A summer away doesn’t mean that you’re not still part of this crazy world where you compete for interview slots, network as much as possible, and spend a few nights a week at SGA ‘bar reviews’.  The truth comes a knockin’ today, which means that you have to spend some time reflecting on those grades and how they’ll impact your future choices.  My goal here is not to be a Debbie Downer.  I’ve been in your shoes, and I know that once those grades appear on your computer screen your mind is going to be a nonstop express train with no last stop.  It doesn’t matter if your performance was phenomenal or abysmal, the same trip to nowhere will begin.

How did I do compared to everyone else?

Is this good for the big firms and OCI?

Is it good enough to transfer?

Am I even in the top half of the class?

Was law school the right decision for me?

What bar am I going to tonight to celebrate?

What bar am I going to tonight to forget about this for the night?

I don’t have the answers to all these questions.  If you want, you know that you can always come to anyone in our office to discuss them, but the real questions that need to be answered can only be done all by yourself.

Are these grades a reflection of the work I put in?

And no matter how good or bad you think you did:

What can I do along with these grades to get ready for the next part of law school?

In terms of the first question, this is really gut check time to decide if you reached your potential.  Did you put in enough work over the entire semester to garner the grades you think you should have?  You may have studied every waking moment during reading period, but grades are really a great reflection on your work over the entire semester.  Think of your grades as more of an evaluation of your course work.  Do you have to do more this coming year, change your study habits, or is everything just perfect as is?

For the second question, it’s all about taking the other steps towards being a well rounded law student/job candidate.  Grades are important but the whole package can present a bigger and better picture than just a GPA.  Getting involved with student groups, having an internship, doing research with a professor, going to networking events, meeting alumni – the opportunities are endless.  You don’t have to let your grades dictate what you think your future will be.

Use the summer to look at your grades in the bigger picture of your law school success.  No matter where you are on that curve, these are important things to put in perspective as you gear up for another year or two of law school.  Think about what you’ve done well and not so well and how these experiences can be building blocks for improvement during the rest of law school.  Even though grades are a big piece of the puzzle, remember that a puzzle has more than one piece.

We’ll be here all summer prepping for your return so we’ll keep blogging.  Good luck with those grades and remember to be proud of what you’ve accomplished. – Josh

Music is powerful.  It can evoke memories or change your mood. The right song can even transform your entire outlook for the day.  There are always those songs that mean a lot to us and that have to be played when you’re starting your workout at the gym, setting the mood for a date, pre-partying in your apartment, or hopping onto the highway for a long road trip.

But my question for all of you is do you have a song that can help you create that laser focus necessary to hit the books?  I think that people really fall into two camps on this issue – “definitely yes, I can’t even begin to focus without music,” or “no way at all, no no no, how could you possibly think that is helpful. no.”

Well, to each their own.  I can see music being a distraction for some. You love your taste in music so much that you’re pulled into a song and ten minutes into studying you realize that you’re using your T&E textbook as a drum and your extra tall coffee is a decent faux microphone.  For you, the rest of this post may be wasted.  Please put in your earplugs and continue your studies – I’m officially jealous of your ability to focus.

For the rest of us, music is a necessity.  Doesn’t matter what your taste in tunes may be, but I bet there is something that you like to listen to while studying.  I think this group can also be split in two – those who prefer music with words and those who prefer instrumental.  Some people can work with any type of music.  It just needs to be their favorite band, or something with the right tempo to keep the eyes going from left to right across the page.  I was more open to this before law school, and would always be humming along to some indie or alt rock while plowing through my poli sci work.  However, that changed to jazz with law school along with the need to comprehend what I was reading becoming slightly more important . . . not that I wasn’t a totally focused college student. I swear.

Anyhow, especially for the 1L’s who are still in the process of adjusting to the demands of law school finals, the end of the year is here.  Is music going to help or hurt you in these last days of studying?  That’s your call but I’m here to suggest a few tunes that may help.  I could write a huge list of songs to add to your next playlist.  However, here are just a few of my favorites from my studying days – and since these were songs I studied to, welcome back to the last century. 

For those who don’t mind vocals while studying:

G Love and Special Sauce – Steppin’ Stone
Guster – Happier
Sublime – What I Got
Weezer – Buddy Holly
Beck – The New Pollution

Those strict on instruments only:

Jack McDuff – Butter (for yo popcorn)
Jimmy Smith – The Champ
Bela Fleck and the Flecktones – The Sinister Minister
John Coltrane – Giant Steps
Yellowjackets – Runferyerlife

Best of luck with exams, and keep the sing-along’s to at-home studying, Josh

p.s. – Please feel free to share your own favorite songs for studying.

