With just one final exam to go [in employment law] I find myself changing things up a bit from last semester, and even from earlier in this exam period. For many of my other exams, I was a bit more worried, felt a little more pressure, and did a lot more cramming than I’m doing for this one. Hard to say exactly why that’s the case, though I suspect it’s the result of a number of factors …
Hey everyone, I hope you’re all doing well. So I think that the title of this post says it all. This has been a long year for everyone here at Northwestern Law, but the good news is that it’s almost finished. That means that everyone here is hiding away studying, reading, outlining, and thinking… a lot. Of course we all still fall prey to the internet a bit. In fact, I like to take strolls around the school every now and then, and I always see a lot of people surfing Facebook. But now that we’re almost done, people are doing that less than before.
Constitutional Law has long been considered one of the hardest first year courses in law school. Not only because the material is hard or because the issues are ambiguous, but also because it requires learning a lot of of information. And so the people that start studying early and put in more time tend to perform better than the rest of the class, which is the goal for most law students. Last night, I reflected a bit on what that meant to me, what it takes to achieve success after graduate school.
It’s that time of the year again. Just like in the NBA playoffs where last second shots and game winners that leave you on the edge of your seats become all too common in the spring time, in law school last second epiphanies, and changes in study techniques that result in pulling all-night’ers become common as final exams approach. And while I’d obviously prefer watching game winning shots on TNT with championships on the line, instead, I’ll be joining the rest of the school in the library as finals week is approaching far too quickly.
I remember the busy days of working at a consulting firm. While we did have some normal days, sometimes there was a real sense of urgency, a lot more beeps and buzzes from BlackBerrys in the offices, and often people ran around at a more frantic pace in, especially when the work involved our big clients. I’ve notice how many people who are this busy often like tell themselves, no big deal, this is just for today, tomorrow things will be better. But it’s funny how that pace often extends for days at a time. In fact for some it goes the full week, and for others, it becomes a lifestyle. Interestingly enough, something similar thing happens during your first year in law school.
Only months after seeing the worst of the financial crisis and watching professionals flock back to business and law school, it seems as though people are paying more attention to school rankings than ever before. Even though many still maintain that fit is the most important factor when applying to grad school, it’s undeniable that applicants are shining a bigger spotlight on rankings than usual. While dozens of websites and magazines come out with their version the annual rankings, U.S. News has long been considered the gold standard. And just last week, we finally learned which schools struck gold in 2011.
In my view, nothing is more important for any organization than making the right people decisions. That’s not only true for business, banks, and law firms, but also for graduate schools, including law schools. Most schools go about this differently because different schools value different pieces of the application and so they look for different things from applicants. Ideally, most schools hope that all admits would eventually choose to attend, but realistically they know only some of them will. And that’s why schools have admitted student weekends.
What if I told you that your stellar professional record, strong academic training, or even esteemed Ivy League school had nothing to do with whether you ended up landing a job? Or conversely, that your glaring lack of experience and the inconsistency on your resume wouldn’t disqualify you? That it all came down to one shot. And the ball was in your court? Well, in this case, that one shot happens to be at law school and it happens to be tomorrow.
Have you ever had the experience of scrambling into a meeting only to find that you could have been a real contributor if you only had five minutes to prepare? Or even worse, that with a few more minutes of prep time, that you could have cut your meeting time in half or maybe even finished the project? I’ve had both experiences, and I suspect you probably have too. Interestingly enough, one of those experiences was last week, just before heading out to a meeting in Chicago.
Students are competing for fewer openings at law firms this year than any class ever before. More surprising is the fact that even the top students have begun to express uncertainty about finding a job. With law students more concerned than ever about landing a that coveted associate position, students should make sure to mix it up with employers more often and create a strong presence with firms. And they should especially be sure to attend all the local networking events. At least this is what I was told by a senior partner working at a major law firm here in Chicago.
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