The Admitted Students Guidebook: the definitive treatise on “Things I Wish I Knew”

My mom always taught me that wherever you go, you should try to leave that place a little better than when you found it.

For those of you who don’t know my segment on Impact, I’m the “Things I Wish I Knew” gal, bringing you little tidbits of hopefully helpful advice from the perspective of someone who felt like she had quite a learning curve for this whole law school thing. I figure that my mistakes and triumphs might make things easier for some of you, so I’m happy to share whatever wisdom I can.

But among all the studying and class and work and job searching, I’ve been working on a little something else, too.

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Meet the Affinity Group Leaders: Amani Kancey (BLSA)

Name: Amani Kancey

Year: 2017 (2L)

Photo on 9-15-14 at 8.19 PMOrganization: Black Law Students Association (Co-President)

Undergraduate Institution: Howard University

Experiences between college and law school: 

Upon graduating from Howard University I served as a White House Intern. After my internship, I was appointed by the White House to work at the U.S Department of Transportation as a Political Appointee. For two and a half years I was Special Assistant to the U.S. Secretary of Transportation.

 Favorite event that your organization plans:

My favorite event that BLSA hosted this year was “Black Excellence: A Celebration of Black History in Academia and the Legal Profession”. Black Excellence featured our Black deans and faculty sharing their personal stories in life and practice.

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Things I Wish I Knew Vol. 16: You can come see the school, even if you can’t come see the school

Hi everyone! It’s been a while since my last post because I and the admissions committee have been hard at work on a few projects (one soon to come – stay tuned!) including this one.

We know that getting to campus for a visit may be cost-prohibitive or otherwise impossible for some of our students outside of the Northeast, and in conjunction with the Office of Admissions, we’ve made it so that you can take a tour from the comfort of your own home! Watch the replay on You Tube:

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Diversity Month Kicks off with the Taste of Diversity

BC Law officially kicked off Diversity Month with the “Taste of Diversity.” The event offers an opportunity for students to interact and sample food from the different affinity groups. Prior to the event, LSA President Nirav Bhatt ’16 said, “Every year students are excited for the tasty food and thought-provoking conversations that arise during the buffet style event. I’m looking forward to it!” Indeed, it’s an event that students have been talking about for weeks leading up to it. We all know students love free food, especially quality food!

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An Activist at Heart, A Journalist by Training, a Lawyer in the Making

As a kid I toggled back and forth between lots of answers to “What do you want to be when you grow up?”

Lawyer was always on the short list. So was journalism.

I read “All the President’s Men” for an eighth grade book report, and it didn’t take long for me to make Bernstein and Woodward my personal journalism deities. To me, the idea that two reporters could take down a crooked president was (and still is) the epitome of what great journalism can do.

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Things I Wish I Knew, Vol. 15: Mentors are basically life’s “Google Search” feature

“Mom, Dad, why don’t you just Google it?”

It’s a phrase I must have said a million times in my short 23 years. The basic premise there is that someone out there in the big wide world has had the same question, and there is always someone who knows more than you who has the answer.

Okay, but it’s one thing entirely to ask Google why a certain word you misspelled in a  text once has suddenly become your phones default spelling, and another entirely to ask how to navigate law school or find a job doing what you want with the salary and work-life balance you want given all of your specific life experiences.

That’s where mentorship comes in. And in a lot of ways, it’s even better than a Google search.

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Things You Wish You Had Gone To: The John and Abigail Adams Benefit

I have the honor of hosting a guest blog from Caroline Reilly, a 1L in the class of 2018 at BC. Caroline is a former journalism major who plans to go into public interest work/human rights/womens rights, and is one of the many 1Ls this year that made the awesome decision to attend the John and Abigail Adams “Night at the Museum” event sponsored by the Boston Bar this past weekend. For more information about Caroline’s experience at the event, as a BC Law student, or just in general, you can get in touch with her at reillycw@bc.edu. 

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The “Night at the Museum” movies are some of my favorite feel-good flicks. I love the idea of sleuthing around the museum (easily one of my favorite places any time of day) after-hours when the general public has retreated and the art is in a more rarely- and exclusively-seen state. So, when one of my friends forwarded the email promoting the John & Abigail Adams Benefit to members of our little “law school family,” I jumped on the opportunity, despite my habitual insistence on indulging my homebody inclinations on weekends.

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All Majors Welcome

A common question law school applicants ask is “which college major should you choose if you want to go to law school?” In reality, it does not matter which major you choose; all majors are welcome in law school.

When I was an undergraduate, I studied applied math. After taking a few Constitutional Law classes, I grew to love legal analysis. This substantially influenced my decision to go to law school. I remember telling friends about my decision to apply to law school. Some were very supportive, but others would ask: “Why did you bother studying math, then?” or “I guess your math degree is now kind of a waste, huh?” or “why don’t you use your math degree and do something like banking or consulting.” It was honestly hard to come up with a response. I truly felt more passionate about the law than math. But I was also certain that the logic and problem solving skills I had spent four years developing would be helpful.

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The Conservative Legal Movement and the Importance of Intellectual Diversity in Law

I have never known any distress that an hour’s reading did not relieve.”

-Charles de Montesquieu

I’m James Barasch, a 1L and I’m pleased to be joining Impact! I used to run a book review column and blog during my time at Tufts University, and I thought I’d continue that tradition here at BC Law.

Over Winter Break, in between holiday celebrations and summer job ponderings, I relaxed by reading “The Rise of the Conservative Legal Movement: The Battle for Control of the Law” by Steven M. Teles. Starting in the 1970s, Conservatives sought to reverse the growth of legal liberalism by focusing on creating their own corps of professionals in law schools, public interest groups, and in the judiciary. Teles relates the story of political experimentation and individual innovators who organized and led this countermovement to significant successes and the prominent place many of its organizations, such as the Federalist Society, the Center for Individual Rights, and the Institute for Justice now hold in modern American legal culture.

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