Before I started law school, I spent an embarrassing amount of time on law school reddit. As a first-generation student, I didn’t have any friends or family to go to for advice about law school, so I went to the one place I knew would have basically any information I wanted at the tip of my fingers: the internet. It was on these reddit pages that I read that law school was so cut-throat and competitive that people wouldn’t speak to each other, share outlines or notes, or help others understand difficult concepts learned in class. This terrified me. I didn’t want to spend three years in a place full of people who would not help their fellow classmates when they needed it. I’m from Texas, after all, and southern hospitality has ingrained in me the importance of taking care of your neighbor. You may have read these pages too and let them scare you, but let me debunk this myth right now because it is absolutely not true.
I cannot speak for every law school or every class at Loyola, but my section is more than willing to help one another when we need it. We have a group chat on Discord where we go to when we have questions, share resources, and even joke around with one another. If I missed class one day, I know without a doubt that someone in my class would email me notes or share any important information the professor went over during my absence. If we need clarification on the issue or rule in a case, someone will jump in the group chat asking what we think and we can discuss what we got out of a case we were assigned. We also have a channel where we share jokes and memes and one where we invite each other to events on or off campus. Law school is hard, there’s no sugar coating it, so it’s great to have people in your corner who are going through the same thing.
Of course, law school is inherently competitive. The curve makes it so your performance is based on that of your classmates, and that can make it tense at times. However, we still make it a point to not let that take over our lives. After all, we’re in this together for the next three or so years, and I can only imagine how exhausting it would be if we were forced to hate each other the entire time.