One of the greatest moments of a law student’s life is starting their 3L year. This is the year we all look forward to – schoolwork slows down, applications for graduation are due, many are signing contracts for their post-graduation jobs, and more.
However, 3L is also one of the most vital years pertaining to dates and deadlines. One of the main goals of 3L is to ensure you stay on top of things. Below is a list of important dates and requirements to remember to set yourself up for success during the years and after graduation.
Sign up for and take the MPRE , if you have not already. Doing this as soon as possible allows 3Ls to have one less requirement to worry about.
Ensure you lock in bar prep. There are numerous companies one can choose from for the bar prep, such as Kaplan, Themis, and BarBri. The r/bar exam subreddit has some good discussions of test takers’ experiences with these companies. Do some research and choose the one that seems like the best fit for you.
Apply for the Bar in the state you plan to take practice in. The following information pertains to the July 2024 Bar Exam: The regular Bar Exam Application window for this exam opens on March 1, 2024 and closes on June 1, 2024 at 4:00 PM. Those that apply after June 1, 2024, but before June 15, 2024, are still able to submit. However, the application fee will include a non-refundable $500 late fee.
Complete the Fitness application. If you plan to take the July 2024 bar, you must complete the Fitness Application beforehand.. The regular Fitness Application filing window opens October 25, 2023 and closes on December 6, 2023 at 4:00 PM. You can file after this time, up until March 6, 2024. However, there will be a non-refundable $500 late fee.
Check your credits/connect with the Registrar’s office. Graduation will require that students have completed a certain amount of hours/credits. If you are unsure of where you stand, you can check with the Registrar’s office to ensure that you are on track before applying for graduation. It is best to do this in the Fall semester, just in case you need to register for additional classes in the Spring.
Network. Some will have received an offer for a post-graduation job, while others are keeping their options open. Continuing to network your 3L year, helps take some stress off of trying to find a job while studying for the bar or after taking the bar.
Enjoy yourself. Making it to 3L year is a major accomplishment. Making it to graduation is even more of a celebration. However, for those that plan to take the July 2024, your free time will be limited after graduation, as you prepare for the bar. So enjoy yourself this year, connect with classmates, friends, family, loved ones, etc. You deserve it!
All in all, 3L is exciting, but still requires a lot from students. Set yourself up for a smooth graduation and post-graduation studying!
As always, everyone at the law library is excited to welcome students for a new semester. At the same time, the end of the summer does have a certain bittersweet quality to it.
We always seek to create a calm and comfortable environment, but during summer, the library is often very quiet.[1] At the beginning of the summer, with the busy exam season in the rearview, I can definitely appreciate the chance to take a deep breath and relax in a peaceful environment. Of course, a few weeks in, I really start to miss the hustle and bustle of school year, but the stillness of the summer library is nonetheless worth commemorating.
As you might imagine, fewer students means fewer patrons at our reference and circulation desks. This gives the reference librarians and our hardworking circulation staff time to work on projects that might otherwise reside on the backburner. It also gives us a nice opportunity to get to know our summer “regulars,” whether they are taking courses, studying for the bar, or researching an important project for their summer job. This can make summer feel like a productive and fulfilling time, while also making me eager to meet a whole new class of amazing 1Ls, transfers, and LLMs.
Working in the law library, you get accustomed to these seasonal rhythms. The variety keeps things interesting! The quiet times also lead to more overall productivity, with better library services as a result. However, it’s worth remembering that everyone needs downtime, even attorneys and law students.
Here’s to the end of summer and the start of a new year.
[1] Do keep in mind that the 6th floor is always quiet!
Today’s topic is about an important subject: stress and stress management. Stress is one of those things that doesn’t need a definition or a Wikipedia entry – everyone knows what it is and knows how they feel when they are stressed, especially law school students at the tail end of the semester before finals.
