Academic Advising
We’ve heard from a lot of students lately that would like to see a different academic advising program in place here at HLS. Obviously, this is an issue of great importance and the administration is willing to talk with us about it, but before we get too involved in the conversation, we’d first like to hear from you. What would you like to see in an academic advising program at HLS? What do you like about what is in place now? Please leave your comments below, or if you’d like them to be more private, send an email to studentgov@law.harvard.edu.
Anon
November 4, 2009 @ 3:41 pm
We need academic advising!
Lionhart
November 5, 2009 @ 12:15 am
I love how HLS has separate places to go for advice on becoming a corporate lawyer, public interest lawyer, or law professor. But what if you need advice on becoming a law *student*? I’m not used to needing friends to survive academically–especially when your “friends” are also your competitors. But so far, the only way to get up-to-date info about teachers, classes, grades, exams, study materials, outlining, helpful websites, or whatever, is to shmooze with your (one) upperclassmen friends, trust the confident expertise of your fellow 1Ls, or–best of all–go impose on a professor you’ve never spoken to before and ask for help on behalf of your friend Bob. (Unlike yourself, Bob is way behind in the reading, secretly thinks the law is boring, and has never heard of an outline.)
Harvard Law is, rather famously, a harder place than usual to be good at school. Maybe an office that focused less on three years from now and more on this semester could provide some authentic grounding in the reality of three years of work and life in this unique little corner of Harvard University. (Because when you finally do get down to that reality, surprisingly, it’s not that bad.)
And one operational thing. If there is already some kind of academic advising at HLS, I have never heard of it. Even if I had, I probably wouldn’t go until I was really panicked. So for this particular thing, it might be wise to make it a mandatory part of Orientation. Like, you go see where the office is and they hand out hornbook coupons for the Coop. That way you get publicity and social validation in one blow. Plus sales for the Coop.
2L
November 5, 2009 @ 11:09 am
“Friends” as competitors. I thought we were past this. Seriously, now.
Lionhart
November 6, 2009 @ 1:18 am
No, sorry! I didn’t mean that people sabotage each other. It’s more like good sportsmanship on your part: you don’t want to be the lazy bum who cribs notes off your brilliant classmates, because that’s unfair to *them* come exam time. (Another good reason to have an academic office so you know what the exam actually is, and how you can’t possibly bring anyone else down even by stealing their outlines. Trust me.) Surviving point: law school academics are unprecedented in most 1Ls’ lives, and informal advising, even when freely exchanged in friendship and cooperation (which it invariably is), is still kind of lame when it’s the only available resource at a place as hard-core as HLS. Official academic advising would probably help people and bridge information gaps, so kudos for getting one set up.