University of Denver

[kill the headlights]

Sorry I didn't respond sooner. The wife and I got back to sick kids who were needing our attention so I didn't check last night. My bad.

I was very impressed with the open house. I spend so much time on these boards and reading about law school that I really didn't have any questions. All of my questions revolved around future employment and financial aid, both of which were not good questions for a large group. But some people asked some interesting questions.

The building was gorgeous. I had been there two years ago but it was during the summer so there wasn't much going on, and I didn't really get to meet any students. This was a good opportunity to see what the students were like and get some interaction with them. The guy that brought me around was named Steve something, he was nice and I think he and I had similar interests. The Dean seemed nice. The professors seemed nice.

I really liked that the first Chipotle was just down the street to. My wife and I went there and they gave us a shirt that said "I've made the pilgrammage to Evans." I thought that was cool. Also, my wife and I found some great apartments by the Lincoln lightrail and I love that I can take the lightrail to school. The apartments that we are going to live in are the Crest apartments.

But that brings up my only concern with DU. The financial aid package is for a single person and I have a wife and two kids. I don't know how I am going to make it work with such a little amount of money to live on. Does anyone else have any kids that goes to DU that can shed a little light on this for me? I would love to be able to see how to make it work. My wife and I were planning on getting a three bedroom apartment, but we decided we could get by with just two, and we still can't see how it is feasible with only 750 a month for rent. A financial aid lady said that the board who makes those decisions isn't very worried about helping people who are married with kids to get through law school, so I am going to have to figure something out.

Any insider thoughts on getting by with such a little amount of money. The funny thing to me is that they say they don't want us taking out too much money. Well, I am going to be taking out 15,000 less than other students because of my scholarship, so can't I take out maybe 2500 more for rent? Also, I am going to be the one paying it back.

But, overall, the school was impressive. I got denied by phone at CU on my way to Colorado. I wasn't very sad. I wanted to get into CU more because of pride than actually attending. I thought the instate tuition regardless of GPA was a huge factor, but I wanted to live in Denver and go to DU, as you can tell probably by my posts. My wife really wanted to go to DU, so she was excited about the denial 

[kill the headlights]

The professors seemed nice.

I did like in the Q & A part with the professors when one of them said " the professors are so nice here, you will always find their doors open and you can hear them talking about teaching (actually, the dean said the last part). There is a very open atmosphere." The funny thing about that to me is that my wife and I went the day before to get a list of off campus apartments and we decided to walk around and see the school before all the open house people got there. It was probably 2pm when we went. We walked around the offices and saw maybe one or two doors open. Not only did we not hear people talking about teaching, we didn't hear any professors talking because all their doors were closed.

Not that this means anything, it is just an anecdotal observation, but it made me snicker to myself. But, honestly, the professors that I have spoken with all seem very nice and genuine.

[kill the headlights]

Sorry to hear about CU, but we are glad your coming to DU! You can take out loans up to the cost of attendance. I’m not sure if this means you can take out loans for the amount your scholarship covers not. There is a loan from Citi bank that allows you to borrow more than the cost of living, but I don’t know the details. Have you though about applying for work-study? Maybe work 20 hours or less a week in the library or as an assistant for one of the deans or a professors. I know classmates who do this. Library gig at night is pretty cush, I always see them studying at the desk, just look up to answer questions. Also can you keep your scholoy and switch to PT? I’m PT most of my classmates work full or part time jobs, many of them in the legal field. Also if you get a job at DU you get something like 6-9 credits a year for FREE, that’s almost 10k a year off the cost. Is your wife going to be working?

Yeah, that is the problem, the cost of attendance is for a single person, not a family, which I have. My wife will not be working, so that makes it tough. But we have made it through undergrad without her working and it wasn't a huge problem. I am nervous about taking out private loans because of the usually bad terms to them, but we might have to. Also, I don't want to go PT.

The funny thing is that they say if my works then they will give us 795 per child extra for daycare. If that is the case, how about they let me borrow the money that I am going to have to pay back and let my wife be the daycare. It seems ridiculous that I have to pay someone else to watch them, and that is the only way I can get the money, instead of just letting their mother watch them?

