0L Preparation: Browsing TLS Threads

One thing that I think has been incredibly helpful to me in the past, and will continue to be incredibly helpful to me over the next several months, is looking at the advice and opinions given by TLSers who are currently in law school. They're living the life I'm going to be living in 6 months, and they're willing to pass on their knowledge to lowly 0ls like me!

Life is too short to make all of the mistakes yourself, so you should learn from the mistakes of others. (Or, conversely, you should copy the successes of others in order to be successful yourself.)

Now, a lot of different TLS users have waxed poetic about their own path through 1L, and a lot of times it's interesting, but not very helpful or applicable. But that's not always the case, and when you find those threads that are just AWESOME, you need to bookmark them, print them, or tag them so that you can go back time after time and reap the benefits of what they have sowed.

If you don't want to spend the time searching through years of links and comments (although I would recommend it!), I'll give you a few a whole bunch of my favorite threads here. These are the different threads that I think will be incredibly useful to 0Ls and 1Ls, and I'm sure I'll be referencing them time and again starting in August.

Let's try to put them in some kind of order, shall we? Starting out, here's a list of links helpful for people who are considering applying to law school, or have yet to get in/go anywhere.

• First off, we have bk187's Compendium of 0L Follies. I actually tend to think that bk187 is pretty extremist, and disagree with several of his posts on TLS, but I think that this is important to read if you're considering law school. The world is not as black and white as bk187 makes it seem, but you should definitely know that what he says is a serious possibility.

• Next, Knock's Useful Links Thread. This is a list of helpful links for people considering applying to/attending law school. Everything from LSAT information to Employment stats can be found in a link on this list. Well done, Knock (and others).

• Then we have lishi's links for 0Ls, which has a GREAT list of E&Es and Hornbooks, as well as links to a ton of 0L prep questions and suggestions. I'm a fan.

• Lastly, an interesting list of books to read before 1L (if you're so inclined) can be found in the discussion answering chicagored's question in this thread.

Okay, so say your cycle didn't go so well (or even if it did and you're just crushed by that one dream school's rejection)? Reading through The Ding Bar thread will definitely make you feel better. Feel free to post something scathing about that awful school that dinged you, biting wit is the name of the game on this thread.

Now, once you get into law school, you're kind of on your own. I mean, there's not some book out there that's called "A Guide Just for Twenty-Something Law Student About How to Do the Best and Get the Most Out of Her Law School Experience," is there? No. But you can get some pretty good advice on TLS. Just make sure that you're taking advice from the right kind of poster.

• First in this category, we have Talon's guide to success in your first year. Talon was top of the class at a T10, and this guide is incredibly thorough and well-written. In it, Talon specifically discusses 0L prep (a tiny bit), learning the law, the law school exams, first year classes, and a bunch of other stuff.

• I think Arrow's Advice for Doing Well in Law School (at a T2) was the post that a bunch of these other advice posts are based off of. Arrow was top of his class at a lower ranked school, but then transferred to a T10 school (if you're interested, he went from Loyola LA to Berkeley). His post is really thoughtfully laid out, and covers everything from deciding where to go through how to get through finals (there's more info about 1L than 0L, so that's why I stuck it here). This is a MUST READ. It's been edited 106 times over the years to include some seriously amazing links and file shares, so take some time to look it over.

• Another great resource is MegaTTTron's Advice for Doing Well at a T1 (although I'm sure it applies to non-T1 students, too, don't worry). I found his advice on class prep and outlining particularly helpful. MegaTTTron transferred from a T1 to a top 6 school.

• Wahoo1L's Law School Advice (T10) is also really helpful. It's similar to MegaTTTron's advice, with a little bit of a different take. I think it's important to read everything, even if it's similar to other advice you've gotten already, because it makes you realize how important that piece of information actually is. Wahoo1L was top 3% at his T10 school.

• A fabulous post, xeoh85's Advice for Doing Well in Law School is solid. Xeoh85 was top of his class at UCLA. I *think* xeoh85 then transferred to Stanford (but I might be wrong). Since xeoh85's posts were spread throughout the thread, and the thread was then locked, Protolaw thankfully compiled all of the advice into one (longer) post. But you should still read it.

• SLS2012 (obviously a Stanford Student) wrote Another Advice Thread for 0L, which is very much like those before it. There's really not much else to say. Just read it.

• MTU is in the 10% at Cornell (say hi to the NardDog for me, MTU!) and has laid out a shorter post giving us his (or her) Two Cents About Law School Success.

• Here's another Arrow post...answering someone's question about E&Es and Hornbooks. Definitely worth a read if you're confused a little bit about what, exactly, those things are.

• Instead of a single thread, JayCutler'sCombover's Complete 0L Guide to 1L is a blog, so you should read from the bottom up. It goes over everything from the typical 0L prep suggestions through class prep, exams, random 1L advice, and even transferring (he was accepted as a transfer to Columbia, no idea if he went or not).

• Lastly, the official TLS article, Success in Law School -- A Unique Perspective. It's good.

Up next: the few threads that are about random/specific topics that didn't fit in either of the two categories above but are still important.

• You can't go to law school without paying for it, and unless you happen to have $200k laying around, you're going to have to take out loans. (If you do happen to have $200k around, let's be friends. I make yummy cupcakes.) Rman1201's Law School Loan Financial Calculator is super helpful. It's not his fault that those numbers are so high, so don't blame the calculator when you go into sticker shock and need a paper bag to breathe into.

• I personally use a Mac, but I'm considering switching to a PC (oh, the horror!) just so I can use OneNote during law school. It's the best outlining software out there, and everyone I know swears by it. If you are lucky enough to have a PC but aren't yet familiar with OneNote, you probably should get familiar with it quickly. Inchoate_con's OneNote & Law School: Beginner's Guide is AMAZING. So well organized. So thorough. So helpful! READ IT RIGHT NOW.

• Obviously, the end-all be-all of law school grades is the exam. And this exam isn't like any exam you've ever taken before (or so I hear). Scribe has put together a great guide on How To Learn How To Do Well on a Law School Exam, so before you get to the exam portion of your first semester as a 1L, you should probably take a look at it. In fact, you should probably peruse the thread before you get to school, just so you can know what to be on the look out for.

WHEW! That's a lot of linkage, right there! I hope you enjoy taking the next six weeks to read through all of those! Hahaha. But really, you would be well-served to at least glance at all of these threads.

How cool would it be if TLS printed these all out and published them as one advice book? I'd be the first one in line to buy it, I swear. Anyway, good luck and godspeed!