law school – Page 10

The Law School Post (Law School 102)

December 21, 2014 by Taco

Greetings from Romania (and also Serbia, I had to do this in two parts).

No really.

Not really.

I still can’t access my blog. So this time I’ve traveled to Romania/Serbia of all places to access it. Which means that things are still quite slow. So, don’t expect an avalanche of pictures or anything this time. WordPress media doesn’t seem to be too friendly towards my proxies (I still don’t think that video from the the last post ended up working). I also just realized that my button to create links has ceased to function, so I get to do that in a complicated roundabout way as well, awesome.

Anyways, enough complaining. Its time for my “Law School” post. Now, if you are not me and you’ve just recently started reading this blog and/or you don’t remember my Law School 101 post, I highly recommend you go read that one first. That post will give you the general landscape that led up to this point (Also relevant to this post from my “101 Series” are: Lawyerdom 101 and Ivy League 101). Having suggested that, which you ignored, lets continue on.

LAW SCHOOL

So what is law school like? What do I think about it? Well, honestly, I can sum it up with two words:

It Depends

Really, I could probably stop there. But I won’t because “It Depends” is both a genuinely correct AND a genuinely incorrect statement. How can something be both wrong and right at the same time? Because law school. That is one of the most frustrating aspects to law school. The entire process can basically be summarized as “It Depends.” So what does it depend on you might be asking? Well that is good question. So let me respond to your question by asking you Why does it matter what it depends on? You might think “Well it obviously matters because when you say It Depends you are referring to something.” And that is correct, I’m referring to something and the something to which I am referring depends on how you interpret It Depends. So, really, it depends, is dependent upon what sort of dependent interpretation of it depends you are operating under, which is further dependent on how you view it depends both within, and outside of, the aforementioned view of it depends, so really It Depends. Confused? Welcome to 1L.

If you think I’m purposefully being obtuse to try to confuse you, no, I’m really not. What I’m showcasing is the logical format of law school, which rests upon the pillar of: The Answer to Everything is: It Depends. But, as I showed you above, even It Depends depends on It Depends. To make things as simple as possible, there really is no answer, only a series of questions that go so deeply down the rabbit hole that Lewis Carroll would be envious. I was under the mistaken impression that the split would be about 50/50. 50% would be “Black Letter” law, such as statutes, etc. The other 50% would be the “Grey Area” where it was mostly just interpretation. Well, turns out it’s more like 5/95. Sure that “firm” area exists, but the thing is, that is the area that you pretty much never, ever hear about. In fact, many times lawyers don’t even really need to get involved with that 5% because the system is fairly straightforward. These kinds of instances might be a statute that has an extensive history of the same, firm kind of interpretation, so that its very clear what the outcome will be. However, in the real world, 95% of the time there is some argument to be made, and thus law school.

What this means is that from the first minute of your first class, you are subjected to uncertainty and to more specifically, to It Depends. This takes on a lot of different forms. But normally it ends up with you being in the spotlight with the seconds ticking away and the entire class (including professor) staring you down. Its fun – No Really! And if sarcasm could seep through the screen you would currently be drowning in it. But enough about It Depends, this post isn’t really about the theoretical nature of learning the law. If you are super interested, you can find out for the low-low price of around 50 – 60 thousand dollars a year plus lots of stress fun!

So here is what I am going to talk about in this post.

1. First Year (1L) Overview
2. The Classroom Environment.
3. The Professors
4. The Classmates
5. The Workload
6. Exams

There will obviously be some overlap between these various areas, but it’s a nice concise overview. So let’s get started!

First Year (1L) Overview

To understand 1L, its best to first understand the class size. At my school for your first year the entire class is divided up into 7 Sections of 80 people each. These 80 people will have 8 out of the 10 classes during 1L together. There will be splits here and there, such as for Legal Research and Writing which halves the section, as well as the international law course which mingles sections a bit, but by and large you are with these people during the worst year of law school.

So why is 1L is the worst year? Well, it’s the only year where you pretty much have no choice at all what you do. For some schools its worse than others. I’m fairly lucky in that I get 1 true elective my first year, which is better than nothing. So the classes that you are forced to take are what are called “Substantive” courses. I think it’s a rather stupid identifier since almost every class is “Substantive.” However, that is what these courses are called. Examples include: Civil Procedure, Property, Contracts, Criminal Law, Legal Research and Writing, Legislation and Regulation, Torts, etc. These are the “fundamentals” of a larger legal education. In other words, these are the kinds of courses that young lawyers have cut their teeth on for many, many generations (Thanks to Harvard, who designed law school as well know it – and no that isn’t bragging, its factually true). Unlike undergrad, where you start off with courses that are probably not all that difficult (though some 101 courses are oddly hard), law school throws you directly into the mix; just because these are “starter” courses does NOT mean they are even remotely easy.

Not only are they difficult, they are extremely important. Also unlike undergrad where it is a slow race to the finish, law school is ultimately something where you need to be sprinting from the start. The grades you make during your first and second semesters WILL determine what options are available to you. Plus, you’re still learning how to be a law student. Throw in all the extracurricular activities such as student practice organizations, journals, clubs, and reading groups and suddenly you have no existence other than law school. Pair this with crushing curves and 1L is just one giant trip through Candyland, except every space is that piece of shit fudge Gloppy who holds you in place until you get a certain color, despite being like FIVE SPACES from the Candy Castle (/childhood rage). Which brings me to my next point, curves: As I mentioned in Law School 101 curves are pretty critical in law school. But since you didn’t read it again I’ll briefly recap here.

Essentially, out of however many people there are in a given class, the grades are already determined. So if you have 80 people, a certain (very small) number of them are going to do very well, most will do average, and a certain number will do very bad. It doesn’t change. It’s set before the class even starts. So, you drop in a bunch of very smart people and suddenly the work that would have got you an A+ in undergrad is now a borderline failing grade. I’m being ENTIRELY serious, TRUST ME, I speak from experience. This means the bar is very high, and by very high I mean Mt. Everest is nibbling at the ankles of this bar. And remember, all this stuff I am mentioning is combined into one giant bundle of joy and splendor and homicide.