I am really not as bitter as I am sounding, it is just frustrating. I knew I was going to encounter these problems when we decided to have kids early, but I was hoping people would be a little more understanding. After all, I am going to be the one who pays this money back.

Matthies, I thought you couldn't work during your first year? Also, I think a better investment during the first year is studying, so I am hesitant to work at all. I am just going to have to work more hours during this summer and save up some money to cover the extra costs.

[rekopter]

Sorry to hear about CU, but we are glad your coming to DU! You can take out loans up to the cost of attendance. I’m not sure if this means you can take out loans for the amount your scholarship covers not. There is a loan from Citi bank that allows you to borrow more than the cost of living, but I don’t know the details. Have you though about applying for work-study? Maybe work 20 hours or less a week in the library or as an assistant for one of the deans or a professors. I know classmates who do this. Library gig at night is pretty cush, I always see them studying at the desk, just look up to answer questions. Also can you keep your scholoy and switch to PT? I’m PT most of my classmates work full or part time jobs, many of them in the legal field. Also if you get a job at DU you get something like 6-9 credits a year for FREE, that’s almost 10k a year off the cost. Is your wife going to be working?

Matthies, I thought you couldn't work during your first year? Also, I think a better investment during the first year is studying, so I am hesitant to work at all. I am just going to have to work more hours during this summer and save up some money to cover the extra costs.

I think you can work up to 20 hours a week as a 1L. I also don't think work-study counts as work for that. Work-study is part of fin aid and its all inside the law school. As to working, like I said, I'm PT, most of m,y classmates work, everyone who is in the top 10% of my class works FT, and our top 10% GPA is higher than FT's top 10% GPA. It can be done and get good grades

Isn't there a bit of a logical flaw here? Don't the vast majority of PT students work full time? And aren't PT students measured by grades against their PT peers?

[kill the headlights]

The professors seemed nice.

I did like in the Q & A part about the professors that one of them said " the professors are so nice here, you will always find their doors open and you can hear them talking about teaching (actually, the dean said the last part). There is a very open atmosphere." The funny thing about that too me is that my wife and I went the day before to get a list of off campus apartments and we decided to walk around and see the school before all the open house people got there. It was probably 2pm when we went. We walked around the offices and saw maybe one or two doors open. Not only did we not hear people talking about teaching, we didn't hear any professors talking because all their doors were closed.

Not that this means anything, it is just an anecdotal observation, but it made me snicker to myself. But, honestly, the professors that I have spoken with all seem very nice and genuine.

Was this on a friday? Its DEAD at school on Fridays, there are almost no clases on fridays, the law school opeartes M-Th bascilly, so most professors don't work fridays, or if they do, work 1/2 days simply becuase there are no students around then.

No, I know about the Mon-Thur schedule (which I love). This was on a Thursday.

Also, I thought it was the ABA who said that students are not allowed to work their first year?

[rekopter]

Sorry to hear about CU, but we are glad your coming to DU! You can take out loans up to the cost of attendance. I’m not sure if this means you can take out loans for the amount your scholarship covers not. There is a loan from Citi bank that allows you to borrow more than the cost of living, but I don’t know the details. Have you though about applying for work-study? Maybe work 20 hours or less a week in the library or as an assistant for one of the deans or a professors. I know classmates who do this. Library gig at night is pretty cush, I always see them studying at the desk, just look up to answer questions. Also can you keep your scholoy and switch to PT? I’m PT most of my classmates work full or part time jobs, many of them in the legal field. Also if you get a job at DU you get something like 6-9 credits a year for FREE, that’s almost 10k a year off the cost. Is your wife going to be working?

Matthies, I thought you couldn't work during your first year? Also, I think a better investment during the first year is studying, so I am hesitant to work at all. I am just going to have to work more hours during this summer and save up some money to cover the extra costs.

I think you can work up to 20 hours a week as a 1L. I also don't think work-study counts as work for that. Work-study is part of fin aid and its all inside the law school. As to working, like I said, I'm PT, most of m,y classmates work, everyone who is in the top 10% of my class works FT, and our top 10% GPA is higher than FT's top 10% GPA. It can be done and get good grades

Isn't there a bit of a logical flaw here? Don't the vast majority of PT students work full time? And aren't PT students measured by grades against their PT peers?

