My, this is different. 1) Forgiveness I started out in a less than conciliatory fashion with some serious annoyance because of all the pre-first day of class assignments. I'm cool now -- most of those who assigned a great deal of work are new to evening students. I still think more than nominal work is inappropriate though. 2) Professors. All are excellent, some are AWESOME. These people are so very human, very decent people, and they aren't afraid to let that part of them show. I have profs who've spent their lives in public interest, those who've worked at the UN, former clerks for big-name justices, and (I presume) well-paid partners. My Contracts prof is firmly in awesomeland -- I hate to repeat myself, but she is just very human: acknowledging the joy, the pain, the clarity, and the ambiguity of the law. And also its occasional stupidity. She has and articulates her passion for what ought to be a really dull subject. One other Prof, who I expected to be deadly dull and authoritarian turned out to be very serious and very stern, but incredibly, has this dry yet natural humor that can have the class in stitches at his whim. I feel so used. I wish engineering profs could pass along passion in this way (one of the reasons I had really wanted to teach Eng) or be as well-rounded in a way that helps with the connection to the students. 3) The work It's not hard in the sense that solving differential equations can be hard -- that there are a thousand roads to go down and only one will work. But there is a LOT of it. I have forced myself to become ultra-efficient, and seriously reliant on the technology. 4) The Lifestyle. Hard to get used to the 17h days and studying 12h/day each weekend. I have really lost my sense of time because each day feels like two. And the 2+ hr commute each way is such a time sink, fortunately 45m is on a train -- the redemption of my day. It is getting better as I get used to what I'm doing and what to look for. I am, however, seriously in need of a girlfriend and am not sure how this will work out -- I have zero time. Unless she's a law student. 
5) The Peer Group Great thus far. Waaaaaaaay more committed than my undergrad colleagues, naturally. Such a diverse set of backgrounds, also -- far more than I expected. The ice-breaker question for evening students seems to be "so, what was your undergrad?" Whenever I say 'engineering' the reply is always, "oh, going for patent?" So many are there with major focus on work that helps people -- almost feel bad heading toward patent. We are rarities, and my colleauges are very inquisitive -- "this must be easy for you," "the world is your oyster," etc -- it's a little weird. Also, nice to not be the oldest student in class all the time. I do not see the drama I often hear about in law school -- perhaps because we are all working people with a real level of commitment it is different. We did have a 'mixer' with the day students once, and I'm afraid I left early because I felt so disconnected with them. Others felt the same, I later found out. I feel some real camaraderie in a way I didn't in undergrad -- there it was mainly based in how much you hated the Prof. Here it is in shared goals, shared burdens, and respect. I miss greatly the immersion I dreamed of when I first considered this path -- that I would go full time and have a bit of a do-over of the college thing, but I really couldn't ask for more from this experience. I hope to do it the same justice. ~ Huntsman
5) The Peer Group Great thus far. Waaaaaaaay more committed than my undergrad colleagues, naturally. Such a diverse set of backgrounds, also -- far more than I expected. The ice-breaker question for evening students seems to be "so, what was your undergrad?" Whenever I say 'engineering' the reply is always, "oh, going for patent?" So many are there with major focus on work that helps people -- almost feel bad heading toward patent. We are rarities, and my colleauges are very inquisitive -- "this must be easy for you," "the world is your oyster," etc -- it's a little weird. Also, nice to not be the oldest student in class all the time. I do not see the drama I often hear about in law school -- perhaps because we are all working people with a real level of commitment it is different. We did have a 'mixer' with the day students once, and I'm afraid I left early because I felt so disconnected with them. Others felt the same, I later found out. I feel some real camaraderie in a way I didn't in undergrad -- there it was mainly based in how much you hated the Prof. Here it is in shared goals, shared burdens, and respect. I miss greatly the immersion I dreamed of when I first considered this path -- that I would go full time and have a bit of a do-over of the college thing, but I really couldn't ask for more from this experience. I hope to do it the same justice. ~ Huntsman
