Fighting the fight against a lack of information on Canadian Law Schools.
the writer
Name: @@
UG: @@
UG CGPA: ###
LSAT: ###
LS: @@
LS Class: ####
links
archives
An Interesting Week
This week has been a little interesting. Important stuff first, the Law Eagles won a game with only 7 skaters and a defenceman in goal to extend our undefeated streak to 16 big games. On the less important side, I still haven't received a grade in EU Law. I think the prof is calculating our grades by giving us a grade between 70 and 79 and determining where in that range according to a random digit, but his computer broke. Moot teams came back from reading break this week too. UBC won the UBC/UVic moot and the Wilson. Congrats to all those mooters! On a related note, my International Law prof who supervises the Jessup international law moot asked if I was interested in trying out for moots again this year. Quietly resisting my urge to ask her just how much smarter she thought I was compared to last year when I was rejected, I instead assured her that I was probably going to. I love international law and if I can get 5 more credits for doing it why not. I just hope she isn't leading me to more disappointment.
First years also did their mandatory moots this week. It is funny to remember how nervous I was before mine and then seeing them the same way and used the same patronizing manner that 2nd years told me not to worry about it, assured them the only guy that ever failed moots was the drunk guy in the cowboy hat. Too much fun.
Comments-[ comments.]
7:12 p.m.
Monday, February 24, 2003
Back from the Brink...err Break
So reality has slowly dawned this morning and I am back at the school grind, starting to get wound up for the big final exam rush one more time. Reading break was very nice and a good relaxation day. What has really impressed me though is an increase in the number of people who are reading this site and seem to be finding it helpful, or if not they are sending me an e-mail to ask me a question. That's awesome and keep 'em coming, I always need a distraction from school.
One of the most recent questions out there was about open houses and their value. I didn't actually attend an open house so I can't say first hand what they are really like. This is a side effect of applying to one school, you don't really need much more information. That being said, I think they could be valuable if only for a prospective student to get a feel for the area and the school and the people and all those intagibles that you can't get from a website. In retrospect, if I had actually been to UBC on a school day it may have caused me to apply to a couple of more places, although I probably still would have chosen to go here. A cautionary note though, you will undoubtedly be met with the administration trotting out a number of students to give you the "uncensored" and "inside" view of what the law school is all about. Don't believe that crap for a second. Every university and law school has a number of students who are cozy with the administration who will feed you the same typical stuff you will always here about commitments to excellence and friendly and available faculty. Remember, these open houses are largely to try and attract the best students to enhance the school's reputation. The better the school's reputation, the more valuable every student's degree from that school and there is always a few students willing to pimp their asses for the school's sake. Find some real students (the ones who don't want to talk to you who look very disinterested are the best kind) and ask their opinion for the real uncensored view. Or read my site if you want to come to UBC.
If anyone else has a different view, let me know, I'm willing to give you a few lines of space, free of charge and unedited.
One other thing, if anybody out there has anything to do with the Canadian Law Schools site I posted on on the 14th, could you maybe drop me a line to talk about possible links on your site. Your e-mail (canadianlawschools@yahoo.com) keeps coming back returned. I'd love to enlarge this community and keep it connected.
Comments-[ comments.]
6:39 p.m.
Friday, February 14, 2003
A Promising New Site
I found this site while trolling around the Canadian Law School web community. Looks promising. I am also adding a link to my website. Happy reading break everyone!
Comments-[ comments.]
2:41 p.m.
Tuesday, February 11, 2003
News and Views
Just a couple of things to take note of. The University of Manitoba has recently decided to increase tuition by 91% over 3 years to keep up with the trend of almost every other school in Canada. Nothing really unexpected or outrageous here but take note prospective students, you are entering a very different world than the one that existed two or maybe even a year ago. There is a near consensus now that law school will cost you in the $8,000 - $12,000 range (with U of T still aiming for that ridiculous level of $22,000). One thing that the U of M students got criticized for was voting to approve a tuition increase on the incoming years, but maintaining the same rates for themselves. I think this is justified criticism, even at UBC here we had to put up with some increase in tuition (although it was half as much as the first year increase). I think this is a fair way of doing it, especially when the increases are of such high magnitudes. You can't plan for that kind of radical increase in your financial planning, but a small increase is reasonable.
On another somewhat related note the biggest and the self-declared best of Canada's universities have made a push for a bigger share of any increased funding on the basis that they are the best and deserve more. They argue that Canada's previous more egalitarian methods do not duly recognize the excellent work done at these universities. I have a real problem with this argument since it entrenches the already prosperous. These behemoths already get the lion's share of the research funding and I don't think they are justified in their push to increase it. This posturing is just a product of Canada's centralized public system of funding though, where the entrenched and monied have the resources to lobby the distributing body to increase their entrenched and monied position. If there was some kind of competitive atmosphere for funding then the institutions that were being innovative and providing the best bang for the research buck would get funding. It is unlikely we'll see this happen anytime soon though.
For me, classes go on and on. My presentation for international arbitration seemed to go ok. Reading week is up next week and that should be a nice break.
Comments-[ comments.]
3:12 p.m.
Saturday, February 01, 2003
Poll Results and New Poll
The results from the tuition poll showed that we are a fairly reasonable bunch with 36% thinking tuition should be between $2,000 and $5,000 and another 36% thinking it should be between $5,000 and $10,000. It seems like tuition may settle out in the higher end of that range in most schools across Canada with a few notables going well over that and a few more being just over that. The new poll is more about how people plan to pay for law school post-ante and what the interests are of people going into law school. I think the results will be interesting but I don't want to bias the results so I'll have to save my comments to when I take the poll down. Thanks to everyone who voted.
Comments-[ comments.]
1:18 p.m.