So: Grades heavily contribute to your future, you can’t just go to class – you must also be involved in multiple organizations – you have reading groups in addition to class readings – your classmates want to kill you to make the curve better for them – and the material is It Depends – I think you’ve got a good general lay of the land.

The Classroom Environment

Now, take all of these smart people, force them into a bitter competition, and then plop them down into a room with a (usually) brilliant professor who mercilessly grills them with questions and even intentionally creates arguments between students. That is law school. If you ever wondered why some lawyers are massive assholes, it’s because law school trains you to be an asshole. In fact, it predicates success on being an asshole. Now, that being said, it’s ENTIRELY up to you how much of an asshole you want to be. Some people are just lil’ assholes, other people are such large assholes that expeditions have been launched into their cavernous abyss, never to return. But everyone is an asshole in some way. This really is no different than “real life” but its magnified here by the classroom environment.

So what does a class consist of? Well, classes are generally either 80 minutes long or two hours long. For 1L you’ll be in class five days a week for most of the time. The way credits are calculated, you’re in class for more time than you receive credits for, lots of fun there. There will be between 10 and 15 minutes between each class generally. At my school we always have a lunch hour, which is nice, many schools are not so fortunate. So, you have the general timeline of any given day. The class itself is actually fairly similar to what you would imagine. There is very, very little lecture. So, if you are one who likes to fall asleep in class, do so at your own risk. Here’s why, the professor is constantly scanning the room, looking for the weakest link (and trust me, they are damn good at finding it). When they find them, this amazing thing call the “Socratic Method” begins. Named after none other than the great thinker Socrates himself. You’ve probably got an idea of what the Socratic Method is like, but I’ll briefly discuss it here.

Basically the professor asks a question. The student then answers, the professor then asks another question. Repeat this process until the student messes up, and the student always messes up (even Gunners, more on them in a moment). More importantly, “messing up” doesn’t necessarily mean you are “wrong” since it’s normally not as simple as “right” and “wrong” (95%) it just means you trigger the trap the professor has laid for you. Cue explosion of clenched anuses throughout the room.

That’s really about it. What makes it so lovely is that its one-on-one, it is the proverbial hot-seat. Professors vary in how they deal with it. Some are just absolutely as rude as f*cking hell. Others try to “pad” the massive pwnage they are delivering unto you. The only way to properly avoid looking like a huge moron and more importantly, wasting class time, is to be prepared. I say wasting class time is bad, because we don’t “make-up” missed information. If we don’t get to it, because the class wasn’t prepared enough, then we don’t get help deciphering it. But you WILL still be expected to understand it on the exam. Now, we do have make-up classes, but these are not for missed portions of class we already had. These are literally days where we make up vacation days. Yes, I swear to God above. We have to make up our damn vacation days, so you really don’t get vacation days. Yeap, that’s fun.

Aside from the one-on-one between professors, they will also try to start “debates” (read: arguments) within the class. I find these to rarely be useful as far as learning the law. I honestly think the professors just enjoy the chaos. It’s like if you gain one piece of knowledge from a 10 minute argument, they are like “YEAH WORTH IT.” But, to be fair, these are generally high level arguments. I can only think of a couple times that they descended into playground brawls. Certain kinds of people are more prone to playground feuds than others. But really, it’s a classroom environment much like any other, there is just more hostility and much, much less lecture.

The Professors

Law school professors are too varied to really describe in any uniform manner. So I’ll keep this brief. They are generally very intelligent, but often have a bit of an eccentric nature. This comes out in a variety of ways, but none of them have been full-on crazy thus far. Really, if you’ve had any interaction with professors before, law school professors are not that much different. They just teach an entirely different kind of material. I will say, at my school the professors tend to have extremely prestigious backgrounds, but that really isn’t much of a surprise since I’m fortunate enough to be on the top of the law school pile.

Rather than spend a lot of time describing professors, I’ll share an experience from my Property course. To set the scene this was my very first law school class. It was in the morning, the room was dead silent, because everyone was balls nervous. We had been assigned the infamous case of Pierson v. Post (Involving foxes and horses). The professor was nowhere to be seen. When suddenly an old man walks into the room:

He reaches beneath this podium and takes out a large toy riding horse. You know the kind, the ones that have a stick attached to a horse head that kids ride around. He starts prancing around the room, using his hands like guns “Pop-Pop!” and then he circles back behind the podium and grabs a full-size, taxidermy Red Fox and begins waving it above his head while riding around the room on the toy horse. He then suddenly stops and places his toys back inside the podium. Then, without hesitation, asks a girl in the back row to recite the holding of the case.

Welcome to Harvard Law.

The Classmates

Ah my beloved law school classmates. How I utterly despise love you. I kid, they aren’t all bad. Some are. But not all. I’ve already described how we’re essentially in a fierce curve battle with each other from here until graduation. So in this section I’m just going to sort of semi-satirically describe the various kinds of law students I’ve encountered. I can’t stress enough, these categories can and do overlap, some of them far more than others. Point being, “Pure” members of these classes are uncommon (though they certainly exist) normally one person will find themselves in more than one category (such as a 50/25/25 split). Anyways, in no particular order, my classmates:

The Privileged

As much as I loathe the recent “Check Your Privilege” trend, there really is no better way to describe these people. They are almost exclusively from the top 10% of households by income (if not top 1%). They are normally straight from undergrad and none of them have ever had a job that wasn’t handed to them with no expectation that they actually do anything. They wear nice clothes, have brand new Macbook Pros (which they are happy to share that they replace every year) and they have no concept of money at all. They are by no means all white, every race is well represented within The Privileged. Some of them are insufferable, others are quite fine to be around (if you can get past the fact that they have no idea why you would want to “save” money).

The Legacy

Their entire family went to *Insert Ivy League School Here* and their entire family also went to Harvard Law. Their family all have awesome positions at awesome places. And they like, totally didn’t even have to apply, they were just accepted because.. in case you didn’t know their entire family went here. Almost a sub-class to The Privileged, but still distinct enough be its own category. These people tend to be very annoying.

