Scheduling

Yesterday, I got to schedule my classes for the first time as a law student. A few observations on the whole thing, now that it is behind us for the most part.

Here is my schedule for next year, subject to change:

Autumn 2006
Appellate Advocacy (Beazley)
First Amendment (Goldberger)
Business Associations (Oesterle)
The Federal Courts (Caust-Ellenbogen)
Administrative Law (Shane)

Winter 2007
Legislation Clinic (Huefner)
Evidence (Krivoshey)
Civil Procedure II (Greenbaum)
Advanced Constitutional Law (Laughlin)

Scheduling my classes in college was fun. I went to The University of Akron, and we had online registration there, just like we do at Ohio State. There were several things that made it different from the chaotic stress-fest it is in law school. First of all, there was no limit on the number of credits I could take. I would load up on as many as I could manage within the limits of my time and mental health.

Second, beyond the required classes for my major, and for the Honors Program, I could take what I found interesting. This meant a heavy dose of political science and history, including classes on the Civil War, linguistics, and philosophy. The requirements for my major weren't that bad, since I had tested out of some things in high school. So it was a fantastic opportunity for me to get the most out of college, and study the subjects I wanted.

Judging from yesterday's experience, law school is completely different.

There is very little, if any, time to take classes just because they sound interesting. Everyone who is in law school is preparing for a particular kind of law or job. So if you want to be a prosecutor or defense attorney, you need to get into the classes on criminal procedure, white collar crime, whatever is available. Personally, I am going to become a litigator and want to work in constitutional law, so I took as many procedural and constitutional law-related courses as I could.

Advice to future law students-plan out your schedule before registration. I can't say how it works at all law schools, but ours was like a cyber version of the Oklahoma Land Rush. I sat in the computer lab at 7:59, sweating because the computers and people make the room temperature about 100 degrees. There is no time to look up classes once the online registration window opens-just enter in the numbers as fast as you can.

I kept track of how fast the classes filled up. One that I tried to get was full in 7 minutes. Another was full at 8:05. Things have changed since undergrad. Now, instead of getting into and out of classes without a problem, the people who don't get in get stuck on a "wait list" and have to hope that people in the class drop or cancel. So it's a lot different than undergrad-much more competitive for a small number of classes, and ultimately no one gets everything that they want.

Also, there are some classes that are even more competitive than normal. These include the seminars, practica, and clinics. For these, everyone gets a "first choice request" to try and get the class they want. I used mine to get into the Legislation Clinic, because it only takes 12 people a semester, and is tough to get into.

Bottom line....another situation where stress boils over with a lot of people, but you just have to manage. Another situation where I have to rise above the anxiety and depression that are so easy to embrace right now.