widener commonwealth law school first assignments

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A close-knit community in Harrisburg, Widener Law Commonwealth has provided generations of politicians, lawyers, community activists, and law professionals with a personal, practical, and professional education. 

Begin your career at the only law school in Pennsylvania's state capital: Harrisburg

Widener Law Commonwealth's JD and dual degree programs launch rewarding careers in law. As the only law school in Harrisburg, Widener Law Commonwealth offers unparalleled opportunities to get an inside look at the law in action.

Our goal is to support yours—that's why we offer flexible enrollment options designed to fit busy schedules, scholarships that help make it easier to afford a legal education, and one-on-one guidance along the way. 

As you work toward your goals, you’ll build meaningful connections:

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Outlining | touching the material.

From the first day of law school you will hear a variety of ways to make an outline. Some people make a 2-5 page outline (a skinny), while others are well over 60 pages. ASFs are asked how they make theirs, and how it helped with their success. However, it gets overwhelming and confusing when they aren’t telling you exactly what they put into their outline, how they set it up, or how they incorporated their notes. After all, it is the first week of class when you start talking about the overall need for an outline. You don’t know any of the material, and are barely acclimated to the new environment of law school. It becomes even more stressful when you realize that your outline is going to be the key to your final exam, some representing 100% of your final grade.

However touching the material as much as you can throughout the semester will help you a lot in the long run. You don’t want to just be memorizing material the week before the exam, you want to know it.

So how exactly do you “touch the material” and commit the information to your long term memory? Well first, it would be helpful if you are not playing catch-up with your work. It’s beneficial to have time set aside where you can review the material that you have already seen.

After reading for class, close your book, and try to summarize the material and cases that you just read. Then right before class, skim through your readings again, and make small changes to your summary.

After a week of classes review your notes, and summaries. Create a separate document where you can list out concise thoughts, rules, and examples of the subject matter.

Once you have finished a sub-subject area, write out detailed CREAC citing to the case and examples from class. You can have your professor read this over to ensure that you understand the material, and can adequately explain it.

Then, once you finished a section of material, you can combine these mini CREACs into an overarching explanation of the law.

You can read and review these CREACS before class, and after a week of new material to understand what you’ve learned, what you’re currently learning, and what is yet to learn. This constant repetition and review will aid you in grasping the material, committing it to your long term memory, and with your writing voice as you prepare for finals.

TIP: Make sure to take good notes on examples given in class, and provided for on Canvas. You can write sample exam answers for these as well and have your ASF or professor review them.

Now, you can put these together for an exam style outline, which will definitely help you be prepared to write out your exam answers. However there are a couple other ways that you can outline. You just have to find what makes the most sense for YOU. A generic Roman Numeral or “A,B,C” outline works for a lot of people. Some need all of their notes listed out with big subject headers, and comment throughout their document. Other find there bare minimum information to be all they need, so headers with a list of 3-4 elements under each. Personally, I am a more visual learner, so I like to make my outline in excel. I just merge cells together to keep content areas together. This way I am able to see how the topics flow together, instead of flipping the page of a standard outline. But again, that is what works for me. However, you prefer to go about it by rewriting, retyping, or rereading the material you are constantly touching it. So by the time exams role around, you will have already committed a substantial portion of the material to you long term memory, and you will definitely be more prepared. But remember, do what’s best for you. It can be stressful, and that’s okay, don’t be afraid to ask for help, or examples!

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Widener Commonwealth Law School Accepted Students Day

Hello everyone, I attended Widener Commonwealth’s Law School Accepted Students Day today and I just wanted to share my experience with everyone considering almost all of reddit is so toxic about this school.

I thoroughly enjoyed every second of my visit at the school today. They provided lunch, I got a canvas tote and free t-shirt, and more than enough space to fit myself and my family to sit. All speakers used microphones so everyone could hear clearly and not miss a thing, with additional TV’s to show the presentations to the people sitting in the back in case they could not see the projector. The Associate Dean of Admissions welcomed us and congratulated us for our acceptance, and said this application cycle they had more applicants than they had in the past decade, so it was comparatively more competitive to be accepted to this school than Reddit makes it out to seem.

I believe the Dean of the school began the presentation with the school’s values, which areas of law they are most successful in teaching and providing employment for, emphasizing the school’s location in the capitol of PA with incredible out of school employment opportunities and the benefits of learning in a small class size environment. Then there was a faculty panel with professors we will most likely learn under in 1L at Widener and they were very helpful in giving us advice to prepare for 1L, how to succeed, emphasizing the fact that they are more than willing to answer our questions and be available during office hours, and reassuring us that they want every student to succeed. Then there was a financial aid presentation talking about the estimated Cost of Attendance, Payment Options, the difference between Federal Subsidized Loans and Unsubsidized Loans, Scholarship options, Work-Study options and more. I will say that this presentation had my heart in my throat. I was terrified. I never knew any of this because I graduated undergrad completely debt free. I am not naive, I knew law school would come at a cost, I just wasn’t expecting it to be triple the amount I thought it was going to be. Then the Associate Dean of Admissions took the floor again to tell us about our next steps, talking about seat deposits, Canvas, myWidener portal, other events Accepted Students can attend in the next few months, Orientation, class materials, first assignments, and Housing options. Then there was a current student panel that I thought was the most informative segment of the whole event. All faculty and staff left the room and allowed the students to speak freely without any fear of offending the staff by their honest opinions about their experience, and their honest opinions were all so positive! An accepted student asked if School Ranking factored into their decision to go to Widener Law. THEY ALL SAID NO! I WANT TO REPEAT! THEY ALLLLLL SAID NOOOOOO! School Rank does not matter to anyone but yourself. A JD IS A JD!!!! It is what you make of it. All students were very involved like some Presidents of clubs or part of Student government and balancing law school!!! It is possible!!!! Reddit induced my anxiety about this school because of the all the “School Rank matters for jobs after law school and Bar passage rates” or “You will be working 60+ hours a week on 1L work alone,” and yet I see real life students in front of me who are killing it being top 20% of their classes and building their resumes for after law school. Finally, we had a tour of the campus which was pretty short considering Widener only has two buildings, but I got to speak with my tour guide about more of my questions and how concerned I was with my low LSAT score and if I would succeed in law school, and she told me two of her friends with lower stats than me are Top 10% in their classes and taking advantage of the plenty of opportunities Widener offers.

I want to preface that Widener Commonwealth Law School has absolutely no idea I am writing this post and did not pay me to say any of these positive things and I haven’t even committed to this school yet. I owe Widener nothing, and yet I felt compelled to write this post to inform all the miserable 0L’s who know nothing about law school who are just trashing on a school you don’t want to go to because name and rank mean everything to you. I am just a young, latina woman who has been wanting to go to law school ever since freshman year of high school and I got my one yes from Widener with my low LSAT because they saw more to me than just a number. I have visited other schools this cycle and I have never felt such peace about my decision. I hope this can encourage those who just want to be a lawyer, but your LSAT or GPA is intimidating you. You are going to be an incredible attorney and don’t let anyone ever say otherwise.

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