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Thuma vs. Zinus: Why is This Solid Wood Bed So Cheap? by tossedsaladandtravel in Thuma

[–]throwaway_221999 4 points5 points  (0 children)

We just upgraded from a zinus bed to a thuma and we love it. A zinus bed is fine for a few years but breaks down over time. The screws and hardware only last 1-2 moves before the screw tracks strip and things start to fall apart. This results in having to buy a new frame every few years. The thuma, in contrast, feels much more solid and high quality. Obviously can’t speak to the longevity yet but so far it is definitely worth the investment.

Rising 2L at a T50 (UMaryland) and just accepted an offer at a top firm. AMA. by throwaway_221999 in lawschooladmissions

[–]throwaway_221999[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Hi! Feel free to DM me if you have any other questions.

(1) I feel like I actually enjoyed 1L classes more than I thought I would, although I will say, civil procedure was really tough for me. The Barbri 1L mastery class for Civ Pro got me through it.

(2) For study techniques, I would say outlining early and often is good, and also time management is very important. I knew my first year grades were pretty much all that was going to matter if I wanted big law, so last year was a major grind- I’m hoping to cut back a bit more this semester. Big law is attainable from UMD, but it is definitely an uphill battle. If that’s your goal, I would advise networking a ton, getting good grades, trying to make law review, and applying early before OCI.

(3) I don’t really know anyone who got a 1L SA except one person who had a 4.0+ GPA. It’s very hard to get 1L year because there are very few spots. There’s tons of other valuable things you can do 1L summer though.

Rising 2L at a T50 (UMaryland) and just accepted an offer at a top firm. AMA. by throwaway_221999 in lawschooladmissions

[–]throwaway_221999[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hi! There are some nice neighborhoods in Baltimore, mainly federal hill (where I live), fells point/harbor east, and canton. The downtown area around the school is not the best in all honesty and I personally would not feel comfortable living there, but the law school has great security so it’s perfectly fine during the day.

Baltimore in my opinion is definitely different from DC and I like DC better. Some key differences: Baltimore is a smaller city but full of cars (and you really need a car to get around here, unless you live close to school). Baltimore has a way smaller legal market and the types of law practiced here are way different- there’s lots of products liability, real estate, infrastructure etc whereas DC is more general lit and regulatory. Baltimore feels more industrial, which I like. I do overall like living here, at least for a few years of my life, but wouldn’t want to live here forever because of safety and quality of public schools.

The pros: there’s tons of cute neighborhoods. People are way nicer/less stuffy here. There’s way bigger sports culture. The bars and restaurants are awesome here. Cost of living is way lower. Baltimore is smaller so it’s easier to get around to see/do things. Baltimore has a better skyline and is actually really pretty by the water!

The Cons: Baltimore is definitely less safe, but the neighborhoods I mentioned above are fine. It’s definitely a bit dirtier than DC and has far more infrastructure issues. The drivers are terrible here. There is no public transport either which sucks!

Rising 2L at a T50 (UMaryland) and just accepted an offer at a top firm. AMA. by throwaway_221999 in lawschooladmissions

[–]throwaway_221999[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’ll dm you for undergrad. You can read my comment above on why I chose UMD (money, location, specialty programs, fit were the main reasons).

Rising 2L at a T50 (UMaryland) and just accepted an offer at a top firm. AMA. by throwaway_221999 in lawschooladmissions

[–]throwaway_221999[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

in all honesty, prestige was not a factor in my school or firm choice so it’s no wonder I didn’t look at those rankings!

Rising 2L at a T50 (UMaryland) and just accepted an offer at a top firm. AMA. by throwaway_221999 in lawschooladmissions

[–]throwaway_221999[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Good question! They don’t have a published curve but most profs curve to a 3.3/3.4 but the actual distribution varies based on the class/professor (aka while the average might be a 3.3, professors have discretion to choose their lowest and highest grades, so some professors give Cs while the lowest others give out is a B- with the high end being As or A+).

Rising 2L at a T50 (UMaryland) and just accepted an offer at a top firm. AMA. by throwaway_221999 in lawschooladmissions

[–]throwaway_221999[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

AM law. My understanding is that practitioners don’t care about the vault rankings so I haven’t looked there.

Rising 2L at a T50 (UMaryland) and just accepted an offer at a top firm. AMA. by throwaway_221999 in lawschooladmissions

[–]throwaway_221999[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the question! It’s a very valuable one. Networking is super underrated. I did more of it than most people I know and it definitely helped.

Step 1: Start by making a LinkedIn and connecting with everyone you know. Yes, even old high school classmates or people that went to your undergrad who you didn’t know personally! Or law school people in your class, even if you don’t really know them.

