A Woman in Law School

think "what the eff am I doing?"

Seriously.

I have one week left before I move to a place where I know no one. And it scares me to death.

I don't know why I'm so nervous. It's not like I haven't done this before. And at least English is the predominant language so I should feel lucky. At least I won't have to use post-it notes to communicate.

So yesterday I was driving around town thinking about my decision to go to law school. It's not that I have doubts about my decision. It's more that I'm unable to solve for the unknown. But suddenly I looked up and to my surprise the license plate on the car in front me had my school's abbreviation-LAW. It was there, plain in sight and I followed the car awhile thinking I should ask the driver about the school. So yeah, I was minor-stalking. But it was for a good reason! It's not everyday that you see a license plate like this so far from your actual school! But there were four people in the car and I didn't want to look like a complete tool so I stopped.

So, either the universe is telling me I'm okay or I'm starting to lose it by "reading" the universe.

What's next? Tea leaves?

My number 2 school has a Yahoo Group of which I'm still a member. So each time someone posts something I still get to see it. This has been strange because many people have used the group to get to know each other and even plan house parties. There is a huge get-together this weekend and I'm slightly jealous. I think it would relieve some of my nerves if I was given the chance to meet some students prior to orientation. Looking at my orientation schedule there doesn't seem to be much time for getting to know each other. Hopefully I'm wrong about this.

So I know more about these people and their school than I do about my own class and in some ways it feels strange. It makes me wish my school did something similar. I wonder when or if I'll even be rejected from this list...

We are currently visiting the metropolis which includes my law school. Our goal is to find housing in six days that will allow two beefcake dogs AND is within an hour bus ride of school. The latter is proving to be harder than we anticipated. The city is large, like a million large, which will be a huge change from the university towns I've lived in. Actually, the idea of living in such a large city is intimidating, however law school grads have informed me that I will rarely step into the citylife and instead stay close to the library for the next three years.
Tomorrow I am actually visiting my school for the first time. I didn't have the money to travel and visit law schools when I applied. There is only one law school in a 300 mile radius and I knew enough about it to not have to visit. I'm hoping that my gut feeling, you know-that feeling you get when something just feels right or wrong, tells me THIS is the school for you! I'll fill you in on my gut reaction later...

I recently heard that an acquaintance of mine was waitlisted at Stanford. Does a waitlist here mean anything? I don't know if she is holding out for it but I can't imagine many applicants turning Stanford down. Maybe I'm wrong. Any thoughts?

I came home to an e-mail congratulating me on my acceptance to my first choice school. I was shocked! It was a follow up e-mail; one meant to be received after the acceptance letter. This made us wonder if my acceptance letter really was lost in the mail but sure enough it came the next day. The best part is that I was offered a very nice scholarship! I was hoping for one but thought it was a long shot. So our weekend was spent looking at housing, the employment market for The Janitor (my loving partner who is an attorney) and reviewing the school's program. And now onto the little things. We are planning on flying down to visit the school next week. I have several questions regarding student life and the city in general. It's a large city with a population of approximately 500,000, much larger than where we currently live. One aspect that bothers me is that there are no images of students on their website. It is important to me to see students interacting with each other and have some idea of the academic environment that I wish to partake in.

So these are my questions:

• What are your thoughts regarding your first year?
• Is the faculty friendly, open, and available for questions?
  
• On a scale of 1-10 how competitive do you feel the environment is?
• Do you have any recommendations for new students to this school? Any thing you would do over again?
• Where will you be working this summer? Were there several opportunities to choose from?