Sunday, August 19, 2007

My First Day(s) of Law School

I survived law school orientation and continue to be simultaneously excited and intimidated by what lies ahead of me. This weekend, we got to meet one of our profs, many of our fellow students (1Ls, 2Ls and 3Ls), and become acquainted with the Law Library and career services. Our incoming class is around 270 students and it looks to be a very social group. The school's admissions staff and the 2Ls and 3Ls did a great job making us all feel welcome to the program and gave us some honest information for what to expect this first year. It's an interesting contrast to see how organized and structured the law school is compared to our PhD program.

Today, I got to meet my predecessor, Christine Kymn, who was a Levy Fellow before me. She gave our group an intro session to law and economics and I had a chance to talk with her one-on-one for around 20 minutes about what her experiences had been in the law school. She is teaching at GMU this year as a visiting scholar and said that's an indication of how well GMU is supporting the Levy Fellows to get into academic positions

Going into law school, there are three areas of law that are of particular interest to me – law and economics, intellectual property, and religious freedom. GMU ranks very highly for the first two and is also one of the premier places to study the economics of religion. I expect my interests may modify somewhat as I learn and experience more throughout the program, but I want to explore all three of these areas as much as I can during my time here.

Classes officially start this Wednesday. My public choice field exam for my PhD program is next Saturday. I can't wait to get past the exam and hit law school with both feet running. Something tells me this may be my most intense academic experience yet.

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