The Undergraduate Guy/Gal

The person who stopped mentally aging at age 21. In fact they probably aren’t physically much older than that either. This person went to THE BEST UNDERGRADUATE SCHOOL IN THE WORLD. And yes, the small school in the backwoods of Oklahoma that no one had ever heard of qualifies. They wear shirts from their undergraduate school every single day and never cease talking about how it is the best school in the world and their sports teams never lose (even when they do). They are almost exclusively former Fraternity or Sorority members (Harvard has no Greek System, thank God) which they also never shut up about. But even their almighty Greek System with its sea of (imaginary) 4.0s pales in comparison to the greatness of their undergraduate institution, no matter if it is ranked 1 or 1000.

The “Small Town” Person

These people are especially annoying. Namely because I come from real small town. But here, “Small Town” really means anything under about 100,000 people (normally closer to 100k than further from it). Yes, 100,000 people or less is a small town. Small Town Person speaks endlessly about the great times they had in the rugged wilderness of their town of 100,000 people, something us city-slickers couldn’t possibly understand. Small Town Person tends to bleed into Undergraduate Guy/Gal since every small town has its own massive university, in case you didn’t know. Actually you wouldn’t living in a city like you do.

The Social Justice Warrior

If you are familiar with the term as it applies to websites like Tumblr, then it’s no different here. The Social Justice Warrior is composed of a wide range of archetypes, from the “Reverse Racist” to the “Radical Feminist.” Basically, these people are offended when an ant farts on the other side of the planet. If you are white, you are racist. If you are black, you are also racist. In fact you are racist no matter what (except them, never them). If you are a male you are a rapist, if you are a female you are a rapist, and if you are in-between you’re still a rapist. These people are never satisfied, ever. Holding the door open for them is a deep offense since you are implying they can’t open the door themselves. Not holding the door open for them, well you just defiled their existence with your bloated self-righteousness. In other words, the best thing to do with these people is just to stay the hell away from them. They tend to be from “The Privileged” and generally only care about their causes as long as it doesn’t inconvenience their Netflix schedule.

The Gunner

Ah, yes, The Gunner. The most infamous class of law student by far. Just whispering the word “Gunner” inspires visions of grand Asperger’s in any seasoned law student. Basically the Gunner is that straight A student from high school that you wanted to beat the shit out of. Yeah, you know the one, the one who had his head so far up the teacher’s ass it was impossible to tell them apart. The one who would tattle-tell on you the instant the opportunity presented itself and would also go way, way out of their way to ensure that the teacher made the tests as hard as possible and was made aware of ANY issue that might make things easier. They were also the person who told the substitute teacher that class got out at 2:30, not 2:00. Yeah, that person. Well guess what, The Gunner is the exact same person 15 freaking years later. The Gunner never shuts up, The Gunner raises their hand before the professor even asks a question. The Gunner kisses ass so constantly that their lips have permanently turned brown, and most importantly The Gunner will not rest until they are a Supreme Court Clerk. Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, hates The Gunners (even the professor). Do not be The Gunner. Seriously.

The Outlaw

Almost the exact opposite of The Gunner, and only marginally less annoying. Whereas The Gunner seeks nothing but to please the professor, The Outlaw spends all their time trying to “challenge” the system. The Outlaw is a weird blend of simple douchebag and Social Justice Warrior. To them the entire system is flawed. I’m not saying it isn’t, but The Outlaw goes about their “crusade” in a way that generally just screws them and everyone else in the room other. They challenge minor issues, but don’t do so in an especially effective way. The end result is that the professor just gets frustrated, which feeds the tiny ego of The Outlaw and spurs them onwards to save the world. Basically, The Outlaw is very outspoken, but doesn’t really know what they are pursuing, other than to challenge every little point, even those with no purpose.

The Class Clown

Do I really even need to describe this? The Class Clown is the same as always. They aren’t as bold as The Outlaw, in that they normally don’t challenge the professor (at least not often) but they painfully go out of their way to try to be funny. For them, if one single person laughs in 1/100 jokes, then they are the hottest shit in town. This person normally gives lengthy (incorrect) answers that build to some punchline that is embarrassing at best. Yet, somehow, they manage to get just a few laughs (normally from The Outlaws) to continue their tirade onwards and outwards. The Class Clown is basically as you would expect them to be, except now they are 25 instead of 11, so it’s just sad.

The Hipster

Yeah, there are Hipsters at law school. They are an odd blend of The Outlaw, the Social Justice Warrior, and The Rags to Riches. This category might also be titled “The Mac Fag.” Really I can’t add anything to the Hispter/Mac Fag that you wouldn’t guess.

The Graduate Graduate Student

So there are people out there who already have graduate degrees. Yes, some people have Masters and the rare person even has a Ph.D. already. So they are “Graduate Graduate Students.” Thankfully these people are few in number. They spend all their time talking about their prior successes (see The Privileged) and about how easy law school is compared to the crushing difficulty of their MA in Women’s Studies. They generally try to relate any conversation back to their given field and to say how much less important law is in comparison. They frequently comment on how easy the material for the day was, but then quickly rush away when you ask a substantive question. They spend most of their time crying in the library from the workload.

The Ghost

These are the people that you sort of forget exist. One day ¾ of the way into the semester the professor calls on them, and you are suddenly like “Who the hell is that?” That’s The Ghost. The Ghost generally runs about a 50/50 split on answers. They are either spot on, or way, way off. The Ghost is involved in very few social events and probably feels much less invested in the whole “culture” of law school than their peers. They miss out on opportunities that their more leech-like classmates capitalize on. But the flip side is that they rarely seem crippled by stress. The Ghosts are more likely to have families than the other categories.

The Rags to Riches

This is the person who has overcome everything in the world. They are an AIDs-Cancer-Rape-War-Abuse-Anorexia-Alien Abduction survivor. They grew up living in the middle of a field, raised by wolves, abusive wolves. They walked 3000 miles on broken glass to get to their school house which was a hole in the ground – of Siberia. No matter what you have struggled with, they struggled with it first and they struggled with it far worse. They have every mental disorder under the sun (ESPECIALLY ADHD/ADD). Additionally, every moment of their life is a glorious conquest to triumph over the hell that has been their existence. You will never know their pain, you will never know their victory. May or may not be a Social Justice Warrior, may or may not have actually overcome anything in their life. Almost definitely a narcissist.

