What to Do Your First Week of Law School | First Year Tips for 1Ls

as a first generation law student let me tell you let me tell you i just had no idea what to do my first week of law school [Music] hey everyone welcome back to my channel thanks for joining me if you haven't already subscribe to my channel point blank period today's video is going to be about what to do your first week of law school listen i checked the calendar and i saw that we're almost in august and i was like whoa that means for a lot of you viewers you're going to be starting your first year of law school well congrats to you but also like yikes i remember when i was starting my first year of law school my nerves were practically choking me like i could not breathe i was so anxious i had no idea how to prepare so let's get into these 10 tips that i think will be helpful to you as you navigate your first week of law school okay so tip number one i actually recommend that you attend orientation week i know some people are totally like i'm not going to orientation weekend i am totally skipping that it has nothing to do with the start of classes it has nothing to do with my grades it has nothing to do with blah blah blah blah blah blah blah but in reality orientation weekend was probably the best thing that's happened to me specifically at northwestern we had diversity orientation weekend and we had regular orientation weekend a diversity orientation weekend happened right before regular orientation weekend and i got to meet so many minority law students who were just as scared as me just as confused as me and like come on for orientation you get free swag who does not like free things you get a t-shirt water bottle you get a lanyard you get free food like talk about paradise the second tip that i have for you guys is to buy your school supplies so if you are not the over eager beaver and you didn't buy your school supplies before school starts like that i recommend you take that first week and you buy your school supplies you need to re-up on your highlighters your pencils your pens i don't know your folders your dividers but the most important school supply that you need to buy are your books and that's where this gets a little dicey i personally recommend that you do not buy your books from the bookstore your school bookstore is not the move do not buy your books there and i say this wholeheartedly because i feel like your school bookstore is ripping you off when it comes to the price of your books see what books that your professor has recommended for the course okay then you can go to the bookstore see what the bookstore price is for that book so then go home go to amazon ebay whatever's website that sells cheap law school books and compare the price to what's in the bookstore more often than not amazon or ebay are going to have the same exact book for a significantly lower price however let's say that you don't find the book on amazon or ebay then i recommend looking on your school's listserv more often than not students will be selling their books from last year when you're buying a book from a student pay attention to who the authors are and what edition book is some students might be selling a different edition than what your professor is using now if that is the case you can always talk to your professor and say can i use the fourth edition even though you're on the third edition some professors are like okay that's fine you just need to figure out what pages correspond to the new book and yeah it might be a little hassle but it's better than spending a hundred dollars in books when you know you don't have that type of money and if you're buying a book from a student it's okay to actually inspect the book before you actually pay for the book so like let's say hey you found a student selling a contract's book and you look at the book and she has practically pages of highlighted material lots of sentences cross out and you're like wow i i can't do anything with this i can't study with this then you know like this is probably not the book to buy for you or maybe the book is literally falling apart on its hinges you know hey uh maybe this book shouldn't cost 160 dollars let's lower the price to 20 because practically it's falling apart also very important tip i recommend you talking to some two outs or three else to ask them hey has this professor actually used the book because there are a lot of professors who assign recommended books but they don't even use the book and you know i think that is the top thing that upset me when i was attending a law school knowing that i bought a 400 book and my professor did not even use that book except once or twice that's a no because you could totally borrow your friend's book for that one or two pages that she assigned out of the year another thing that you should do is also buy horn books or supplemental books from students so tip number three if you haven't explored your law school yet take the time to explore that week you're a law student now which means your life is now going to be at the law school so you need to figure out like where can i take a nap when i'm super tired and i need to recharge myself you need to figure out hey where can i put my food so i am not spending all my money in the caf figure out where the study spaces are let's figure out where the library is figure out where the lounge areas are bathrooms and showers you also need to figure out where your classes are you don't want to be that person that walks into the wrong law school class next tip you need to make sure that your technology is updated i said this in my last video and i will say it again in this video technology is important your whole law school career can be essentially destroyed just because your computer malfunctioned or crashed again i know someone who was in the middle of the finals and their computer crashed don't be like that person i know someone who was taking notes all semester and their computer crashed law school is already very