Orientation week was a blur.
It was a fun, engaging, and absolutely jam-packed blur. For nearly a week, we were kept busy with a mix of welcome lectures, advice-laden sessions, and team-building icebreakers.
At times, we’d find ourselves squared off in a cheering competition; at other times, we were given riveting lectures on the law by Profs Nikos Harris and David Duff. Some sessions missed their mark (at times, there was just too much advice) but many others hit the bullseye (the closing banquet and the following social night at Mahoney’s topped my list).
Perhaps most importantly, we got to meet our “small groups,” the 20-25 students we’ll take each and every class with this year. Out of the 184 students entering this fall (more than 2,000 applied, we were told), these are the two dozen students we’ll be getting to know the best.
It’s a humbling experience, getting to know talented students who attend law school. We have fine arts majors and finance students, yoga teachers and former government employees, as well as a predictably healthy share of political science and philosophy students.
Just as I’d hoped, every one of them was very intelligent, interesting, and had their own spark of something special. And also as I’d hoped, it certainly seems that we all share the desire for our UBC law experience to be a collaborative environment (as opposed to an uber-competitive, dog-eat-dog environment you can find at some schools). So far, so good!
Hi Andrew,
I’m looking into applying this year and am wondering whether you feel like you still get a chance to work with many students outside of your “small group”? Is it very easy to mix and mingle, or do you find people tend to stick with their own groups?
Good luck with the rest of your year!
Thanks,
Clare
Hi Clare,
Thanks for your question! We do get to work with quite a few students out of our “small group.”
Most people in law school volunteer quite a bit, so you’ll work with others on the student legal advice program, on a focused student society (e.g. I am part of the Law and Business Society), on one of the many law sports teams, or one of the many, many other extra-curricular activities.
People also tend to be quite social, and this breaks down the barriers even more. Most people have friends who are not from their “small group” that they regularly get together with. Sometimes living situations (e.g. in Kitsilano, or on campus, or downtown) informs who you hang out with, sometimes it’s personal preference, and sometimes – in a program that regularly attracts those from ~20 right through to retirement – it’s age.
That having been said, the people in your small group are those who you will see most often, day in and day out. I’m very glad to really enjoy my small group completely – each and every one of them.
Cheers,
Andrew