I am a second year student, and I wanted to reach out NALSAR alum who have tried and succeeded in NALSAR. Any advice as to ranks, CGPA, moots and publications would be helpful?
I say this as someone who got the maximum number of offers from their batch & built a reputation in mooting & publications:
1. Make & collate as many notes as possible. Whether you do the readings or not, having collected good notes beforehand and having glanced over them just once before your classes will make you grasp far more things and give clarity from an exam perspective.
2. Complete your projects at least a week before the deadlines and send them to seniors for review — at least till you get a good grasp at academic writing. These seniors can also help you choose credits better suited for marks.
3. Interact with the professors, however useless this may initially seem to you. Keep them in the loop for your projectwork, and don't shy away from asking questions in the class because of your Yo-Gang equivalents.
4. Always prioritise your grades over moots or publications — you'll see the power of the Nalsar tag when firms approach your Internship Coordination Committee directly, but in most scenarios, only the people with high ranks would be preferred. You may get a decent (T2) internship by the end of your 4th year if you're not in the top 50% of your batch, but beyond that, it's unlikely for people with lower ranks to get picked by HRs who give far more value to the grades than the CVs. If you don't get good internships, your moots & publications don't really help anyway, but alternatively, even if you have bare minimal skills and a good rank, you'll likely get a couple of offers on the Day Z etc.
4. If you're planning a publication, go for a reputed name and put efforts into it. Random student-run blogs that came up recently won't demonstrate any academic prowess that you're intending to show off in your CV.
5. Remind yourself that mooting is an inherently arbitrary process (domestic moots more so, but international moots often eat up more time). So, if you're going to moot, choose established names where the quality of judges is such that they're a practically useful bunch to network with — and in any case, don't neglect your academics for the same.
6. Like I explained above, a good rank makes your life at nalsar infinitely easier. That said, there's nothing stopping you from achieving a lot w/o it as well —start by cold-mailing partners/alumni for internships by highlighting relevant knowledge, experience and drive, and follow it up with honest, diligent work at internships where you constantly ask for feedback and develop a rapport. You can then use these connections as references on your CV, along with googling who they might be on good terms with, and whether you can get a better internship through them. (I got multiple expressions of interest in offering PPOs through this simple way.)
7. Treat every other law school "activity" as a completely optional thing which you do for fun. Debates & ADR competitions, for example, are nit taken seriously by most law firms & lawyers in India, unless you're competing at the highest international levels.
8. And lastly, dont stress about it. Enjoy your days, be relaxed, and have fun!
Just study. Do the reading. Go to class. Show consistency in efforts and it’ll pay off. It’s much easier to learn a subject over 3 months than to learn it all in 3 days before exam and you’ll retain more info and retain it for longer.
Unless you’re doing a handful of international moots- the rest is just fun.
Debates and other competitions - also just for fun. Unless you break at WUDC or something.Don’t make it your whole identity.
Go do good internships in years 1-3 I don’t mean name brand - I mean places where they’ll actually teach you stuff. Don’t coast on the brand. It ain’t all that. Learn stuff you’re interested in on your own.
1. Make & collate as many notes as possible. Whether you do the readings or not, having collected good notes beforehand and having glanced over them just once before your classes will make you grasp far more things and give clarity from an exam perspective.
2. Complete your projects at least a week before the deadlines and send them to seniors for review — at least till you get a good grasp at academic writing. These seniors can also help you choose credits better suited for marks.
3. Interact with the professors, however useless this may initially seem to you. Keep them in the loop for your projectwork, and don't shy away from asking questions in the class because of your Yo-Gang equivalents.
4. Always prioritise your grades over moots or publications — you'll see the power of the Nalsar tag when firms approach your Internship Coordination Committee directly, but in most scenarios, only the people with high ranks would be preferred. You may get a decent (T2) internship by the end of your 4th year if you're not in the top 50% of your batch, but beyond that, it's unlikely for people with lower ranks to get picked by HRs who give far more value to the grades than the CVs. If you don't get good internships, your moots & publications don't really help anyway, but alternatively, even if you have bare minimal skills and a good rank, you'll likely get a couple of offers on the Day Z etc.
4. If you're planning a publication, go for a reputed name and put efforts into it. Random student-run blogs that came up recently won't demonstrate any academic prowess that you're intending to show off in your CV.
5. Remind yourself that mooting is an inherently arbitrary process (domestic moots more so, but international moots often eat up more time). So, if you're going to moot, choose established names where the quality of judges is such that they're a practically useful bunch to network with — and in any case, don't neglect your academics for the same.
6. Like I explained above, a good rank makes your life at nalsar infinitely easier. That said, there's nothing stopping you from achieving a lot w/o it as well —start by cold-mailing partners/alumni for internships by highlighting relevant knowledge, experience and drive, and follow it up with honest, diligent work at internships where you constantly ask for feedback and develop a rapport. You can then use these connections as references on your CV, along with googling who they might be on good terms with, and whether you can get a better internship through them. (I got multiple expressions of interest in offering PPOs through this simple way.)
7. Treat every other law school "activity" as a completely optional thing which you do for fun. Debates & ADR competitions, for example, are nit taken seriously by most law firms & lawyers in India, unless you're competing at the highest international levels.
8. And lastly, dont stress about it. Enjoy your days, be relaxed, and have fun!
All the best!
Unless you’re doing a handful of international moots- the rest is just fun.
Debates and other competitions - also just for fun. Unless you break at WUDC or something.Don’t make it your whole identity.
Go do good internships in years 1-3 I don’t mean name brand - I mean places where they’ll actually teach you stuff. Don’t coast on the brand. It ain’t all that. Learn stuff you’re interested in on your own.