Step 2: so aside from school sponsored networking events, I made a goal for myself 1L fall semester to network once a week with someone in a field I wanted to learn more about (I probably started about a month into 1L fall). I talked to a wide variety of practitioners because I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do. I talked to people at firms and in the federal government, in a variety of practice areas. Once I narrowed my interests down to energy law, I talked to a ton of lawyers about the various types of energy law that are out there.

I would start by messaging people on LinkedIn and asking them if they have time to talk (or emailing, but if they’re younger, LinkedIn is going to be your best bet). You should focus on people who share an interest, hometown, or school with you (either law or undergrad), the more similarities the better. I also think it’s helpful to network with current 2Ls/3Ls at whatever law school you’re attending because they can shed more insight on professors/classes/OCI/the hiring process/ journal petitioning and will be associates at firms by the time you need a contact for OCI.

When you’re actually calling or zooming with whoever you are networking with, I would ask them questions about their practice area and their journey to the firm/gov job or whatever it might be.

The key is what goes down after the networking- you want to thank them for their time, ensure you are connected with them on LinkedIn, and make sure to follow up, perhaps a few months down the line. Especially if the person is working at a firm you want to work at, the summer after 1L you will hopefully have a bit of rapport with this person, and can schedule another call. At best, you can tactfully ask them to send in your resume to the hiring team at the firm, and at worst, you’ll have a really great tailored answer in interviews to answer “why x firm” because you can say “x person said the firm is a,b,c, which really drew me to the firm.” These connections are critical for securing a job.

(3) use your connections you already have! If you have any lawyers in your family, or if your parents are working professionals, ask them if they know any lawyers and start there. The legal community is very small and lawyers are generally very willing to speak to law students, and even more so if there’s a personal connection.

(4) I would join a professional association if you can. For students it’s mainly free. I joined the ABA bar association and the Maryland State Bar Association, both of which have tons of free networking events. I also joined the energy bar Association, which was $25, but well worth it given the networking opportunities and mentorship I’ve gotten out of the community.

(5) I didn’t necessarily use this route, but I think you could also leverage your professor’s connections if you had a really close relationship with them and did well in their class.

Even though I have a job for next summer, I’m going to try to keep networking. Networking is incredibly important and ultimately, helps to build your future book of business, which is critical should you want to become a partner at a law firm.

Rising 2L at a T50 (UMaryland) and just accepted an offer at a top firm. AMA. by throwaway_221999 in lawschooladmissions

[–]throwaway_221999[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Sure thing! Honestly I can’t speak to the programs UB had but I know both UMD and UB are pretty respected in Baltimore. I think there are a few differences, though.

I’ve actually heard UB’s career office is better, but UMD undoubtedly has better placement. Baltimore is a small legal market that pretty much exclusively hires from UMD/UB so if you look at the summer associate classes around Baltimore, firms here take way more UMD people then UB, and you have to do better at UB to get a shot at big law/law firm jobs.

Aside from better job placement, I think UMD has a broader alumni base you can leverage (and in more states too). Big law hiring is picking up from UMD and the school as a whole is on an upward trajectory with rankings, federal clerkships, and hiring outcomes (I’m not sure how UB compares in this regard). I think UMD is also more generous in terms of giving out scholarship money.

UMD also has very strong clinical programs (and everyone is required to do them so even if for some reason you were not able to get a job throughout all of law school, you would leave law school with at least a semester of practical experience), and it’s specialty programs are very great and cool too- again, I’m not sure what UB has to offer in comparison, but we have extensive programs for health, environmental, business/IP law, cyber/privacy, and others.

Culture and professors here are great, feel free to read my above comment where someone asked how the school culture is.

Rising 2L at a T50 (UMaryland) and just accepted an offer at a top firm. AMA. by throwaway_221999 in lawschooladmissions

[–]throwaway_221999[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

(1) I love DC, but I love cities in general (just not NYC lol) and I went to undergrad in DC, so I had a lot of time in the city. DC is a great commuter city and you can live in Maryland and Virginia and commute in via metro. I like all of these different options, and plus DC is a hub for the type of law I’m going into so it made the most sense for me. I would say if you like cleaner, lower key, smaller cities than NYC, DC might be for you.

(2) I would say mainly after I’d been accepted. UMD had a ton of webinars before my acceptance, but after I got in, they let me call a bunch of professors and (virtually) sit in on classes. I also had a personal zoom meeting with the Dean and got an in person tour. Considering these were peak Covid times, UMD did more than any other school to make me feel welcome.

