law school depression

[tacojohn]

You all missed out on the greatest thrill of any undergrad career.  There is only one position on campus that gives you absolute power over the emotions of a bunch of frat boys.  It's not the dean of students, it's not the president, it's not a professor.  It's the intramural officials.  It's amazing how they believe they run that program, then for you to have 50-500 of them in the palm of your hand, waiting to be crushed at an intramural basketball game.  I can play them like a violin, boos and cheers.  Ok, I'm a little more professional than that, but it was very thereputic to cut them down to size when neccessary.

Best part of that job, I also got to do the same thing to law students as an undergrad.  Two things about law students: one, they are some of the worst behaved intramural participants around.  And two, nothing is more humiliating to them than having anything they do controlled by an undergrad student, or finding out that an undergrad knows something better than they do.

Considering all of this, all the posturing, competitiveness, showmanship, etc. won't bother me when I start law school in the fall.  Because in the back of my head I'll just be thinking "[TWEET-TWEET] Technical foul, blue 32"

[rachelle]

If you are experiencing depression or stress (or just feel miserable) in law school, there are actually many resources for you.  Don't try to 'tough it out' alone.  Try http://www.Lawyers Assistance.org for a ton of information on depression and the impact it has on lawyers and law students.  Also avail yourself of help from your state's free, confidential Lawyers Assistance Program (find them at http://www.ConfidentialHelp.com. 

They are excellent with issues of stress, depression, drugs, alcohol, addictions and other things that can make law school very hard (or seemingly impossible) to cope with.  They are free and confidential, and they are there for you.   Take a look at the website http://www.LawyersAssistance.org and bookmark it.  Even if you don't need it, chances are that you know someone who does.

[danlauer]

Boys, this is really funny! LOL

Funny?! It may be fun, but funny?! I mean, if you don't think it's fun, that wouldn't be funny, it'd be horrendous, wouldn't it?!

[brillo]

One of those frat boys proposed me one day to play wit him ... and yanno what he wanted to do? just jack off each-other .. jesus, I couldn't believe it ... I mean, why couldn't we do the real thing? Anyway, I handled him the way I should in the end ..

[Melinda]

I am a 0L and this site is definately confirming my worst fears.  I went to Law Preview last week, and noticed right away how diff. these ppl are from undergrad, and we were not even competing for grades. 

I went to a liberal undergrad and studied social work.  We like to talk about our feelings and how evil Republicans are.  It is a totally different genre of ppl.  I still have happy hour once a month with my previous classmates.  When I tell them about law school and my jobs in law offices they look at me horrified.

In addition, I am attending a school with a bad rep for being hostile and competitive (Hastings).  I am not sure how true the rumors will be.  I feel like I need to go drop $1,000 at Lacoste and totally sell out to fit in.  Hopefully I will find a few like minded ppl. 

Anyway nice to have a place I can relate to some ppl. I really enjoyed everyone's perspective especially the frat boy jokes.  I have a magnet on my fridge with a picture of GW that says "Making the world a safer place for frat boys"

[Grubesac]

I used to dress entirely in thrift store purchases, although, unfortunatley, I've recently migrated to a more stylish T-shirt and jeans approach. People couldn't handle the red pants. Point being, I'll too be at Hastings so maybe you and I can fit in by standing out. Its worked for me in the past.

I really don't think things will be hostile. People will make friends, and be friendly. I've heard its a very undeserved reputation. Its a tough grading curve and everyone wants to be on top, but why should that make someone unfriendly? How I treat any of my class mates isn't going to affect if I get an A on a test. Moreover, its fairly hard to tear pages out of lexis nexis. I suppose maybe people won't want to share and study together, but I guess that doesn't bother me. If I want/need a study group, I'll find one, but otherwise I've always studied alone anyway.

See you in a couple months...Do we have a mascot? We need one. I'm campaigning for a Hastings mascot.

[Melinda]

See you in a couple months...Do we have a mascot? We need one. I'm campaigning for a Hastings mascot.

We will have to work on that.  My high school mascot was an Oiler (I am from Huntington Beach originally an oil town).  I don't think I could do worse.  I also was a thrift store kid.  Now I come home with $150 jeans, and my mom was like I remember when you would not pay more than $5 for jeans.  It will always haunt me.  Now I drop 10x the money for clothes that look vintage.  lol.  I feel like a sell out.  I also have a couple big tats, but luckily they are all easily covered.  We definately need to hang out.  When are you moving up there?

[pols]

I definitely sympathize with the OP, but I think people are overexaggerating this "frat boy mentality" stuff. The main problem is the undervaluing of creativity in law school.

I come from an unconventional background - I am a highly creative type, a musician and poet, and I'm also a frat alum. While I have significant criticism of frat life and some of the values it instills, I am grateful for those four years for helping me to become a social and confident person. I get along quite easily with most of the people I've met in law school. However, it is true that my best friends here are the "outsiders" -  the people who don't really fit into any stereotype, or that like more unconventional things like, gasp, non-top 40 music. Law school (not the classes, but the people) can be stifling for creative types, so we have to stick together.

I will also concur with previous posters in saying that while I don't smoke, I've found curiously enough that law students who smoke are more laid-back and interesting than the rest of the law school population. That's a generalization maybe, but eh... it's not like this thread is a stranger to rampant generalization

[T. Durden]

ok i'm just another ignoramous 0L but i'm bored out of my mind right now and why not thrown in my two cents ...

i LOVED the law students-to-be that i met at preview day. they were a gregarious, loquacious, like-minded sort of people who I found intensely easy (and eager) to talk to about whatever topic that managed to come up. now, after reading the majority of the posts on this thread, i realize that my initial appraisal was somewhat and maybe overly optimistic - but i'm still excited to start law school ...

you people are biggest bunch of buzz-kills ever

maybe a little backgroud first, before the hordes tear me to pieces on this one. i have spent the past three years of my life packed away behind a lab bench pushing pipetters interacting with intensely right-brained people. so it was, let me say, "refreshing" to meet people who were capable of normal conversation. so the thrill of this may wear off, no biggy, i'm still looking forward to meeting new people...

and i HOPE that law students are half decent people, and my hope still prevails now (even after four pages of derisive anti typical law student harangues) because if they're not then i'm headed directly for some fifth week depression - me being a "shakka brah" so cal surfer kid headed to a big time stodgy east coast law school where i will know NO ONE. think i'll fit in? maybe i should lie and tell everyone that i was in a frat

ok, enough of this, but if you want to read something that is TRULY depressing and / or scary you should check this out:

http://www.jd2b.com/VanderbiltLawReview.pdf

don't freak out when you initially open it - the size of the font is enormous and you'll burn through a page in 30 sec - the first 40 pages are definitely worth reading even if just for the hard numbers and statistical analysis that the author presents. the last forty or so get a little wishy washy / op-ed but still good if you feel like reading more.

[Trevor]

For your collective enjoyment, may I present, courtesy of the Barely Legal Blog, http://barelylegalblog.blogspot.com/2005/04/people-you-meet-at-law-school-7-frat.html.

Anyway, I had an experniece like T. Druden's at preview day.  *&^%, I'm even another SoCal kid hitting up the Ivy-covered East.  I was really worried that everyone would be uptight, shifty-eyed, and competitive, and was thrilled to meet a bunch of people I could hand out with.  If that makes us all frat boys, I can live with that.  Pledging was one of the best decisions I made in my UGrad career.

At any rate, I'm glad the OP got everything sorted out.  See people?  There is hope!