The Average Joe

This is the “catch all” category. Now everyone perfectly fits into any single one of these categories, but honestly they encompass a very large majority of people. The Average Joe is the answer to that. Nothing about them especially stands out. The Average Joe is, true to form, the “Median” student. The Averages Joe might have categorical days, where they tend to lean more towards one category or the other, but their baseline is just fairly front and center.

[I’ll leave it up to you to guess which categories I fall into]

The Workload

(Yes, those are my notes and briefs as well as few extra readings not in the casebooks)

So one of the most commonly feared things in law school (aside from the Socratic Method) is the workload. I have to say, this fear is rather justified. I estimate that I read around 3900 pages this semester. That is 3900 pages of Caselaw and statutes mind you, not some fun fictional romp. There is also briefing those cases (basically taking notes on the logic within the case), taking class notes, then doing all your extracurricular stuff (which in the cases of SPOs and journals can be quite a lot). Law school is easily a full-time job from a time perspective. But the issues isn’t really time, it’s the nature of the work that takes up so much of that time. The material is just insanely dense and of course, as always It Depends. I did a solid 6 days a week of work and I wasn’t even really striving. Some people do 11 hour days 7 days a week, if not more (I am not just saying this, I know it to be true). I never did anywhere near that, but I was generally near or above full-time job status when you factor in classes and reading. Extracurricular activities definitely pushed me above that, but those were more of a “Rain or Drought” type of situation.

What’s interesting about law school is that (excluding Legal Research and Writing) for your 1L year and most of 2L and 3L, your entire grade is your final exam. And I do mean your entire grade. So, there are not a lot of smaller assignments along the way. The day-to-day workload is mostly extracurricular projects and reading and outlining/notes. This means you have no real progress check. Since you only have one grade at the very end of the class, you have no idea how well you are doing. There’s no way around this but to just keep preparing and preparing, even when you already feel prepared. Remember, it’s all curved against very smart people in a world of It Depends. Which actually brings me to my next topic.

Exams

While the Socratic Method and the workload strike fear into most law school bound (and current) students, it is the exams that really keep them awake at night. And honestly, I can’t fault them. One single exam determines an entire semester’s grade. If you have a bad day, your screwed. In fact, some of the brightest people in class do the poorest on exams because they simple are not good test takers. It’s a problematic system, but its not going anywhere. So what is a law school exam like?

Well, they range from 3 to 8 hours. Yes, hours. The most common formats are the same as you’ve had your whole life: Multiple Choice, Short Answer, Essay. Of these, the Essay is the most common. But, in a nutshell, a law school exam is a several hour long period in which you must NOT recite what you’ve learned but rather APPLY it. Further, you must not only APPLY what IS, you must also APPLY what COULD BE. How you do that: It Depends. Basically, you must pull from an entire semester worth of knowledge to answer an incredibly complex question (sometimes the question alone is up to 10 pages long) and you must do so with the utmost precision and clarity.

Remember, your exam grade is largely dependent not only on your own effort, but on that of your classmates as well. You could miss one single thing in a 20 page response, and lose an entire letter grade simple because the 5 people in front of you did not miss that one tiny issue. Yes, that is how cutthroat the exam environment is. And unfortunately, your entire grade, and thus future opportunities come down to this exam.

I’m not an expert, I’ve only done four of them thus far (as I mentioned, Legal Research and Writing has a final legal paper – which is far, far worse than any academic paper I’ve ever seen – so while I’ve had five classes I’ve only had four exams). That being said, I can truly say the law school exams are indeed the hell that they’ve been made out to be. And like most things law school related, the higher ranked the school you go to, the harder the exams are going to be.

—

And that wraps us up.

So what do I think about law school? Well, It Depends. (I bet you didn’t see that one coming).

It’s a love-hate relationship, for sure. Much of the actual coursework is bitterly difficult and some of the people are a massive pain to be around. Professors can be near-vengeful, but they can also be extraordinarily helpful. The workload can be crushing, but it can also be fascinating. So, at the end of the first semester of my 1L year I have to say that I dislike half of law school, but enjoy the other half. I’ve met some very cool people in extracurricular activities and I’m involved with some great groups. I’ve had some awesome chats with Professors, and met some very, very important people. But it’s also balanced against the difficult, unrewarding nature of a lot of the other things I have to do.

However, in the end, I’m happy and content. I’m glad to be here and more importantly I understand how fortunate I am to be here (as I said in Law School 101, many law students are just freaking doomed). It’s not always easy. Especially when you are the guy wearing the old worn jacket with the broken zipper, who carries around the Wal-Mart backpack that is literally held together with duct-tape and who uses folders that are held together with Scotch tape. I’ve been made fun of (Jr. High style) because I bring my lunch in a lunch box and I’ve been excluded from more than a few things because I didn’t fit into the right “clicks.” But honestly, that’s ok with me. I’ve never really had the benefit of any of those things, but I’ve found plenty of places here where I fit in just fine. HLS graduate, Former HLS Dean, and now Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan said it best:

“Harvard Law School is a big city, not a small town. It’s a place where there is always something new to do and someone new to meet. It’s a place where faculty members and students work on-and courses and activities relate to-the broadest possible range of legal and policy questions, and where students can prepare themselves for every imaginable career (and even some career options as yet unimaginable), whether in this country or overseas. Most of all, it’s a place of enormous energy, constant surprise and great adventure.”

And so, I’ll continue my adventure.

This will be my last post of 2014, so, until next year,
-Taco

P.S. Fat Squirrel – Happy 2015!

