The Great Change: Turning Cathy into a Lawyer

This week the German 2Ls were all aflutter, putting together their rankings for which law school they'd like to attend next year for their semester abroad. At Bucerius everyone does a semester abroad – it's part of the curriculum, and part of Bucerius's mission to generate globally-aware lawyers.

A few weeks ago they held an open house where the international students studying here could describe their schools, but the 2L's choices weren't just limited to those. There are many, many partner schools around the world for them to choose from.

Not everyone was interested in going to America, and I think that's a good thing. There's more to the world than just the US (though Americans so often forget...). Several were interested in French-speaking schools to hone their language skills, and another of my friends is particularly interested in Asia. In addition to China and Singapore, apparently there's even a school in Bangalore they can attend. (One other reason to go to a non-US school now: many of them would consider pursuing an American LLM at some point, so a non-US school now would broaden their experience.)

What may be a little unfortunate about the selection process, but apparently was what the students themselves requested, is that the system for being assigned your spot is based on class ranking. Which is unfortunate, because it makes students competitive in a way they otherwise wouldn't really need to be. My impression is that grades do matter to some extent in Germany, but to a much lesser degree than in the US. Especially first-year grades. But the students apparently elected to have their choices considered in class rank order, rather than by lottery. I gather it gave them a sense that they could control their destiny, but I wonder to what extent that's actually true.

In any case, students could rank up to 15 schools, and even many of those interested in non-US schools still needed to put some on their lists. (Then, as I understand it, the top ranked student would be assigned his first choice school, then the second-ranked would get his top choice – or if unavailable, his second choice, etc.) I pitched Boston University quite enthusiastically to anyone who would listen (even those just trying to be polite) and particularly to my friends (who also may have been humoring me). But it was sort of funny – during the open house I talked about how great the education is. And people paled: "Um, I was kind of hoping to take it a little easier during my semester abroad. Do people at BU... um, do they ever have fun?" So I had to rethink my pitch...

Which is not to say that the German students are lazy... They DO work very hard for many, many years here. Three years of school, followed by at least a year of exam prep – including Saturday morning practice tests. To want to take things a little easier for one semester would not be unreasonable.

Still, I encouraged them to think about what they could gain from their American educations. Some were particularly interested in the reputation of the schools and wondered how it would be regarded when listed on their C.V.'s. For better or for worse, I showed them the US News and World Report rankings. But I said that there were certain considerations that should trump those numbers:

a) They shouldn't live somewhere they wouldn't want to live. Most of these students are used to cosmopolitan environments. They needed to understand which ones were in locations that could offer them. Although admittedly this is a bit tough to do speculatively. A school like Boston College is easily accessible to Boston, but it's not actually IN Boston. Would the students care about something like this? Perhaps. Would they be able to know where the schools really were? Perhaps not, or at least not without a lot more research than I think they were able to do in the time available. So as best I could, I filled students in on where these schools really are. I do feel their impressions may be skewed by my biases of where I like to live, but I tried to suppress my own preferences and try to match schools up to what I could figure out theirs to be.

b) If there was something they were particularly interested in – like, say, IP law – they should consider a lower-ranked school for the chance to experience classes taught by those esteemed professors.

c) If there is something about a school's particular place or associated opportunities that interested the student it would also overcome a lower ranking. For my Asia-focused friend, for instance, I recommended he list Santa Clara University. It may be third tier, but there is a strong Asian community nearby he can potentially network with. More so than, I would suspect, some of the higher-ranked Midwestern schools.

d) The other aspect I encouraged them to consider (though here, too, I think they lacked the necessary information to do so) was the program available to them at any of these schools. A highly-ranked school that just dumped the students into classes with no support would likely not be a good choice. It is best to choose a school (like I know BU is) that takes its foreign program VERY seriously. Then there are questions about the curriculum available to them. Could they take any courses they wanted? Is there a prescribed program? And which would the student prefer?

e) Sadly, cost is a consideration. It costs a lot more to live in Boston, New York, or DC than Iowa, and that might be a factor in many students' decisions.

I did suggest to several students that if they did study in the US, even if they could take any courses they wanted from the catalog, that they consider taking, if possible, some of the first year courses like in Torts and Contract – something so that they can really learn the doctrinal bases for much of American law.