This week, on November 11th, one of the most confusing and stressful-for-no-reason processes opens up – class bidding! Whether you plan on selecting 15 classes and letting the cards fall how they may or painstakingly refreshing the demand screen on Class+ to ensure the perfect order to game the bidding process, you’ll want to make sure the top of your list isn’t likely to ruin 15 weeks of your life.
Below are the results of a survey taken by your fellow students. For clarity’s sake, the amount of responses to each question are included. Make sure to pay attention to whether a class only has three submissions before you rely wholeheartedly on the results. This is a helpful resource, but talking to your friends and classmates can often provide some supplementary and anecdotal information.
CLASS RANKINGS:
Each participant was given the opportunity to rank a prospective class offered in the Winter Semester out of 5 stars.
Big Winner and Loser minimum 5 responses to minimize skewed results
The Big Winner: Criminal Justice: Investigations & Police Practices (4.73/5.0)
15 responses
The Big Loser: Legal Ethics & Professional Responsibility (2.43/5.0)
7 responses
All other results:
- Accounting for Lawyers: 4.27/5.0 (15 responses)
- Administrative Law: 4.67/5.0 (3 responses)
- Business Economics for Lawyers: 4.0/5.0 (1 response)
- Commercial Arbitration: 4.00/5.0 (2 responses)
- Commercial Law: Securities Transactions (1 response)
- Complex Litigation 4.33/5.0 (3 responses)
- Copyright 4.5/5.0 (2 responses)
- Corporate Governance & Investment Banking 4.5/5.0 (2 responses)
- Corporate Lawyer 3.88/5.0 (8 responses)
- Criminal Procedure: Bail to Post Conviction: 4.5/5.0 (2 responses)
- Economic Analysis of Law: 3.0/5.0 (2 responses)
- Enterprise Organization: 4.06/5.0 (18 responses)
- Environmental Law & Policy: 4.0/5.0 (4 responses)
- Evidence: 4.08/5.0 (13 responses)
- Family Law 3.78/5.0 (9 responses)
- Federal Antitrust 4.5/5.0 (8 responses)
- Federal Courts 4.5/5.0 (4 responses)
- First Amendment 4.25/5.0 (12 responses)
- Formation of Common Law 4.0/5.0 (1 response)
- Immigration & Nationality: 4.0/5.0 (1 response)
- International Law: 4.0/5.0 (4 responses)
- International Refugee Law: 5.0/5.0 (1 response)
- International Trade Law 4.0/5.0 (1 response)
- Jurisdiction & Choice of Law: 4.5/5.0 (2 responses)
- Labor Law: 5.0/5.0 (1 response)
- Legislation & Regulation: 4.14 (22 responses)
- Local Government: 4.75/5.0 (4 responses)
- Making of a Civil Law 4.0/5.0 (1 response)
- Managing Crisis/Corporate Distress 2.0/5.0 (1 response)
- Mergers & Acquisitions 5.0/5.0 (1 response)
- Modern American Legal History 5.0/5.0 (3 responses)
- National Security & Civil Liberties 4.67/5.0 (3 responses)
- Property: 4.35/5.0 (17 responses)
- Securities Regulation: 2.0/5.0 (2 responses)
- Taxation of Individual Income: 4.13/5.0 (8 responses)
- The Law of Incarcer Colloquium: 4.0/5.0 (3 responses)
- The Law of Incarceration: 4.33/5.0 (3 responses)
- Tribal Law: 2.17/5.0 (6 responses)
Questions with more than 5 responses are in bold
PROFESSOR RANKINGS
Each participant was given the opportunity to rank a professor teaching a course in the WInter Semester out of 5 stars
Big Winner and Loser minimum 10 responses to minimize skewed results
The Big Winner: Daniel Crane (4.72/5.0)
25 responses
The Big Loser: Jeffrey Zhang (3.31/5.0)
10 responses
- Matthew Adler: 4.33/5.0 (3 responses)
- Norman Ankers: 4.00/5.0 (4 responses)
- Karima Bennounce: 3.5/5.0 (6 responses)
- Maureen Carroll: 5.0/5.0 (5 responses)
