The Last Cupcakes

It’s been a while, so here’s a brief summary of what’s going on with this “cupcake” business: one of my Class of 2011 classmates at Darden has a husband who did his 1L year at the law school at the same time she and I were doing our FY at Darden.  Said husband always referred to Darden as “Camp Cupcake” and insisted that the FY at Darden was much easier than the 1L year at the Law School.  So I decided to do a week-by-week comparison of the two programs, awarding a cupcake each week to the school that was easier/fluffier/more sugar-coated.  You can see the posts covering the first semester here, here, here, here, and here.  By the end of the semester, the final cupcake tally was Darden: 5, UVa Law: 13 (meaning that I found the first semester at Darden harder than the first semester at the Law School). 

And now, since I’m sure you’ve all been waiting with baited breath for the second semester cupcakes, here they are (I did actually keep a written list last semester, which I just uncovered in a heap of papers/outlines/notes/bills that I apparently just stuck on a shelf in my office…whoops):

The Week 19 Cupcake goes to: Darden

Rationale: We were technically on winter break at both schools, and since my family had started driving me absolutely insane, I was back in Cville both years.  In my FY at Darden, I generally chilled out at home, did some interview prep, and spent several hours sitting in the Admissions lobby talking to prospective students who were visiting for interviews.  On the whole, it was pretty fun.  During my 1L winter break, I drove back and forth to DE to interview with several law firms.  Since I hate driving around DC and since interviews themselves are more stressful than prepping for interviews (and since 1Ls are engaged in cutthroat competition for a tiny, tiny number of firm jobs), it was a lot less fun being a law student.

The Week 20 Cupcake goes to: UVa Law

Rationale: While this week was also theoretically still “winter break,” at Darden, interview prep kicked up to warp speed.  I spent hours doing consulting case interview prep.  During my 1L year at the Law School, I managed to convince the administration to let me take a J-Week class (a one-week course that gives you a quarter’s worth of credit) at Darden.  So, I spent a week taking a course on Crisis Leadership, which involved a visit to the Darden Media Lab, complete with a one-on-one on-camera interview, and a mock press conference (again videotaped) and crisis plan development exercise.  I felt a little bit like Eli Gold from The Good Wife, so it was super fun.  Also, all my classmates at the law school were still chillaxing. 

The Week 21 Cupcake goes to: UVa Law

Rationale: At Darden, we started Q3 classes AND were doing hours of on-grounds interviews (and learning team).  At the law school, we were still on winter break.  I did fly up to Boston for a law firm interview (for the summer job I ended up taking), but I also got to see friends M & D and paid a visit to my former co-workers at The Consulting Firm That Shall Not Be Named, so that was much more fun than class.

The Week 22 Cupcake goes to: UVa Law

Rationale:  The things that kept me fairly busy and stressed out at the law school were all non-law-school activities: the Wine & Cuisine Club Conference/Industry Day (complete will tripping over the carpeting in the PepsiCo Forum and falling flat on my face in front of Dean Bruner), alumni interviews for local applicants to Brown, a trip to Indianapolis in connection with the advising I do for the local chapter of my sorority, and a stress fracture in my foot.  Awesome.  During my first year at Darden, we were also doing interviews, dealing with snow storms, putting together presentations for the Management Communications course, and doing a bunch of other stuff.  At the law school, we were still shopping for classes for the second semester.

The Week 23 Cupcake goes to: UVa Law

Rationale: Plain old class at the law school; class plus learning team plus recruiting at Darden.

The Week 24 Cupcake goes to: Darden

Rationale: Yes, Darden was busy, but it was the routine kind of busy to which I had become accustomed at that point.  On the other hand, at the law school, I was prepping for a trial advocacy tournament, attending info sessions for tryouts for journals and to be a Dillard Fellow, and I think this was the week that a bunch of 1Ls were doing on-grounds recruiting for summer positions.

The Week 25 Cupcake goes to: Darden

Rationale: I, too, am surprised that during the month of Feb Club (there are theme parties every night of the month at the law school), Darden is earning more cupcakes.  But while interviews were still underway at Darden, the stress was broken up by the SHE Auction and Gala.  At the law school, typical stress was compounded by continuing trial advocacy prep and a full weekend spent on my Dillard Fellow tryout.

