So far, my summer has involved a lot of scheduling. For a girl who has consistently lost her agenda every year from kindergarten up until first year law, it has been a bit taxing. The other day it took me six hours to make the good copy of the Orientation Schedule. I informed my boss that my poor scheduling and Excel skills had caused the law school to have to pay me over one hundred dollars to simply draft a schedule...I'm a slight deficit.
Lack of ability aside, it's not my work that's my biggest challenge. In fact, figuring out my course schedule for next year is going to take me longer than it would take me to master Excel (and I can barely turn on my computer at this point in the game). There are so many second and third year courses to take. There are clinics and "black letter law" courses and externships and social justice seminars and if you're reading this and are unsure of what these things mean don't be disheartened...we don't really know either! All I know is the other day I spent about four hours making my course schedule perfect (which obviously includes a weekday off), and then I looked at the exam schedule and had a conflict. It was only after a very large glass of wine that I could go back to the computer and try to remedy my mistake.
Which brings me to my next and wonderful point. As first year law students, your schedule will be made for you. When I first heard about this I was annoyed actually. I had been picking my own courses since grade 9; who was the law school to tell me what I should be taking?! Well, UBC Law and every other single law school in Canada has a set curriculum for first year law students. As aggravating as it was that the law school was forcing me, the BFA Major, to take contracts (which turned out to be my favourite class--thanks Professor Bakan), the set schedule is prettier than my favourite pair of Stuart Weitzmans. Instead of figuring out what goes where and when, you sit back, schedule in hand and waltz from class to perfectly scheduled class, while enjoying your Mondays off. If you're interested in your schedule and the first year core curriculum, all the information can be found right here:
http://www.law.ubc.ca/current/jd/timetables/index.html
I definitely encourage you to take a look at your schedule and the first year curriculum, so unlike me you can show up to Constitutional Law with a slight idea of what a constitution even is (or follow in my footsteps and don't...it was one of my highest marks...go figure!)
If you have any questions about your schedule, Orientation Week or UBC Law in general please don't hesitate to contact me at (604) 827-3552 or orientation@law.ubc.ca
Friday, June 26, 2009
Monday, June 22, 2009
Imposter Syndrome
Law school has this funny tendency to make you feel like an imposter. You may be experiencing it right now, as you tell people your plans for next year and they suddenly treat you with respect and admiration, which if you're anything like me you're really not used to as you did an undergrad that forced you to join the "I picked a major I like and one day I will live in a cardboard box" group on facebook. You may counter with, "Well, I did really well on my LSAT score" or "I had high enough undergrad grades to compensate my horrible LSAT score" or "My parents wanted me to go." The amount of respect that I received when I told people I was going to Law School versus the amount of respect I got by telling people I was working toward a Bachelor of Fine Arts was palpable.
Enjoy it right now. Soak it in along with this beautiful West Coast Sunshine (if you're lucky enough to be in Vancouver for the summer). Because from the day you start law school onward, people are going to assume that you are a lawyer. I've had family friends ask me about a clause in their will, another tell me about the horrible conditions in their mother's nursing home and ask how we could sue them and people ask me for advice about the rental of a two million dollar building. The best advice I could give any of these people is to go and get real legal help. I know nothing. All I know after my first year of law school (never mind after my first month) is that I really and truly know nothing.
The great, albeit shocking part of UBC Law is that from around the third week of school forward, we UBC Law students get the chance to play lawyer. Law Students Legal Advice Program is a non-profit student run group with which approximately one third of the law school is involved. You'll learn all about it during Orientation Week and I highly recommend that everyone join, as there is no better way to start learning something. It involves helping low-income clients access the legal system and some students have even ended up going to court within their first few months of law school! But don't worry--court isn't mandatory. If you don't want to go you can pass the file off to someone who does, and trust me, there will be many, many of us who do. And the advice that you'll be doling out...it comes directly from our real and fabulous supervising lawyers' mouths!
So for now, enjoy the feeling of admiration from your friends and family which will quickly turn into legal neediness from the moment that you step into this building. If you have questions about LSLAP, Orientation Week or anything else be sure to email me at orientation@law.ubc.ca or give me a call at (604) 827-3552.
Enjoy it right now. Soak it in along with this beautiful West Coast Sunshine (if you're lucky enough to be in Vancouver for the summer). Because from the day you start law school onward, people are going to assume that you are a lawyer. I've had family friends ask me about a clause in their will, another tell me about the horrible conditions in their mother's nursing home and ask how we could sue them and people ask me for advice about the rental of a two million dollar building. The best advice I could give any of these people is to go and get real legal help. I know nothing. All I know after my first year of law school (never mind after my first month) is that I really and truly know nothing.
