Legal Scholars Day at McGeorge

Well, this weekend I made the 300 mile trek to Sacramento to attend the Legal Scholars Day at Pacific McGeorge. From 9:30 until 4:00 there were a whirlwind of activities to take part in, from campus tours to lunch with a sitting judge/alumni to panels with students and faculty.

I didn't have high expectations for the weekend...I knew McGeorge was not in the best area of town, and it's not highly ranked (it's solidly TTT), but ultimately I was kind of impressed by the program that they put out!

We arrived and had a nice continental breakfast, and then opening remarks by Adam Barrett, the dean of admissions. After the opening remarks, the group of potential students (I think there were between 35 and 40 of us) split into 2 groups and went to two different 1L classes. I went to Torts, which was taught by the professor who would be leading the mock class later that day (Levine). The class was about product liability, and was pretty interesting and entertaining. The classrooms were all well laid out and well lit, with comfortable chairs and fair acoustics, and an outlet at each seat. Every building on campus has wireless internet.

After our 1L class, we split into smaller groups and took campus tours. My tour guide was a 4E who was nice, but couldn't give me as much information about the full-time program as I would have liked. While the campus itself is very nice, well-manicured, and, for lack of a better word, "homey", the area immediately surrounding the school was GHET-TO. I definitely wouldn't feel safe walking to my car alone after dusk, and wouldn't be surprised if my car was broken into while I was in class. My tour guide (AnnMichelle, but let's call her Ann) talked about a lot of things. Here's a bullet list of my notes:

• Library is under construction right now, but will be completed late summer 2011. It has over 1/2 million titles, but is switching (slowly) to database based catalogue.
• On-campus housing is available on a first come, first serve basis. Prices are comparable to off-campus apartments (especially in 2 bedroom apartments).
• Two institution study abroad programs exist: Guatemala and Salzburg. Justice Kennedy (that's right, the Supreme Court Justice) teaches one of the courses in Salzburg every summer.
• Career services is a good resource for honing interview skills or working on your resume, but you have to do almost all of the legwork for finding a job yourself.
• Campus safety and security is pretty present, and are willing to walk you to your car in the evening.
• Seems like there's a definite turf awareness -- the people from the neighborhood don't come on to campus, but expect for the law students not to go to the neighborhood park, etc.
• There's a strong externship placement program in place, and especially in the public interest/government sectors.
• Life in on-campus housing can feel like living in a dorm, but it's not quite as bad as undergraduate dorms.
• A lot of people seem pretty glad that there's not attached undergraduate school, because then there's not a lot of competition for the same resources, and everyone at McGeorge is there with the same goal, and generally the same mental outlook.

After the tour came lunch (which was really nice...I was expecting sandwiches or something), and then a talk by Judge England, a 1983 McGeorge grad. After lunch we went to our mock class, which wasn't long enough (only 30 minutes). Professor Levine had sent out an email with a case that we needed to (briefly) read up on -- Hammontree v. Jenner. It was really interesting, and pretty fun, although I suspect that's mostly to Professor Levine's credit.

After the mock class we had the "talking heads" portion of the day, where the Dean of Students, Dean of Admissions, Career Services Director, and Director of Placements (Externships) spoke to us about what they do and the help their offices provide. It was the least interesting, least helpful portion of the day.

After that there was a panel of 6 current students that came in to talk to us about the school without the administration there. It was helpful, I guess, but a little long winded, as each student answered each question.

Overall, I was pretty pleased with the program, and my expectations were met and in some case exceeded. And I got a free sweatshirt, so it was definitely worthwhile.

I'm going to a similar program at Santa Clara on the 19th, and then to Dallas on the 1st, so we'll see about how it compares to my other choices! :)