Exams and X-Mas (The December Update)

December 17, 2014 by Taco

So last time I said I wasn’t’ going to write a post. I guess I lied, since I’m writing a post. However I’m 3/4 of the way through exams and I wanted a little break from studying contracts. The funny thing is, I’m having problems accessing my blog again. And when I say “problems” I mean that I can’t access it at all. Now here is the interesting thing, you can (I mean, obviously, you are reading this). So its some sort of backbone issue. Which means its not something easily fixed (or even fixable). In other words, its impossible for me to do anything at all with my blog when its “down” like this. Notice I said essentially. In order to get around a pathway problem, I just changed my path. Right now, dear friends, I am writing this post from Russia. Not literally, though the internet thinks I am. This has allowed me to bypass whatever the problem was in my normal route. The downside is that sending everything to Russia via some low-end proxy is not reliable and its slow. But, its what is allowing me to write this post at the moment so I won’t complain. However, I’m constantly losing my connection so if this post gets erased as I write it I will rage with the fury of 1000 dying stars.

Anyways, like I mentioned last time, posts really are not going to be written in advance from here on out, at least not regularly. So I’ll just share a few things that have been happening lately.

First, we’ve have no real big snow storm yet. We’ve had two big Nor’easters which are freaking horrible, then one lesser Nor’easter which wasn’t that bad. There have been a few times that the snow has been forecast as coming, but its never amounted to a whole awful lot. Valentino waits patiently for it.

Harvard has an interesting way of dealing with the ice when it comes to all their grand ole’ buildings with huge staircases. They just build a little platform of stairs, on the stairs, then rope off the rest of it.

To be fair, I’ve only really seen that on one building (Widener Library, seen above) but then again I’m not really much of a campus explorer these days, there just isn’t enough time. This is primarily (read: exclusively) because of exams. But I’m not going to talk about them now, I’ll save them for my law school post (assuming I can actually write it). However, the plus side is that since my term and exams are longer than SB’s (she is done, lucky devil) we’ve got to spend a bit more time together. Before she was finished we even did some studying together.

That is one room in Widener, I don’t think either of us had been in that part of that library before. Harvard has enough libraries to build a city and we normally go to the law school library (Langdell). However, once the exam period begins HLS locks out the non-law people from the library. Its a good move, I 100% support it, however it does keep SB out as well, even with her fancy Harvard affiliate (spouse) library card.

Second, we’ve continued our Friday night outs as usual, in spite of all the end of semester stress. This past Friday we headed back again to Grendel’s Den. Which is our third time now. We actually wanted to go try out the Queen’s Head Pub again, but when we got there it was closed for a private event – which they were kind enough to not post on their website or Facebook. So that place hasn’t had a super strong start for us, especially since we waited an hour for it to open, only to find it was closed to us, which made us later for everywhere else. Anyways, we went with Grendel and it was tasty as usual.

More interesting than the food, was what happened when we got outside. As soon as we opening the door I heard chanting, and once we got up top (Grendel’s Den is actually in a basement) I could hear they were shouting “Hands Up! Don’t Shoot” – so it was a Brown/Garner protest. (The first shot is hard to make out due to lighting, but you can’t blame me this time, these were SBs 😛 )

There had actually been several of these, both in Cambridge and Boston, but this was our first time running into one. There were also a few at the law school (including an ongoing one where they’ve covered portraits of professors with the alleged last words of people killed by police), but none this size.

They had actually started gathering on campus when we were on our way to Grendel’s Den, so we had seen the crowd during the portion of the evening when they were giving speeches, prior to the march. However, I wasn’t really sure where they were going to be, turns out it was right in front of us. They actually were walking against traffic and quite a few cars got stuck in the middle of the flow of 1000s of people.

We were right up at one of the intersection and they extended a good distance in both directions. There were cops on the sides and backs of the crowd and everything was pretty peaceful, aside from the people who were backed up in there cars so far they couldn’t see what was happening. The distant horns struck me as funny, talk about a fruitless waste of car battery.

We also took a brief video as they were passing by: [I’m not sure if the video is even working, I might deal with it when I can reliably access my blog, right now its just impossible]

After the protesters had moved down the street we started heading back home. Since we were in the area, we decided to try the newly opened location of Mike’s Pastry. Mike’s is apparently one of those “Boston Institutions” that every needs to try. So this means that some people absolutely hate it, as overpriced, over-hyped garbage that is vastly inferior to the “true” hole-in-the-wall bakeries (Which Mike’s once was, of course). On the flip side, you have those who love and say its the best and still is a hole-in-the-wall bakery. I don’t know enough about it to take sides, but I like pastries, way too much. However, up until very recently they only had one location which was down in Boston proper and thus too far for us to travel simply for a pastry. But, fate intervened and they opened a new location fairly close to us and it just so happened to be directly in our path home.

So:

We got some, of course. Now Mike’s is famous in and of itself, but they are particularly known for their cannolis which are are apparently a big Boston desert. In fact we thought that that was all they had. But nope, we were wrong. They have all sorts of goodies AND all sorts of cannolis and I do mean all sorts, I had never seen a collection of cannolis so large. The variety for the other baked goods was pretty good as well. Prices were not so good, but that is part of living in an East Coast city. However, the stuff you got was BIG, so you didn’t go sugar-tooth hungry after spending your cash.

On the left is the “Peanut Butter Cannoli” which was amazing but so insanely rich that SB and I combined didn’t finish it in one setting (and if you know me, that is saying something). On the right is a “Lobster Tail Creme Puff.” I have no idea where the name comes from, but it was good. It was also rich, but no where near as rich as the cannoli. Both of them lasted more than one sitting.

Of course its also getting close to the holidays. And while exams form a nearly impenetrable barrier that fogs my holiday spirit, we did go ahead and put up some decorations. Like usual, we stuck to my rigid “12 days of Christmas” decoration rule, in fact we put them up on day 11 due to my exam-schedule. Little Friend is stylin’ as usual.

As a remainder here is what he looked like five years ago, on his first Christmas

(Keep in mind he was heavily pruned before our move to Boston)

We also put up our tree that FIL and MIL got us many moons ago, as well as a few other decorations we’ve accumulated over the years.

From Left to Right: Christmas Tree, Tristen, Valentino, Thomas (Pumpkin), Bonsai Buddy Jr., Three Amigos (Nacho, Quixote, Pancho), Little Friend

SB even convinced me to put up our little strand of lights. I am not a lights person, but I’m a scrooge. They do look nice once they are up, but I don’t like putting forth a lot of effort for temporary decorations.

