I thought I would write this blog piece about student life at NUSL. As an older and married student, one of my concerns was that I might not fit in with the rest of the student body. I have happily found that not to be the case. In fact, I have made lots of terrific friends here and really feel that I fit in. The student body and faculty have both been warm and welcoming.

Although law school can be overwhelming at times (particularly during the first year), I have nonetheless found that it affords me with plenty of social time. This past weekend, for instance, I went to see the Boston Symphony Orchestra. One of my supervising attorneys invited my wife and I to accompany her and her boyfriend to see the BSO perform Bruckner and Shostakovich. Because attendance has plummeted during the Red Sox world series games, Symphony Hall has been giving free tickets away. It was a lot of fun!

Spending time with law school friends has been an important part of my legal education. This past month, I have had lots of terrific outings with other law students: dinner with my torts professor's first year advisees, Chinatown dinner with my Domestic Violence Institute team, the Actors' Gang production of 1984 at Northeastern, a talk by Garrison Keillor, brunch in Cambridge and a few other things.

It might not seem obvious to a law school applicant that he or she should examine his or her relation to the rest of the student body, but it's a consideration that I would definitely advise you to take into account. Establishing meaningful relationships with other students will benefit you in so many ways. You will have people with which to form study groups, discuss legal issues and ultimately get through some of law school's tougher moments. All in all, it will benefit you academically, socially and professionally. Accordingly, I would urge prospective students to any law school to carefully observe the student body and note how students interact with one another. If you get the sense that you will not thrive in that setting, I think that feeling should inform your calculus of where to enroll.

In the interest of full disclosure, though, I should also note that there are times (even at NUSL) when there seems to be no time at all for one's friends and family. Thankfully, these times are circumscribed to exam week and the preceding ten or so days. I also think this is a phenomenon that is common to almost every law school.

That's it for now. Feel free to email if you have any questions! I will be back next week to write about NUSL's Domestic Violence Institute. Have a terrific week!

Posted by Martin at 4:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

One of the great things about NUSL is its real-world emphasis. Through coops, students have four opportunities to work in diverse legal settings and get a sense of different practice areas. In future blog posts, I hope to write more about the coop program. Today, though, I thought I would write about an interesting experience I recently had at Boston City Hall. Going into law school, I never thought that I would take a field trip. This past week, though, I did!

Although coops are great experiential learning opportunities, the real-world emphasis of NUSL is not circumscribed to the coop program. Classes frequently focus on real-world legal issues. One such class that I am taking is entitled "Teaching the Constitution."

This course is divided into two three-month sections. In the first section, students learn about Supreme Court cases that specifically relate to students' rights and how these cases can be taught to local high school students. The second section is devoted entirely to going into local high schools and teaching students about the Constitution and the Supreme Court's body of student rights cases. It was with this class that I went on my field trip.

Our trip was to a hearing at City Hall. It was actually my first time attending such a hearing, and I really enjoyed it. The hearing was prompted through the work of the Hyde Square Task Force, which is spearheading a youth-led effort to get Civics taught in area high schools. It was interesting to hear the testimony of students, who were asking city officials to institute a curriculum requirement that would prepare them for active democratic participation. Moreover, my experience at City Hall got me very excited about getting into high school classrooms!

Posted by Northeastern University School of Law at 12:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)