The Week 26 Cupcake goes to: Darden

Rationale: This week was a close call.  During my first year at Darden, I spent this week in a bunch of interviews, including a trip to DC for a series of second-round interviews with a consulting firm and a branch of the federal government.  However, at the law school, I was still in trial advocacy hell, and I lost the second weekend in a row to a tryout, this time for journals.

The Week 27 Cupcake goes to: Darden

Rationale: It was exam week (always my favorite week of the quarter!) at Darden, and even though that meant it was almost Spring Break at the law school, I spent the first part of the week exhausted from two weekends of tryouts and then spent the first weekend of spring break  at the most mismanaged trial advocacy tournament I’ve ever attended (and this was my ninth year of mock trial competition).

The Week 28 Cupcake goes to: UVa Law

Rationale: Spring Break at both schools.  At the law school, this meant total rest and relaxation.  At Darden, this meant a trip to Barcelona.  Barcelona was great (duh.) but it was a week of “class,” therefore making it less cupcake-y than a week spent vegging out. 

The Week 29 Cupcake goes to: Darden

Rationale: Darden finished up spring break and then started a quarter of mostly elective classes (3 electives plus LO and Ethics, so no learning team any more).  At the law school, our LRW (legal research and writing) briefs were due, and we held our first of two admitted student weekends (which means a lot of running around, especially when one of your closest friends at the law school is one of the ASW chairs). 

The Week 30 Cupcake goes to: UVa Law

Rationale: My law school friends and I had time to go grab breakfast before class and to go on a Friday shooting trip (no animals, only clays, were harmed during this outing).  At Darden, I was still recruiting and attending a bazillion and a half group meetings for deliverables for various classes.

The Week 31 Cupcake goes to: UVa Law

Rationale: Finals panicking hadn’t started yet at the law school (and I had plenty of time to attend various Darden social functions), but during my FY at Darden, I had several more interviews, which meant travel, and I also took on a club leadership role, which meant transition and strategy meetings out the wazoo. 

The Week 32 Cupcake goes to: Darden

Rationale: At Darden, I still had 3-4 interviews and my classmates were trying to pick their classes for the whole next year, but at the law school, I was prepping for my oral argument for LRW, doing my oral argument (on a Saturday morning), and outlining season had started. 

The Week 33 Cupcake goes to: Darden

Rationale: Outlining stinks. 

The Week 34 Cupcake goes to: Darden

Rationale: Outlining really, really, really stinks, even more than group meetings for LO, marketing intelligence, and data analysis and optimization.

The Week 35 Cupcake goes to: Darden

Rationale: The Landels' (my awesome operations professor and his awesome wife) annual Southern Dessert Buffet will make any week great.  Darden Days, including the annual BBQ at King Family Vineyards, was just icing on the cake.  Even though I also got to participate in these activities while I was doing my 1L year, outlining really does take all the joy out of everything.

The Week 36 Cupcake goes to: Darden

Rationale: Exams at Darden are so much more pleasant than at the law school.

The Week 37 Cupcake goes to: Darden

Rationale: Darden was done, so I got to go to my cousin’s wedding in CT and then fly to Cannes for the Cannes Film Festival (another GBE).  While Cannes drove me nuts in many respects, it was definitely better than a second week of exams at the law school.

SECOND SEMESTER CUPCAKE SCORE:

Darden, 12; UVa Law, 7

FINAL CUPCAKE SCORE:

Darden, 17; UVa Law 20

Final Thoughts: Darden is definitely not Camp Cupcake.  While the final scores were actually pretty close, the FY at Darden is generally much more consistently demanding than the 1L year at the law school.  However, the month leading up to exams and the two weeks of exams themselves each semester at the law school are pretty darn miserable (and accounted for most of the cupcakes Darden earned). 

A dozen cupcakes!

