Fall 2021, after my brief hiatus, I came back to law school. This time around, law school was slightly different than what I was accustomed to. Since I began law school in August 2019, I would commute to school, the old-fashioned, pre-pandemic way. I knew everyone in my classes since it was the same people in every class. Now, I just knew people by their Zoom names and occasionally when people turned on their cameras. This semester, I was doing a combination of JD and MBA courses since it is my third year in the program.
First semester I tried to take as much as I could to take advantage of the virtual environment since my MBA classes were held late, 7 pm to 9 pm. I knew that if it was in person classes, I wouldn’t want to be on campus that late three times a week when my days started as early as 8 am on Thursdays! My MBA courses were: BSUS 6500: Business Strategies for Sustainability MBAN 6200: Realizing Value from AI and Analytics in Organizations MGMT 6800: Innovation Through Technology and Design These courses helped me explore different fields of business and explore my creative side a lot more. Through BSUS 6500, I even landed a Research Assistant position relating to Sustainability Accounting, a field I was not aware of prior to attending that class. At Osgoode, I took Taxation Law and Indigenous Peoples and Canadian Law. In addition, at Osgoode, I’m a student Caseworker at the Investor Protection Clinic. At Schulich, I’m enrolled in the 601, which is the capstone project for the MBA. Both of these obligations are year-long. I may have gone a little overboard because I did tack on an extra credit at Schulich to fast-track because at the time I was gung-ho on going on exchange in my final year, thinking that COVID-19 will not be a barrier in 2022 to international travel. Now this is TBD :( What I wish I had considered: While at face value, it seems like I had everything under control. A big takeaway from concurrently doing the dual degree is to consider the timeline for evaluations. At Osgoode, the exam schedule is posted over the summer when course selection occurs, that way there are no surprises and we can plan which courses to take based on the proximity of exams. Since I did not think of that as much as I should have, I had Schulich classes in the same week as my Osgoode exams and 601 deliverables. These Schulich classes mainly had at least a project per class due in that final week, so that first week of December was a little bit of a challenge to say the least. As for fast-tracking, would I do it again? Probably, because now that I know I handled it last semester, if the opportunity presented itself I would do that again because that’s just me. However, the reality is that starting mid-October (after Thanksgiving) to the first week of December, there was a lot going on at school with different deliverables, team meetings, etc. It does become a little bit of a higher pressure schedule and little downtime so make sure you have your trusty agenda by your side to help you navigate that patch. But if I could do it, you could do it too! Just requires some fortitude and a lot of planning :) By: Karen Randhawa This time of year is the busiest. Apart from the holiday spirit, law students are currently writing high-stake final exams. For most of my courses at law school, my exams are worth 100% of my final grade. I made a TikTok to share how I am currently preparing for my Taxation Law exam. In addition to this video, I would highly recommend forming study groups with people in your classes! It's always nice to discuss tax policies with my peers, I know I can count on a few people in my class. Contact your professor for office hours for questions that you have. Do practice problems/ practice exams as well - since law exams are generally about applying principles, statutes and case law. Getting into these habits will help structure your studying! Good luck everyone! In order to enjoy reading week, I went on a short trip across the country to Vancouver with two of my law school besties. When planning this trip, we made sure to come back in time giving us the opportunity to using reading week to READ! However, this reading actually began on the flight back home to make sure that we were setting the right habits. This just goes to show that you can work hard and play hard! It all comes down to effective time management. |
Legally BrownThree Osgoode Hall Law students sharing their lived experiences and providing *unsolicited* advice. Archives
December 2021
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