For the last few days, I have found myself cheerleading for Columbia at various admitted student events. Young recently commented in class that he found himself robotically spouting pro-law school sales pitches to admitted students at the last of these programs, and he had to stop himself from perpetuating “the con.” I don’t know if I’ve just completely guzzled the law school Kool-Aid, but I find myself very happy to be here at this point in my life. It doesn’t FEEL like I’m conning anyone, but Young’s point has been running through my head all day, and one girl mentioned to me this morning that my happiness made her want to come here.

Our discussions on this wiki and in class have made me curious to know whether being happy in law school puts me in the minority, and whether any of us are having internal conflicts when interacting with admits for this admitted students program.

-- MolissaFarber - 26 Mar 2009

My thoughts on this are a bit sequential, in that first of all, I'm not totally sure I buy into the notion of "the con" being present here. The bottom line is that people in law school generally want to begin a legal career, and law schools facilitate that in a way that must consider a multitude of other factors. Are there things we could do better? Sure, absolutely. But in general, I don't think for most people the negativity is at a sufficient level to discourage others from going here.

Secondly, if you want to be pragmatic about the actual admitted students program, there is no reason to believe that the other schools these students are looking at are any different than us in terms of 'conning.' I suspect virtually all of those visiting are going to attend some law school, so why not encourage them to join our community, or at least show them what we have to offer? There is no reason not to be honest, and admit problems if asked. But the real 'con' in my opinion would be to give the admitted student a negative report about the school, without disclosing that most of the issues are system-wide. I am not trying to come off as a schil or lackey, but with regard to the issues we have discussed, I don't think it's reasonable to tell someone who is going to law school anyways that CLS has unique flaws in such regards.

-- AaronShepard - 26 Mar 2009

This is a really interesting topic, thanks to Molissa for posting. It makes me wonder what Veblen would say about the Admitted Students Program. I would venture to say that Columbia could care less whether its enrollment decreased by 5-10% because it displayed its acoustically sub-standard rooms (such as 106, where we will be having class today). So the program probably isn't based on a display of strict pecuniary prowess. I think what scares everyone in this "community" - ourselves included - is that people would cease to think of Columbia as quite so prestigious law school, especially in comparison to other top law schools. We would all be affected by such a change in people's mindsets, and as such we all have an interest in keeping up appearances.

One other thing worth mulling over: Moglen's class is not listed on the program as a class that admits can attend, and it wasn't listed when we were admits. Quite the coincidence, huh?

-- HelenMayer - 26 Mar 2009

I'm really glad this point was touched upon in class today. I didn't mean to suggest that Admitted Students Day WAS a con, as Eben and Aaron pointed out, but I agree that we do seem to focus more on the con aspect of Leff's piece than the sale aspect (or on the possibility of distinguishing the two). I hope we can still continue the discussion, kool-aide or not.

In my notes for today, I have this comment by Eben: The image of who you might be becoming is more important than the reality. You will become something you can envision rather than something you want to be. I wrote this down because it sounded profound at the time, but now I realize I don't fully understand it. (Did I miss the explanation while typing?) Does this mean that we lose our true selves in the act of the sale/the con?

-- MolissaFarber - 26 Mar 2009