The magority work FT or at least PT, but not all. There are rakings for FT and PT studnts, they show the GPA cutoffs for each class so you can tell what your GPA would land you if you were FT or PT based on that years ranking. For 2006-2007 1L's number 1 GPA for FT was 3.84 number 1 in PT was 3.95, they are often like that, or very clasoe, eben though PT works and takes 1 less class. The point is working does not have to affect your grades, if your a good time manager.

FT'ers and PT'ers are graded on independent curves. FT students compete against a different set of students on the same curve and given the LSAT/GPA differences between FT and PT students a 3.85 would be harder to get for a FT'er than a PT'er.

[kill the headlights]

The professors seemed nice.

I did like in the Q & A part about the professors that one of them said " the professors are so nice here, you will always find their doors open and you can hear them talking about teaching (actually, the dean said the last part). There is a very open atmosphere." The funny thing about that too me is that my wife and I went the day before to get a list of off campus apartments and we decided to walk around and see the school before all the open house people got there. It was probably 2pm when we went. We walked around the offices and saw maybe one or two doors open. Not only did we not hear people talking about teaching, we didn't hear any professors talking because all their doors were closed.

Not that this means anything, it is just an anecdotal observation, but it made me snicker to myself. But, honestly, the professors that I have spoken with all seem very nice and genuine.

Was this on a friday? Its DEAD at school on Fridays, there are almost no clases on fridays, the law school opeartes M-Th bascilly, so most professors don't work fridays, or if they do, work 1/2 days simply becuase there are no students around then.

No, I know about the Mon-Thur schedule (which I love). This was on a Thursday.

I’m surprised, when I get there on Thursdays I see a lot of professors. Granted I don’t get there till 4 PM, so those maybe the professors who are teaching evening classes that I see. I will say, thus far in going on 4 years of law school at DU every professor I have personally had I would rate as A or A- on a 4.0 scale. There are two whose teaching style I did not really like, but still they were good teachers and always willing to answer questions. Speaking of which this morning I e-mailed a prof a question I had and he responded in two hours, on a Sunday! I don’t even check my work e-mail much less respond on Sundays. I thought that was pretty cool, now I don’t have to wait till Monday to proceed on my project.

For all the professors that I have met there I would say this is accurate. I just didn't see any out and about.

I am stressing about paying rent though. I never thought there would be a problem with letting people borrow more money. It just seems strange to me. I am hoping that it gets worked out, as the picture looks bleak now.

[LittleMissMeeba]

The professors seemed nice.

I did like in the Q & A part about the professors that one of them said " the professors are so nice here, you will always find their doors open and you can hear them talking about teaching (actually, the dean said the last part). There is a very open atmosphere." The funny thing about that too me is that my wife and I went the day before to get a list of off campus apartments and we decided to walk around and see the school before all the open house people got there. It was probably 2pm when we went. We walked around the offices and saw maybe one or two doors open. Not only did we not hear people talking about teaching, we didn't hear any professors talking because all their doors were closed.

Not that this means anything, it is just an anecdotal observation, but it made me snicker to myself. But, honestly, the professors that I have spoken with all seem very nice and genuine.

Was this on a friday? Its DEAD at school on Fridays, there are almost no clases on fridays, the law school opeartes M-Th bascilly, so most professors don't work fridays, or if they do, work 1/2 days simply becuase there are no students around then.

No, I know about the Mon-Thur schedule (which I love). This was on a Thursday.

Mon-Thur schedule? This pretty much made my day... There's a really great music festival @ Red Rocks each year (Monolith), but it's a Fri/Sat thing. I was bummed about missing one full day of music, but perhaps I'll be able to catch a few performances now

KillTheHeadlights- Thx for sharing your thoughts on DU; it's definitely nice to hear positive feedback from other future students. And CONGRATS on the decision to attend!!

[kill the headlights]

I am probably going to drop a deposit down in the next few days.

INTENSE!

[ladivina]

I am also about to make my deposit.  This is terrifying!  I really think that I am making the right decision, but who can be sure?  Anyway, is there a facebook group for the class of 2011 yet?  What about a thread in the decided forum? 

Go DU! I think...