Comments | megspencer: On Funks and Law School

megspencer

On Funks and Law School

Jan 12, 2010 17:38

I've been in a funk for most of the day. It's a combination of a number of things. I got back from volunteering in El Paso on Saturday, an experience that was very good, but also extremely draining on a number of levels - I slept very poorly, drank too much (which partially contributed to the sleeping poorly), was around other people 24/7, was ( Read more... )

Comments 15

susanofstohelit January 13 2010, 00:01:07 UTC

we'd talked about shopping or lunch - want to do that friday or this weekend?

also, if you want to go over your cover letters with someone, I'd be happy to. I've got way too much carlson job hunt training.

megspencer January 13 2010, 00:03:50 UTC

Lunch would be lovely - I have you penciled in for Friday, but the weekend works for me as well. I'd love any cover letter help I can get. Like I said, I hate the things.

susanofstohelit January 13 2010, 00:05:16 UTC

I'll be free around 1:00 - want to meet somewhere at 1:30? you decide where.

megspencer January 13 2010, 00:08:51 UTC

Sounds good to me! I don't know lunch places very well, but I've heard good things about Crema Cafe on Lyndale and 34th. Sound good?

Thread 7

hilabeans January 13 2010, 01:06:55 UTC

One of the things that has helped me in going back to law school has been connecting with grad students in other fields. You're right, law school does have a lot of students who hate it, possibly because it tends to admit far more students than other graduate programs. However, while there are some differences in the type of work involved (many students pursuing other graduate degrees are spending a lot of time teaching and less time taking classes), people in smaller programs who are continuing to pursue their degrees really tend to love what they're studying and be driven and engaged and interested, and they understand the workload as well. This is a nice change from law students, many of whom are there because they didn't know what else to do and getting into law school really isn't that hard ( ... )

megspencer January 13 2010, 01:11:48 UTC

Hm, that's an interesting idea. I know that there is a graduate student association at the U and I'm pretty sure that they do host mixer-type events from time to time. I'm thinking that if I could convince someone to go with me, it might not be quite so scary.

I've really tried to keep out of the bitching in general. It's not entirely dissimilar to the kind of thing I saw going on at the office I used to work at, though it's ironic given that we're actually paying a LOT of money for the privilege of being at school, so it seems like one should at least try and enjoy it!

sumbarbarus January 14 2010, 18:04:31 UTC

I've gone a couple of times for the free food, but in general, the grad student meetings remind me a lot of undergrad meetings at macalester. Maybe Macalester students are just more mature than their U counterparts, or maybe the other departments are just easier, but the other grad students seemed to be more relaxed and less overworked than the students in my department.

megspencer January 14 2010, 18:06:45 UTC

Hm... I can't entirely tell if you see that as a good thing or a bad thing, but spending time around people who are more relaxed than I am sounds nice to me!

Thread 6

chesh January 13 2010, 07:26:58 UTC

With the caveat that everybody is different:
I don't hate/dislike/get annoyed by people who speak up a lot in classes. If I'm also contributing, I'm glad to have another point of view. If I'm not contributing, I'm most likely to be frustrated with myself for not having done a good enough job reading the background material for the class.

By shutting your mouth, you're doing yourself a disservice and you're doing your classmates a disservice. If you're beginning to feel uncomfortable or like you're monopolizing the class, just take a few beats between when you think of a question or comment and when you bring it up. That way, you're leaving room for other people to jump in.

Sometimes school is awesome and sometimes school sucks, but it definitely seems like you're exactly where you need to be. Good luck with classes!

megspencer January 14 2010, 19:04:46 UTC

I try and make a point to only speak up once in class (unless the professor has asked a direct question that I know the answer to and no one else is volunteering), and to make sure that I have something to say that actually contributed something to the conversation. The times I feel more self-conscious are the parenthetical above. I guess I agree that it's a disservice not to speak up when I know the answer - we're there to learn and when we're asked to participate, we should be honest and do so if possible.

I think the bit that's really making me nervous is the fact that there will be twice as many people in my classes this semester as there were last semester. New people scary!