First of all, I would like to make it crystal clear that I was the architect of this friendship. Without my borderline creepiness and abandonment of all self-consciousness, the Legally Brownies would have never been formed.
Here’s how I did it. Target 1: Karen On the first day of orientation, I was on the lookout for people in green shirts as they were identifiers of who was in my section. The way Osgoode and most law schools work is that their 1L cohort is divided into different sections. Everyone in the same section has the same schedule for all of 1L, except for the one perspective/elective that you are afforded in 1L. As one of the only two students from UTSC, I knew I had to socialize and make some friends so I don’t end up spending the next three years alone. For a natural introvert, the idea of stepping outside of my comfort zone to socialize was a scary thought. But it had to be done. I spotted Karen with a group of other girls in green shirts. I approached them awkwardly and introduced myself. We went through the basics - name, undergrad program, school, interests, etc. We stuck together for the rest of the day as we went through the orientation activities. Now, Karen was a hard nut to crack. As a YorkU vet, she didn’t need any new friends - all she had to do was walk over to Schulich to meet her buddies from undergrad. As soon as class was over, Karen was out the door. She wasn’t big on hanging out after class, group study sessions, pub nights or any of the things that are commonly associated with the law school experience. We would save each other seats in class and soon became joined at the hip - that is until she jetted off to Schulich. Slowly but surely, we became friends as the days passed on. We even signed a lecture buddy contract! For the majority of the first semester, it was just the two of us… until we met Luci who completed our Legally Brown trio. Target 2: Luci I feel like everyone has an internal radar for spotting people from their own ethnicity. The first time I saw Luci, my Tamil radar started pinging. Karen remembers me telling her - the tiny girl who sits in the first row is giving me Tamil vibes. Luci and I were in the same Legal Process tutorial. One day we happened to sit beside each other during tutorial and got assigned to work together on an in-class assignment. By the second or third tutorial, I turned over and asked her (with no context leading up to it) if she is Tamil. To my surprise (since she doesn’t have a Tamil name), she said that she is Mauritius but her mom is of Tamil background. I think what really bonded Luci and I is that we’re both commuters. We understood each other’s struggle as commuters - the long trips, the motion sickness, the pain of having to pay both the TTC and GO fare. The trips to Highway 407 brought us together. Now that I became friends with both of them, it was just a matter of getting them introduced to each other. They say they hit it off at a firm tour but I would say that I planted the seeds for the friendship. If you guys are reading this, you’re welcome. By: Veena Ganesarasa The following post is how I felt and what I did first year. In no means does it mean I cracked the code, it’s just how I dealt with change. Personally, I did not find that the transition from undergrad to law school was as difficult as I had anticipated it to be. Before, I thought that the typical law student falls off the face of the earth for three to four years, lives in the library and just focuses on the grind. I mean you could do that if that’s the type of person you are, more power to you! I approached it differently. Going to the same school as my undergrad meant that there was a sense of comfort with the campus, whether it be finding good food on campus, different study spots, or socializing with my friends at other faculties. One thing you’ll hear repeatedly is to not lose sight of who you are. People respond to pressure differently. Also, remember that what you see on the outside may not be what the person is feeling internally, so try not to be overly competitive with the people around you and give yourself a break. Work at your pace, there’s a reason why you go to the school you do, the admissions committee did not make a mistake, YOU BELONG HERE! The first week of school, we took two courses, Legal Process I (Legal Writing Course), and Ethical Lawyering in the Global Community (ELGC). For someone who doesn’t have a legal background besides my high school law courses, this was a nice way to understand the basics, from how to write case briefs to the role of lawyers in society. These courses provided context about the legal profession. These two courses were more assignment focused as opposed to the 100% final exam structure of most 1L courses. First SemesterWe took: Torts, Contracts, Criminal Law, Public & Constitutional Law, and Legal Process I. Torts, Contracts, and Criminal were semester long. Depending on your professor, you may have a fail safe midterm, meaning if you do better on the final exam it will be worth 100% of your grade. At face value that number may be daunting now, but it is not as bad as it seems. The midterms give you a chance to understand what law school exams are like and how to build your summaries accordingly for open-book exams. Try different techniques this first semester. Do you prefer handwritten notes or typed? Reading the textbook before class, after class... or maybe a few hours before the final exam? Studying at the library, a cafe, or at home? Important considerations for your law school journey. Second SemesterWe took: Property Law, Public & Constitutional Law, Legal Process I, Legal Process II (also referred to as Civil Procedure), and our Perspective option. Mine was Legal Values: Social Media, Law and Ethics; Veena took Public Perspectives on Tort Law and; Luci took Globalization & the Law. The Perspective courses require a 5000 word essay for 1Ls, and 7000 words at the upper year levels, along with participation and attendance. The perspective course I took was very intriguing! I highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in the intersection of social media and law. Relatively novel area of the law, super interesting to learn more about! The latter half of the semester was online because of COVID-19, and the professors were very accommodating in terms of understanding the adverse impacts and the disparities that people may be facing with the world basically shutting down. Our professors’ recognition that this last semester was truly “unprecedented” was made clear in each and every email. The courses were graded on a “Credit”/ “No-Credit” basis. Public & Constitutional, Property and Legal Process II had final exams but none of these exams were 100% as these courses included assignments/midterms. My Exam StrategyI built a long summary and a short summary for each of my midterms and final exams. You can either start from scratch, or use a resource bank available at your respective schools. Again it depends on personal preference. I built mine from scratch because it enables me to review the material better. Try to do practice exams, WORK WITH YOUR FRIENDS. I strongly recommend making friends in law school who are on your wavelength when it comes to studying for courses. Send each other questions about course content, do Zoom calls, hash out theories, help each other out. Shoutout to Emily, Hedy, Jackie, Milinda, Robin, Sammie, and Shan for being part of our support system. Work with each other, the curve will handle itself. Focus on the learning/understanding aspect. What’s one person’s strength is another’s weakness. Have I convinced you how important it is to work with each other? #EmphasisAdded By: Karen Randhawa As you walk through the doors on the first day of school, you can’t help but wonder how your life will be over the next three years. Will you make friends? How are you going to survive? How are you going to study? How hard is this whole law school thing anyway? Truth be told, law school is a different world. You’ll find yourself attending every class with the same 70 people, speaking a new language and rethinking the way you study. Here are a few things that stuck out to me during my first few months at Osgoode. The dreaded commute… If you have ever caught me in the halls of Osgoode, you would have likely heard me complain about my commute. During my undergraduate studies, I lived 15 minutes away from campus. I could roll out of bed an hour before class, grab something to eat and make my way to campus with plenty of time to spare. Given how expensive law school is, I decided to live at home with my parents and join the commuter life. Little did I know, the commute to YorkU was no picnic. To put things into perspective, I had to be up at least three hours before class, take 2 buses and the subway to make it to class on time. However, as you most likely know, the TTC is unpredictable, which meant that the commute was even longer some days. Although the first few months were exhausting, I quickly began to make the most out of the hours of my commute. In the morning, I would plan to go to school an hour before class and take the extra hour to catch up on readings. To be frank, most of the time I would bump into a friend and we’d end up talking (most likely about law school) for the whole hour. Regardless, this extra hour made the commute less stressful. In the afternoon, I was very strategic about the time I would leave school. I avoided rush hour at all cost, because my commute during rush hour would turn into a 4-hour trip home. Instead, I would hang back after class and head to the library to catch up on some readings or work on assignments. If I had the will power, I would pull out a textbook or my laptop on the bus, but on most days, I would take this time to listen to my favourite music and call my friends. Since the school closed its doors due to COVID, I will say that I miss my commute a little bit. Here are some tips I found that make the commute easier:
Rez life If you would like to avoid the commute, you may decide to opt to live on residence. For many Osgoode students, like our friend Tianna Gomes, living on residence made the transition to law school much easier. Here is what she had to say about her first-year living on residence: "My experience living on campus was a positive one. When I was choosing a law school distance was a huge factor in my decision. I knew that wherever I wanted to go I would most likely need to live on campus because I wasn’t sure that commuting to school from where I lived made sense for me. After commuting for four years in my undergrad doing another three seemed difficult especially when the commute time to my new school almost doubled. I am privileged in that I was able to live on campus my first year at Osgoode and it turned out to be a decision I was happy with. Even though I was living away I felt that my family was still near enough to support me (as well as supply me with home cooked meals that I was in no way talented enough to cook myself-breaks from Kraft Dinner were much needed and appreciated)! Living on campus I was a three minute walk away from school which helped me a lot. I’m a night owl when I study so it made waking up early for class after studying until 3am a lot easier. On campus living also meant that I didn’t have to experience rush hour (Karen, Veena and Lucinda I salute you!) and I was saved time and exhaustion that commuters go through daily. I was able to study right after class (without a nap first most days) and attend events that would have been harder to attend if I didn’t live so close to school. What made my on campus experience the most meaningful was the memories I made with my friends. We would often meet at my place for lunch or I would walk over to a friend’s place for a late night study session or a much needed reality TV show night. Overall living on campus worked for me but it isn’t necessary to live on campus to have the full law school experience! Choose what the option that is right for you and makes you feel most comfortable." Social Life v Law School Before I came to law school, just like you I was anxiously reading through law blogs, trying to gauge how my life at school would pan out. As a social butterfly, it was important that I had a group of friends I could turn to when things got stressful or when I just needed a laugh. During my undergraduate studies, I made sure that every week I set aside some time to spend time with some friends. I had planned to finish most of my work during the week and took the weekends to plan out some fun activities with my friends. When I began law school, I was convinced that I had to give up my social life. