April 23, 2004
My Dream Schedule
Recently, everyone at school got the chance to register for their next semester classes. There were two rounds of registration, the first began on March 29th and the second round just ended yesterday. The 2L's and 3L's told me this was the first time that Hastings has had people register in alphabetical order rather than by a random number. This was pretty good for me since I got the very first appointment on the 29th, but I was really worried since I got to go dead last during the second round.
When I set out to choose my classes, I printed out the course catalog and figured out exactly what classes I need to graduate, how many total units I need and how many units I need per semester to finish on time. Basically, I only need to take an ethics course, a writing course and have 85 units. As a 1L, the big administrator in the sky sets most of your schedule, so I'll have 30 units by the end of this semester, meaning I'll have to average 14 per semester until the end. In Legal Analysis, we had a day where we just talked about course selection and I heard that it's better to take Professional Responsibility for your ethics class because it prepares you for the NPRE which is given in the winter - the national professional responsibility exam that you have to take for the Bar... which is weird since I hear there are still ethics questions on the Bar exam itself - and the class ends early so you get to take your final early and you're totally done with the class by the time the NPRE rolls around.
I also decided to get my concentration in International Law, not only because it's the goal of Aaron and I to move to France for good one day and I could totally practice law there and he could get a Linux job, but it's a good guide for which classes to take in school, since there are 3 required courses for the concentration and have a total of 20 units of concentration electives. So, I'm taking Public International Law (a concentration requirement), International Business Transactions and Conflict of Laws (both concentration electives) - although I'm not sure why Conflict of Laws is an elective for the International Law concentration since it's about the conflict between US state and federal law... Oh well. I'm also take a seminar course in Mass Media law, which is a writing course (which will fulfill my writing requirement, but I plan on taking a lot more of those in the next couple years), and doesn't really count toward anything since it's only 2 units, but I thought it would be really interesting and give me a little research/writing experience before I have to take moot court in the Spring (since I skipped it this spring to take Legal Analysis). Also, I actually got into all the classes that I wanted and somehow managed to avoid waitlists... although I was nervous about International Business Transactions, since there were only 5 spots left when I checked in the morning, despite the fact that the class is at 8:40 in the morning.
The best part about my schedule is that I don't have class on Fridays!! That is going to be a serious treat, since I can get trashed at Beer on the Beach and not have to go to class the next day, but I can sit around and read/outline as my leisure. How cool is that shit!? I think next semester will be good; although I'm not sure if anyone I know will be in any of these classes. We'll see.
My dream schedule