The great, albeit shocking part of UBC Law is that from around the third week of school forward, we UBC Law students get the chance to play lawyer. Law Students Legal Advice Program is a non-profit student run group with which approximately one third of the law school is involved. You'll learn all about it during Orientation Week and I highly recommend that everyone join, as there is no better way to start learning something. It involves helping low-income clients access the legal system and some students have even ended up going to court within their first few months of law school! But don't worry--court isn't mandatory. If you don't want to go you can pass the file off to someone who does, and trust me, there will be many, many of us who do. And the advice that you'll be doling out...it comes directly from our real and fabulous supervising lawyers' mouths!
So for now, enjoy the feeling of admiration from your friends and family which will quickly turn into legal neediness from the moment that you step into this building. If you have questions about LSLAP, Orientation Week or anything else be sure to email me at orientation@law.ubc.ca or give me a call at (604) 827-3552.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Ripping out pages...
Many prospective students have asked both Jon and myself what the competition is like here at UBC Law. The big question seems to be, "So, do classmates really rip pages out of library books that you need?" Our answer, "No, we rarely use library books."
The rumours are rampant out here on the world wide web. I can't speak for anyone else's experience but my own, but what I can say is that use of library books aside, UBC Law students are a friendly bunch. I did my undergraduate degree at UBC and know all too well what it can be like being one of 60,000 students at a large campus, but I can assure you that at UBC Law you get to divide that number by a thousand and you instantly become part of the community of 600...or is it divided by 10,000?
People say that law school is actually akin to high school, but I personally think it's more like kindergarten. We're read stories all the time, we get recess (you will soon grow to love the half an hour break between the first two classes of the day), and our knowledge of the subject is definitely comparable to a group of kindergarteners learning how to read.
The great thing that comes with our prior education, whether it be high school or elementary school, is the community that forms. I came to law school uninformed and on a whim, and I have been nothing but shocked at how friendly my colleagues have been. Older students often go out of their way to make first years feel welcomed and informed. I was sitting in our interaction area one day a few months ago chatting with my friend about how I knew nothing about transnational law, and a second year student overheard, asked for my email and sent me his CAN from last year. Law school isn't just a program, it's an experience and those who are going through the experience together have a bond, as corny as it may seem. Recently I was traveling and whenever I met another law student, we instantly had twenty things to talk about and compare.
I owe my friends from my first year of law school much of my sanity, my marks and my memories. Without them, law school would have been a lot of scary hard work, but with them it was a lot of work that became pretty fun. So I can assure you, whether you find it closer to kindergarten, high school, your undergraduate program or none of the above, UBC law students won't be ripping pages out of books any time soon...or blocking important links to cases for that matter.
If you have any questions or comments about book theft or other things, give me a call or email at (604) 827-3552 or orientation@law.ubc.ca
The rumours are rampant out here on the world wide web. I can't speak for anyone else's experience but my own, but what I can say is that use of library books aside, UBC Law students are a friendly bunch. I did my undergraduate degree at UBC and know all too well what it can be like being one of 60,000 students at a large campus, but I can assure you that at UBC Law you get to divide that number by a thousand and you instantly become part of the community of 600...or is it divided by 10,000?
People say that law school is actually akin to high school, but I personally think it's more like kindergarten. We're read stories all the time, we get recess (you will soon grow to love the half an hour break between the first two classes of the day), and our knowledge of the subject is definitely comparable to a group of kindergarteners learning how to read.
The great thing that comes with our prior education, whether it be high school or elementary school, is the community that forms. I came to law school uninformed and on a whim, and I have been nothing but shocked at how friendly my colleagues have been. Older students often go out of their way to make first years feel welcomed and informed. I was sitting in our interaction area one day a few months ago chatting with my friend about how I knew nothing about transnational law, and a second year student overheard, asked for my email and sent me his CAN from last year. Law school isn't just a program, it's an experience and those who are going through the experience together have a bond, as corny as it may seem. Recently I was traveling and whenever I met another law student, we instantly had twenty things to talk about and compare.
I owe my friends from my first year of law school much of my sanity, my marks and my memories. Without them, law school would have been a lot of scary hard work, but with them it was a lot of work that became pretty fun. So I can assure you, whether you find it closer to kindergarten, high school, your undergraduate program or none of the above, UBC law students won't be ripping pages out of books any time soon...or blocking important links to cases for that matter.