And that’s about all I have to share for now. I need to get back to studying and I’m sure Putin is watching me type this post.

Since I likely won’t mention anything about it in my next post, which I will hopefully be able to write:

Merry Christmas/Hanukkah/Ramadan/Kwanzaa/Football Sunday/Decemberween/COLLEGE_NAME and a Happy New Year!

Until next time,
-Taco

P.S. – Due to my ultra slow Russian proxy everything took like 5 years to upload, so appreciate the media 😛

Ivy League 101

December 7, 2014 by Taco

Consider this a further follow up to these posts: Law School 101 and Lawyerdom 101.

This post might be better entitled “Everything you never wanted to know about the Ivy League and didn’t ask because you didn’t care.”

At least that is what we will pretend.

I kid, and really this entire post is meant to be tongue-in-cheek (so keep that in mind). But its actually sort of interesting, the history of the Ivy League and all that stuff. But I’m not going to go into a big historical discussion here, that is all easily available via Google if you are interested. What I’m going to do here is do a very brief overview of what the Ivy League is, and subsequently a bit of what it isn’t, with a dash of my personal opinion thrown in for good measure.

For starters, the Ivy League is actually an athletic conference. Its not some mythical group of schools that form some academic bond based on ivy, well it is, but technically that isn’t what the name is about. In fact, the term “Ivy,” when used in reference to the group of schools as whole, has only been around since 1933. Sure, schools have spoke of their ivy-clad greatness since their founding, but using the term to refer to a group is a relatively new thing. So what schools comprise the Ivy League? Go ahead, try to think name the ones you can think of. Yes, I get it that with the huge imagine below its going to be hard to not “know” them all. But be honest with yourself and think about whether or not you could actually name them all.

I couldn’t, at least not until all that long ago.

If you are like me, then some of these are given, some of them are an “Oh yeah, that place” and one of them is “What?” (*cough* Penn). You might even have thought about places like Stanford or MIT (I thought they were Ivies as well, but they are not). But lets not live in our plebeian ignorance for any longer than necessary. Without further ado.. “The Ancient Eight:”

Listed As: Name – Year Founded – Original Name – Motto

Harvard – 1636 – New College – Veritas (Truth)
Yale – 1701 –Collegiate School – Lux et veritas (Light and truth)
University of Pennsylvania- 1740 –Unnamed Charity School – Leges sine moribus vanae (Laws without morals are usless)
Princeton University – 1746 –College of New Jersey – Dei sub numine viget (Under God’s power she flourishes)
Columbia University- 1754 –King’s College – In lumine Tuo videbimus lumen (In Thy light shall we see the light)
Brown University – 1764 – College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations – In Deo Speramus (In God We Hope)
Dartmouth College – 1769 – Dartmouth – Vox clamantis in deserto (The voice of one crying in the wilderness)
Cornell University – 1865 – Cornell – I would found an institution where any person can find instruction in any study

So from looking over that list a few things should become apparent.

1. For all except Dartmouth and Cornell, they were founded under different names. Some of them even changed their names more than once. I have to say, Brown takes the cake here: “College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations,” give me a freaking break. However, Penn gets the dishonorable mention because they didn’t even have a name..

2. Yale copied Harvard, from day 1. Though to be fair Harvard copied the University of Cambridge, which itself copied the University of Oxford.

3. They all have fancy Latin mottos, except Cornell. By the time Cornell came around they were like “screw this poo” and just did everyone the favor of using English. Also, WTF Dartmouth? It sounds like some 13 year old angst-ridden teen wrote their motto. (Before you rage, yes I get it that its from the Bible, but its still emo).

Progressing onwards, where are all these places located? Well, obviously the Northeast, but not exclusively New England. I am stupid and literally thought until this year that New York was in New England. Its not. And even if it was, you’d still have Penn and Princeton as outliers. So just say its the Northeast.

Its pretty obvious why they are all in the Northeast, that is where the aliens put us when they used us to colonize this planet.

Moving on.

These schools are hard to get into. And at this point you take a drink of your coffee, finishing off its wholesome goodness. You then get up and walk to go rinse your our your cup. As you do, you think to yourself “Well no shit Sherlock” You then never return to this blog.

But really, they are.

Here are some approximate admission rates for the most recent classes, bearing in mind that for a few graduate schools (such as business, medicine, law, etc.) these might be even lower.

Harvard – 5.9%
Yale – 6.3%
Columbia – 7%
Princeton – 7.3%
Brown – 8.6%
Penn – 9.9%
Dartmouth – 11.5%
Cornell – 14.0%

For comparison, lets look at a University that I knew quite well growing up:

Indiana University – 72.2%

I think that sort of brings it into perspective a bit.

Now, if it wasn’t obvious based on the barrier to entry, all of these schools are famous, in fact the “Ivy League” has so many connotations with it, from the rich WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant) folk of yesteryear, to yuppies, snobs, the 1% and of course to Presidents. In fact, I’d argue that the “Legend” of the Ivy League is a bit bigger than the schools that make it up, at least most of them (but more on that in a moment). So that gets me to the next point, these schools are loaded. And I don’t just mean loaded with lots of smart people (they are) I mean they have gold piles that would make Smaug jealous. One of them in particular is the equivalent of a small nation.

The Ivy League Endowments:

Harvard – 36.4 Billion
Yale – 23.9 Billion
Princeton – 21 Billion
University of Pennsylvania – 9.6 Billion
Columbia University – 9.2 Billion
Cornell University – 6.2 Billion
Dartmouth College – 4.5 Billion
Brown University – 3.2 Billion

[For reference Stanford’s is 21.4 Billion]

And again, here is:

Indiana University – 1.7 Billion (System-wide)

That means that Harvard has an endowment worth approximately 21.5 entire Indiana University networks. Think about that for a second, everything that Indiana University owns, Harvard could theoretically buy 21.5 times. That is kind of hard to wrap your mind around. In fact, Harvard’s endowment is the largest in the entire world of any educational institution anywhere.

