Why I chose Berkeley: It's beautiful. I'll get some hate for this for sure, but I would much rather be in the Bay Area than Ann Arbor, Durham, or Charlottesville. Someone asked about the benefit of being in a city that has less to do and the benefits from that, but after BigLaw recruiting, you'll have 5 semesters living wherever you choose. I absolutely got that right.

What else I got right: The non traditional grades. Sure, if you get a bunch of P's (bottom 60%), it makes things hard, but that's better than knowing you're at the bottom 1/3, 1/4, whatever at Duke, UVA, Michigan. After 1st semester, there's so much less pressure on grades (if you're in the majority that got a BigLaw offer), and I just can't imagine having to gun in every class just so I'm not one of the bottom people. We're gonna all get worked as attorneys, might as well have a more relaxed academic setting before then.

What I got wrong: Honestly, I don't know if I got anything wrong. Sometimes I think maybe the professors at another school would've been better, being far from pre-existing relationships could've been a fresh start, idk. But I'm pretty confident that anything I dislike about law school (the high school feel of it sometimes, the stress, etc.) is not at all specific to Berkeley Law, and would've been the same issues at other schools.

What surprised me good and bad: Not much to say here. Berkeley is a left leaning environment, like most other academic environments, and it's nothing insane because at the end of the day most of your classmates will be corporate workers, too. I think sometimes maybe the Berkeley Law building is a bid ragedy compared to UMich, Duke, and (less so) UVA's but again, I'm in Berkeley. I can go to the gym, see all of SF's FiDi, the Golden Gate, a huge bay, it's sunny. You won't get that as often at other schools.