My Bucket List for the Summer Before Law School

I start law school August 22nd. After graduating undergrad in May, summer seems to by flying by. There are a lot of things I want to do before law school starts but time is limiting what I can realistically do. Here is my realistic bucket list for before law school starts.

Ch-ch-changes

Ahhh David Bowie (RIP Father of Glitter Rock)... Classic song. Fits my life pretty well at the moment. I'm in a time of extreme transition. I am 22 years old; I am graduating undergrad, buying a house, getting married and starting law school all within a 4-month span. Needless to say, I am extremely excited and slightly terrified about my upcoming life changes and transitions.

Graduating undergrad Magna Cum Laude with a double major in Pre-Law and History is a light at the end of a long, difficult tunnel. College is hard and I worked my butt off in tough classes, extracurriculars, part-time jobs, leading clubs on campus, maintaining a high GPA and working to into Law School. I have loved my college years but I am ready to move on. I will be sad to say goodbye to my beloved undergraduate university, teachers and hometown but I am ready to spread my wings and explore somewhere new and transition into professional graduate school.

My fiance and I are moving to a new city where he begins his full-time job and I will attend Law School. Instead of renting, we decided to jump right in and buy a house. As exciting as it is to be budding homeowners and have our own space it is a daunting task. Loans and yards and furniture and budgets and possibly having a fixer upper..... Oh my. I am watching HGTV in every spare moment I have to try to prepare myself and I feel like I email my realtor every 5 minutes. Thankfully she is patient. I truly feel like I am #adulting hard core and it's quite scary. It is also exciting to look forward to decorating my own space and nesting. My fur-babies will love having a yard to run in finally! We are all over the roommate/sharing space/college lifestyle.

In July, I get to marry my best friend, my soul mate and the person who has put up with me for 6.5 years since we were little baby 15 year olds with acne. This is one transition I am not the least bit scared of. I cannot wait to be married to the man of my dreams and have the best support system I could ever ask for through all these other changes. Wedding planning is stressful and expensive and a pain but it will all be worth it when I can call this amazing man my husband and wake up next to him everyday.

My final and scariest transition is starting Law School in August. Everyone else says I am ready and will do great and the Law School obviously agrees as they awarded me a full tuition scholarship. Though I have prepared extensively and read everything I can, I still feel terrified. Law School is HARD. They set it up to weed out those who are not up to the challenge. I am just mentally preparing myself as much as I can to give my life away to case books, outlines and highlighters as of August 22nd and I hope I am up to the challenge and can live up to the standards I have set for myself. Tune in later this year to see how much of a stressball I am.... should be entertaining....

So yeah.... it is a time of transitions; some are exciting, some are scary and all are a part of growing up. Currently I am listening to Disney songs on Pandora to try to pretend I am not a real adult and remind myself of those carefree days where I had no responsibilities beyond entertaining myself and playing with my cat. I think it is safe to say that I am #adulting hard core. As much as I am nervous and scared, I am so ready for all these changes and moving into more of an adult life. I think I am ready.... we shall see. It will certainly be one big adventure and as Albus Dumbledore wisely said, "Let us step into the night and pursue that flighty temptress, adventure".

I am ready to pursue the flighty temptress and if Harry Potter can defeat Voldemort at 17, I should be able to survive home ownership, marriage and Law School at 22.

P.S. You can now follow my adventures or misadventures throughout my transitions on Instagram @TheLegalDuchess and on Tumblr @the-legal-duchess. Follows would be appreciated :) 

Decisions, Decisions

LAW SCHOOL DECISION MADE!!!!!!

At long last and after a long process full of a lot of stress and heartache, I have chosen to attend a Law School near home where I have an unconditional Full-Tuition scholarship! My fiance has started a wonderful job in the same city and he is really enjoying it. Thankfully, after our marriage this summer, he will be supporting me throughout my 3 years of law school financially so that I do not have to take out loans. I am so relieved to have a decision finally and be able to start preparing for my legal education! It was not easy to choose from the 5 schools I was accepted to but I am very pleased with my final decision.

My decision was largely influenced by 3 factors:

1. My fiance's job location and staying close to our hometown

2. Finances and scholarship

3. Finding the somewhere small where I felt comfortable and that I could be successful

The school I choose is 45 minutes from my hometown and 10 minutes from my fiances new job so it satisfied my location requirement. I will get out 100% debt free thanks to the full tuition scholarship that is unconditional; I simply need to stay in good academic standing and everything is covered including summer classes, externships, etc. Even my second seat deposit was waived. All my hard work in undergrad and on the LSAT sure paid off!!! Lastly, my chosen law school is small and very similar to my undergraduate institution so I feel very comfortable there. My current undergraduate advisor is an Alumni of the law school so I am happy to go to the same school as someone I look up to so much. I also know several 2L's and 3L's at the law school so I have some people to go to when I need advice or help and that is very comforting. Overall, I am so pleased with my decision and excited to become a Rocket next fall!!!!

Now there is a whole new level of stress: we are trying to decide on housing; whether to buy a house or rent for a while. I am so ready to just be moved, married, settled and prepped to start my legal career... but there are some hurdles to jump through first. Needless to say, it is going to be a very busy summer with lots of decisions and changes!

How is your law school decision process going? What factors weighed most heavily on your decision?

Choosing the Right Law School

So you have worked for years on a good undergraduate GPA, you studied yourself nearly to death to get a good LSAT score and you slaved away on an attention-grabbing personal statement for a few months... after dropping a few hundred dollars into the LSAC website, all your applications are turned in and the waiting game begins. You dream of the acceptance that you hope will come flooding in. Maybe they will and maybe they won't; the law school admissions game is ever changing and totally unpredictable. I am here to chime in on the scenario where you have been accepted to multiple schools and have to make the choice of which one you are going to dedicate your next three years of reading, writing and near death.

I was accepted to 5 of the 6 schools I applied to with scholarships to all 5. I had two full-tuition offers and two half-tuition offers. Understandably, the highest ranked school I was accepted to offered the least scholarship. It was very overwhelming to have so many great options but exciting all the same. This is how I made my decision based on the pros and cons of each of the schools I could attend. 

I Think I'll Go to Law School Today

Yes, I did start this post out with a Legally Blonde quote. Hail to the great Elle Woods, every young, blonde aspiring lawyer's unrealistic role model in hot pink. But in reality, very few aspiring lawyers decide to go to Law School in Elle Woods fashion and follow their ex-boyfriend to Harvard after scoring a 170 on the LSAT and getting a 4.0 GPA in Fashion. Most of us have been planning this for years; maybe even since we were kids. I personally have wanted to be a lawyer since I was a very little girl. I love to argue, I love to read and write and I am fascinated by all things legal. It was a natural progression to finish high school and head off to work on a Pre-Law degree for undergraduate college. It was then that I truly realized what it takes to get into Law School and become a Lawyer and boy was it a shocker. It most certainly was not as easy as Elle made it seem. I am graduating this spring, getting married this summer and I will start Law School in the fall. I have been accepted to every school I applied to thus far with a scholarship and even received two full-ride scholarships. So with no further ado, here is what tips I have for preparing yourself to get into Law School throughout your undergraduate years.