Potential Michigan People Hangout

Seeking Perfection

If University of Michigan is still alive in your cycle, post here if you get any interesting pieces of information which will help the rest of us make our final decision.

I've been noticing a bunch of Michigan love in the comments across 7sage and I'll admit I might be noticing it because I'm leaning Michigan right now with my offers as they are.

I'm also planning on attending the first ASW and will post any interesting things I find out then here.

Seeking Perfection

@fifthending
@tylerdschreur10
@"Leah M B"
@LSATcantwin
@elisajelley

You are the people I noticed expressing interest in Michigan. If you find out anything interesting, please mention it here so I can hear about it.

Things that may be common knowledge that I've found out worth knowing:

PHID house is the cheapest law school housing I have ever heard of. I may look at it during the ASW, but I think living in a co-op might be too distracting for me during 1L.

The Lawyers Club isn't bad as far as housing on campus goes either. It runs $12,500 an academic year if you share a bathroom with someone and $13,500 if you don't. A bigger room was a little more. It comes with 12 meals a week which with food through events at the Law School can apparently be stretched all week without a huge problem. If you get in or are already in and are at all interested you might as well sign up for it because its non-binding, but the order people sign up determines the order it is offerred to them after the deposit deadline.

The law library seems really nice and is off limits to the general public. It was kind of strange not to be able to tour it the first time I went there, but I can see how that would ensure that it is a very law school focussed place to study.

Michigan places more heavilly into New York big law than Chicago. This makes sense since New York firms are bigger, but seemed counter intuitive to me as a Michigander at first. I've always thought of Chicago as quite a bit closer.

There are probably a lot of other things I'm not thinking of and I'll list them as they come up! Hopefully some of you will list things too.

If anyone wants to know about Michigan winters, I have survived 21 of them and if this one will end, I'll have survived 22, so I could attempt to take a stab at questions along those lines.

Leah M B

I’m still waiting to hear from them (and expecting a likely WL) but I have felt continually more drawn to Michigan the more I learn about it. Thanks for sharing the housing research! Do you know where you want to end up after law school? Are you wanting to stay in Michigan?

And that is interesting about NY vs Chi. I wonder how much of that is self selection? When are the ASW dates? Again the bummer of applying late like me is I don’t know how many ASWs I’ll be able to make since my decisions are all coming in so late. It’s one I’d really like to visit to get a feel for it though.

Seeking Perfection

@"Leah M B"
The first ASW is this coming weekend from Thursday to Saturday. The other one is March 23-24th which is the next weekend. I think a large number of people may have trouble making either if admitted fairly late.

I think the New York thing is partially self-selection, but apparently on average New York firms take people from deeper in Michigan's class(people with lower GPA/ranking) than Chicago firms. I think it is mostly just the size of the New York city legal market at work.

I'm not sure where I want to end up. I would say probably either New York, Chicago, Washington D.C. or just somewhere in Michigan. I have always liked big cities(though I fear their cost of living especially if I skip Big Law and go straight into something public interest). On the other hand, I also love Michigan and could live in Detroit and fill my city craving or live more in the suburbs of a city like I always have and be happy.

LSATcantwin

Just getting ready to submit my LOCI to them! I’ve talked to quite a few alumni and have heard nothing but really great things about U.Mich, it’s got me really excited that I’m on their waitlist with a chance! I hope things go well!!

LindsMitch

Didn’t apply this cycle but my brother went to law school there and loved it. Great community, great opportunities. He lived in the lawyers club his first year and had a positive experience there. I visited him twice while he was in school and was SO impressed with all the facilities and campus.

tylerdschreur10

I'm leaning toward michigan for all the intangible reasons, plus they've given me the most aid thus far. I'm going to go ASW2.0 in 2 weeks, so hopefully I'll get good info and vibes and be attending my AA meetings in AA next year!

westcoastbestcoast

Good luck to those still waiting to hear back from Michigan. and Congrats to @"Seeking Perfection" for gaining acceptance to Michigan. Do you think this will be the school you will attend for sure?

Seeking Perfection

@westcoastbestcoast said:
Good luck to those still waiting to hear back from Michigan. and Congrats to @"Seeking Perfection" for gaining acceptance to Michigan. Do you think this will be the school you will attend for sure?