While I was in graduate school, you could often find me working while hunched over my laptop surrounded by my books, my notes, and most importantly, my caffeine.  During especially busy stretches of the semester, it was not uncommon for me to be writing at 1am with a 2-liter bottle of Diet Coke by my side, a pot of coffee brewing and a cup of tea nearby just for good measure.  Oh, and sometimes there was chocolate too.  During finals, all the staples of healthy living often fell to the side for me and my colleagues. Take-out became a primary food group.  Smuggling a large coffee into the no-food-zone of the library was a major victory, and a decent night’s sleep was merely an afterthought.  Regular trips to the gym were replaced with extra library sessions, which for me, sometimes translated into skipping meals all together.  At an end of the semester dinner sponsored by one of my professors, my classmates and I marveled at what isolated lives we had been living almost without realizing it. We were young adults studying in New York City, and yet we often found it difficult to leave the twenty-or-so block radius of campus without feeling guilty or under-prepared for class, even with all that the city had to offer right at our fingertips.

It is easy to tout the benefits of a balanced lifestyle, but academia is tough, and practicing that balance can often feel like another stressor itself, an extra task added to an already tremendous to-do list that includes not just your student-life, but your life beyond the classroom as well – your friends, your family, your finances, your non-academic interests and goals, your career.  The demands can be rigorous on all levels, and quite frankly, taking time for yourself does not always feel like a viable option. Coming to undergrad in Boston and then attending graduate school in New York, I arrived in both cities with lofty goals for enjoying the urban space – Museums! Parks! Restaurants! Bars! But, truth be told, it took me a while to figure out how to create space in my schedule for these elements of my education.  It also took the work of reminding myself to slow down and find a bit of space outside the library to relieve some stress and broaden my horizons.  I had a year and a half of grad school behind me before I found a great place to grab a salad on the go, started taking advantage of student perks at museums and other venues and began to run in the park near my apartment.

I hope that our revised “Live Well, Learn Well” web pages can take a little bit of this work out of the equation for you by providing some tools to help strike that elusive school-life balance. Further, I hope that my personal anecdotes remind you that this quest for balance is a universal one that many of us behind the scenes here at the Law School have also experienced.  The Student Affairs Office has promoted its “Live Well, Learn Well” initiative since 2005, but we have recently broadened the online content for this program. The new pages contain a variety of links to wellness programs right here at the Law School, at BU in general, and in Greater Boston.  Oftentimes, opportunities for a short break in your routine are closer and easier than you think.  From spending time in one of Boston’s many parks now that the weather is warming to spending a night at the theater, and from eating well when you are in a rush to checking out the latest exhibits at the MFA, I hope these compiled resources remind you of all that our community, at the University and in the city, has to offer its students and that they spark some ideas for stretching beyond the Tower.  Perhaps more importantly, I hope they also remind you to go easy on yourself as exams approach.  While balance is an ultimate goal, it can be hard to achieve, and I still can’t make it through a day without Diet Coke. 

Take Care, Leah

Which brings me to the weekend and having fun…Please take time this weekend to do something fun.  Be good to yourselves.  The Museum of Fine Arts has a great new wing of American art:

You have free admission as a BU student.  Some interesting movies also have come out–e.g., The Fighter, with Mark Wahlberg, is getting great reviews.  Check out  http://boston.com/and http://thephoenix.com/ for events in and around Boston.

Have a great weekend!

 I’ll put on my “mom” hat, and offer my pointers for dealing with the stress of reading period and exams:

• Eat regularly, and choose healthy food and drink.  Nourishment is important to brain functioning, and limiting caffeine, alcohol and sugar is important physically and mentally.
• Get enough rest.  You will not be efficient or think clearly if you are tired and rundown.
• Try to get at least some exercise, even if it’s walking up and down the tower stairs.  Exercise releases endorphins, which produce a sense of well-being (and are natural pain killers).
• The key to success in law school is not to pull constant all nighters in the library!  I know of no one who has done well this way.
• Don’t hang around people who just stress you out.  It’s fine to study alone, if that’s your style, or in a smaller group, if works best for you. 
• Don’t feel that you are strange or weird if you seem stressed but other law students don’t seem to show it.  Trust me—most students are anxious and feel stress around exams. You’re not alone.
• Be good to yourself.  Take time to do something relaxing and, yes, even fun!  See a movie; watch a tv show; listen to music.  (My current favorite group for relaxing music is the Kings of Convenience).  Treat yourself well.  The emotional benefit you’ll get is worth the time spent, and you’ll feel more energized to tackle studying.
• Pay attention to signs that stress or anxiety is becoming unmanageable and harmful.  Are you sleeping too much?  Sleeping too little?  Can’t get out of bed?  Crying most of the time?  Can’t focus at all?  BU and the city of Boston have great, confidential, counseling resources for helping when stress and anxiety become overwhelming.  Call the BU Clinic (617/353-3569) or Massachusetts Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers (617/482-9600).  And their services are free.  The counselors work with many law students, and they understand what you are going through.  Don’t be afraid to ask for help. 

 Hang in there and know that I’m thinking of you! 

All the best, Dean Chris Marx