University of California, Hastings
Insider Reviews
from students and alumni of university-of-california-hastings
Hastings is a fantastic law school that has a well deserved reputation for training great lawyers. The school was on the forefront of ensuring that students had access to practical legal training, not only through externships, clinics, and moot court competitions, but through engaging the alumni and larger community of practitioners to teach seminar courses, which are invaluable. The location is not ideal.
Alumni
Hastings provides sink or swim environment with no safety net for underperforming students. Plenty of quality oral instruction in class, but no training provided on how to actually answer an exam question, resulting in unexpectedly poor grades for most students and dissatisfaction with education obtained, particularly in first year. Author was in bottom 10% of class after first year and was personally counseled by associate dean to perform better, yet was not required to take “mandatory” Legal Analysis course for underperforming students. Author’s poor performance in law school prevented employment anywhere requiring a transcript, yet author excels at actual lawyering based on trials conducted, results obtained, and feedback from satisfied clients and supervisors. Overall, poor correlation between performance in law school and actual practice. Applicant to Hastings would be well-advised to consider hiring a tutor or utilizing online/community resources to assist in learning how to perform on school’s challenging exams. / / Mainly based on school’s good reputation in rankings and high number of area graduates, Hastings provided outstanding value for money even though tuition doubled during the course of author’s study.
Alumni
If you want to work in the California, Hastings is one of the best schools around. We have alumni all over the place who love to hire Hastings grads. Also, I’d rather be in San Francisco than LA or Davis (which is a toilet in disguise).
Alumni
My time at Hastings was great. Hastings is an amazing community, mostly because of the quality of people who attend. Something about being a “good” school and not a “prestigious” school, mixed with the emphasis on public interest and the type of people San Francisco draws generally. The programs and classes are top notch, and being so close to the center of business, entertainment and government of the city, state and country offered me an immense amount of opportunities from outreach to low income communities, externing with a judge, working part-time in a small private law firm and pro-bono with a large non-profit. The social life was amazing. Although I worked hard, I had way more fun here than in college, and I went to what one would call a party school. The close knit nature of a law school without an accompanying undergraduate campus leads to strong meaningful friendships, and in my case several meaningful romantic relationships. At Hastings, we work hard, play hard and serve the community, well, hard.
Alumni
U.C. Hastings is struggling as a standalone law school, but not due to a great core group of faculty and connections to the “local” courts — U.S. District Court, U.S. Circuit (9th), California Supreme and California Appellate are all a stone’s throw from campus — as well as a central location in downtown law school. The struggle comes from being solely a law school — going to school there is more like a job than an enriching academic experience.
Alumni
Great professors. Great course selection. But, still probably not worth the money. Tuition has increased 33% since I started 18 months ago, and there’s been no transparency as to why. I understand funding has been cut, but the school hasn’t responded with any substantial cuts in its own budget. Rather, it continues to increase tuition in order to fund useless positions such as “Art Curator” and myriad Assistant Deans and “Assistants to Assistant Deans.” Compounding the problem is the fact that faculty salaries are needlessly higher than those at any other school. I understand competitive salaries are necessary to recruit top professors, but not to the extent professors are paid at this school. / / Additionally, rather than a full year of legal writing instruction that’s common at other schools, students are required to take one semester of Moot Court in their second semester which has no other purpose than to funnel students into the school’s moot court program. No real effort is put into instruction, rather, it’s just a means by which to vet potential moot court applicants – completely a waste of time if you’re interested in transactional work. / / All in all, I feel somewhat disserviced.
2L
it’s tough to get a job. my parents footed the bill and have no expectations for me in general so i think i’m in a good place, but it’s a bit frustrating. pretty useful knowledge, but it comes at a very steep cost.
3L
If you must go to law school, maximize your rank while minimizing your tuition. DON’T go to a school in a city where a room in a **** apartment will cost $1000/month. It’s like setting money and your future on fire.
3L
The Tenderloin isn’t as bad as people say. Hastings is a very diverse school with a lot of bright people. There’s something here for everyone.
1L
They care very little about students. There are very few student activities, a small budget for clubs, rapidly increasing tuition, declining job prospects, and rapidly declining ranking. Financial aid in the form of grants and scholarships is virtually nonexistent after the first year bait and switch.
2L
To know that despite all the activities and extracurricular clinics and practical trainings offered at Hastings, it is still a UC and therefore impossible to do anything unless you do it all yourself. The lack of support (in nearly all areas) is staggering. They say they have a career services office. But they won’t lift a finger unless you conduct your job search their way. No exceptions, in my experience. / / That it’s a commuter school was not lost of me, but I also didn’t fully understand how useless nearly all the facilities are during non-banking hours (because it’s way more than just a hassle to get there than I ever thought, and I live right next to the subway system). / / They don’t have any money, so everything looks and feels and is cheap. Because everyone is scraping by, even many of the professors, motivation seems to lag quickly and then everyone starts to cut back on their investment in the community. What am I saying, there is no community at Hastings. It’s a gigantic megalopolis of estranged law students. The only saving grace is the few concentrations, where at least you manage to start seeing faces more than once.
3L
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Interview with AdmissionsDean
Provided by the school
“One thing I tell students over and over is that you should think of your application to law school as your first legal case.” – Greg Canada – Assist. Dean of Admissions, UC Hastings Law
See more at AdmissionsDean
