Rules and Regulations

The second (and final) day of orientation was yesterday.  We had class, followed by lunch, then a long period of lectures from various individuals who worked for or graduated from the law school.  Here are a couple of things that distinguish law school from an undergraduate college or university:

• If you show up over (5) minutes late for class, you will be counted absent.
• If you leave class before dismissal, you will be counted absent.
• If you miss more than 20% of any core classes (which, this year at least, are all of them), you are dismissed from the law school.
• Most of us at Wesleyan have scholarships, but in order to maintain those scholarships, you have to remain in the top quarter of the class...so 3/4 of the students will lose their scholarships after the first year.
• Good jobs and internships are first offered (and, in some firm's cases, only offered) to students who participate in Law Review. Law Review is only offered to the top 10% of the class on their 2nd and 3rd year.  90% of us will struggle with finding jobs and internships.
• Most of my classes have a midterm and a final exam that make up your entire grade.  A couple of them have assignments inbetween, perhaps a legal memo.  If you bomb one assignment, you fail the course.
• There are some courses, called lock-step courses, that you must pass.  If you don't, you are dismissed from the university (this includes having too many absences for that class).
• You must stand up when answering questions.
• If you turn in certain assignments more than two hours late, you receive a zero.  You still have to turn them in though, because not attempting the assignment at all will cause you to automatically fail the course.
• Before you show up for orientation, there are assignments due.  Assignments are emailed to you.  Assignments are listed within the syllabi.  Assignments are posted on Blackboard (online class interface).  Assignments are everywhere, and if you're not constantly checking, you will look like an idiot in class.

Those are the main take-aways from class and orientation. Though I am still super excited about this experience, I am a little nervous to say the least.