STUDENT PERSPECTIVES ON CROSS-DISCIPLINARY STUDY

Every year we survey students about their experiences at Penn Law. Here's what they have to say about our cross-disciplinary program:

• Penn Law is one of the finest law schools in the country for many good reasons. It affords students an opportunity to acquire a fine legal education from some of the most influential scholars in the academy, with a focus on interdisciplinary approaches to the law.


• Penn Law represents the ideal law school environment. Academically, its focus on inter-disciplinary opportunities provides students with the ability to maximize their experience and utilize all the resources that the law school and entire university have to offer. In addition, the diversity of the professors, from their educational backgrounds to work experiences, contributes to making classes unique and engaging. Students are consistently learning from both in-class discussions and assignments and from the myriad of co-curricular activities including journals, student organizations, and research opportunities.


• For a student interested in transactional law, having Wharton next door makes the course selection and class participation as good as it gets since many classes are cross-listed with Wharton and b-school student participate.


• For as challenging as law school can be, Penn Law offers an incredibly supportive community for the students. The student body, faculty, and administration definitely make up Penn's strength. People are both smart and nice here, and that makes a huge difference in these three years. Penn also offers so many different opportunities fitting a wide range of interests and passions. Even if there are areas you may not be particularly interested in pursuing in the long run, it is beneficial to be exposed to them.


• Intellectual dynamism. The high caliber of JD students, professors, and LLMs makes Penn Law an intellectually alive place with an incredible variety of course and outside-the-classroom opportunities that provoke precise and critical thinking and a responsible and caring ethic. The cross pollination of ideas, experiences, and points of view provided by the vibrant LLM program is a huge plus.


• I think we have excellent cross-disciplinary opportunities for those who choose to pursue them.


• I came to Penn as a JD and have now enrolled in a Master's program I was very interested in; the cross disciplinary approach is real, and viable. The diverse array of student groups, discussions, presentations, and activities that are constantly going on make this feel like a community, continually stimulate discussion, bring the student body together, and enrich the overall experience.


• From a 1L: I haven't yet been able to take classes outside the law school, but my professors bring their cross-disciplinary backgrounds to bear on the material we study. It's illuminating and fascinating, and I enjoy thinking about things across disciplines. I think this will be a useful skill to have in practice, where issues are not perfectly straight-forward and the best solutions to problems may be the most creative.


• The interdisciplinary focus and respect for different viewpoints that come with it.


• I love that we can take classes outside of the law school. Two of my favorite courses were non-law school classes.


• Commitment to the big-picture of lawyering. By that I mean that I have seen the law school respond to the changing nature of legal practice by expanding areas of the law that are growing (environmental law, IP, etc) as well as continuing to commit itself to being a cross-disciplinary institution.


• The cross-disciplinary nature. I've been able to study so many things, and especially considering the relatively small size, the breadth of our available courses is remarkable. The ability to take courses at other schools and participate in the greater Penn community is also so valuable.