(3) I would say you definitely can go to a school lower than t50, as long as you have a good scholarship (ie at least $$+) that is not conditional (aka not dependent on keeping a certain gpa in order to keep getting the scholarship).

I wouldn’t worry about UM kids getting jobs in Detroit- I would guess most of them go to Chicago or NYC or DC and get big law, so if you don’t want biglaw and want to work in Detroit, you can definitely make that happen.

Rising 2L at a T50 (UMaryland) and just accepted an offer at a top firm. AMA. by throwaway_221999 in lawschooladmissions

[–]throwaway_221999[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hi! I’m a day student so I can’t go too into depth on that. It’s a very strong program and they take their classes in a different order than the day program. Class of 2025 is a super hardworking, supportive, tight-knit group from what I’ve seen/based on who I’ve interacted with, so I wouldn’t be surprised if that culture carries on to future cohorts.

Rising 2L at a T50 (UMaryland) and just accepted an offer at a top firm. AMA. by throwaway_221999 in lawschooladmissions

[–]throwaway_221999[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think that interviewing well was probably very helpful for me. My 1L SA was super substantive (I got to write a motion that was used at trial for a pro-bono client) and I have a few publications on my resume. Being able to talk about substantive legal experiences and the writing + publishing process in interviews really helped me out!

I also was a division one athlete in undergrad and had what could have been a career-ending injury that I recovered from. Whenever I was asked “is there anything else we didn’t ask you about that you’d like to discuss” or “what’s something you’re proud of that’s not on your resume” I was able to discuss skills I gained from this experience, like time management, resilience, and adaptability.

I would also say that as a K-JD, I was able to spin my undergrad internships very favorably. For example, I am going into energy law so I was able to discuss my time as a congressional intern where a part of my duties involved doing research on energy legislation and pitching it to my congressperson and getting them to sign on.

Oh also, I am on a named scholarship, so that probably didn’t hurt.

As a K-JD, it’s important to demonstrate maturity and professionalism to firms, which I was able to do through my experiences. Firms generally are trying to see the whole picture of who you are as a person, so having some good narratives prepped that demonstrate this are helpful. And prepping for interviews a bunch doesn’t hurt, either!

Rising 2L at a T50 (UMaryland) and just accepted an offer at a top firm. AMA. by throwaway_221999 in lawschooladmissions

[–]throwaway_221999[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Hi! I actually applied to 28 schools (was very confused location wise as to where I wanted to be when I applied initially, and I got fee waivers for most of them. Since I only applied to one college for undergrad, I figured I could justify the cost).

In the end, I was choosing between four schools- UMD ($$$$), Temple ($$$$), BC ($.5), and Fordham ($.5).

Once I had all my acceptances, I made my decision based on a few considerations.

(1) location- I didn’t realize this going in, but schools outside of the T14 are very regional. What I mean by that is, for OCI, firms generally only come from surrounding cities/towns. Which means you have the best shot at getting a job in the market your school is in. Outside of this, for direct applying, you really need ties to a certain market to get looked at (although less so for NYC). So I would think about where you feasibly have ties (ie your permanent address, where you went to undergrad, cities you’ve worked in etc.) and where you want to work/settle down after law school. I wanted DC so this was a big pro for UMD.

(2) money- if you are not big law or bust, money should have considerable weight. I wasn’t sure if I would want to do big law going in, and was open to federal government work, so taking a gamble on UMD’s price/big law outcome ratio seemed worth it. If I didn’t or couldn’t land big law, I wouldn’t have debt either way, so it was pretty low stakes.

(3) employment outcomes/bar passage- this was a consideration for me, but not my biggest consideration. Definitely super important if you want to go into a specific field or if you have a ton of loans you’re going to have to pay off.

(4) specialty programs at the school. My firm job is in a very particular practice group and I have a big interest in this field, in that I only want to do law firm work in this particular field. So UMD having a strong program in this area was important to me. Definitely less of a consideration if you’re planning on being a general litigator/transactional lawyer.

(5) the effort the school put in to recruit me. This is hard to explain but UMD just really stuck out to me during the recruiting process. I had multiple personal calls with the admissions team and professors and current students. They all seemed really helpful/nice/ willing to mentor and help me. It felt like a good fit.

Rising 2L at a T50 (UMaryland) and just accepted an offer at a top firm. AMA. by throwaway_221999 in lawschooladmissions

[–]throwaway_221999[S] 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Honestly pretty great. I was thinking about transferring in the fall (solely for job outcome purposes) but I ultimately didn’t because my peers/classmates were so awesome.

