Day One - Columbia, New York, NY
Had a bit of drama getting over here, largely due to high stress and lack of sleep prior to departure (aka looming thesis deadlines and undergraduate conference presentation). Forget to bring itinerary with airline information from Walla Walla and then accidentally left address of NY apartment where I am staying in my car in Seattle. But performed triage to recussitate what was left of my trip and through some vigorous phone calls to my travel agent at school (aka Tristan) I made it here on time and in one piece. Phew.
New York weather is crazy. When I arrived it was overcast but fairly warm. Two hours later when I walked over to the law school, it was snowing heavily. Four hours later when I left the school to look at campus housing, it was sunny. Weird. But hey, I like variety. (Better than 60 straight days of rain, anyway.)
The girls I am staying with are SO nice. In fact everyone I've met has been wonderful. Very welcoming, very engaging, very intelligent. Good combo. The classes I attended were interesting. Not traditional law classes - I'll see some of those tomorrow. But these electives were cool. The first one, Law in Contemporary Society, the prof just opined about how self-serving most lawyers are and how the legal profession has been reduced from a noble cause to a mindless exchange of corporate legal fingerwaving for lots of money. Apparently most people from this school go straight to a firm and many of them end up hating it. (According to his biased perspective.) But that's not what I want to do anyway, so being the idealist I am, I was very sympathetic to his call to reject the corporate lures of status and income for a purpose that will actually better the world or help people. It still sounds attractive to me, but I can see how if someone offered me a $140,000 starting salary when I was about that deep in debt already, that would sound pretty good. The second class was about economic development and again, I had a hard time figuring out where the law came into it, but it was like a more sophisticated version of a class I took in France and we debated the value (or harm) of agricultural subsidies. There were a lot of international students in the class and it was valuable to hear their opinions. I really like how multicultural this school is and how many different viewpoints are represented.
I like the multi-room apartment housing. It's less expensive and you get a living space as well as a bedroom (as opposed to a studio or "efficiency" apartment), plus people to live with, which I guess could be a pro or a con depending on the people, but as I said, so far I've really liked the students I've met here. Another decision I'd have to make would be living with all law students or just grad students from any of the schools. Hmmm. Do I want total immersion in law school insanity - where my peers can sympathize - or a break from the monotony once in a while? It sounds like the first year will be a really intense experience. But okay. If that's what it takes. Oh, and when I say it's less expensive, I mean it's only $900 per month instead of $1600. It costs SO much to live here! But what did I expect? It's New York!
Speaking of which... It's New York! It's so exciting! I feel like a small-town girl coming from Walla Walla... even if I do live in a suburb of Seattle most of the time. The only place I've been that is anything like this is Paris. So it actually feels almost familiar, except I understand the language here a lot better. ;) It's beautiful. There are old cathedrals and parks and museums and it seems like a really exciting place to live. All the law school buildings are new and very nice.
Columbia has a reputation, apparently, for focusing on corporate law, which I am not at all interested in. But the people interested in Public Interest Law, like me, say that actually it's an unexpected plus, because the Public Interest Law department has less students to focus on so you get more attention. Plus again... you're in New York! Lot's of public interest projects to do here.
I asked a little about conservative culture on campus because I've seen a lot of liberal activism, kind of like Whitman. Apparently because of the business emphasis there are a fair amount of economic conservatives and free market thinkers. It is definitely not socially conservative at all, but I think after four years of the Whitman hippy-liberal experience, I wouldn't know what to do someplace where it was. They do have a thriving Federalist Society which I may check out this evening. But I already know that I can fit in wherever and do my own thing. Frankly, I'd rather stand out and not just be one of the crowd.
Well, they've got me scheduled for all kinds of fun for the next two days, so I'd better be off. I just wanted to record my experiences for later comparison.
New York weather is crazy. When I arrived it was overcast but fairly warm. Two hours later when I walked over to the law school, it was snowing heavily. Four hours later when I left the school to look at campus housing, it was sunny. Weird. But hey, I like variety. (Better than 60 straight days of rain, anyway.)
The girls I am staying with are SO nice. In fact everyone I've met has been wonderful. Very welcoming, very engaging, very intelligent. Good combo. The classes I attended were interesting. Not traditional law classes - I'll see some of those tomorrow. But these electives were cool. The first one, Law in Contemporary Society, the prof just opined about how self-serving most lawyers are and how the legal profession has been reduced from a noble cause to a mindless exchange of corporate legal fingerwaving for lots of money. Apparently most people from this school go straight to a firm and many of them end up hating it. (According to his biased perspective.) But that's not what I want to do anyway, so being the idealist I am, I was very sympathetic to his call to reject the corporate lures of status and income for a purpose that will actually better the world or help people. It still sounds attractive to me, but I can see how if someone offered me a $140,000 starting salary when I was about that deep in debt already, that would sound pretty good. The second class was about economic development and again, I had a hard time figuring out where the law came into it, but it was like a more sophisticated version of a class I took in France and we debated the value (or harm) of agricultural subsidies. There were a lot of international students in the class and it was valuable to hear their opinions. I really like how multicultural this school is and how many different viewpoints are represented.
I like the multi-room apartment housing. It's less expensive and you get a living space as well as a bedroom (as opposed to a studio or "efficiency" apartment), plus people to live with, which I guess could be a pro or a con depending on the people, but as I said, so far I've really liked the students I've met here. Another decision I'd have to make would be living with all law students or just grad students from any of the schools. Hmmm. Do I want total immersion in law school insanity - where my peers can sympathize - or a break from the monotony once in a while? It sounds like the first year will be a really intense experience. But okay. If that's what it takes. Oh, and when I say it's less expensive, I mean it's only $900 per month instead of $1600. It costs SO much to live here! But what did I expect? It's New York!
Speaking of which... It's New York! It's so exciting! I feel like a small-town girl coming from Walla Walla... even if I do live in a suburb of Seattle most of the time. The only place I've been that is anything like this is Paris. So it actually feels almost familiar, except I understand the language here a lot better. ;) It's beautiful. There are old cathedrals and parks and museums and it seems like a really exciting place to live. All the law school buildings are new and very nice.
Columbia has a reputation, apparently, for focusing on corporate law, which I am not at all interested in. But the people interested in Public Interest Law, like me, say that actually it's an unexpected plus, because the Public Interest Law department has less students to focus on so you get more attention. Plus again... you're in New York! Lot's of public interest projects to do here.
I asked a little about conservative culture on campus because I've seen a lot of liberal activism, kind of like Whitman. Apparently because of the business emphasis there are a fair amount of economic conservatives and free market thinkers. It is definitely not socially conservative at all, but I think after four years of the Whitman hippy-liberal experience, I wouldn't know what to do someplace where it was. They do have a thriving Federalist Society which I may check out this evening. But I already know that I can fit in wherever and do my own thing. Frankly, I'd rather stand out and not just be one of the crowd.
Well, they've got me scheduled for all kinds of fun for the next two days, so I'd better be off. I just wanted to record my experiences for later comparison.
posted by Snarkily Single at 1:25 PM
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