If you have any questions or comments about book theft or other things, give me a call or email at (604) 827-3552 or orientation@law.ubc.ca
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
CANing
When I was little and my mother was in a domestic mood (which didn't happen very often, let me assure you), we would go to one of the many berry patches in Richmond and stuff our faces and baskets full of berries. We'd then go home and my science experiment of the week would be learning how sugar and berries can solidify into jam. This is the only canning that I know, so you can imagine my surprise on the first day of Orientation Week last year when everything was "CAN" this and "CAN" that. People in my small group were bragging about the amazing CAN they received from a brother's cousin's uncle's friend who got an 80 in this class or that. It was both overwhelming and annoying because everytime the word CAN was mentioned it made me crave my mom's strawberry jam which has become a thing of the past.
CANs in law school are not full of berry goodness. Instead, they are full of classnotes, which aren't quite as delicious. CAN is an acronym for Condensed Annotated Notes. Only law students would come up with such a prestigious title for something that a lot of us have done in undergrad.
CANs essentially take the class notes for the year and shorten them to key points. Some sets of CANs are immaculately edited, with glossaries and indexes. Others, (mine especially) are simply ugly blocks of key notes. If you want to get really fancy, you can find or make a condensed CAN AND a larger CAN for the same course.
Throughout the year you will hear about the pros and cons of using a CAN from the year or four before. I won't even begin to touch on this highly contested subject of "to CAN or not to CAN" but I will provide this key piece of advice that I sadly learned the hard and REALLY embarrassing way: when using a CAN from the year before, ensure that you went over all the same cases in class to prevent your prof from writing "are you using an old CAN?!?!" on your exam...
CANs can be found from upper-classmates, the Law Student Society's website and your uncle who did law school here in the 70's (yes some of the profs are the same). They are usually professor specific but sometimes a CAN from another prof may work for your course if the reading material was the same.
A lot of the professors here will let you use your CANs during an exam. If being able to have all your notes in front of you during your exams sounds too good to be true that's because it really is. If you're relying solely on your CAN to be able to write the exam and haven't studied efficiently, you will run out of time. That's why the best part about CANs is the actual making of them. By making a CAN you are boiling (somewhat like the berries) down your notes to the key facts that are important to remember and know for the exam. If you're relying on someone else's CAN, you won't be able to remember these key facts as efficiently and quickly (and rule number 1 about law school exam writing is that time is of the essence).
During the year there will be plenty of time to learn about the fine art of the CAN, but for now at least you'll be one step ahead of me and not wondering why the law school cares so much about jam during your first day of Orientation. If you have any questions abouts CANs, Orientation Week, strawberry jam or anything else be sure to give me a call (604) 827-3552 or email: orientation@law.ubc.ca
CANs in law school are not full of berry goodness. Instead, they are full of classnotes, which aren't quite as delicious. CAN is an acronym for Condensed Annotated Notes. Only law students would come up with such a prestigious title for something that a lot of us have done in undergrad.
CANs essentially take the class notes for the year and shorten them to key points. Some sets of CANs are immaculately edited, with glossaries and indexes. Others, (mine especially) are simply ugly blocks of key notes. If you want to get really fancy, you can find or make a condensed CAN AND a larger CAN for the same course.
Throughout the year you will hear about the pros and cons of using a CAN from the year or four before. I won't even begin to touch on this highly contested subject of "to CAN or not to CAN" but I will provide this key piece of advice that I sadly learned the hard and REALLY embarrassing way: when using a CAN from the year before, ensure that you went over all the same cases in class to prevent your prof from writing "are you using an old CAN?!?!" on your exam...
CANs can be found from upper-classmates, the Law Student Society's website and your uncle who did law school here in the 70's (yes some of the profs are the same). They are usually professor specific but sometimes a CAN from another prof may work for your course if the reading material was the same.
A lot of the professors here will let you use your CANs during an exam. If being able to have all your notes in front of you during your exams sounds too good to be true that's because it really is. If you're relying solely on your CAN to be able to write the exam and haven't studied efficiently, you will run out of time. That's why the best part about CANs is the actual making of them. By making a CAN you are boiling (somewhat like the berries) down your notes to the key facts that are important to remember and know for the exam. If you're relying on someone else's CAN, you won't be able to remember these key facts as efficiently and quickly (and rule number 1 about law school exam writing is that time is of the essence).
During the year there will be plenty of time to learn about the fine art of the CAN, but for now at least you'll be one step ahead of me and not wondering why the law school cares so much about jam during your first day of Orientation. If you have any questions abouts CANs, Orientation Week, strawberry jam or anything else be sure to give me a call (604) 827-3552 or email: orientation@law.ubc.ca
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