For those of you who have been wondering, here are the rest of the Cupcakes for semester 1:

The Week 7 Cupcake goes to: UVa Law

Rationale: My schedule at the law school this year looks pretty crazy, but most of what made me crazy this year was still Darden-related (WACC Oktoberfest, for instance). The Law School did Fall Foxfields, which was a lot of fun, and then it was basically just class, reading, and softball.

The Week 8 Cupcake goes to: UVa Law

Rationale: 2 words: Fall Break.  'Nuff said.

The Week 9 Cupcake goes to: UVa Law

Rationale: It was exam week at Darden, and even though I still believe that was the best week of the quarter, it did involve five days straight of 5-hour exams.  We had a midterm at the Law School in our small section class, but it was an hour long and ungraded.  Not too bad.  Definitely easier than 25 hours of spreadsheets. 

The Week 10 Cupcake goes to: UVa Law

Rationale: This week was really close, and I had a hard time deciding.  However, the fact that we started new classes at Darden (including Finance and Global Economies and Markets (GEM), both of which caused me much consternation at first), makes me think that Darden was harder. 

The Week 11 Cupcake goes to: UVa Law

Rationale: This is another week where my schedule this year looks crazy, but that's because I was trying to do some Darden briefings in addition to my regularly schedule law school commitments.  Nothing big happened at Darden last year, but I still think I was struggling more at this point last year than I was this year. 

The Week 12 Cupcake goes to: Darden

Rationale: I know; you are all shocked.  Darden got a cupcake! Wahoo! This week at the law school, I was prepping for a mock trial tournament and working on rewriting my major memo.  At Darden, we didn't have many "academic" classes because we had Management Communications (MC), Career Management (CarMa), and a field trip.  Yes, a field trip. Clearly, this was a week for rest and recuperation at Darden. 

The Week 13 Cupcake goes to: Darden

Rationale: I spent a weekend in DC with my mock trial team competing in the Georgetown White Collar Crime Tournament and then turned in my major memo, plus I was behind in starting to outline for exams because of mock trial.  Yes, I was doing interview prep at Darden, but we also spent two days doing StratSim, which wasn't nearly as rigorous.

The Week 14 Cupcake goes to: UVa Law

Rationale: By this point, most people at the law school were panicking about exams and spending hours outlining.  I was doing stuff over at Darden instead (yes, that was maybe not the best choice).  But, last year, I was doing a ton of recruiting stuff and writing customized cover letters for hours upon hours, in addition to spending more hours in class.  AND, I was at Darden until 4 AM doing the Deloitte Case Challenge Friday night.  Oy.  It was Black November at its finest.

The Week 15 Cupcake goes to: Darden

Rationale: This was the beginning of the major outlining and exam prep panicking period at the law school.  The Thanksgiving break, if anything, made this worse.

The Week 16 Cupcake goes to: UVa Law

Rationale: We only had three days of class, and then a couple days off to study for law school exams.  I did write over 50 cover letters, but they were mostly form letters.  At Darden, we had five full days of class, and I wrote around 25 very customized cover letters (customizing "I really enjoyed meeting Mr. X at Event Y this Fall.  Our discussion about Z made me realize A, B, and C about Organization D" is a lot harder to write than "As my resume indicates, I have several years of experience working as a paralegal.  I believe this experience will enable me to serve Firm X's clients.").

The Week 17 Cupcake goes to: Darden

Rationale: Exams at Darden are so much more fun than exams at the law school.

The Week 18 Cupcake goes to: Darden

Rationale: Darden was on Winter Break.  The law school was suffering through another week of hellish exams.

FINAL SEMESTER 1 CUPCAKE SCORE

Darden: 5

UVa Law: 13

Even though the end of the semester at the Law School was more rigorous than the end of the semester at Darden, Darden started off a lot more difficult, and the schedule was generally more demanding. 

Stay tuned for the Semester 2 Cupcake awards....

Sorry, sorry, sorry

Yup, I'm the most delinquent Darden blogger ever.  Thank you to everyone who has pointed that out to me (that includes the receptionist at a law firm where I interviewed over winter break and the admitted student at the Law School Admitted Students Open House student life panel!).  But, in positive news, I'm busy working on cupcake-awarding RIGHT NOW.  And, since it's final exam study period and my house is already spotlessly clean, I should be using posting as a procrastination tactic in the coming weeks!  Stay tuned!

