Pick Me, Grade Me, Validate Me
If the readers will kindly allow me to speak to the 1Ls for a brief second, I'd be grateful. Thanks.
Dear 1Ls,
You guys (and gals) are a bunch of spoiled brats. You arrived at a Boalt that has 35% operational wireless THROUGHOUT the campus. Did you have to sign a petition for wireless in the classrooms? Do you know what it's like to only have access to the games that come with Windows? Thanks to wireless I don't even remember the rules of spider solitaire anymore. You also have seminar rooms that are remotely decent and look somewhat new. I confess that you have the distinct misfortune of not having Room 115 anymore, which when we first arrived was the only room with power outlets. That room was great. I didin't think a trough would be suitable for teaching law, but I was proven wrong.
There are really countless things I can point out (new reading room in the library, no construction noise in the library, change in menu at Zeb, etc. But the most important change of all was announced today by e-mail. The registrar wrote:
[Just in case the subtlety of this post is lost on some people reading, it should be taken as measure of the distance Boalt has traveled under the leadership of DE. So read the comments with that in mind.]
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Dear 1Ls,
You guys (and gals) are a bunch of spoiled brats. You arrived at a Boalt that has 35% operational wireless THROUGHOUT the campus. Did you have to sign a petition for wireless in the classrooms? Do you know what it's like to only have access to the games that come with Windows? Thanks to wireless I don't even remember the rules of spider solitaire anymore. You also have seminar rooms that are remotely decent and look somewhat new. I confess that you have the distinct misfortune of not having Room 115 anymore, which when we first arrived was the only room with power outlets. That room was great. I didin't think a trough would be suitable for teaching law, but I was proven wrong.
There are really countless things I can point out (new reading room in the library, no construction noise in the library, change in menu at Zeb, etc. But the most important change of all was announced today by e-mail. The registrar wrote:
Electronic grades are coming to Boalt. This semester Boalt will start posting grades to BearFacts as courses are graded by faculty. No more waiting until February to see how you did in fall semester classes.Spoiled brats. The whole lot of you. You have no idea the anxiety that festers in the human psyche when you have devoted every ounce/gram/bushel whatever of energy you have to finals, and then your grades don't come until two months later. I just can't do justice to the pains you are about to avoid. Now, let's not all jump for joy. This is Boalt afterall and it still takes 8 different websites to get all your personal information together. More importantly, computers and grades have NEVER worked smoothly with each other at Boalt. Hell for half of my 2L year I didn't get the mass e-mails to 2Ls because I was still on the 1L Listserv. So you will forgive me if I have my doubts. BUT, I still want to point out just how lucky (and spoiled and bratty) you all are. Ergo, below the fold, I am going to quote some of my favorite comments from over the years about grades and Boalt. Enjoy.
[Just in case the subtlety of this post is lost on some people reading, it should be taken as measure of the distance Boalt has traveled under the leadership of DE. So read the comments with that in mind.]
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Labels: 0L/1L Advice, Law School, The Resident Evil
posted by Armen Adzhemyan at 12:01 AM
10 Comments:
I seem to remember the same problem w/ campus computers occurring last year...
7/10/2006 11:33 AM
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word from the registrar is the system failed halfway through. they're going to fix it tonight, and the grades will be up wednesday.
thanks boalt!
7/11/2005 11:04 AM
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Armen A: Oooh grades come out today!
Extern 2: Oh good luck!
Armen A: Luck with this school would be if the grades are actually up.
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I heard that Hastings posts its grades about four weeks after the last exam. That's a Bay Area law school that seems to be a well-oiled machine - at least compared to Boalt. And Hastings has lots more students than Boalt does.
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Big ups to Anonymous back there. It's about time someone used the phrase "well-oiled" on this blog.
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looks like the rest of the grades are up now. after sendings a not-terribly-friendly email to the registrar, i was told the problem was with the main campus system, not with Boalt. yay underfunded public school!
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My firm wants an updated transcript and I'm the only summer who hasn't turned one in yet. I wonder if they think I'm hiding a bunch of sub-Ps?
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The whole SIS department needs to be fired and outsourced. Finally then we could have a system so the professors just fill in Scantrons, which goes into the system, makes sure they fit with Boalt’s curves, and then posts the grades if they are valid. If the grades do not match the curve, it just needs to spit out a report explaining why and e-mail it to the professor. There really doesn’t need to be any human involvement except on exceptional delinquency by a professor.
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Does anyone here seriously think that potential students are hinging their Boalt/Not-Boalt decision on the comments of people on this blog about the supposed "incompetence" of the registrar?
I mean, think about that. Do you actually know someone, or can you even imagine someone, thinking "gee, I really like Boalt, but there are these rumors on this dude's blog about the registrar sucking and grades being delayed, so I think I'm going to go to Columbia, where the registrar is said to be top notch..."? I hope not, and if so, I say good riddance to them.
Look, I know the registrar's office aint perfect, but cut these folks a little slack.