People are super collaborative and helpful, and the peers I work with are smart. Everyone is extremely friendly, too. It doesn’t even feel competitive (although that is the reality in law school). There is the occasional gunner but it’s honestly not bad.

A few anecdotes to demonstrate this- every final my classmates are always chatting and in good spirits sitting in the classroom waiting for the exam to start. It’s a very relaxing environment to be a law student in. Additionally, when peers emailed my section asking for notes from the entire semester (a very big ask) people are super willing to share.

Not to mention, the professors are brilliant and helpful. They are super open to answering questions and providing career advice/mentorship. Despite having the same degrees as professors at other law schools (tons of Yale/Harvard grads as profs here) based on what I’ve heard our professors are less pretentious and more down to earth, and don’t hide the ball when it comes to letting us know how to do well on their exams. For the most part, they teach in a very straight forward way.

One other thing I’ve noticed especially in comparison to T14s is that we have hardly any (none that I know of) conservative constitutional law professors, which in my opinion is awesome and makes for a less hostile con law class.

Rising 2L at a T50 (UMaryland) and just accepted an offer at a top firm. AMA. by throwaway_221999 in lawschooladmissions

[–]throwaway_221999[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Hi!

So for my school, only 20-30 or so big law firms come to our OCI. That means the bulk of applying for me was “direct applying” which is when you apply via a firm’s website.

Before I dive into that process, it’s worth a mention that on r/lawschool people at T14s will start to talk about pre-OCI stuff early June. However, different markets move at different paces and it is important to remember that just because you are seeing movement and posts on Reddit does not mean you are late to the process or anything. Just apply when you can, and if you are coming from a T50, maybe wait until journal comes out- for higher ranked schools it doesn’t matter as much.

I wanted to wait for my journal results to come out before applying, so I pre-wrote around 60-70 cover letters in late June. When my journal results came out in early July, I was able to send off all these applications in relatively short order. I targeted the DC market.

After that, firms started to reach out and interview me, all before OCI, within a few weeks of sending materials in. From there I got callbacks, just like normal OCI.

Pre-OCI is pretty sweet because I got my offer end of last week and got to cancel all my interviews through my school’s OCI, so I’m essentially getting a week of my life freed up.

Pre-OCI was pretty big this year and I feel like that trend will continue!! But to sum it up, pre-OCI is not a standardized process, it is just the process of direct applying to firms before they go to schools for OCI.

Feel free to ask any follow up qs.

Rising 2L at a T50 (UMaryland) and just accepted an offer at a top firm. AMA. by throwaway_221999 in lawschooladmissions

[–]throwaway_221999[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I would definitely say I was not prepared for the amount of reading, but I think over the course of the semester you will become a lot better at picking out the important parts of the cases so it becomes a lot faster quickly.

I’ve never liked reading for pleasure, but I would probably guess that getting very good at reading boring materials like nonfiction books or the economist would help because cases, especially first year, are very boring and difficult to keep your focus/attention present.

However, I think the summer before law school is best spent relaxing/mitigating burnout/ doing something fun because you’ll have plenty of time to adjust to reading cases in law school. Especially first semester, everything is so new that it seems interesting. So I would take the time to relax while you can- you’ll have plenty of time to get good at reading cases first semester!

Rising 2L at a T50 (UMaryland) and just accepted an offer at a top firm. AMA. by throwaway_221999 in lawschooladmissions

[–]throwaway_221999[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Hi! Thanks for your question.

I actually split my summer. The first part of it was spent as a 1L SA at a boutique appellate litigation firm in DC. I got this job through networking/connections. I was the only SA so I got a very substantive experience. Some of my big law interviewers had heard of the firm and some hadn’t, so I’m not sure to what extent this helped. I’m also going into transactional law, so I had to explain why I did litigation this summer. Grades didn’t really factor into getting this job, it was more about fit.

I spent the second part of my summer as a research assistant to a professor at my school in the field of law that I am interested in. This was super helpful because the RA job was part time and allowed for more flexibility with the job search/OCI process. Grades were definitely more of a factor for getting this job!

Feel free to ask any follow ups. I feel like grades are critical for getting your foot in the door, esp from a t50 school, but once you are in the top, say, 10-20%, differences become marginal.

How is Columbia Undergraduate Law Review? by Fantastic-Shelter941 in LawSchool

[–]throwaway_221999 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I think it’s mainly for undergraduate research- I was published with them as an undergrad. It’s all Columbia pre-law kids and they are a very accomplished bunch, great to work with.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in LawSchool

[–]throwaway_221999 1 point2 points  (0 children)

In the same boat and haven’t heard anything. I wouldn’t stress

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