There's something about cupcakes...

I mean, you start eating just one, and you think, "This is so delicious...but a single cupcake is so very, very small.  It's smaller than a piece of cake, right?  So I can have TWO cupcakes, can't I?  Why, yes; yes, I can." 

Well, I'm feeling the same way right now, so yet again, I shall award two cupcakes at once. 

The Week 5 cupcake goes to: UVa Law! 

Annnnnnnndddddd.....

....the Week 6 cupcake goes to: UVa Law! [Really, folks, this shouldn't be surprising any more.]

The running count: Darden - 0 cupcakes, UVa Law - 6 cupcakes.

The calendar proof (as a reminder, purple is Darden academic/recruiting/clubs, orange is Darden social, green is Law academic/clubs, red is Law social (including softball), and blue is personal):

Darden - Week 6

Law - Week 6

Now, I bet you're thinking, "Wow, it looks like your law school calendar is a lot crazier.  I mean, there's stuff all over the place!  And last year, you got a reading day on Friday!"  Well, yes, you're right.  But if we remove all of the Darden (and JD/MBA-specific) stuff from my Law school calendar, you get this:

Yes, it is still crazier-looking, but then you realize that all that red and blue represents purely social events, such as softball, golf lessons, and dinners and outings with friends, whereas last year's Darden calendar was all important academic stuff.  Phooey on (and a cupcake to) that. 

Part of the reason this last week was so crazy was because this week was a "Program Week" for the current Darden FYs, which meant that they did not have class and instead had time to focus solely on recruiting.  To say that the rest of the SYs and I are jealous/irritated/downright angry would be understatement.   However, for me, that meant that I had law school classes, mentoring and club meetings at Darden, club meetings at the law school, social events (including a softball tournament and two regular-season softball games), AND two Darden briefings and two recruiting dinners.  Basically, what this week taught me is that you really are not intended to do your 1L year while also staying involved at Darden....oops, guess I missed that memo!

Special deal on cupcakes: 2 for the price of 1!

Obviously, I missed awarding last week's cupcake, so I need to award 2 weeks' worth this time around.  All you lucky readers, therefore, get 2 cupcakes for the price of 1!

The cupcake for Week 3 goes to: UVa Law!

The cupcake for Week 4 goes to: UVa Law!

Now, a lot of folks have seemed completely incredulous when I say that I find the first year at law school less demanding than the first year at Darden.  But take a look at Exhibit 1:

That is a snapshot of my schedule for the third week of my first year at Darden.  Things in purple are classes, recruiting events, club meetings, learning team, etc.  Things in orange are scheduled social events. You'll note that I was basically "scheduled" from 8 am to 10 pm every single day.  The "white space" was the time I had available to use for preparing cases, running errands, making food, etc.  You'll note that there is not a lot of "white space."

On the other hand, consider Exhibit 2:

This is a snapshot of my third week in law school.  Green represents law school classes, purple is still Darden club/academic events (no recruiting currently, given the new FY schedule), red is law school social events, orange is still Darden social events, and blue is personal.  You will note two things:  (1) there is a lot less time spent in class, and (2) there is a TON more white space generally.  Consider also that most law school "homework" consists of just reading, which, although dense, is generally only 10-15 pages per class.  Contrast that to 3 Darden cases a day, which involved ~20 pages of reading AND constructing a spreadsheet/model for each class, first individually and then with your learning team.  Hopefully, you're all beginning to see why I think law school is less demanding (for now at least...)!  I guess we'll have to see how this continues.

For those of you keeping track at home, the cupcake score is currently Darden - 0, UVa Law - 4. 

This Week's Cupcake goes to...

UVa Law!

Running score:  Darden - 0, UVa Law - 2

Rationale for this week's award: I actually had to bring home work one evening, but only because I've been to Darden at least twice each day for receptions, meetings, career counseling sessions, etc.  So Darden is even more demanding than the law school for a pseudo-SY student!

