Sowande, 2L

As you probably know, students receive what are called "Evals" (evaluations) of our performance here at Northeastern University School of Law. They are [sometimes] detailed records that become a part of our transcript. Instead of grades, they are credit/no credit, and they contain buzzwords (e.g., excellent, great, good, satisfactory, poor) that potential employers, scholarship organizations, and students use to evaluate performance.

As strange as it sounds, we are not the only law school to use such a system, and I find it to be a very interesting approach. There are certainly positives and negatives. One one hand, the professor's words and impression are included in them, so you get some great talking points for interviews. On the other, they are not so easily understandable at first, and may even say some things that make you think, "whoa, that's a pretty strong word."

I received my set of evals for two of my classes today--Civil Procedure and Torts, and the anxiety building up to this first set was harsh. For me, it feels as though I've completed the first semester of law school--again. But there is a very important sense of closure that has come with receiving them, actually I'm almost hesitant to say closure because these sassy little nuggets are going to follow me from here on out. I get the feeling that my exams were fairly scrutinized, and from them was extracted a sense of the "Torts me" or the "Civil Procedure me" that was put into the professor's own words--some of which I understood outright, and others that it took some reading between the lines.

The difficult thing about evals for me is that they seem to take quite some time to receive. So, as for examining my performance in a class, it's a bit trying to have to wait what seems like an eternity to receive them. Also, not receiving them all at once is a bit difficult, but I'll take what I can get. It's fine now, but the wait had its moments.

Now that that's over, well the first part, I'm heading out for live Brazilian music and FOODS! [Okay Sowande, let's see if we can keep food out of a blog just once...] Oh, one thing about Boston is that there's always some good grub grabbin' somewhere. Take your pick, Vietnamese, Brazilian, Colombian...

Final note: if there is anything on campus or around Boston you want to see, let me know. Camera is at the ready.

Posted by Sowande at 5:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Friday's high temperature is noted to be 1 degree Fahrenheit... That's pretty exciting.

We're back in the swing of classes, and along with the heavy, heavy, heavy workload required in our Constitutional, Contracts and Criminal Law classes, is our very... "complex" social justice project.

I really haven't had time to do much of anything outside of classwork these last two weeks--oh wait a minute... a school-mate and I had some amazing Colombian food, some of which has immortalized itself in my Contracts book. I guess I was pretty hungry.

I've been singing the praises of our Northeastern University Dining Hall. They have a tight salad bar, and even have beets. My aunt used to try to make me eat beets when I was little and they were so nasty back in the day--now I can't get enough. A little blue cheese (which they have at the dining hall) and I'm set. They also have cool lunch menus and spaces to work. It's also not too loud in there, because I think not a lot of people go there.

As you read above, we are taking Constitutional, Contracts and Criminal Law this semester, along with LSSC, and I am once again amazed by the professors I have been assigned to. They are "dynamic" in their own individual ways, but the required reading is something to behold, and something I sometimes want to be-THROW out of a moving vehicle... but you read, you learn, and you "keep it moving!!" as my road dawg says.

I am starting to see how classes really build on each other though, and that the concepts we covered last semester come up in rapid fire succession in each of these classes. It's exciting to actually be able to understand the words that are coming out of the professors' mouths.

On to Contracts reading. FYI, what happens when class has to be re-scheduled sometimes is that there is a makeup day--one of which happens to be tomorrow, so we have four classes (instead of the usual three on Thursdays) back to back from 8:55 a.m. to about 6:00 p.m., with about an hour break somewhere in there--I hope.

I'll make it through.

Posted by Sowande at 8:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I got on a plane last night at 11:01 p.m. in Las Vegas, Nevada, arrived at Boston Logan Airport at 6:37 a.m., and went pretty much straight to classes this morning at 8:30. Talk about a rush.

Second semester is no joke. Our entire 1L class was advised of deadline upon deadline for our LSSC courses, both the Social Justice component as well as the Research and Writing component, and after the morning course overview, we immediately broke out into our law offices (Law Office 12 y'all, keep us on your radar) and got down to the nitty gritty of ferreting out our final project.

Tensions at school were higher than a well-crafted souffle, and today I was reminded that while Northeastern definitely is one of the more collaborative campuses, there are still many "A-type" personalities because, folks, this is still law school and the people who come here to study have high demands and come from varied backgrounds.

Some are better at handling stress than others, but what it boils down to for me is an exercise in being able to work with and around people whose perspectives and experiences are different from my own, while absorbing the wealth of knowledge and accepting the privilege that law school has to offer.

On another note, hopefully by now everyone's submitted applications. Bravo! Now is the time to really start researching the cost of housing, Boston's interesting weather, what your finances look like, scholarships that are available, and what alums from Northeastern have accomplished. For me, the better my grip was on what I was getting into, the better able to handle law school's gnarly curve-balls.

As my folks back in Arizona love to say, "GIT R DONE!"

Posted by Sowande at 8:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)