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Within the first few months, I was fortunate enough to make some really good friends at school. They were my highlight during my 1L. Not only have they helped me study and keep on track with school, they also never fail to make me laugh. At Osgoode, our student council planned weekly pub nights and special events throughout the year. This is the best way to make friends and get to know your classmates a little bit more, outside an academic setting. I understand that your first few weeks can be very tough and intimidating. But don’t worry, everyone is on the same boat. Push yourself to get out there and participate. You’ll make friends in no time and find your way! Learning how to learn Law school exams are unlike anything I have ever studied for. Coming from an economics background, studying for an exam was composed of drawing up diagrams, memorization and working through calculations. I would usually give myself a couple days to a week to prepare for an exam during my undergrad. This was not the case in law school. As you may know, final exams in law schools are typically worth 100% or are given a significant weight of your final grade. During 1L all my exams were open book and the majority was worth 100% (although closed books exams are not unheard of in law school). Within the first few weeks, I started hearing about these things called summaries. At Osgoode, our student council has done a wonderful job of collecting summaries from former students and creating a summary bank. These past summaries were crucial during 1L. Not only did it give me a detailed outline of the course material, they also helped guide my readings and lecture notes. As you’ll quickly come to learn, some of these readings can be quite dense and dull. So, I suggest that you turn to previous summaries as you make your way through the readings to get the important points for class. When it comes to class notes, it truly comes down to preference. While some students like to type up almost everything said in class and cut down afterwards, others prefer to jot a few notes and use the reading material to fill in any blanks. It took me some time to learn what is the best note taking strategy for me, but I found that a brief skim through the readings before class and detailed class notes worked best for me. Try out different strategies during your first few weeks and see what fits your study habits best. As you go through the semester, try and build your summaries for each class. This can be quite the task if you leave it closer to the exam date. Can you use past summaries? So long as you write your exam paper in your own words, there is no problem with that. However, I suggest that you take the time to build your own summary because it’ll give you the chance to thoroughly review your class material. By the same token, building your own summaries will make it easier to navigate during exams as you’ll know where the appropriate information is located. The days before your exam should be dedicated to writing past exams and learning what to expect on the exam date. Remember those friends I talked about earlier? I turned to them during exam season with an abundance of questions and we would all talk it out. This is the best way to engage with the course material and test your knowledge. This also made the studying process much more fun! By: Lucinda Chitapain 2019, the year before we knew of COVID-19, the three of us began our law school journey. This series will focus on the transition to law school, whether it be trekking into the wilderness that is York, or what we did to keep a positive mindset throughout the process. There were many ups, and a lot more downs than expected, but the key is that we made it through, and you will too! Reference letters allow admission boards get a better sense of your character, achievements and experience, from another perspective. They serve to support your overall application and may play a crucial role during the admission process. All law schools in Ontario require at least 2 reference letters. Some schools strongly recommend that at least one of the references be academic while others require it. When using OLSAS, you will be able to input the contact information of each reference and they will receive instructions via email on how to submit a reference letter for each school. Who to ask? Most importantly, your references must know you well enough to describe your academic or professional achievements. During your undergraduate studies, if you had actively participated in a course, reach out to the professor for a reference well in advance of the deadline. We recommend that you seek references from professors that can speak to your character, not just professors of classes you did well in. Your work supervisors may also make good references as they are able to speak on your skills in a professional environment. How to ask for a reference? I recommend that you ask your references a month or two before the application deadline on November 1st. This gives your references enough time to carefully prepare the letter of recommendation and awards you a sufficient amount of time if you need to reconsider your references. While some of your references may be familiar with the process, I suggest that you highlight the key deadlines and procedures so they can better plan. If it has been some time since you’ve spoken to a potential reference, schedule a meeting or phone call to speak