TDot’s Mailbag v11.0: A reintroduction for the 1Ls
Today marks the first day of classes over at the North Carolina Central University School of Law.
This photo is on the wall next to my desk in the office. Every single one of them has graduated now.
It’s also the first time since I started way back in 20091 that I haven’t attended class with a single person there: the last batch of 1Ls I tutored for Prof CrimLaw are now waiting for their bar results 
Unable to accept the reality of being so far removed from being enrolled at an educational institution, naturally I had to drop in on Orientation last Wednesday to mingle as part of the law school’s annual professionalism series for 1Ls.
One of the young ladies I met mentioned that she had read parts of the blog before starting school.2 Then throughout the night I got a few more questions of a 1L-esque nature, so I thought I’d use them as an excuse to create a new Mailbag entry. 
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Q: What is [this blog]?
Apparently people think it’s weird that anyone from NCCU Law has a blog, because this was/is probably the most frequently asked question in the past however many weeks between PBAP, Orientation, and classes starting.
Guess long-form blogs are passé these days when we all have Twitter… 
I started this website back during my 1L year because frankly I needed something to do. At the time I thought most of my classmates were clinically insane gunners, and the time devoted to running UNCASG only kept me out of trouble but so many days in a month.
Then I discovered people were actually reading what was getting written, so I tried to make some of it at least marginally useful for folks who came after me. 
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Q: What does “law:/dev/null” mean?
I’d tell you, but I already did! Check the first question of my first Mailbag entry
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Q: I heard I can get outlines and old tests somewhere on here?”
Hopefully you’ll read this website for more than just the outlines! 
But go to this entry on outlines for the URL.
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Q: blah blah blah grades blah blah blah
It’s entirely too soon to care about your 1L grades. Trust me. Please.
But if you’re one of those hardcore Type A types who’ve already spent at least one day of this past weekend at the law school studying, go to this grades entry for links to the key points.3
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Q: Will you be my mentor??
Sure 
I have an open “mentor anyone” policy — just realize I’ve gotta make money first, so my availability will depend on my caseload
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Q: What’s the one thing you know now that you most wish you knew back when you were a 1L?
Honestly?
That there were already outlines out there 
I didn’t discover the contents of the 1L Stuff folder until the first day of final exams during the Spring semester of my 1L year. Rico was reading through a very slick 1-page summary of key issues in criminal law, I asked him how long it took him to make it — because the one I made for myself took forever and wasn’t nearly as nice — and I discovered that he got it from someone else.
It was at that point I started asking for outlines and stockpiling as many as I could… then posted every last one on this blog so the information was democratized. Some of my classmates flipped sh*t because I was “making it harder to beat the curve,” but I didn’t want future 1Ls ending up like me with absolutely no clue that the info was out there.
So scroll back up to the outlines question, click the link to the outlines entry, and enjoy the next 3 years of your life
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*GOOD LUCK* to each of you with the year ahead, and don’t hesitate to send us a message if you’ve got questions! You can find the email address at the bottom of our About page or you can use the Contact form at the TGD Law website
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From the Mailbag archives:
- TDot’s Mailbag v11.0: A reintroduction for the 1Ls (08/25/14) [this post] –
- What is [this blog]?
- What does law:/dev/null mean?
- I heard I can get outlines and old tests somewhere on here?
- blah blah blah grades blah blah blah
- Will you be my mentor??
- What’s the 1 thing you most wish you knew as a 1L?
- TDot’s Mailbag v10.0: First-Year Finance Figures Follow-up Edition (11/27/13) –
- What are you doing?
- How are you defining your terminology?
- How did you survive financially?
- Have you done any advertising?
- What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned?
- What 3 things would you do differently?
- TDot’s Mailbag v9.0: “So why did you go solo?” Edition (01/18/13) –
- Why did you become a solo practitioner?
- What was your “Plan B” job-wise?
- What helped you the most 3L year in preparing for post-grad life?
- If you had to do 3L year over again, what would you differently?
- TDot’s Mailbag v8.0: Post-Bar Exam Edition (08/11/12) –
- What materials did you use for bar prep?
- Are you bailing on law:/dev/null for Twitter?
- What are your plans for law:/dev/null post-graduation?
- Where do things stand with NC SPICE?
- How does it feel being done with everything?
- What’s your secret to not being stressed about the bar exam?
- Do you have any bar exam study materials?
- TDot’s Mailbag v7.0: Legal Eagle Grading Edition (06/22/11) –
- You made Dean’s List… but grades don’t matter?
- Why is NCCU Law’s curve so low?
- What is the rationale for NCCU Law’s dismissal policy?
- How does the dismissal policy work?
- What are NCCU Law’s GPA cutoffs for Dean’s List and academic honors?
- Do you get notified if you made Dean’s List?
- TDot’s Mailbag v6.0: 1L Questions Edition (08/23/10) –
- Do we really need to study 60 hours a week?
- My study partners study all day; am I missing something?
- How time-consuming is being an SBA Representative?
- Should I use “canned” briefs or create my own?
- Is law school really just a big head game?
- What’s the biggest difference between 1L year and 2L year?
- What made you pursue law after having done computer science?
- TDot’s Mailbag v5.0: What Law School’s Really Like (04/14/10) –
- Admissions?
- Bar Exam?
- The Work?
- Professors?
- Electives?
- Extracurriculars?
- What would you do differently?
- TDot’s Mailbag v4.0 (01/21/10) –
- What really made you dislike BigLaw?
- Why were 2 of the top 4 teams in the K-S competition from T4s?
- What happened to Tweet-sized Tuesdays and the Friday Drive-by?
- How did your CivPro I final exam turn out?
- TDot’s Mailbag v3.0 (10/04/09) –
- What’s your email address?
- Do you really send/receive thousands of text messages in a month?
- How are you adjusting to a historically black university?
- Are you really a Republican?
- TDot’s Mailbag v2.0 (09/07/09) –
- Did you have a bunch of study materials for the LSAT?
- How well did you do on the LSAT?
- How did you do in your election for 1L SBA Rep?
- Who is in the Gang of Eight?
- TDot’s Mailbag v1.0 (08/20/09) –
- What does law:/dev/null mean?
- Did your entry about That Guy really happen?
- Did you really count the lights from your apartment to school?
- Yes, that means law:/dev/null has been online for half a decade now! The first post was back on August 11th 2009. [↩]
- Easiest way to over-inflate my already over-inflated ego is telling me you’ve read something I’ve written [↩]
- And to convince you I never hid the ball on any of my grades-related entries, you can read my final law school transcript via this entry’s footnote. [↩]