Hobbies can be a wonderful form of escapism if one puts in a little time. Not only that, but undertaking hobbies can activate areas of the brain that may not be stimulated by a casebook or hypos. My two main hobbies are guitar and photography. Some things I like about guitar is it pulls me into a mindset where the only things that matter are the melody, the sound, and the transition to the next note or song. Photography I enjoy as well because of my focus on landscape photography, which is also a great excuse to get outside away from the books and screens and get some sun. There’s always the old faithfuls like movies and video games too. If not into any of those, YouTube and the internet can teach you just about anything you want to know these days. Origami? Crochet? Cooking? The internet’s got you. Cooking is my own personal favorite “hobby du jour”…I’ve finally reached a place where I prefer my own cooking to eating out sometimes, and it’s cheaper! Below is a picture of the Atlanta skyline I took this week with some quick and dirty edits, didn’t have much time to shoot or edit but even 30 mins felt wonderful:
Iconic Jackson Street Bridge view, a panorama of two images taken with a black and white camera in the infrared spectrum. Copyright T.C. Deveau 2023, all rights reserved. Used with permission.
Exercise
Maybe not the most popular or most fun of the stress-managers, exercise definitely should have a place in everyone’s daily routine…or at least weekly routine. It can be physically exhausting but a little sweat and endorphins can be great for one’s mental state. My first “run” at grad school I took up running, which ended up being fantastic. Got me outside and thinking about things that weren’t school….plus it doesn’t cost any money to just go outside and run. Atlanta has lots to offer here if one is so inclined (please excuse the running pun, you’ll learn how “inclined” (or hilly) the city is if you ever start running).. Sure there are gyms and yoga studios all over the place, but there’s so much more around here as well. There’s the Beltline, where one can get out and walk or bike…same with the Silver Comet Trail. The Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area is another great place to get outside and walk, run, bike, kayak, float, etc (parking passes are also only $40/year, one of the best deals around). Cochran Shoals and the bamboo grove off the East Palisades trail are two of my favorite spots. Sope Creek is another great spot. There are plenty of sports leagues around too for adults (some more serious than others) if you’re feeling the itch for team sports. If one feels so inclined to get out of the city a little, there’s also the North Georgia Mountains (and the start of the Appalachian Trail) if one wants to get out and hike and camp.
Food and Drink
Everyone loves food and drink, right? Atlanta is a great food town with great restaurants across the metro area.
Can’t make up your mind? The food court is making a comeback and coming back fast. Krog Street Market, Ponce City Market, Sweet Auburn Market, Chattahoochee Food Works, Ph’East (at the Battery), Politan Row at Colony Square – all of these food courts (er, um, markets) provide a little something for everyone with tastier food and more variety than the mall food courts we all grew up with.
Atlanta is also having its “live-work-play” moment, and one can even combine food and drink with other activities like sports, retail, movie theaters (remember those?) and the like. The Battery, Avalon, Halcyon, Atlantic Station, Streets of Buckhead, Ponce City Market – all of these locations have a little something for everyone.
There’s also no shortage of watering holes around town either. From Decatur to Kirkwood, Dunwoody to Marietta, and southwest Atl as well, there are plenty of bars and breweries one can go to relax as well. Many of these spots offer things like trivia nights as well, which are a great excuse to go and socialize.
Friends and Family
Saving the best for last…last but not least, don’t forget to make time for your friends and family. Yes, making time for friends and family will leave less time to finish that brief that’s due in three days, but the gain in emotional capital often makes the sacrifice of time worth it. Please do lean on your friends and family to help support you when you feel stressed. At the very least, remember that when you apply to take the bar exam, you’ll have to add references to your Character and Fitness application. So if you need an excuse to hang out with your friends one night you think you should be doing work, keeping your friends in your life will make this portion or the bar exam application easy…and it’s good for your mental health.
So there it is. A little bit about stress in a nutshell. For context, we must also keep in mind that law school is certainly a marathon and not a sprint. Stress and stress management are behemoths of topics. Identifying when stress gets in the way of you being you and helping to manage it though will have a tremendous payout, and it’s never too early (or too late) to get working on this if you haven’t already developed your own stress management strategies.
Finally, to minimize stress, try to avoid major life changes during law school…if one can. I get it. We’re all here because we’re overachievers on some level, but a lot of life changes and decisions actually can wait until after school is done. No, no one is getting younger as time goes on and life never really ever gets “simpler” as time goes on, but waiting until school is done to undertake major life decisions is not a bad idea (if it can be managed).
Best of luck to all of you as you undertake your studies. Things will get stressful, but, as always…you got this.
Resources:
GSU Counseling Services – don’t be ashamed to reach out for help if dealing with stress gets too much, the school has a counseling center to help out.
If you’re experiencing an acute emergency resulting from stress, the suicide and crisis management hotline can also be found by dialing 988.
