The Admits Are Coming! The Admits Are Coming!

Today is Admit Day, the day when those who've received an acceptance packet for the Class of 2009 come to Berkeley, see the crappy facilites, make shallow judgments, and after meeting the people and the professors, decide to come to Boalt.

I had a very similar experience around this time last year. Having seen Stanford Law just the day before, I remember being distinctly unimpressed with the building and the classrooms. The intro video featuring Dean Edley malfunctioned, loose springs in the auditorium chairs were poking my butt, the classrooms were falling apart, the student panels were boring, the tours were boring, and Berkeley in general smelled like pee. "Well, at least there's free food here," I thought.

Then, at the activities fair, I talked to people from the BTLJ, APALSA, and ALJ. Awesome people. Then I met some 2L's and 3L's, and became even more impressed. They took me around the School, showed me the student group offices, and then took us to Telegraph for boba. By the end of the day, I was still very much disappointed with the environment, but very much impressed with the atmosphere.

One year later, here I am in a BTLJ shirt (I don't have an APALSA shirt right now), ready to coerce some pre-1L's. Hell, I might even grab some and take them around.

As for the atmosphere? It turns out my intuition was right. A friend of mine told me that I was one of the only people she knew who was genuinely happy at law school. Conincidence? I think not.

Boalt Hall, Back Again

The U.S. News & World Report rankings of top law schools for 2007 is out, and everyone here at Boalt is happier than they've been for a while. Boalt Hall is back in the Top 10 after a 3 year absence. Woohoo!

The facilites are still crappy, but Dean Edley has been doing a great job of getting top-notch faculty and increasing funding for several public interest programs. One of the original reasons I decided to come to Boalt despite the fact that it has one of the most downtrodden classrooms I've ever seen, is the fact that all the people here were super-friendly and just generally awesome. Since coming here, I've never regretted it. So here's to Boalt... may its rankings continue to rise.