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:
2Ls (from left) Maria Colella, Ryan Murphy, Ashley Gambone, and Margaret Capp, pictured with BC mascot Baldwin, ran the Red Bandanna Run on October 24th.
As I introduced myself to classmates, professors and administrators during orientation and throughout the first few weeks of 1L year, many of them asked where I attended college, or why I chose BC Law. I told them that I went to Boston College, and had such a great experience that I thought it would have been crazy, if given the chance to come back to BC, to go to law school anywhere else. I couldn’t even picture it. Their response was, more times than not, “oh, so you’re a double eagle!”
I had heard the phrase “double eagle” tossed around in college from time to time. For those of you who haven’t, members of the BC community affectionately call people with two BC degrees (including diplomas from BC High) “double eagles.” Similarly, the more exclusive “triple eagle” title signifies three BC degrees.
Being from New York, and not knowing many BC alumni, the term “double eagle” never seemed like more than a catchphrase used in the community. But as I get closer to attaining my second degree, it has become much more than that for me.
As future law students, I’m sure you’ve all heard the rumors and stereotypes about law schools. They run the gamut — from the terrifying and incorrect (“EVERYONE IS SO COMPETITIVE AND NO ONE IS FRIENDLY AND IT’S IMPOSSIBLE TO GET AN A YOUR FIRST YEAR”), to the hilariously accurate (“Law school is high school for adults”), to the tongue-in-cheek (see, for example, Thought Catalog’s take on the 19 People You Meet in Law School). But the stereotype that most stuck out to and worried me as a prospective student was what I’d like to call the Myth of the Library Lockdown. That is, by heading off to law school, you are essentially signing yourself up for three years of good ol’ book learning, tied to a library carrel, buried under 200 pounds of Supreme Court opinions and study aids.
Don’t get me wrong. As a former English major, I can get down with the heavy reading. Chaucer, Shakespeare, and I used to be great pals; I can handle my fair share of tiny print. But that’s not why I wanted to come to law school. I taught for three years after college, came to law school with a really specific focus, and knew I wanted to get right to making an impact in real people’s lives. I was really nervous that law school was going to feel like a fruitless and frustrating gesture, a means to an end I had to just get through in order to do the work I am passionate about. But that’s because I didn’t know about clinics.
When I was looking at law schools a few years ago one of the thing I wondered about the most was what day to day life would be like at the different schools I was was considering. I couldn’t be happier that I ended up at BC, and after two and a half years here Boston is really starting to feel like home. Part of what makes the BC experience so enjoyable is the community here and the opportunity to explore Boston with classmates. I’ll be writing about student life in general, including a variety of favorite activities in and around Boston. To start out with here is a little run down of favorite BC Law spots in Cleveland Circle.
Cleveland Circle is where a majority of BC Law students end up living, and it is perfectly situated between school and jobs downtown. I love living here because I feel like all of my friends are only a five minute walk away, which comes in handy when you need to catch a ride to school!
The reservoir is one of my favorite parts about living in Cleveland Circle. In between Cleveland Circle itself and BC’s main campus is an old reservoir that the city turned into a park. The mile and a half loop is perfect for jogging in good weather and the views of the main campus and downtown Boston can’t be beat. When I need some exercise or just a little relaxation time the reservoir is my favorite place to go.
Since you’re interested in coming to BC (and rightfully so), you probably have a vague understanding of where Boston is — although if you’re coming from the south like I was, that understanding is limited to “up there somewhere.” But chances are, unless you’re from the area or have lived here, you don’t actually know what actually constitutes Boston and then what’s “Boston.”
See, you want to come to Boston College, the happiest law school on earth, but what you don’t realize is that BC Law isn’t in Boston; it’s in a town outside of Boston called Newton, so I guess technically we should be called Newton College, or Kind of Boston College.
Why does this matter? To native northeasterners, it probably doesn’t. But a large portion of our school is from out of state (and out of the country): California, Korea, Kansas, and my homestate, Florida. And traveling to Boston (and what I like to call the “Boston imposters”) to figure this out is expensive and time-consuming. Fear not: I’ve boiled it down to a couple of salient points.