(If you're confused about the cupcakes, see bottom of this post).

Orientation/Start of Classes, Round 2 and the Camp Cupcake Award

Eek!  It's been a crazy few weeks since I last posted.  In the last 14 days, I wrapped things up at my summer job, tried to get my life in order to start school again (e.g., organize random stack of mail and paperwork, buy school supplies and books, buy parking pass, buy groceries, starch and iron accumulated pile of washed cotton sundresses, scrub floors because I won't have time to let them see Pinesol again until next summer and the Swiffer Wet-jet only does so much, etc.), and began running around between Darden and the law school like a chicken with my head cut off.

I've gotten a lot of questions lately about "how this whole JD/MBA thing works."  The answer, like many things at Darden, is "it depends."  If, like me, somehow applies to law and business schools concurrently and gets into both, at UVa you get to pick where you start.  I chose to start at Darden because for me, business was what was "new," and I wanted to be able to graduate with one of the classes with which I did my "first" year; since there is no way to do that with any Darden class, I chose to do my 1L year with the class of 2013.  So, I've finished the Darden first year, I'm doing the first year of law school now, and next year and the year after, I'll be taking electives at both schools, sprinting back and forth numerous times during the day.  Most (but not all) folks doing the JD either apply concurrently and choose to start at the law school or apply only to the law school up front and then apply to Darden while a 1L.  I think it really is a personal decision about how you choose to do it, and I think I made the right choice for me, though there may have been some draw-backs. 

So, this past week, I've been doing Orientation, Round 2, which has been an interesting experience. Unlike most of my 1L classmates, I've been in Charlottesville as a graduate student for a year, so I know where things are, how things work, and what the grad student social scene is like.  Unlike my SY Darden classmates, I'm not negotiating class swaps and trying to schedule the least-stressful 4th quarter.  At Darden, they've restructured Orientation this week, so I can't really speak to how that worked out.  I did volunteer to help out at one of the faculty receptions (lots of fun!), and I organized one of the Activity Day trips to a couple local wineries (also lots of fun!).  I also had a couple meetings with incoming first year students.  Over at the law school, I did some community service for Public Service Day, met a bunch of new classmates, attended Section H bonding activities, sat through presentations by a bunch of administrators, and attended my first three days of class.  I generally like the faculty, and the classes (as at Darden during the first semester) were selected for me, but I think they'll be interesting.  I'm taking Torts, Contracts, Civil Procedure, and Criminal Law this semester, as well as a year-long pass/fail Legal Research & Writing course.   Although my schedule is sort of wonky (bizarre gaps between classes, some M/W, some T/R/F, some M/W/R, etc.), I think it will allow me to get most of my case briefing done during the school day, so I'm going to try to treat this like a 9-to-5 job and not bring work home to the greatest extent that I can manage.  I'm sure there will be some exceptions, but for the sake of my spine, I want to leave my books at school as frequently as possible - they weigh a ton!  On the plus side, this arrangement meant that my homework was done by 5 pm on Friday, and I have actually been able to enjoy my weekend (section H potluck, polo, Darden picnic, winery tours, coffee dates, and catching up with friends - yay!).  We'll see if this trend continues.

On that note...one of my Darden classmates' husband is a 2L at the law school, and he apparently refers to Darden as Camp Cupcake, implying, obviously, that Darden is "easier" than the law school. Apparently, this has been a point of virtually constant (and only quasi-serious) debate between people at both schools for quite some time.  Consequently, I've decided that I'm actually going to issue an "official" verdict on which school has the most difficult first year, as an "objective" party experiencing both.  I'm going to do this by assigning a weekly "Camp Cupcake" award to the school that was "easiest" for that point in the semester.  At the end of the year, the school with the most weekly awards will be officially declared "easier" in my perspective (clearly, this is a very scientific award process).  For the first week of school, Legal MBAyhem's Camp Cupcake Award goes to: UVa Law.  Rationale: no group work, finishing homework at school before dinner, more evening social events, only two days of Orientation, and no recruiting activities. 

Ongoing Cupcake Tracker: Darden 0, UVa Law 1.