With Finals right around the corner, the library has shifted into full-on “Pet Picture” mode. That’s right, instead of informing you about library events and services, the library signs will now beguile you with extremely cute pictures of your own pets! That way, as you pause to to catch your breath before running through the Rule Against Perpetuities one more time, you can look up and see the relaxing, inspiring visage of one of our faithful furry friends. In order to really bring home the sheer cuteness on display, we’ll use this blog post to get to know a few of GSU Law’s pets a little bit better.
Some pets go beyond inspiration and comfort to actually study law right alongside you. That’s the case with the impeccably-named Princess Vanilla Pudding, pictured here helping 2L Nicole Walker Smith get ready for her CivPro exam.
Next up, we have another pet with an amazing name, Kahlua Romeo. She’s also an enthusiastic learner of the law, who likes to jump up and participate during Zoom classes, although 3L Sonny Romeo warns that “Professor Stephens scares her a bit.”
If pets can effectively study law, perhaps they can also execute key governmental functions. As you can see from this picture of 3L Alex Beato’s pup Reagan, our pets have already gotten pretty close to the White House! Alex adopted Reagan from a shelter, and reports that “she has never met a person, squirrel, or really any other living creature she doesn’t love and lives for all the pets and attention she can get.”
Clearly, if the U.S. News & World Report’s rankings included “cuteness of student pets” as a criteria, GSU Law would mount a challenge to Yale and Harvard. Be on the look out for a sequel to this post featuring more of these highly-ranked pets. Until then, if you want to see more of these astoundingly cute animals, you’ll have to make it in to the library. While you’re at it, don’t forget to check out some of our amazing exam-related resources, like our study aid collections and the exam archive. Good luck!
The ABA Law Student Division, like other groups around the United States, is observing National Mental Health Day. How do we celebrate—or participate in the celebration? In addition to the stress associated with our everyday lives, we often start thinking about the end of the semester around now. And that ramps up the stress for students and faculty alike!
The ABA’s Mental Health Day programming includes sessions on depression, suicide prevention, and emerging from the pandemic. Check it out! You might even be inspired to break out the hashtags and take part in the ABA’s social media campaign: #LawStudentWellness and #ABAMentalHealth.
Maybe you would like to extend your knowledge about mental health resources available on campus? The obvious place to start is with the resources available through the Counseling & Testing Center. The Center offers, in addition to counseling appointments, Be Well Panthers includes short articles about mindfulness, adulting, exercise, relationships, and more.
As you might expect, the Law Library also has some incredible resources for you. It may be that you can minimize your stress by consulting tools like those found in our online study aids collection. But, you will be happy to learn that we have other books that might be of interest.
We have online access to some other titles that might be of interest. For example, Stress at Work: Management and Prevention is easily available and offers an overview of stress and how it functions as well as coping strategies. There are a bunch of online books about mindfulness, and you can review the results of this library search to pick the book of your choice. If you’d prefer to change the focus and search for lawyer and anxiety or depression, there are also some books you might find of interest.
If you haven’t heard it before, you can remember that you heard it here: taking care of your mental health will only help you as you work your way through law school and your future career path.
You may have been thinking about it all semester, but after Halloween, the feeling that something spooky lurks in the future lingers…law school exams. This time coincides with the holiday season, which for many means disrupted routines and extra tasks or responsibilities, not to mention economic stress. This year, we have the added bonus of uncertainty associated with the global pandemic.
In light of all that, perhaps you would like to extend your knowledge about mental health resources available on campus?
The College of Law Mindfulness Program may be one resource of interest. A six-week program, the sessions provide basics about mindfulness meditation and opportunities to practice. The program is set to be accessed on your own schedule.
Another obvious place to start is with the resources available through the Counseling & Testing Center. The Center is open, and wellness programs are virtual.
But don’t fear! The Law Library has resources to support you too. It may be that you can minimize your exam stress by consulting tools like those found in our online study aids collection.
We have online access to some other titles. For example, Stress at Work Management and Prevention is easily available and offers an overview of stress and how it functions as well as coping strategies. There are a bunch of online books about mindfulness, and you can review the results of this library search to pick the book of your choice. If you’d prefer to change the focus and search for lawyer and anxiety or depression, there are also some books you might find of interest.
If you haven’t heard it before, you can remember that you heard it here: taking care of your mental health will only help you as you work your way through law school and your future career path.
The Blackacre Times 
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