Succeeding in First Year: Advice From the Blogosphere
Here at ZiefBrief we're looking forward to meeting our newest group of first years, who will be arriving any day now. Our advice to you is a riff on the hoary boot-camp-style law school welcome speech:
Look to the right of you; look to the left of you. In three years (or four, for the evening division)… all three of you will be celebrating your law school graduation together! (Actually, in exactly three years you will be celebrating the end of the Bar Exam, an even happier occasion.) The law school is confident you'll succeed as a law student and as a lawyer. That's why you're here, so resist all attempts (yours or others') to work you up into a state of high anxiety over law school.
That said, you'll probably be a little nervous anyway about the new experiences and challenges of law school.
A couple of blogs out there serve up law school survival advice, for first year and beyond.
The Academic Support Blog (by several academic support program directors) is primarily aimed at other directors of academic support programs, but lots of posts contain tips that law students will find valuable. Take a look at the categories Advice, Encouragement & Inspiration, Exams - Studying, Exams - Theory, Stress & Anxiety, and Study Tips - General
CALI's Pre-Law Blog (by Austin Groothuis, a second year law student at Chicago-Kent). Incoming law students will likely find some useful tidbits in the pre-law discussions category. [Thanks to Law Dawg Blawg for the tip!]
[Update: 8.9.2006] Heafey Headnotes' Annual Round-Up of Faculty's Advice for First-Years also has a good collection of links.
[Update: 8.11.2006] For books, see our new post Succeeding in Law School - Advice from the Stacks.
[Update: 8.22.2006] Prof. Paul L. Caron has compiled quite a list of blogospheric advice for new law students on his TaxProfBlog. [Thank to the Law Librarian Blog for the tip!]
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