hello. i would like to clarify that i am not writing this post to make myself feel better, and/or flex, and would very much appreciate any "hard truths", however crude, given that I am still a first year.

Hello! I'm a first year at a tier 1 NLU and am thoroughly disappointed: the faculty is horrendous and have no sort of a pedagogy and are the least bit interested/dont seem to know much about their subject (this is not a bad assessment of our faculty: if you were to ask a lot of them any questions, they will defer. my seniors will agree on the same.) The students, at least in my batch, are equally bad. I would like to once again clarify I really do not have a superiority complex: I have visited, and spent extensive time in various other law colleges and the faculty/student body situation there wasn't nearly as bad.

There is no kind of intellectual stimulation, the exams are incredibly easy and it is childs work to get a 9 CGPA. In the first semester, I started studying for my finals the night prior and got an 8.5 CGPA at the end of it all. That is not to say that I am incredibly smart, but to say that the papers are not challenging whatsoever.

After getting a <10 rank in our moot court and ADR intras, I was allotted a negotiation competition, for which after exactly 0 hours of prep and reading the problem an hour before my rounds, I made it to the grand finals. Almost every team from my college that went to this competition performed well.(I am sure this was a relatively easier comp, but my point still stands)

There are no active centres (seriously), and the societies barely do any work. I know this is something which is specific to my college, since the societies of other tier 1 NLUs are significantly more active, which I can see through their instagram pages. I would've loved to contribute to any kind of research, but sadly none of the centres are particularly active either.

All of this is to say that I am losing my passion for pursuing law. College life is incredibly boring, there is no intellectual stimulation and the student body is dull at best. I would greatly advice any and all advice, since I feel like I will lose my mind in the next 4 years.

If I got an 8.5 studying the night before, why would I start studying beforehand? The papers don't test you on anything besides how well you have memorised a few buzzwords. If the papers were actually difficult, and I know they can be because I've seen some papers from other NLU's it would've been worthwhile to study more.

Brother if you had the ability to understand, comprehend or decipher intellectually stimulating concepts such as quantum physics, dark matter, black holes, galactic formations, interstellar travel, etc. would you be f-ing around at some law college? Law by itself is a rather procedure heavy endeavour, hence academics who spend their entire lives in classrooms "researching", are often unable to hack it in the profession. So get off your narcissistic high horse, stop being miserable, and enjoy life.

1. I agree that Indian legal academia is nothing to write home to mother about. But I totally disagree with the reasons for it that you have given.

2. How limited can your outlook on the world be? Do you know that in other countries, people have moved to law from science backgrounds - and after doing well in those? Best example off the top of my head that I can think of is Lord Diplock in England, who read Chemistry at Oxford, and is perhaps best known (among public law people at least) for formulating the illegality, irrationality and procedural impropriety test in CCSU v Minister for the Civil Service. Ah yes. And Lord Denning, who studied Maths at Oxford. Please revise your impressions of how things work.

Lol this was me in first year, and my only advice to you would be - it's THAT easy because it's supposed to be. You're in first year, the toughest law subject you have is probably contracts or family law. On mooting, again, not to humble you, but mooting at a national level is incredibly easy (almost ridiculous how easy it is) so long as you come from a creme de le creme background of having had english medium education throughout school life, having cleared CLAT in one attempt, with no serious coaching and stress, generally been the good student type to score well with minimal effort. It's easy because it's supposed to level the playing field for the diverse set of people that come to study in such government institutions - a major reason why it seems so easy to you is because you're probably lot more privileged than most in your university.

Also, not to guess which NLU you're from, but if it's one of the T-1s with heavy reservations - that explains why the crowd might not be too ambitious. And this is not coming from a place of elitism - and I hope it doesn't put an elitist thought in your already borderline-superiority-complex-suffering head. I say this from personal experience of being at a T-2 NLU and missing T-1s by a hair, most of my peers that come through a domicile quota had law as their literal last career option - and are only pursuing it because CLAT was a piece of cake with reservation.

I think I've addressed all 3 concerns that you flagged - academics, mooting, and peer group. I was in the same position that you were in back in first year, and I'm in my final year now - I spent my years in a law school that I initially deemed to be too "easy" for me chasing challenges - you find ADRs too easy? Go for a proper moot, one of the big 3 - jessup, elsa, vis. You find your crowd too unambitious, go for paper presentations, meet people that challenge you intellectual - the sky is your limit, literally nothing is stopping you from seeking out experiences that make your time at law school worthwhile.

Thank you, this helps!

Vis a vis the crowd, it's not about ambition: they're just people with no life outside of law school. Even if you go on a trip with them, all they will talk about is the next exam coming up in college, how crazy xyz professor is, how xyz senior won abc moot, etc. They have no interests or personalities of their own. This is something that I've found to be specific to my NLU: this was not the case whatsoever at some of the other T1 NLUs I've seen. This is reflective in the societies, where the Moot Court and ADR societies are the only active ones. I have noticed that this is not the case in other NLU's with other places having a vibrant campus with events, theatre, musicals, etc.

Yes, that is true, I am quite privileged, even relative to the others in tier 1 NLU's. It is regardless saddening, to come to a university many praised (and warned me against joining) for it's academic rigor and being disappointing. Similarly the professors, at least in my college, are shit, and the centres are all dead.

Thank you so much for the sincere answer, this helped me a lot. Will go for more national/international level moots and ADRs, write papers for conferences, etc.