about your goals and highlight some of your achievements. It may be useful to send a copy of your resume and transcript such that each recommendation letter can reflect your abilities in a holistic manner. To see program requirements for each Ontario Law School, please visit: https://www.ouac.on.ca/guide/olsas-program-requirements/ By: Lucinda Chitapain Speak now or forever hold the truth. The essays are your chance to add dimension to your application aside from your grades and LSAT score. The essay topics vary from year to year but generally they are questions about your motivation behind applying to law school, life experiences and diversity considerations. The task of encapsulating your existence within a defined character count is a daunting task for many. To help you tackle and excel at this task, we have come up with some tips/strategies that we used... or would have liked to have known during our application round. Below are some tips to ace those essays:
In terms of input, it is vital that you seek feedback from those who excel at constructive criticism. However, it can be overwhelming when you have multiple editors with conflicting feedback. We suggest that you get your application reviewed by two to three people who are strong writers. By: Veena Ganesarasa How we tackled personal statements Karen: God knows how many versions of the personal statement I wrote. I tailored each personal statement to the school I was applying to, emphasizing why I was considering the school. My goal was to personalize the story by linking it to an activity that has been central to shaping me as an individual - karate. I connected karate to various involvements (internships, extracurriculars, and exchange) at the undergraduate level and my goals in a legal profession. Lucinda: Before I began writing my personal statements, I took the time to research the schools and noted a few aspects about each (such as a certain area of specialization or a clinic) that piqued my interest and appealed to my career ambitions. Once I had familiarized myself with the schools I was interested in, I outlined the key points that I wanted to get across and a general structure that I wanted to follow. My statement focused on the reasons why I wanted to go to law school and my potential contributions to the legal community, while highlighting how the respective school would enable me to do so. Depending on the prompt, my responses would sometimes dive deeper into my personal motives and other times, they would hinge more on my professional or academic life. Overall, I think everyone’s approach will differ depending on the message you hope to get across. You should use this as an opportunity to express yourself and to showcase your personal character, your passion and creativity. Veena: Being the person who I fundamentally am, I left my supplementary application to the last minute. I believe I had most of it done before the deadline but the editing (and re-writing) was left to the night it was due. Luckily for me, the creative juices were flowing. My application largely leveraged my work experience as I was enrolled in a co-op program in undergrad as well as my background as a second generation Canadian. The overall theme of my application is that my unique experiences as the first-born child of a refugee community helped me cultivate a passion for the law which was reinforced through my work experiences.
Although the application process doesn’t begin until late August, some of you may be thinking about your applications for the upcoming year. Prior to beginning your applications remember to B R E A T H E. You will be fine, and yes we know you’ve probably heard this many times over but we’re stating a fact.
I am the first child born on foreign soil in my entire family. By the age of 10, I had the best written and oral English skills, leading me to become my extended family and broader community’s unofficial and unlicensed lawyer. From sponsorship applications to resumes, I was their go to girl. Even though I was definitely in over my head, I enjoyed being able to help and I dreamed of becoming a lawyer. This ambition of mine was only reaffirmed once I learned more about my background - the history, experiences and anguish that my parents sheltered me from until they believed that I was ready to know. My family comes from the northern region of what the world knows as Sri Lanka. But we have another name for it - one that is not tied to colonialism, oppression or ethnic cleansing. We call it Tamil Eelam, the land of the Tamils. After growing up in a liberal democracy, it was perplexing to me that the government could weaponize the rule of law to systematically discriminate and eradicate minorities. Being a daughter of Eelam is why I want to be a lawyer. I hope to use my law degree to attain the justice that my people deserve. I can’t say that law was something I always wanted to pursue. Coming out of high school, I was incredibly inspired by the world of economics. In particular, as an immigrant from Mauritius, I was interested in learning more about international relations and understanding “underdevelopment.”
It didn’t take me long to realize that the theories and models I was learning did not reflect the realities of many underdeveloped countries. What stood out most to me was persistent and blatant disregard for human rights across the global south. While completing a co-op term during one of my summers in undergrad, I met a colleague who had conducted extensive research on the mining industry. I got to learn a lot from him. I went on to do more research and found that legal institutions were at the core of the problem. That is when I decided that law school is the right path for my ambitions. I know it may seem like lawyers don’t change the system, but I’d like to believe that with the right mindset and passion, lawyers have the power to transform the lives of so many. |
Legally BrownThree Osgoode Hall Law students sharing their lived experiences and providing *unsolicited* advice. Archives
December 2021
Categories
All
|