- Albert Choi: 5.0/5.0 (1 response)
- Sherman Clark: 3.82/5.0 (17 responses)
- James Desimpelare 4.64/5.0 (11 responses)
- Betsy Fisher: 5.0/5.0 (1 response)
- Matthew Fletcher: 3.22/5.0 (9 responses)
- Don Herzog: 3.64/5.0 (11 responses)
- James Hines Jr: 4.6/5.0 (10 responses)
- Nicholas Howson: 4.57/5.0 (14 responses)
- John Hudson: 5.0/5.0 (1 response)
- Caroline Humfress: 4.0/5.0 (1 response)
- Noah Kazis: 4.5/5.0 (8 responses)
- Vikramaditya Khanna: 4.2/5.0 (5 responses)
- Hwa Jin Kim: 5.0/5.0 (2 responses)
- Barbara McQuade: 3.68/5.0 (22 responses)
- Nina Mendelson: 4.56/5.0 (9 responses)
- Julian Davis Mortenson: 5.0/5.0 (2 responses)
- Len Niehoff: 4.36/5.0 (11 responses)
- William Novak: 4.78/5.0 (9 responses)
- Sanjukta Paul: 5.0/5.0 (2 responses)
- Aaron Perzanowski: 4.88/5.0 (8 responses)
- John Pottow: 4.6/5.0 (5 responses)
- JJ Prescott: 3.0/5.0 (6 responses)
- Emily Prifogle: 4.82/5.0 (11 responses)
- Eve Primus: 5.0/5.0 (5 responses)
- Steve Ratner: 3.67/5.0 (3 responses)
- Mathias Reimann: 5.0/5.0 (2 responses)
- Rachel Rothschild: 5.0/5.0 (2 responses)
- Oday Salim: 3.25/5.0 (8 responses)
- Steven Schaus: 3.94/5.0 (17 responses)
- Margo Schlanger: 3.57/5.0 (7 responses)
- Gil Seinfeld: 3.59/5.0 (17 responses)
- David Thronson: 4.0/5.0 (2 responses)
- Frank Vandervort: 3.67/5.0 (3 responses)
- Chris Walker: 3.29/5.0 (7 responses)
- David Willbrand: 5.0/5.0 (1 response)
Questions with more than 5 responses are in bold
REQUIRED CREDITS:
1L Electives:
When asked, what classes would you recommend for a 1L elective:
- 31.8% of responses recommended Legislation & Regulation
- 22.7% of responses recommended Family Law
- 18.2% of responses recommended Accounting for Lawyers
Full Results:
International or Comparative Law:
When asked, what classes do you recommend to fulfill the International or Comparative Law Credit:
- 26.7% of responses recommended International Law
- 26.7% of responses recommended Tribal Law
- 20% of responses recommended International Refugee Law
Full Results:
Statutory or Regulatory:
When asked, what classes you recommend for the statutory or regulatory credit,
- 53.8% of responses recommended Legislation & Regulation
- 23.1% of responses recommended Administrative Law
- 17.9% of responses recommended Taxation of Individual Income
Full Results:
THIS OR THAT?
The following questions are designed to help you choose between different limited options.
When asked, do you recommend Professor Clark or Vandevort for Legal Ethics:
- 83.3% of responses recommended Clark
- 16.7% of responses recommended Vandervort
When asked, do you recommend Professor Clark or Niehoff for Evidence:
- 52.6% of responses recommended Niehoff
- 31.6% of responses recommended Clark
- 10.5% of responses recommended Friedman
- 5.3% (1 response) recommended Clark if you plan on taking evidence for the bar, and Niehoff if you plan on taking evidence for a future career in litigation
When asked, do you recommend Professor Mendelson or Mortenson for Legislation & Regulation:
- 73.3% of responses recommended Mendelson
- 13.4% of responses recommended Bagley
- 6.7% of responses recommended Mortenson
- 6.7% of responses recommended Deacon
Reminder, the responses to this survey were completely anonymous, and rankings and quotes do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this author or the rest of the Res Gestae editorial staff. Happy bidding!
Res Gestae Managing Editor Payton DeWitt can be reached at paydew@umich.edu.
Editor’s Note: This article has been corrected and updated.
