Admitted Students Meet USC Law

Future members of the Class of 2011 spend a day with students, faculty, staff and alumni

—By Lori Craig

After sending out acceptance letters to the future Class of 2011, USC Law administrators extended another invitation: Come for a visit on Preview Day and see what USC Law is all about.

The 112 admitted students who accepted that invitation were treated to a full day of events on April 18 designed to formally (and informally) introduce them to all aspects of the law school.

Panel discussions featured students, alumni and faculty and covered topics including student life, public interest pursuits and housing. The program was created for those who have already chosen to attend USC Law in the fall, as well as for those who are still deciding.

Associate Dean and Dean of Admissions Chloe Reid welcomed the admitted students, who hail from 18 different states and more than 51 different colleges and universities.

"Each of you has first-rate credentials and you're interesting and you're a very diverse group of people, and we know you have many options as to where you're going to be for the next three years; and it would certainly be our privilege and our honor to have you join us as a Trojan," Reid said. "I hope that you will carry with you from today's experience an understanding that we are deeply committed to your success."

Dean Rasmussen, left, and an  admitted student at Preview Day

Dean Robert K. Rasmussen spoke to the admitted students about the features that make USC Law special, one of which is its commitment to diversity. Interacting with people from different backgrounds and cultures challenges students to learn to connect with people different from themselves, he said.

"One thing that is essential to legal training is that we want you uncomfortable: We want to have you get into the mindset of questioning your assumptions that everyone comes in assuming certain facts are true or certain situations are natural," Rasmussen said. "Part of our goal in the law school is to have you question those, to hold them up for examination, and it's much easier to do that when you are in a class with people who don't share those assumptions, who don't come from your same background."

Professor and USC Vice Provost Martin  Levine, center, at the Preview Day lunch

Nine faculty members introduced themselves to admitted students during two faculty panels. The professors talked about their backgrounds, the courses they teach, and gave some examples of the kinds of things students will learn in their classes.

Professor Daria Roithmayr said one of the best features of a law school education is the ongoing discussion held in courses such as her upper-division Critical Race Theory.

"We take on the most controversial, the most provocative topics that one can imagine that are connected to race and race discrimination," Roithmayr said. "And because we're able to have a long-running conversation over the course of the semester, we're able to have a much more rigorous conversation in terms of learning the theory, but a much more honest conversation in which people feel very free to say what it is they think."

During a luncheon, admitted students dined with current students, professors and staff and listened to a keynote speech by Professor Tom Lyon.

Professor Tom Lyon

"If you want to hold on to your undergraduate education and not just cash it in, if you think of yourself as a life-long learner, someone who will never abandon the excitement you felt when you were first introduced to topics as an undergraduate, then you should come to USC," Lyon said.

"What I love most about USC is that paradoxical combination of mellowness and intensity: It's Southern California. It's beautiful and warm outside and yet we work just as hard and we produce just as much as those academics who have nothing to distract them outside the window," Lyon said. "Our students smile in class. They are alarmingly content, and yet they learn just as much and are as serious about their education as the most driven and cut-throat students."

In a student panel, Student Bar Association President Marc Berman answered an admitted student's question about other factors that set USC Law apart.

"We have practicing attorneys, judges, people who work in the public interest sector, who come and teach classes on campus," said Berman, a 3L. "Some of my best classes have been from these adjunct faculty: I'm taking a class from a judge right now on remedies, and who would know more about remedies than a judge who hands them out?"

More than two dozen groups met with  admitted students at the Preview Day  Student Organization Fair

Other USC Law faculty and staff hosted panel discussions on financial aid, clinical programs and honors programs and clerkships, and Professors Jody Armour and David Cruz taught mock classes. The afternoon wrapped up with tours of the law school and a Student Organization Fair.

Admitted students also had the opportunity to mingle with each other, current students, staff and faculty during two evening receptions, a general reception the evening of Preview Day, and a "Celebrating our Diversity" reception held on April 17.

Full video from most of the 2008 Preview Day events may be viewed on the USC Law Preview Day website. Video from a number of 2008 Preview Day events may also be viewed on the USC Law YouTube page.