Category Archives: Osgoode

Osgoode Hall Law School

Osgoode week 6

Hi all,

So I have been caught up in readings and a few assignments. I started to be proactive and have organized a note group with some friends. This way we are each responsible for taking notes in one class per week and we rotate which class we take notes for. This is very helpful because now I can focus more attention on the reading and will have a great set of notes. I also recommend finding upper year students and getting their notes as many courses use the same textbook or cases for several years in a row.

I feel a lot more organized and I am enjoying what we are learning. I find that most of it is applicable to daily life in so many ways. For instance, in contracts we learn about the consumer protection act, which impacts us everyday.

There are also tons of social events and for the most part professors try to keep this in mind when scheduling midterms, which is great! People here are really nice and genuinely want to help out, there is even a mentorship program set up to help first year students. All in all school is going well and I feel prepared and excited for what is to come!

On a side note, from what i have experienced thus far there are people from all areas of academic study which makes discussions really interesting and prooves the misconception of needing to study political science in undergrad to go to law school. From this point, I think as long as you are ready to do a lot of reading and critically analyze what you read, you will do just fine!!!

I’ll keep you posted!

Week 4

I am adjusting to the amount of readings that we are given in each course. There is a lot to cover so time management is really important. It helps if you plan ahead of time a comfortable place to study- the library is good, but after hours at school sometimes you just want to leave. Today I get back my first assignment, so hopefully that will go well, I had a small group paper due yesterday and I have two small papers due this Monday. In many of the courses there are 100% finals and all are short answer, essay etc, so make sure you have some experience with this style of testing.

Anyways, I am heading out to school!

Osgoode

        Wow! The first week went by fast. On the first day I was warmly greeted by upper year students and was helped through every step of registration. Unfortunately, the line-ups for books and lockers was very lengthy, so for future students I recommend doing this prior to the start of law school. At first I was very worried about ‘making the grade’ in law school, but after talking with upper year students I was put somewhat at ease- they all have told me that I will be fine as long as I keep up with the readings. With this in mind, I recommend that future students ask the school for the course books ahead of time to get a head start on the reading.           

         During the first week we had only two classes, one is called Ethical Lawyering in Global Community, and is divided into two parts; The first part ended this week and will recommence in January. I think that it was a great course to ease us into law school because it illustrated what lecture would be like in a less pressured atmosphere (there was less pressure since it only counted for ten percent of our grade, with five being allocated based on particpation). Also, we have a minor assignment due tomorrow in this course that will be marked in terms of pass/fail.

         We had lot’s of fun activities planned all week long, the highlight thus far has been the amazing race that we particpated in this past Friday and the pub crawl that followed. Sidenote- It is well worth the cost to purchase an orientation package. Not only does it allow participation in the scheduled events, but it also came with a bag of useful gifts. I have been told that it is important to get involved and be social, which I have been. This has been easy to do since everyone here is approachable, including the professors. I am enjoying law school so far!!!