But back to the Ivy League. You’ll notice quite a large discrepancy between the top three schools and everyone else. Further, you see an additional discrepancy between Harvard, then Yale and Princeton. Depending on who you talk to, these endowments roughly correlate to the “power” that each school possess. Some people would go apeshit over this statement, others would say “Yep, dats right” and a person’s position may or may not depend on which school they go to. But I think that we can all agree, that money does indeed bring with it great power.

It comes as no surprise then, that not all Ivy League schools are created equal. While all of these schools rank within the top 15 schools in the country (with the exception of Brown, currently sitting at 16) some are “More Equal” than others. Namely: Harvard, Princeton, and Yale – who make up the top three spots and have for a long, long time.

In fact, so removed from the other Ivies are these three that some people call them “True Ivies,” or more commonly the “Big Three.”

Naturally, this creates a bit of rivalry, not only between these Ivies and those Ivies, but within the Big Three themselves. [In case you were curious, yes there is indeed a “Little Three” as well, but they aren’t Ivies]

These rivalries extend far beyond academia and professional issues, they are also firmly grounded in sports. I’m honestly not hip to the jive on all the rivalries, a lot of them vary and are dependent on sport. For instance in lacrosse Cornell and Pinceton are bitter rivals, but not in hockey. On the flipside, Cornell and Harvard are ultra hockey rivals. But, generally speaking, if one of the Big Three is involved with another of the Big Three, you can rest assured that there is a rivalry and it runs deep. And thus “The Game” was born.

My point is, while the Ivy League is awesome, these three are especially awesome, yes even Yale. Remember how earlier I mentioned that the entire Ivy League took up over nearly 1/2 of the top 15 schools in the US? (lol Brown). Well, why just look at the US when you can look at the world. So, lets do it. Here are the top 15 Universities in the entire world.

1. Harvard
2. MIT (Massachussetts Institute of Technology)
3. Stanford
4. Cambridge
5. Oxford
6. Princeton
7. Yale
8. UC Berkeley
9. Caltech
10. UCLA
11. Johns Hopkins
12. Columbia
13. Imperial College London
14. Kings College London
15. Cornell

So your first question might be, why are so many of the US top 15 not in the top 15 of the worldwide ranking? Well, these ranking systems have flaws. But also the measuring systems are different on a global vs. US-centric scale. For instance, the University of Chicago has a strong base in the United States, but globally it has much less recognition. If you were wondering why schools like Berkeley and UCLA were so high up the worldwide list, but not on the US list, its because of Asia. No really, a big factor in the “World” rankings is the power a school has in Asia since that is a HUGE and growing sector of our international.. well.. everything. The west coast schools have it going on it that regard. But once you focus exclusively on the US, they lose out to say.. Duke. Either way, its pretty clear that the US is dominating the educational arena, at least as far as universities go. Our primary schools pretty much suck, writ large.

But, back on topic, you’ll notice that of the “Ivy League” only three schools make it into the world top 10, despite largely owning it in the US-only rankings. Guess which three schools those are? Yep, the Big Three.

So, if you view the Ivy League as a wedding cake for rich kids, Harvard, Yale, and Princeton are that little piece on top that you cherish and save. Except unlike the cake you don’t come back to them a year later and wonder why in the hell you saved this dank ass piece of stale bread, except maybe Yale.

So there you have it, a brief overview of what the Ivy League is, and by omission, is not. So what do I think about it?

Well, its important to consider my new and limited perspective, but I’ll say this much. A lot of what you hear about the Ivy League is not without merit. I mean that for both the good and the bad. For instance, these schools, especially the Big Three have changed human history multiple times. I don’t mean US history, I mean human history. In fact, there are a multitude of things within mere feet of you that simply would not exist had these schools not been formed. These schools attract and foster the brightest minds in the world. They back research that will touch every faucet of our existence and they produce a solid portion of the people who will go on to be leaders, both at home and abroad. But there is bad as well. Elitism still roams these Ivory Halls. As does a great imbalance of representation. While the WASPs might have largely faded, they have only been replaced by another generation, which, while numerically smaller, still holds all the right keys. At Harvard for instance, 40% of the University comes from the top 3% of households by income. With an additional 30% coming from the rest of the top 10% of households. That means that roughly 70% of the class comes from the top 10% of earners. And from what I’ve seen, this kind of statistic runs fairly constant at the other Ivies, sometimes a bit better, often even worse. So, I view the Ivy League as an extraordinarily powerful group of institutions, yet these schools, and all their influence, remain largely inaccessible to a large array of applicants. Some argue that exclusivity is the point and on that note alone, I would agree. However, the way these schools define exclusivity, the way they pass out straws, is inherently flawed. Though things are getting better, I mean I’m here and my family can only afford a paltry three yachts, there is still a lot of work to be done.

And there you have it, you are now more knowledgeable about the Ivy League than most people ever will be. I hope you also know, that there are many schools, such as those in the list above that are just as good, if not better than most of the Ivy League, exclusive of the Big Three. And more importantly, the best school for one person may not even be any of these schools, for instance Yale is pretty much only good for convicts. So go where you find your fit, be it the online technical school, the community college, or the state school.

But should you be unable to resist that allure of the ole’ Ivy Charm and all the doors it tends to open. As a student from one of three bests schools at the best university, I’ll leave you with the best advice you will ever receive in regards to the Ivy League:

When it doubt, Pinky Out.

Until next time,
-Taco

The Cold Has Arrived (And a Beer-Blurb)

November 22, 2014 by Taco

Up until this point (11-14-14) we’ve been fairly lucky in regards to temperature. Sure, we’ve had some cold rainy periods and a loathsome Nor’easter, but no real cold-snaps. That ended today. Well, it sort of started yesterday, but it really got here today. A few short days ok it was sunshine and temperatures in the mid 50s, tomorrow is a high of the low 30s. Gotta love how quickly those changes roll in. Of course, I’ve always lived in a place with this kind of weather pattern, so its not that huge of a deal. So far we’ve only had a light bit of a snow (not today, a week or so back), but it looks like its only going to get worse from here on out. I guess it had to come sometime. The good news is that I have all my warm clothes and a freshly delivered toboggan and cowl that my Aunt made. I still need to get some warm shoes, in fact I really, really need to get some warmer shoes, but at least I did get some warmer socks.

