Satire (?) of Orientation
posted by Dave Hoffman
Belle Lettre (at Law and Letters) has a nice post on going back to school as an LLM. The “fake” orientation tour/speech is a blast, and will feel pretty familiar to many of our readers at this time of year. Here is a taste:
We will be told how GREAT the school is. We will be told how GREAT the faculty is. We will be told how GREAT (and select and thus special) we are. We will be told that because the school, the faculty, and the students are so GREAT, we will continue on to do GREAT things. We will be told that with GREATNESS, there is responsibility. We will be told to do that which is “right” rather than that which is merely “easy.” We will be told that first impressions and relationships last even longer than the grades on our transcript. We will be told that our school is a special school, because contrary to popular belief (and as compared to other schools), our school is the nice, non-competitive one, where everyone likes each other. Why, even the faculty are friends, often having dinner together. [DH Note: But it's true!] We will be told that the faculty are not only GREAT, they’re also really nice, so you can expect to have significant mentoring relationships with your professors. Why, some of the professors go hiking with their students or invite their classes over for brunch! . . . So turn to the persons in the seats to the right and left of you, and shake their hand and introduce yourself. They are your colleagues. They may become your best friend. And who knows, you might just meet your future partner here!
August 14, 2006 at 1:50 pm
Posted in: Law School
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Belle Lettre - August 14, 2006 at 3:52 pm
Thanks for the plug!
To my chagrin, I found that the LLM orientation was a lot less uplifting than my 1L orientation 4 years ago. Maybe they tone down the rhetoric for those who know how law school _really_ is.
I followed up on this at: http://lawandletters.blogspot.com/2006/08/second-time-around-coffee-tastes.html
We did get told we were great though, and to live while we were studying the law. But we weren’t told that we would save the world or get married here.
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