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Someone should forward this string to the Registrar and to Dean Edley. Armen? And yes, the same thing happened last year when they said the computers crashed. We live in a world of utter bureaucratic incompetence.
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I thought I'd just add this gem, which I have copied from the BearFacts website:
"Grades are available about four weeks after the last day of final exams."
Oh, the hilarity of it all!
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I heard from a friend that back in the old days before the Internet, profs at big bad Boalt used to have their grades posted one week after finals. So much for progress!
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Entitlement complexes? I pay $25,000 for tuition and can't get my grades two months after exams? The 13 peer schools all seem to be able to do it. Why can't Boalt? You're misfiring at your fellow students. You should be addressing the shortcomings of the hidebound Boalt administration.
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I'm glad that I graduated this spring because it is evident from the comments here that there are many more red hots than I'd previously suspected.
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People have better things to do than to laugh at Boalt because of the registrar. The only tragedy here is that you (we) are wasting your (our) lives on a ridiculous blog dedicated to complaining. That is definitely worth laughing at.
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Much of our past success owed to our ability to attract the very best students by charging them next to nothing to come to a world class law school. Now we're decades behind the times, pay our professors less, and have a dilapidated plant but charge close to market with plans for further increases. But I'm sure that $100 million Edley brings in will make all the difference. Oh, wait, every other law school in the country has a hundred year head start on institutionalized fundraising and much larger standing endowments. That's cool, I think people will still come because, you know, we're really liberal, unlike two of the other top fourteen schools...
Speaking of class comparisons, as a 1L I'd like to note a couple first impressions now we're about 2 months in...
1) 2Ls seem way more nerdy than either the 3Ls or the 1Ls. Despite the "1L anxieties" I'd have to say that 1Ls are a pretty chill group.
2) 2Ls make up for it with the fact that the ladies are way hotter than the other 2 classes. I assume it's just a coincidence.
3) 3Ls need to take better care of themselves. Shave, shower, dress nicer (outside of OCIP I mean...). Yea, yea, yea, tell me that 3 years of law school will do the same to me. First, there's a pretty big difference between 2Ls and 3Ls. Second, check back when we're 3Ls, we'll prove you wrong.
4) 2Ls and 3Ls have been rather supportive of us newbie Boalties (I'm not all about the negative...). I've always been pleasantly surprised with how open you have been - the only problem is that you have to be approached. We don't bite. [Evidence? look around at bar review - no inter-class mingling for the most part]
5) 2Ls and 3Ls get very testy when they feel, as a group, that they’re being insulted. Evidence? What I’m sure will follow...
I will definitly concurr with regard to the hotness of 2L females. I honestly haven't seen enough 3's to make a comparison..you guys like to hide under the floors during lunch.
12:40:
fuck you, newbie. not that we'd ever fuck you, of course.
-- hot 2L
DS will be the first to respond to the 12:40 1L.
First of all, you are correct, the 3Ls are better than the 2Ls. And, yes, the 2L ladies are very attractive.
DS's would really like to respond to "3)" though. He would like to say first, that his theory really only goes for guys—many of the 3L ladies have always dressed nice, this year included. DS thinks that previous work experience has a profound impact on what people wear. That is to say, those of us who have worked before, will, on average, dress more grungy/comfortably when not required to dress up. For example, DS wore a suit every day for 3 years during a prior job. Thus, when he got to law school, and didn’t have to dress up anymore, he dressed down, and he means way down. Athletic shorts, t-shirts, and flip-flops were his favorite outfit. Many of DS’s friends, who came straight through, dressed much nicer than he did.
Now, as 3Ls, we all pretty much dress alike and don’t really care what we wear. This is because, DS thinks, many of those who have had to dress up for an entire summer realize how good it feels to wear what you want, and not what you have to. Those 3Ls who have now live and worked five days a week in work attire, appreciate their ability, for one last year, to wear comfortable clothes and not be slaves to office fashion requirements. In other words, being comfortable is at a premium now.
The same thing goes for facial hair. We had to shave every day. Now, a beard just feels nice, to a certain extent.
This also explains the difference between 2Ls and 3Ls. 2Ls haven’t worked yet, well, half of them anyway.
12:40 – wait until next year and see if the then 3Ls dress and look like the 3Ls this year. Then you’ll know what you are in for when you are a 3L.
Can we watch the language? And also re point #3 by the 1L: there's nothing worse than the Young Republican econ major who wears khakis and a dress shirt with a brown belt on his first day of Contracts. Not that I'm calling you a Young Republican...but
This is my question - how can a 1L tell we 2Ls are nerdy? I haven't seen any 1Ls in any of my classes - so what's your basis for this - your LRW TAs?
A chain of logic as inexorable as it is incontrovertible: 2Ls have the hottest chicks; ergo, 2Ls are superior to 1Ls and 3Ls. To contend aught else is purest folly.
2:31, I learned that at age 10. Now that I'm a 3L, I realize the rest of my education--particularly this year of it--has been superfluous.
It's a good thing someone lined up all the girls in all the classes one day to vote on which class had the hottest chicks. Oh wait....
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