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Classes: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

There's a pretty good reason your correspondent plays poker rather than the lottery--when it comes to things that are just luck of the draw, I do pretty awfully. To whit--my class list:

The Good: I got Chirelstein for contracts, which I can only consider to be good. I read his book over the summer and truly enjoyed it. Nicely, his book is not on his own reading list, which means I'll get a few more perspectives. No downside to this so far.

The Bad: In your fall 1L term, there's a couple of 'large' classes and a 'small' class with fewer people. I'd really hoped that my small class would be civil procedure (which I like but don't understand as well as I could) or contracts; instead, it's torts, which isn't my favorite area of law. Who knows, it may grow on me, but that's going to be a challenge.

The Ugly: Oh, that torts class? It starts at 8:30 AM three days a week. True, I used to show up at that time or earlier when I worked in London, and it means that I may be able to quit working by six or seven in the evening--just like someone with a 'normal' life. Being awake and sharp about a subject for which I doubt I have as much aptitude brings back nightmares of those awful 9 AM classical Japanese tutorials.

(Likewise, my Wednesday run will now have to start at about 7 AM. Ah well... it's discipline.)

Of course, I'm blogging this so that in December when I'm cheerfully telling you how much I love torts, and how contracts wasn't what I expected, you can just link back to this entry in your comments...

Comments

"...it means that I may be able to quit working by six or seven in the evening--just like someone with a 'normal' life." Quit working by 6 or 7 PM? Completely? Studying all done for the evening? If you can do that, you are either a genius with incredible discipline, or you have no ambitions. I was able to quit working by 9 PM most evenings at Northwestern, and I graduated about 45th to 47th percentile in my class: yes, in that half of the class which makes the top half possible. Then again, I was a non-genius who had no ambitions; that's exactly the way I wanted it (even though it pretty much doomed me to being a failure as a lawyer--that wasn't so bad, since once I got into the practice I discovered I despised law practice as much as I despised law study). On the other hand, the gentleman two doors down from me in Abbott Hall (the NU law/medical/dental dorm) studied about 12-16 hours a day (closer to 18 during exam week), had very little social life, and did manage to graduate first in the class and be editor-in-chief of the Northwestern University Law Review... and he was a genius, to boot! Sincerely, best of luck to you this year; I hope you have a semblance of a normal life (including a social life) and manage to make Law Review too... I'll be watching. :-) Cheers, LRC
I can only hope, eh? Thanks for the best wishes (and I assure you I am in no sense a genius). At least as your predictions go, you're right so far: I'll be up until about 8 or 9 working tonight. I do have ambitions, but I must admit I won't be crushed not to make Law Review. I'll work for it, sure, but I'm not killing myself.

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