Rule No. 1 of a fulfilling college experience, the house mentor told then-freshman pledge Andy Langan, went something like this:
You snooze, you lose.
“Take mostly morning classes,” Langan remembers being told, “and make good use of having no afternoon classes most weekday afternoons to study, away from the fraternity house.
“That way, he told me, you are not distracted with all the inevitable chatter at the fraternity house and avoid wasted time and even free up your evenings occasionally.”
If you’re looking for the formula for how to go from a UI history major to a Harvard Law grad to a partner at a top Chicago firm, Langan says, that’s it.
(Plus a few thousand hours in what became his favorite campus spot — the undergraduate library, "a unique structure that was quiet and clean, with good resources.” And to top it off, it was conveniently located near 308 East Armory, home to Langan’s fraternity).
“I took the advice and have never forgotten it, had a great run as an undergraduate student, and went on to law school and a legal career I am very happy with,” Langan says. “I credit lots of hours in the undergrad for some of my success as an undergraduate at Illinois.
“And thus, happy memories too.”