School is very busy, which is normal for this time of the semester, except its a little worse than usual since its well… law school. I’m right in the middle of a big white paper for my student practice organization, the open memo deadline grows ever nearer (and I found out yesterday like almost all my research is wrong) then of course exams (which are 100% of my grade in 4/5 of my classes) will be here before I know it. I also know that I’ve alluded to writing my law-school impressions more than once now, but I’ve been busy so I’m not making any promises.

Today is Friday though, which means its going out time. A while back SB and I received a 10$ off coupon for UNO. Neither of us had ever been to one before, honestly I didn’t realize they had anything but pizza. So we decided to go check them out. Turns out they have a lot more than pizza, we went with sandwiches (they are oddly pricy for what they offer, sandwiches are between 10-11$ for instance).

I went with the Fire Cracker Chicken sandwich (in the foreground: Grilled chicken, house-made guacamole, spicy dressing, buffalo cheddar, lettuce, tomato and red onion) while SB went with the Turkey, Bacon, Avocado (in the background: Turkey breast topped with crisp bacon strips, green leaf lettuce, avocado slices and tomato on herbed focaccia bread). Both were tasty.. except that SB’s had no avocado. We didn’t end up complaining about it because the cares were low and our server barely spoke English and was fairly hard to understand (at least for me).

You’ll also notice that there was only one beer (a travesty I know). Their beer prices were fairly good, they have 5$ and 6$ 20oz craft specials. The 5$ special was Blue Moon and they had a few other 6$ specials (see the card in the image below). However, since the food was expensive we decided to just get one beer and share it. We went with:

1. Long Trail Brewing Co. – Double Bag Altbier

So the first thing you might notice if you actually click the Beer Advocate link is that this beer has amazingly good ratings. I had no idea when we picked it, I was mainly just going for a semi-local (its from Vermont) beer that I hadn’t had before. It was also 7.2% ABV, which means it would make a good share beer. It was definitely a good share beer, in fact it had a bit more bite than I was expecting (though nowhere near the Dogfish Punkin’ Ale). It was a clear copper color with some strong alcohol scents, though not overpowering. It was a fairly intensely malt-flavored beer with some leafy accents that left it overall fairly dry. It was definitely what I would call cold weather beer, which was fitting. It might not be the same as a winter-stout, for example, but it was close. The last few drinks were pretty strong. I’m glad we ended up sharing it to be honest, this strikes me as more of a 12oz, rather than 20oz kind of beer.

So overall UNO was good, it was kind of like a better version of TGI Fridays. I can’t speak to their “famous” deep-dish pizza, but after having authentic Chicago Deep Dish, from, well, Chicago they would have a big wall to climb to impress me. Our server was just “meh” and they were kind of slow (which was weird because when we first got there it was fairly empty, but by the time we left it was PACKED – like 2 HUGE parties came in). I’m not sure I’d go again without another coupon, but it was definitely worth it with the coupon.

We then headed off to our usual weekend market haunt for some Rhubarb Crisp and Cookies (yay!). I also got some boring Bud Light since I was trying to save money.

So now I’m going to settle in and enjoy my Friday evening while the steam radiators slowly bring the temperature ever closer to the surface of the sun. SB has a friend in town and she wants me to go to that tomorrow as well. I’ve also got a lot of work to do this weekend, but that can wait until later.

Until next time,
-Taco

Beer Blurb – 8/27/14 (Narragansett)

October 11, 2014 by Taco

So, I only have one beer to talk about this time around, Narragansett. I’ve never had this beer before. I’ve heard of it, but never tried it. I actually didn’t even pick it out. I’m in the middle of law school orientation (as I write this, not necessarily when it gets posted) and I requested that SB get me some beer while she was out. Its not that orientation is overly stressful, but its not really fun either. Anyways, my only stipulation was that it was A: Cheap and B: Light enough for her to carry home alongside the soda. She was probably going to get me another Yuengling Light but they were out. So she went with Narragansett.

1. Narragansett Brewing Co. – Narragansett Lager

You’ll notice its in cans, see instruction A. My initial reaction to the beer was a bit lukewarm. It wasn’t bad, but boy it was not unique at all. I have to admit though, its grown on me as I start drinking the second one, but that is arguably true for most beers. To be fair though, I only poured the second one into a glass, the first was from the can, so that is a very probable issue. Anyways, Narragansett seems to be named after Narragansett, Rhode Island, which is itself named after the Narragansett Native Americans. They aren’t really forthcoming with this information for whatever reason. The brewery has a bit of a “fallen from grace” vibe, in that since its founding in 1890 it seen a rise to the top of the New England beers (a region of fierce competition) to a descent into a narrow market sector. Its slogan is “Made on Honor, Sold On Merit” not sure what the story is behind that, but they definitely didn’t take merit as payment.

Anyways, I had their Lager, the standard for the brewery. Its technically an American Adjunct Lager, which is a fancy way of saying its a light bodied beer, resembling piss, that came about after the American prohibition (which f*cked up our beer in a lot of ways, thanks conservatives). While I normally tend to be a bit more “nice” than Beer Advocate, this is one of the times where I don’t find myself agreeing with their relatively lofty (for a macro) ratings. Its not that Narragansett is bad for an American Adjunct, its just not special. I think if you put this and a PBR next to each other, you’d be hard pressed to tell a huge difference (its there, just not huge).

I’m not even sure how widely available Narragansett, but I’d probably have to recommend at least trying it for the price. This is especially true if you are a Red Sox fan, since this was apparently their official beer for 30 years. I looked but I couldn’t find their current official beer, though my guess is Sam Adams simply because that makes sense on a lot of levels.

Worth checking out, but not too memorable. Cool name though, even though they don’t seem to formally acknowledge its etymology.

Until next time,
-Taco

The Law School Post (Law School 102)

Exams and X-Mas (The December Update)

Ivy League 101

The Cold Has Arrived (And a Beer-Blurb)

Beer Blurb – 8/27/14 (Narragansett)

Search all of Dinosaur Bear

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