Colorado - questions?

[flatirons]

2L to-be answering questions.

[parischic]

I have a few questions, some LS related.

I loved Boulder the few times I visited, but I was wondering if its a college-town with not many singles over the age of 25?  Do many 1Ls find summer employment?  And most importantly, are the student rate ski passes?  Do you ever have time to hit the slopes?

Cheers!

[SMO]

tag

[flatirons]

While it's true that Boulder is a college town, you also have young and active year-long residents. FWIW, Boulder was rated the number one area for singles in Money magazine last year. Keep in mind, you probably won't have too much time to date during your first year.

Many of my classmates have jobs for the summer. Some with firms in Denver, Boulder; judicial clerkships with judges or as research associates with professors. 1Ls looking for summer positions had on average 2-3 interviews last semester. Even if you don't land a job, the classes during Maymester are terrific, including a business regulations class taught by a former chief legal officer at Morgan Stanley. Wish my summer job started later so I could have taken this class.

I went skiing a bunch of times but didn't get a pass. In hindsight I probably should have because the pass pays for itself after about three trips. Unfortunately, I don't have the price of the pass in front of me.

Let me know if you have other questions. My non-law school friends are always impressed how everyone seems to know each other at CU law - most likely due to the small class size.

[skier4life]

wow i am actually amazed that there is a CU student on here.  I was able to go to the ASD in April and absolutely fell in love with boulder.  Great town, great school, and skiing is very important to my sanity.  I guess my questions though are more concerns.

How are the job prospects?  The low average starting salary bothers me a little.  Also are DU grads looked at more highly, or do people in the area recognize that CU is higher ranked?  It just seems that people still label colorado as the school that has riots and football player misconduct issues.  Also the state does not satisfy its end with funding.

Since it is such a small school how large is the selection of classes? 

What type of job opportunities are there in the area for those interested in enviromental law while still making good money?  Also I am interested in telecomm and Denver seems to be a big hub for that.

Thats all I can think of right now, but thanks for taking the time with reading and answering these questions.

[flatirons]

From my own experience during the interview process, I believe there's a recognition that CU is the higher ranked school. In the end though, once you get into the interview room, school rankings takes a back seat to your own personality. 

If you are interested in Telecom, you couldn't have picked a better school. We have a superstar in Phil Weiser and he brings well known experts in the field to present at the Silicon Flatirons conferences. People like Vint Cerf (debatably one of the founding fathers of the internet)  frequently appear at these conferences. The cool thing is that students can volunteer to pick up participants from the airport. It's quite an opportunity to have these people as a captive audience. The school also received funding last semester for a new technology clinic so the technology and telecom offerings are growing.

I'm not that familiar with the Environmental law offerings but judging by the US News specialty rankings, the school is highly thought of.

When I was picking 2L classes a few weeks ago, I didn't feel that the relatively small class size of the class restricted course offerings. The faculty has diverse interests and you'll see classes like Law and Literature, taught by our very own mystery writer Mimi Wesson, in addition to the typical offerings.

[skier4life]

thanks for the information.  I guess I have a couple more questions:

What is the parking situation like around campus?  I know that on campus passes are probably sold out but is it possible to find spots on the surrounding streets?

Do a lot of your classmates ski?  I heard when I was there that it is very difficult to get to the mountains on weekends, so do people try and go after classes on weekdays? 

Is the admin very helpful or not?

[flatirons]

Permits are still available albeit in lots about 10 minutes walk from the law building. Many people also try their luck parking on neighborhood streets. If that doesn't work, Boulder has a pretty good bus network and there's a bus stop just across from the law school.

Hitting the slopes is by no means difficult. I personally know of classmates who went skiing regularly. It's not difficult when Eldora is only 30 minutes away.

Complaints about the admin.? Only that they need to work harder to hire international law faculty. The dearth of international law classes is embarassing. I've been impressed with the Careers Office though. They helped me tremendously last year.