stressful and then on top of that you want to create additional stress by having all the information that you have prepared for just vanish because you didn't update your technology no can't be me could it be me will not be you fun tip if you don't have microsoft office on your laptop your school most likely will provide microsoft office for you so when you go to your school ask them like how can i get microsoft office which is super beneficial because it means you don't have to pay for microsoft office out of your own money you can just use the school's trial for your next three years okay for the next tip this tip might make introverts really scream but like you really need to take the time to meet people your first year of law school whether that's meeting people in your section like some sections have parties or events the first week of school so you guys get to know each other or you can join organizations law schools i believe during the first or even second week tend to have um a student organization fair where you can sign up for clubs this gives you a chance to find organizations that engage in activities that interest you or you can even join communities that share the same beliefs or ideas as you for instance when i went to law school i joined the black law student association and i also played intramural basketball so i felt like i developed a community through balsa and i had an outlet when things got hard and i played basketball no lie there's probably practically a club for anything that you're interested in i remember there's a texas law club a running club cooking club okay what you seriously need to do your first week of law school is check your syllabus because your syllabus will tell you everything that you need to do to prepare for each class your professors are most likely very organized individuals they literally list what you need to read for each day when you first start law school you're going to have assignments that need to be completed your first day of class and you can't be going or strolling into your class talking about i didn't know that there was an assignment today because it was listed in your syllabus and i'm sure that you do not want to be cold call on your first day and you didn't read the assignment that's your ultimate embarrassment but also checking your syllabus is pretty important because you can create a study plan early you can see the workload that you have it just really helps you get ahead of the game and it you know you can get ahead of your reading by looking at the syllabus too and also your syllabus lists the books that i was talking about earlier on what you should buy so for the next tip i think for your first week of law school let's dress to impress okay not saying you need to go spend all your money on a super expensive suit and wearing heels or looking like you're about to present a nomination for a ward for them for the next grammy winning artist like no you don't have to do that much but just dress to impress because first impressions are very important so don't overdo it find a balance but look your best and when you look your best you also feel your best and you know you'll be in class like yeah i i can do this i'm a law student you know okay so we're coming to um the end of my tips and i just think that one of the most important tips that i can give you is for you to not be so hard on yourself like relax breathe it's okay like you did it you got accepted into law school which means that you're completely capable of becoming a lawyer yes law school is hard yes you have to read a lot a lot a ton a copious amount of information but you can do it um law school is just really hard at first because you're literally trying to read words that you don't understand it's essentially like learning a new language initially you're going to get that headache you're going to not know what anyone is saying but there is going to be a time where everything just switches and makes sense and lastly last tip tell everyone about my youtube tell them to follow me okay i'm just kidding i'm just kidding jay just kidding my last tip is just do not compare yourself to others you're going to meet so many people in law school especially your first week and you're going to constantly wonder like what are people doing that i'm not doing are they already studying uh they already got their books like where did they get their books from or how did that person find that fact in the case and i didn't no everyone learns differently everyone lies on their own pace so be comfortable knowing that you belong there you're gonna learn on your own time all right that's all the tips that i have i can't believe that you are going to start your first week of law school but i truly believe you are going to do fine like this year is going to be hard but you're going to make it through however i did realize this video didn't really talk about what if your classes are online and in quarantine so i'm going to do a youtube video where i talk to law students and other grad students about the challenges of taking classes online and how do they cope with that change from in-person classes to online classes and of course i'm going to give a video on how to study your 1l year like what resources to use how long you should be studying and i think that will be beneficial to y'all so stay tuned for more content again if you haven't subscribe if you haven't told a friend tell a friend if you haven't shared the video share the [Music] you like video

Channel: ItsKayYvonne

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Keywords: law school, law school vlog, law, what to do your first week of law school, kayyvonnelaw, itskayyvonne, law student, first generation law student, law school tips, law school advice, law school tips and advice, 1L advice, 1L law school, First Year Tips for 1L's, first year, 1l law school, first week of law school tups

Id: 8slufrbek4o

Length: 12min 52sec (772 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 27 2020