This afternoon I performed a valuable service AND officially assumed my role as an upper-division law student! I was browsing through the books I might have to buy, depending on how classes shake out, at the student book store. A woman was looking through the various casebooks. She grabbed a Legal Methods book.
"Are you a 1L?"
"Yes."
"Ah. You in Sovern's Legal Methods class?"
"I am."
"Let me give you a free piece of advice: Even though they're listed as Required, The Ages of American Law, Legislation, and Legislation and Statutory Interpretation will never, ever be used in your course. You won't even open them. I mean, you may glance through them, but you'll never discuss them in class, and once things get started you'll be so busy with the required reading you won't bother with them."
"Huh. Alright, thanks! Still, though..."
"I know, you're thinking of buying them anyway, because you're going to try really hard and do all the reading. But this leads to my second piece of advice: don't burn yourself out in Methods. It's a pass/fail course that everyone passes. Essentially all of the useful information comes in the first night's reading, when the book gives a brief overview of the American judicial system. Other than that, you might develop some useful study skills, but otherwise you're just spinning your wheels."
"Yeah, I've heard that a lot."
At that point I decided to leave her alone and give her the privacy to go ahead and buy the three books I warned her not to buy. Every year 2Ls give the 1Ls the same advice ("Don't buy all the books! Don't worry too much about Legal Methods!") and every year the 1Ls ignore it. I know because I did the same thing last year. Oh well. Nobody realizes the 2Ls were right until after it's too late to take their advice.
And yes, I'm completely aware that I was just an obnoxious guy in the book store dispensing unwanted advice. Yet my advice was almost certainly accurate and, if she'd taken it, would have saved her $70. So I feel at least somewhat justified in my kibbitzing.
In other news, Orientation is apparently two days this year, where it was only one last year. What are they going to do with two whole days of orientation? Maybe I should drop in tomorrow and see if I can't catch the re-run of the Dean's Welcoming Speech that I missed in its original run last year...
