Attending "large" classes that max out at 80 people, socializing over Tex-Mex with your professors and receiving written feedback throughout the semester. Can this be life at Harvard Law School?
Thanks to recently implemented changes to the 1L program, it can.
With finals in the middle of January, the Class of 2004 wrapped up its first semester -- a semester spent as the first guinea pigs of the Strategic Plan. In line with recommendations made in that Plan, which was finalized in the spring of 2001, HLS has made drastic changes to the 1L program in an effort to forge a more personal, student-centered experience. Those changes include:
- Breaking the first-year class into groups of 80 students each, in place of the 140-student sections of old;
- Launching the seven law "colleges," each with its own section leader and budget for extracurricular activities;
- Redesigning the legal research and writing curriculum and the way it is taught;
- Mandating individualized written feedback for every student in every class; and
- Allowing 1Ls to choose from a vastly expanded list of spring electives.
Now, six months after the changes were implemented, the 1Ls and their instructors have witnessed first-hand what this new experience looks like.
The reaction? Though students and faculty agree that some adjustments are in order, they are positive about the new 1L experience.
"Overwhelmingly, the changes are a success," says David Altschuler, a 1L who serves as the LSC representative for Section 3. "The little changes that need to be made don't override the things they've done."
This first installment of a two-part series reports on the compliments and criticisms given by students and faculty to the most outwardly noticeable changes: the introduction of 80-student sections and adoption of the "law colleges" structure.
No more "gunner bingo"
Of all the changes, the 80-student sections receive the most praise from students and professors.
"Even though people weren't here for the sections that were 140 people, I think everyone thinks the smaller sections are an excellent situation," says Altschuler. "Our section and, I think, all of the sections have a tight sense of community."
Professor Dan Meltzer, who is a leader for Section 2, says the smaller sections seem to have been well-received. At the Business School, which uses similar 80-student sections, there is "apparently a very strong section identification among students," Meltzer says.
"We've gotten some indication that there's a similar sense in these new sections [at the Law School]," he says.
Maya Alperowicz, the LSC representative for 1L Section 4, says the smaller class sizes also give students more airtime.
"You get to speak a lot more than you would with 140 people," Alperowicz says. "Even with a purely Socratic professor, we all still got called on at least three times."
Some might question whether or not being called on more often is a benefit, but she says it maintains parity between students.
"Of course you have some students speaking more than others, and the smaller size helped it so that you weren't always hearing from the same four people," Alperowicz says.
Smaller class sizes might also be leading to warmer relations between students and professors.
"With 80 people, it's not as intimidating," Altschuler says. "Professors get to know the classes pretty well. We definitely have close relationships with the professors. It has much more of a community feeling, not competitive."
J.D. Dean Todd Rakoff suggests the Law School will think twice before reducing 1L class size any more.
"I don't know what's ideal, but the faculty discussion leading up to it did not take the view that smaller was necessarily better," Rakoff says. "It's not just a matter of money. Obviously it costs more money to make them smaller, but there is also the feeling that unless you have a certain size you start losing the statistically marginal points of view, which, however, might be very interesting."
He continued: "That's partially because given classroom dynamics, you don't hear a point of view until three or four people have that point of view. So there was a feeling that if you made it too small, it'd be a less interesting class."
Alperowicz seems to agree: "The tradeoff is between getting to know 80 people really well, or 140 people sort of well. I don't think you should go any smaller."
Acknowledging that his section is "pretty cliquey" and serves as a "social nexus" for most of its members, Altschuler says the size is ideal.
"Eighty people is small enough to get to know everyone, but not so small that you're always hearing from the same people," he says.
Reducing the size of the 1L sections, though unanimously praised, has not gone off flawlessly. Heading the list of complaints are constraints imposed by HLS' physical limitations.
"We don't really have enough classrooms that are the right size," Rakoff says. "Some of our 80-people classes have been meeting in rooms that were built for 140 or 150 people."
The majority of classrooms at HLS were built to seat more than 140 students or fewer than 75.
Another challenge is the need for additional teaching staff to instruct the increased number of classes.
"So far we've done pretty well by making sure our existing faculty teach first-year courses," Rakoff says. "I think next year we'll probably have three visiting professors in our first year out of 35.
"I'd say we're doing alright, although each year it takes some work just to make it happen," he says.
Law colleges
Perhaps the biggest conceptual change in HLS' approach to the 1L program was the establishment of a "law colleges" system. As the first step in implementing that change, each 80-person section was given a "section leader," a professor to coordinate activities for the sections outside of the classroom.
