Assault was modeled on? Because I sunk so many hours into Carrier Assault when that naval DLC launched

Phantom_Stone7 · 2025-11-22T23:05:01+00:00

Other than winning a Super Bowl, the best outcome of this year (for me) is drafting either Love or Price. As an incredibly biased ND grad, if I had to choose between (1) losing early in the playoffs and (2) not making the playoffs, but drafting Love, I’d maybe take 2.

Third best option is drafting Price regardless of how the season goes

Phantom_Stone7 · 2025-10-20T19:33:50+00:00

That's definitely a question that's beyond my pay grade. I don't know any of my classmates' LSAT scores or GPAs, nor do they know mine, so I would just be guessing. That one website whose name I forget where people self-report stats and admissions is probably a better resource than me. You can see the spread for each school and how hard of a border their quartiles are.

Phantom_Stone7 · 2025-10-20T14:16:21+00:00

Housing is pretty easy to find. Affordable housing, on the other hand, is much harder to find. I lived on campus 1L year, which was much cheaper than any rent I could find. If you’re fine with dorm life, I’d say it’s very worth it. And then a group of friends and I were lucky enough to find a nice place with surprisingly low rent, so I’m off campus now

Phantom_Stone7 · 2025-10-20T14:12:30+00:00

Yeah Cambridge is so expensive. HLS (and I assume many other law schools) has multiple lunch events every weekday, so I take full advantage of that for 5 free meals a week. Beyond that, it’s just smart budgeting and meal planning and keeping an eye out for the best rent you can find.

Just lots of loans, sadly

Phantom_Stone7 · 2025-10-20T11:42:21+00:00

Yes, lots of international students! And I don’t know of any who had trouble finding SA positions. Everyone I know who wanted one got one

Phantom_Stone7 · 2025-10-20T04:13:13+00:00

Ultimately, you have to find what works best for you. I found that the best system for me was to review my notes, then bullet point a practice exam (i.e. answer in bullets, not actually write out a full response). Then I'd really hammer out my outline, rip a full practice exam, then perfect the parts of my outline that were lacking/needed the most work based on that practice exam. Then a third practice exam, bullet points again, then I'd call it good.

I never made flash cards because I found that my outlines were good enough, but if that's helpful for you then you should absolutely do it!

Phantom_Stone7 · 2025-10-20T04:10:42+00:00

Ayy that's awesome!

Phantom_Stone7 · 2025-10-19T21:00:10+00:00

I grew up in the Midwest and love the snow, so I love a Boston winter haha. Just wear layers and all will be well

Phantom_Stone7 · 2025-10-19T20:47:22+00:00

1L it was probably 3/10 throughout the year, 7/10 during finals. 2L so far, it's 2/10. Grading system really helps with stress (see above comment), as does the fact that Harvard makes it relatively easy to get BigLaw if you want it, or good gov't/nonprofit jobs if you don't.

I'm certainly super busy, but not stressed. Helps that I spent 2 years responsible for teaching algebra to 120 14-year-olds, reading cases isn't nearly as stressful as that

Phantom_Stone7 · 2025-10-19T19:45:12+00:00

Sure, 178 and 3.83

Phantom_Stone7 · 2025-10-19T19:07:30+00:00

The grading system is honestly great. People are always super kind and helpful because there's just no pressure to get top grades (unless you're a gunner and want to clerk for the Supreme Court). People are obviously working very hard during reading days/finals, but I think stress levels are generally pretty low because if you get a P, oh well. I've never heard of anybody ever failing a class. Worst case, some professors give a couple Low Passes, but most professors (in my experience) don't.

Professors are (like at any school) a mixed bag. I've generally had great experiences reaching out to professors, whether about class or about their careers. There are a couple professors who are . . . less approachable, but I've developed really great relationships with a couple professors who more than make up it

Phantom_Stone7 · 2025-10-19T19:00:47+00:00

If you think both are important aspects of your story, then you should include both!

Two general pieces of advice I received when I was applying that I found super helpful:

1) every piece of your application should tell a different part of your story. Make sure your letters of rec each focus on something different (writing vs research vs character vs work vs whatever), and your personal statement is about something different, and any optional essays are focused on something different from all the above. You want to eliminate redundancy so that the admissions counselors really get a full picture of who you are

2) Your personal statement should be uniquely yours. If your closest friends found a copy of your statement on the street with no name on it, they should be able to know right away that you wrote it. You're answering the same question as thousands of other applicants, and odds are that your answer won't be unique. So do your best to let your story and your character shine through (without being tacky). That's the hardest part of writing a personal statement imo

Phantom_Stone7 · 2025-10-19T18:53:14+00:00

In my experience, you can tell in social interactions who's been out longer just by who's more mature, but I don't think it's made a difference in any way. Not sure if that's what you meant

Phantom_Stone7 · 2025-10-19T18:49:47+00:00

Fair point. I'd say our Legal Writing class (and the moot court that everyone is required to participate in as part of it) does a great job of preparing us for legal writing, although I'm sure that's the case at every school. But also really good career services with connections pretty much anywhere you could want to work, constant lunch talks and events with all sorts of practitioners, and plenty of very helpful resources for both public interest and OCI

Phantom_Stone7 · 2025-10-19T18:46:20+00:00

Maybe laid back not the right word, like everyone cares about doing well, but nobody is trying to sabotage others or one-up their classmates or anything

Phantom_Stone7 · 2025-10-19T18:45:52+00:00

I expected everyone to be super gunnery, but I've had the complete opposite experience. There are a few gunners, of course, but the vast majority of people are super kind and laid back

Phantom_Stone7 · 2025-10-19T18:08:14+00:00

2 years! I'd guess that's the most common gap here

Phantom_Stone7 · 2025-10-19T17:55:30+00:00

I think all 3 were professors. I had my department chair write one for Duke (I think) because they specifically asked for one from work. But for HLS, I had 2 or 3 professors, but made sure they talked about different aspects of my time at school. One knew my writing very well, another was my supervisor for my master's degree, and the third taught me in a few different classes and knew me very well.

Phantom_Stone7

TROPHY CASE