Ann Arbor

I am in Ann Arbor now, and had my personal guided tour of the Law School this morning. First off, it is a gorgeous day in Ann Arbor. What a great morning to be walking through the Law Quad!

At 9:30 am, I went to Hutchins Hall, where I noticed a nice buffet of breakfast foods and giant carafes of coffee in the middle of the hallway. Thank the Law Gods! (UM constantly has special functions and events with good spreads laid out--I worked for the Michigan Union Catering for 2 years in undergrad, and its amazing how many different meals are going on at any given time around these parts). Offering up a silent prayer to the gods watching over the non-morning people, I grabbed a cup of coffee, and continued on to the Admissions office.

When I walked into the office, I was greeted by a gaggle of people (including if I recognized her picture correctly, Sarah Zearfoss, the Asst. Dean and Director of Admissions). She apologized and explained that they were trying to work through a little crisis. No problems, I said (looks like this was going to take precedence over my personal VIP guided tour, ah well!) I quietly listened to them discuss "applications from 2Ls and 3Ls as they moved into the conference room. My tour was instead conducted by a very friendly Admissions office worker, and she told me that the crisis referred to the mass of Tulane Law students displaced by the destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina. I had heard on NPR this morning that hundreds of students were seeking alternate schools nearby so they could continue their educations while the relief efforts continued down in New Orleans. Looks like the admissions offices of law schools across the country can look forward to being inundated with applications from hopeful provisional students. I commented that they might have a bunch more students for a couple of years then, and she responded that no, they would be under consideration for temporary status as visitors only. Interesting.

After watching a cute 20 minute video on Umich Law, we went through the quietly impressive reading room, and my guide rattled off random facts about the height of the ceilings, and the inlays in the stained glass windows. We ducked into classrooms both large and small, the Moot Court room, and went into parts of the Law Library that had been off limits to me as an undergrad. I spotted the Law Review offices in the basement of the library and felt like rubbing the door for good luck as we passed. Coming back around, we ran into a sudden and huge crowd of chattering people. Surprise, surprise, the group was surrounding the breakfast buffet table from which I had previously liberated the cup of java. She was surprised for a minute, but since this is Orientation time, concluded that these must be admitted students here for a function. Squeezing our way through the crowd of youngish looking people, each of which holding a yellow binder and full of an air of nervous excitement, she smiled at me and noted that it could be me next year.

Our tour concluded with going out of doors to the Law Quad grounds where my guide pointed out the Lawyers Club, which mainly consisted of law student housing, the Lawyers Club lounge, and the law cafeteria. Unfortunately these areas were still locked up for the summer, so I didn't get to see inside the last few off limits areas of the Law Quad--but I suppose that some mysteries are best saved for Fall of '06 ;)

I thought briefly of going back and blending into the near hundred person crowd, tagging along for the 1L ride, and scoring some more inside knowledge (not to mention, free bagels).
But with my lack of a yellow folder, they would've found me out for sure ;P