Thursday, May 14, 1998
The legal life
LAW SCHOOL: The pace is faster, the books thicker, the stress
greater; so how do students survive?
By Emi Kojima
Daily Bruin Staff
"I am confident that 80 percent of students in law school didn’t
know what they were getting into when they first entered," said
Peter Nguyen, second-year law student.
"My first year I woke up with my books and went to sleep with my
books. I was surprised we didn’t reproduce," he said.
Indeed, Nguyen and other students have been chummy with their
books because the UCLA Law School administers its finals this week
and next.
Law students are feeling the grind since some of their classes
having one final as the sole basis of grading for the semester. The
3- to 4-hour final can evaluate all of their 15 weeks of work.
Not only do law school finals occur early in the year because
it’s a semester system, but the life of law students moves at a
faster pace than that of their undergraduate counterparts.
So what is the life of a law student really like? Law students
worry about the time they spend studying, the money used to pay for
tuition and balancing personal commitments.
"Law school is very strenuous," said Erica Bristol, second-year
law student.
"You read twice as much and study twice the amount you studied
as an undergrad," she said, clad in gray sweats and a smile, having
just finished her first final.
Walter Brown, a first-year law student, said that the first year
is particularly hard.
"First-year law students are not relaxed," he said.
"You get to your first class in the morning and feel everyone
geared up for the day. You get this feeling in your stomach when
you get to school. Then you’re just going the whole time," he
said.
"At the end of the day you take a breath and then think about
the another four hours you’ll spend reading and taking notes," he
said.
On a typical day for Brown, he studies about five hours. Bristol
studies between six to eight hours a day. Nguyen spends between
four to five hours reading and outlining the main points from past
lectures.
"Law school is graded on a curve. A student is not measured on
ability, but measured relative to others. Only so many people can
get As. Some people can be disheartened," he said.
UCLA’s School of Law, established in 1949, has 1,004 students
enrolled, and awards a juris doctor at the end of three years. It
is ranked among the top-20 law schools by the 1998 U.S. News and
World Report.
Many law students go into debt to finance their graduate
education.
"I am the typical law student at UCLA. My law school education
is funded based on four parts: subsidized loans, unsubsidized
loans, grants, and work," Nguyen said.
"The bulk is going to be loans. When you graduate, you’re
looking at $30,000 to $50,000 in debt at an in-state public law
school. Most of us haven’t seen that much money, but we owe it," he
said.
California residents pay $10,916 in tuition per year, and
out-of-state residents pay $19,900.
Brown also has gone into debt to pay for law school.
"You’ve got to have a certain income. That doesn’t necessarily
mean that you have to work at a large law firm, but you need to be
paid more than public interest law," he said.
Spending so much money on law school and so much time devoted to
study often impedes on the personal relationships in students’
lives.
"I have never witnessed more relationship break-ups in life than
in my first year of law school," Nguyen said.
"There was a special person I knew as an undergraduate and
wanted to keep in touch with," he said. "It was all over when I
went to law school."
Nguyen even had problems when he announced his decision to be a
lawyer. He said that his aunt announced his decision at the table
during Thanksgiving dinner and a long silence followed – and not a
happy one.
Bristol agreed that law school can be hard because your
boyfriend or girlfriend can’t understand why you "want to study all
the time instead of watch TV with them."
Brown attested that "law school can dominate the lives of the
students involved."
"It’s easy to get sucked in," he said, "People can easily take
stress home with them and bring stress into their
relationships."
Brown emphasized the importance of having a life outside of law
school.
"I have a spiritual life apart from the Law School. Other people
don’t have that and can easily find themselves getting completely
closed in it," he said.
Brown wears a yarmulke, is deeply religious and belongs to the
Jewish Law Association. He said that knowing one’s identity is
important in maintaining perspective.
"(Law school) is really like a world unto itself. It’s its own
microcosm. It becomes reality if you let it," he said.
Brown runs on the beach in order to get a change of environment
from the Law School.
Bristol said that her experience at law school has affected
everything.
She said that she cannot watch TV anymore without questioning
everything – from the news to legal shows.
But Bristol emphasized that law school can help students
experience personal growth.
"I think how much I’ve matured as a person. Before law school, I
didn’t think I was disciplined, just a jack of trades, master of
none," she said.
"I think how much I’ve done in the last two years, and it’s
probably more than I’ve done in the last 10 years. I can do
anything I want," Bristol said.
Bristol has been busy, serving as the Community Service Chair
for the Black Law Students Association this year and appointed as
next year’s editor in chief of the Bulletin of Law and Technology.
These two organizations exemplify the main categories of
extracurricular activities at the Law School: social groups and law
journals.
The UCLA Law School currently has 28 student organizations, 11
law journals and publications, and the Law Review.
These groups help distinguish students in the job market as well
as to provide them with skills and experience in areas of law of
their interest.
Student organizations function to provide community service and
networks of support, and office members generally are elected.
The Black Law Student Association, for example, focuses many of
its activities on educating younger students about the lives of law
students.
"We have to act as role models and help other students who are
not that interested in education. They need to see that there are
black attorneys and black doctors," Bristol said.
Law journals publish articles about new issues in a the
field.
"Critiquing scholarly articles improves your writing, and
writing well is the most important skill as a lawyer," Bristol
said.
The UCLA Law School even has its own student government group,
elected by the law students at large. Nguyen is the outgoing
president of the Student Bar Association (SBA).
This year, it ran activities such as the book exchange to
increase profits and cut costs of textbooks and is working on
getting alumni lifetime e-mail accounts.
"I ran for office because SBA has never been very active. The
only thing it did before was to put out free beer for people,"
Nguyen said.
Although Nguyen is happy with the results of SBA, he consents
that it is "really difficult to devote a tremendous among of time
to a cause you feel strongly about when you’re in law school
because it will compete against law school."
Because law school can be such a stressful experience, many
students recommend taking time off before entering the grind.
"A lot of people take a year or two or three off," Brown said,
"it gives them perspective."
Nguyen also recommended taking a break between getting a B.A.
and a J.D.
"I did not take time off. I would highly recommend it because
students who have taken the time off have better direction and
perspective. They are more refreshed and ready to go," he said.
Bristol, who took a "long break" and worked as a legal secretary
for a number of years before entering law school, suggested
entering law school right after completing undergraduate
studies.
"Once you’re out in the working world, you’re not going to want
to come back," she said.
Despite their legal training and stress due to finals, law
students waxed poetic in describing their experience to the
uninitiated.
"It’s very akin to being dropped in the middle of a foreign
country and not knowing the language," Nguyen said.
"It’s like white-river rafting, holding on and not knowing
rather you’re going to get thrown out," Brown said.
"It’s a test in itself – of esteem and discipline and
commitment," Bristol said.
DAVID HILL
(Left to right) Tirzah Abe Lowe, Michael Reedy and Mike Huang
chat in the Law School hallway.