How many OL's are excited to start school?

[jacy85]

Not having a social life. Never feeling like your are "ahead" in school {there's always something else to do}, burning out in general. In my 2nd semester we had a crazy professor no one could understand who basically tortured students mentally when they were on call. We also had a professor that assigned 160 pgs of reading a week. And then we had a two week take home exam in the midst of all this. People just wanted to give up out of sheer exhaustion. It can be depressing if you don't set aside time to be a normal person instead of a law student.

yea, but doesn't knowing that 1L is the worst, and once you get through that it isn't the same enough movitation to just get through it? Everyone I have spoken to told me 1L is the worst, and after that it gets a lot better.  I'm also hoping that regular gym visits, and occasional bar nights will help me keep balanced.

1L is NOT the worst.  2L sucks even more.  Most people still haven't really recovered from 1L.  Job interviewing is, to say the least, stressful.  Class isn't really less work, but at least it seems a little less since you've finished climbing the learning curve of 1L (this is probably the only good thing about 2L).  Add on cite checking and comment writing for journal, or brief writing and hours of practice for moot court, and 2L quickly saps whatever life you had left from 1L or recovered from the summer.

I'm not sure who's going around telling 1Ls the lie that it all gets better, but every 2L or 3L I talked to told me the truth, and I simply refused to listen.  I couldn't see how anything could be worse than 1L.

[jimmyjohn]

I honestly can't wait.  For the first time in my life, I'm going to be learning about what really interests and excites me, and only that.  Although political science was fairly interesting in college, the law based political science classes were fairly rare at my school, and the non-law ones I found to be pretty boring.  I know it's going to be hard but I honestly don't care. I'm not gonna waste my life doing something easy and not challenging that anyone could do, I want to challenge myself and do something that will take a lot of effort. I'm almost counting down the days before I start. 

You are incorrectly asuming that every second of law school is going to be the most thrilling experience of your life.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  For instance, there is no way that civil procedure could really be interesting to anyone.  Although a very important class (probably the most important in terms of what lawyers do on a daily basis) the material is just hoplessly dry. 

You're not the first to be overly excited about law school.  In the end, nearly every student comes out jaded at least a litle bit.  This includes those who say they enjoyed the experience.  Your outlook on the legal system and the world around you just changes dramatically.  You'll look back in a year and wonder how you could be so simple minded about law school.  I'm not criticizing you, but merely pointing out the naivete that runs rampant among pre-laws. 

[Strong]

I was the same way before 1L asking about all the supplements and hornbooks.

[MiamiLaw]

I honestly can't wait.  For the first time in my life, I'm going to be learning about what really interests and excites me, and only that.  Although political science was fairly interesting in college, the law based political science classes were fairly rare at my school, and the non-law ones I found to be pretty boring.  I know it's going to be hard but I honestly don't care. I'm not gonna waste my life doing something easy and not challenging that anyone could do, I want to challenge myself and do something that will take a lot of effort. I'm almost counting down the days before I start. 

You are incorrectly asuming that every second of law school is going to be the most thrilling experience of your life.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  For instance, there is no way that civil procedure could really be interesting to anyone.  Although a very important class (probably the most important in terms of what lawyers do on a daily basis) the material is just hoplessly dry. 

You're not the first to be overly excited about law school.  In the end, nearly every student comes out jaded at least a litle bit.  This includes those who say they enjoyed the experience.  Your outlook on the legal system and the world around you just changes dramatically.  You'll look back in a year and wonder how you could be so simple minded about law school.  I'm not criticizing you, but merely pointing out the naivete that runs rampant among pre-laws. 

I don't mean to sound naive and moronic, but what exactly do you learn in Civil Procedure that makes it so dry and boring? I'm asking this becuase I have heard from a lot of people the same as you are claiming.

[JD_LawSchool]

I have a cocktail of excitement, fear, anxiety, pressure, & hope.  When you mix it 20/15/25/10/30 you have a drink I call the "0L Summer Special"

[jacy85]

Here's an analogy to show why civil procedure is boring, at least until you get into practice (and even then, it's still probably boring).

Compare it to a medical student who wants to learn how to perform surgery and examine patients, but instead has to spend 4-6 hours a week learning how to file insurance claims properly and make sure medical files are kept in order.

I didn't hate all of civ pro, but compared to other subjects, at times it can be as exciting as watching paint dry.

[Blunderbuss]

I am a 2L.  I can't wait to get back to school!

[lawgirl442]

Am I incorrect in thinking that this probably varies a lot by school?  For example, I'm going to UVA, and none of the 1Ls that I met (I visited during "exam season") seemed all that jaded.  They were stressed out, definitely, but most of them said that they genuinely enjoyed the challenge of 1L. 

I have a friend who is a 3L at Northwestern who says he envies me because he really enjoyed being a 1L.  And I'm *certain* he wasn't being sarcastic.

I obviously don't really know what I'm talking about, since I haven't done it yet, but it seems like it would vary based on school, achievement (let's face it, you're probably going to feel better about your experience if you finish with grades you can be proud of), and personality.  I enjoy studying and learning, and while I absolutely expect that I'm going to get stressed out to the point of exhaustion, I also expect that I'll meet a lot of awesomely intelligent people and be intellectually challenged and stimulated. 

[denk]

Yep - totally looking forward to it.  I have a theory that my background and experience in computer science is great prep for "thinking like a lawyer".  I actually believe I already do!  We'll see...

[jacy85]

Am I incorrect in thinking that this probably varies a lot by school?  For example, I'm going to UVA, and none of the 1Ls that I met (I visited during "exam season") seemed all that jaded.  They were stressed out, definitely, but most of them said that they genuinely enjoyed the challenge of 1L. 

From what I know, this doesn't really vary by school all that much; the 1Ls few people I know at UVA felt the same way.  It's possible that for some of the 1Ls you spoke with wanted to sell their school, or simply didn't want to turn you off by moaning about how much 1L sucks.  It is possible that some of them "enjoyed the challenge of 1L" but that doesn't mean they're not burned out.

I have a friend who is a 3L at Northwestern who says he envies me because he really enjoyed being a 1L.  And I'm *certain* he wasn't being sarcastic.

As for your 3L friend, well, all I can say is that everything looks better after you've survived it.  I can say now that I enjoyed 1L in some ways, and that overall, I really like law school.  But would I choose to relive it all again?  Hell no!