I Can Drive Fifty-Five

Update: I've taken out the long math part at the bottom that explained the credit system at Boalt, and how the new schedule would function. I will post the important parts in the Comments section, if you'd like to take a look. I made a few other changes as well, and these are in italics.

Continuing the nerd parade...

A funny thing about Boalt: much like a hopped-up red-hot, Boalt is the first into the classroom, but the last to leave. What do I mean? Our start date is as early as any other law school that I’m aware of, yet our end date is as late as any school. True, many schools have the same schedule as us. And others may start a week later, but don’t have flyback. But having looked at the schedules of some other law schools, I think we can have our cake and eat it too. In other words, we can have an extra week of vacation without sacrificing flyback.

Put simply, we can make classes a few minutes longer. Right now the standard unit for a Boalt credit is 50 minutes per week. If we up that to 55 minutes per week, we can cut a week off school while still easily meeting all of the ABA’s requirements.

This would have major effects on scheduling, and I realize there are many reasons not to change the schedule. This will be a huge hassle for the Registrar. The booking system for rooms will be totally different. Professors will have to change their schedules. There could be financial implications from cutting a week of class time. With fewer classes, more would need to be accomplished per class (though this increase would be extremely marginal). And of course, it may be true that such a change simply isn’t possible, because of either Boalt or University rules.

But all of these problems likely have solutions. And on the whole, the benefits of an extra vacation week outweigh the costs. There would be an extra week to relax before the school year starts. We can work a week longer if we like and thus earn an extra week’s pay. We would be less likely to burn-out during the semester. Alternatively, instead of a full week of vacation, it could be only a few days, with a couple of days added onto the reading period at the end of the semester, something that all the procrastinators would greatly appreciate.

Other schools have already implemented this system. I checked the schedules of about 5 “peer” schools, and at least two, Stanford and Michigan, use a form of the 55 minute class. In both cases, their Fall semester starts about 15 days after ours (Sept. 5^th), but ends only a day or two later, despite both schools having flyback weeks (UM’s is only Sat-Tues).

I realize this isn't necessarily a huge issue. But many students end work on a Friday and start school the following Monday. Still others actually want to work longer, so as to save a few more dollars. Either way the extra week would really help, and it seems like the school could make it happen simply by extending classes by a few minutes.