Congrats on getting into UT with a scholarship. UT was my 2nd choice and I didn't end up going there because for the 2010 cycle I was told a 3.6 was the scholarship cutoff, so I would have had to go sticker. Your timing is perfect - good cycle to apply. I am happy where I ended up since it was a full ride - but UT on a scholarship as a splitter is pretty awesome. Good luck.

For those who have been there - am I crazy to think I can play in 3-4 WSOP events while studying for the Cal Bar? I won't be playing the main event because of the time commitment and its proximity to the bar, but think I could do some studying at the table while I play.

I treated the Cal Bar like a 9-5 last summer and passed. Taking off weekends in June to play would probably be fine.

Pretty sure studying at the table would be a waste of time and would make you look like the biggest tool in Vegas.

can someone tell me how to pass the mpre with the least amount of effort pls

Kaplan has a free online course, do that and you'll be fine

I took the MPRE with no studying and passed. Studying is for losers.

Yeah take it cold, you'll pass most of the time.

I took it cold and failed by the way. Then I took it cold again and my score shot through the roof, improved by over 30 points. Walked out of the testing room both days feeling the same. There's a fair amount of variance I think.

I didn't have to take the MPRE but a friend told me she studied the comments to the rules a lot and it was crucial. Sounds like the exam pulls questions from examples in the comments or otherwise it becomes more obvious if you read the comments.

Studying the comments is a huge waste of time. I think I figured that 2 questions on my exam came from comments to the rules and when I looked them up, I got both right anyways just applying common sense. If you just do some free practice questions from Kaplan or someone else, you'll be fine.

Like the MBE it's all about practice questions and using common sense. There are only so many things to test you on and only so many ways to ask about them. I bought two books of questions at like $20 each and worked on them for a few days before the test.

All I did was watch Kaplan video and passed by healthy margin. 6 hours studying total. My friend, who's very smart, studied way more (maybe 20 hours?) and failed by 2 points. I think he over studied, 2nd guessed himself, and ran bad on the coin flips.

There are probably free practice questions for the MPRE floating around somewhere. I know BAR BRI gave practice questions to those that bought their study materials.

If you study for more than two nights for the MPRE, you are wasting time. The thing is easy to anybody that took a professional responsibility class and has an iota of common sense. I don't think you even need to get more than 65% of the questions right to pass.

LOL at studying the comments.

I was wondering if I could get some advice from everyone:

I'm starting to choose between the law schools that I've been admitted to. At this point I'm still under consideration at Harvard, NYU, and Stanford (should be hearing back in June) and have been waitlisted at Penn, UVA, and Columbia. I've been admitted to:

U-M with a $75,000 scholarship
Georgetown with a $90,000 scholarship
Northwestern with what I assume will be at least $90,000 (they haven't responded back yet but should at least match Georgetown)
UCLA with a $120,000 scholarship (haven't tried to negotiate this and could end up with a full ride)

I'm not sure if I want to live in Ann Arbor for another 3 years (I did my undergrad there).

Among these options, which would you choose?

chicago can get pretty fkn cold (though if you lived in AA i doubt you mind too much) but is an awesome city. if they ship you 90k id snapcall NW.

if UCLA bumps up to a full ride thats also super tempting. id try to negotiate that one up.

and obv if you end up getting H/S go there.

If you don't get Harvard or Stanford choose the one that will leave you the smallest debt.

Are any of those offers based on grades?

You need to tell us more about where you want to be geographically and what kind of law you see yourself doing.

You really have to wait and check back with us when you know about Harvard/Stanford and maybe NYU, and your final offers. There's too much unknown out there right now.

michigan - can't imagine living someplace like this. you couldn't pay me to live there.

georgetown - went here on a similar scholarship and it was awful. i think karak had a more positive experience. hated DC also.

northwestern - chicago is a great city from what ive heard. 90k++ sounds good.

UCLA - prob best city of all, and you're getting the most money to go here. this is the no brainer imo.

Northwestern (50% big law) kills UCLA (30% big law) when it comes to job placement. Should I be considering that?

any advice for a graduation gift for someone attending law school next fall? i know cash is king and there will be a liquor bottle included but anything that you guys wish you had at the start of law school? any ideas are much appreciated

Black's Law Dictionary.

Decent dress watch

As asked above, do you care where you practice?

This. The decision isn't and shouldn't be the same for everyone.

My 1L year I interned with people from quite a few schools. This is anecdotal, but the 2 from Georgetown seemed the least happy. Even the student from Brooklyn Law, as poor as their job placement stats are, seemed a lot happier in general, and with their school. It may be a good school but didn't strike me as a happy place to be.

i go to northwestern so i'm biased, but i'd go there. best combo of job prospects/living. i'm a summer associate in DC right now, so i don't really get the DC hate but i wouldn't go to georgetown for the same money (unless you really want to work in DC)

NU or michigan all day