At least, don’t go to grad school in the humanities. That’s the message I’ve been hearing from a number of sources, including a recent article from The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Jan 052010
I’ve been debating this since I started a PhD program this fall. (I’m talking about the humanities and social sciences — I don’t know if this applies in other fields!) Granted, grad school is a huge amount of difficult and complex reading. Since it’s essentially professional training for academics, it also means learning a new working environment, a new kind of jargon, and a new bureaucracy. What it isn’t — and what law school is — is a whole new way of thinking about and approaching the world.
Sep 282009
Last May I finished my 3L year, and am now the proud possessor of a JD. On Thursday I began my first year program as a graduate student in the history of science. The experiences, perhaps unsurprisingly, have been strikingly different: law school is, ultimately, preparatory to practicing law as an attorney, and much of its emphasis is on tracking students in that direction. Graduate school in the humanities and social sciences, meanwhile, is about training future academics.
The AP has begin trying to license content through a payment scheme. Some of the content — as recently demonstrated by James Grimmelmann “purchasing” a Thomas Jefferson quote — is in the public domain. Does the AP have the right to sell/license this public-domain content? What does it mean to be in the public domain?
BizOp News asks the question: “Is the Kindle DX: Amazon’s 9.7″ Wireless Reading Device (Latest Generation) a disruptive device for the textbook market?”
Today’s legal job market is tough. To succeed, you need to use all the tools you can. Some of these tools require new rules, although all build on old-fashioned approaches, like networking and building a reputation. Here are five tools to bring your job search into the world of online social networking: Facebook, LinkedIn, Plaxo, Twitter, and JD Supra.
Apr 042009
Who Could Be Hired Today? (Concurring Opinions):
The trend in hiring law professors with graduate training in other disciplines as well as law degrees is not new; it’s been underway at least since I was a student (1988-1991). Some of the best classes I took were with individuals who had such backgrounds. But the emphasis [...]
Feb 112008
Law Blog – WSJ.com – Law Reviews Get a Bad Review:
The institution of law reviews has always been a great source of puzzlement to the Law Blog. As a 2L, the sunny afternoons we labored away blue-booking articles were—we’re pretty certain—among the most ill-spent hours of our law-school career. And yet we can’t deny the [...]
Jan 162008
Balkanization – Why the Interdisciplinary Movement in Legal Academia Might be a Bad Idea (For Most Law Schools):
Interdisciplinary studies are currently the rage in legal academia. An increasing number of law schools are touting their interdisciplinary programs, which include offering courses from other academic disciplines (economics, statistics, anthropology, etc.) in the law school curriculum, creating [...]
Jan 022008
Law Blog – WSJ.com: Do the U.S. News Rankings Matter?:
Cameron Stracher’s essays on the legal profession, which often appear in the WSJ, have been the subject of some of our more provocative posts. Today Stracher, a professor at New York Law, continues his run with a WSJ op-ed picking apart the U.S. News & World [...]
13. This list is not exclusive.
12. Everyone talks about the “real world,” but no one can quite articulate what that means.
11. Everyone agrees that one exam at the end of a semester is pedagogically unsound, and bears little resemblance to the above-mentioned “real world,” but no one does anything about it.
10. If stress is good [...]
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