My law school search.
It's not so much a search as it is a narrowing down. I began in earnest roughly a year ago, singling out about 20 different schools from around the country. Some were eliminated rather quickly as I did my research. In reality, by Thanksgiving break, the list was down to nine or 10. Since that time, the list has been whittled down with one school being eliminated at a time.By the beginning of summer, the list of potential law schools was at five.
On my way back home following the school year and a week at my brother, sister-in-law and niece's house, I was able to stop at one of the schools, talk to the law school dean and tour the facilities. I saw what the school had to offer. It was impressive. I had already visited another school, planned to visit another (which has been done) and was looking into visiting the furthest of all of them at some point this summer.
As I write this, my dad and I are preparing to embark an overnight trip to what I would consider my final tour. From there, it will be a matter of assimilating all the information gathered. That will take about six weeks and include, not only the decision, but also applications to the top three schools. I have an inside track on three of them and can say with as much certainly as possible at this point that I will have been accepted to at least two of those schools.The goal will be to learn of acceptance to the law school of my choice prior to making my final decision. A sub goal, if you will, would be to have a back-up should I not be accepted to my first choice (though not to sound conceited, I don't see that happening).
The reader may wonder which law schools are being considered. That's the tricky part. I'm not telling! No, not at this point in time at least (however, if you can decipher the photos in this blog of my final five, you might get an idea of one or more of them. Hint: They appear here in alphabetical order!).Basic, yet in-depth, criteria is being used in this decision-making process. It includes, but is not limited to, the following:
- A collective average of several law school rankings.
- What the law school can personally offer me as a student.
- What I can offer the law school.
- The personal attention I can receive from the professors, and instruction and support staff.
- Tuition.
- Other costs, such as housing and so forth.
- Geographical location.
As the reader may see, putting all of those together to make the right choice, is a painstaking process which I feel will ensure the overall correct choice is made. To gather all the pertinent information, I've researched the histories of each law school, gathered all the information about the surrounding areas as possible and received numerous pieces of input from family and close friends.In fact, near the beginning of the summer I asked my youngest sister, five-and-a-half-year-old Monika, how she felt about what choice I might make. We're very close. As with my decision to attend Stanford for my undergraduate education, I was most concerned with the geographical distance which would be between us. That concern is again very much prevalent in my mind as I make this decision.
I anticipate making this decision by the time I begin classes for my senior year in about a month and a half.
One additional note: On this visit my dad and I are making tomorrow, we'll be taking along my sister, Angela, who is entering her junior year in high school. Her request was quite logical. She noted that she's going to begin looking at colleges soon which will include making her own visits. She felt it would be good to watch her oldest sister, who she called "a veteran at college visitations." She asked to be able to observe the process and see which questions I would ask potential law school representatives. She won't be able to go with me during any formal interviews, of which one is scheduled, but she will accompany myself and our dad on the tour of the campus and its facilities. I couldn't deny the logic of her request and my mom felt it was a great idea. My dad agreed.So we're off late this afternoon on an information-gathering expedition. Then, it will be six weeks of decision making. While it's exciting, I'll be glad when it's finished and I can concentrate on my senior year at Stanford.
~ Kassandra
