After having settled the most
important things to survive (a mobile account, a bank account, cleaning up the
apartment), and having explored the neighborhood (it is beautiful – I am living
just across the street to the Law School and University Campus, and Morningside
Park) and its essential stores, the program has started today with Orientation
Day.
The day started off with
registration, where we received our Campus card, a Columbia T-Shirt, a
wonderful backpack (everybody got the same one – we will see how this will work
out), a ton of flyers and information leaflets and brochures about the Law
School the Campus, the Graduate Legal
Studies Student Handbook, in which is supposed to answer all our essential
questions, and last but not least the one and only ‘Arthur W. Diamond Law
Library and Columbia Law School Official Mug’.
After a rich and fruitful breakfast, which even included almost
French-tasting Croissants, the Orientation Day was officially opened in the
impressive Jerome Greene Hall. Dean Silvia T. Polo and her team warmly welcomed
us all and entertainingly led us through the program, providing us not only
with facts on the composition of our group (lots of corporate lawyers, lots of
single representatives of their countries (e.g. Rumania, Panama, Russia), lots
of Chinese and German students), but also with lots of information on VISA
issues, selection of courses, registration for exams, academic counseling, Add
and Drop period, degree requirements, grading system, important deadlines, IT
issues, which WIFI to use, how to use the printers, how to use the library, the
goals of the program. If you have the feeling that the latter non-exhaustive
enumeration seems to never stop, you might have a slight impression how we LLMs
felt. Though we only had to listen, all of us were overwhelmed by the load of
(undeniably helpful and important) information. Hence, the again very rich and
tasty lunch and finally the Happy Hour was more than welcome, which provided
the opportunity to improve our so-called networking and small-talk skills (Hi,
I am Ben, what’s your name? Where are you from? What is your subject of
interest?) and get to know in a casual and relaxing atmosphere at least some of
the fellow students, who come from all over the world and who all have –
without exception – a most inspiring and interesting background.
Tomorrow, obligatory, introductory
classes, ‘Introduction into the American Legal System’ and ‘Legal Writing and
Research’ will start – without any period of grace: we are already supposed to
do some reading for preparation. But I do not want to complain – finally, not
only the adventure New York, but also Columbia Law School has started!
This blog is featured on LLM GUIDE, a global, online community for prospective LL.M. students, and a directory of programs offered worldwide.
This blog is featured on LLM GUIDE, a global, online community for prospective LL.M. students, and a directory of programs offered worldwide.