Not for sure. One never knows what other offers may be coming. But, if I had to decide today I'd be at Michigan.

westcoastbestcoast

@"Seeking Perfection" said:

@westcoastbestcoast said:
Good luck to those still waiting to hear back from Michigan. and Congrats to @"Seeking Perfection" for gaining acceptance to Michigan. Do you think this will be the school you will attend for sure?

Not for sure. One never knows what other offers may be coming. But, if I had to decide today I'd be at Michigan.

Good luck! What other schools are you waiting to hear back from?

Seeking Perfection

@westcoastbestcoast said:

@"Seeking Perfection" said:

@westcoastbestcoast said:
Good luck to those still waiting to hear back from Michigan. and Congrats to @"Seeking Perfection" for gaining acceptance to Michigan. Do you think this will be the school you will attend for sure?

Not for sure. One never knows what other offers may be coming. But, if I had to decide today I'd be at Michigan.

Good luck! What other schools are you waiting to hear back from?

I'm waiting to hear from Yale, Harvard, Stanford, NYU, Penn, Virginia, Northwestern, and Cornell.

I'm in at Columbia, Duke, and Washington University in St. Louis, and Michigan.

I have an interview later today with University of Chicago.

tylerdschreur10

Anybody go to ASW this weekend? Thoughts, impressions, notable experiences? (Basketball aside) I'll be going next week, so any can't-miss segments would be helpful as well!

Seeking Perfection

I attended the weekend last weekend.

Thursday when I got there, there was a speech by Dean Zearfoss which was okay and then a speech by Dean West. Afterwards, there was a student panel which was interesting, but most of the questions either boiled down to the students personal experience or could easily be looked up. After that there was a faculty reception in the Lawyers Club with many members of the faculty all of whom were very impressive, but some of whom were easier to talk to than others. I had particularly nice conversations with two of the profs working with the unemployment insurance clinic.

Following this we we left the room with the faculty and ate in the Lawyers Club which handled the mass of students quite effectively despite all the current students saying it was never normally anywhere near that busy. I thought the food was basically unremarkable. The only distinctive thing I notived which I think will bother me to some degree living in the Lawyer's Club was that the glasses for drinks at the drink machine were bizarrely small.

For me that's when the night basically went down hill. Once a year, there is an auction to support public interest students. That was what was happening for the rest of the night. At first people just milled about in one of the bigger law school rooms which was decorated in a high school dance type way. Then the ocupella group started singing, but people talked over them so they got a mike, which people then talked over. There were several sources of alcohol from a few kegs to drink. Then the auction began where students going into Big Law paid a thousand dollars or more for most of the items which usually involved some sort of meal with the profs. It was kind of an appalling spectacle just because of the waste of money/display of wealth even though it was going to a good cause. I left about two thirds of the way through the auction.

The next day was much better. It was full of informative panels dealing with everything from public interest to Big Law to Clerkship opportunities to Journals. However, the single best part of the day was the mock class on torts which I think both explained how law school is different excellently and has me genuinely excited for law school to start. We also all sat in on a constitutional law class. After that many of the law school clubs had gatherings for the admitted students.

Finally on Saturday, things were relatively brief. They were really just wrapping things up at the hotel.

Overall the highlights were the times when U of M showed off their profs(either their excellent teaching or their breadth of offerings).

Leah M B

@"Seeking Perfection" Wow that auction sounds... different. So it was law students doing the buying? And supporting public interest students? That feels really weird.

Overall, did it change your thoughts at all on Michigan as a whole? Or anything re: law school altogether?

Seeking Perfection

@"Leah M B"
It was a wierd thing that they apparently do once a year. Apparently, it raised $70,000 for their public interest students the year before. So although I would prefer they just ask for donations rather than have the auction this could be more effective. I could see the benefits outweighing the costs and deciding to do it.

I have no idea why they would do it in front of visiting admittted students though. I don't really want to think of my institution as being a place where Big Law students make really frivolous expensive purchases once a year partially to support public interest students, partially to show off the fact that they are going to have money, and partially because they are drunk.

I don't think it changed my opinion about Michigan because I think to the extent that it demonstrated something I don't like it is probably something I don't like about the culture of Big Law more than Michigan. And Big Law would have a big influence on the people I am around wherever I go.

Leah M B

@"Seeking Perfection" Yeah, feels like a weird vibe to have some well-off students donating to their poorer fellow students. Hah. Feels like it would make the PI students feel like charity cases compared to their classmates, which is awkward.

But glad to hear you are still excited about Michigan!