Why do sharks never bite lawyers?....

.....professional courtesy

It's now been 2.5 weeks since my file was fowarded to LA. I could hear as soon as ten days from now, or it could be another 3 -4 weeks. . I spoke with my friend Gina this morning. She's had computer drama, so my newsy update about applying to law school got lost somewhere in the black-hole of cyberspace. We're going to get together sometime soon--after the kids are back in school and I'm back to work full time.

I've been surfing blogspot and found some other blogs of law students at various points in their education. I will probably post links to my favorites in another post.

T-minus

I heard from Trudy, the records coordinator, last Wednesday - exactly one week ago. My file has been forwarded to California for review by the Admissions Board. She warned me that it would take at least 3 - 4 weeks and possibly as long as 6 weeks before I would hear anything regarding my file.

So now I'm waiting......and waiting........

I have started calling some of the legal offices around where I work to find out about shadowing opportunities. I am waiting to hear back from them. I am hoping that a shadowing opportunity now might turn into a clerking opportunity once I have started.

But for now...just waiting.

Starting Countdown

I got a message from Concord on my cell phone yesterday. They needed me to refax my authorization so they can charge my account. Apparently, they are ready to start processing my file. They won't finish until they have my transcripts, but they are starting.

I'm feeling more calm now than I was the other day, but I don't know if it really is because I'm more calm, or if I'm just tired from a busy week. L and S are coming up this evening for gaming. I know I need to put this law school stuff away for a few hours, but its really hard not to focus on it. I'm still working on my "to do" list - at the top of which is faxing transcript release forms. I really need to get started on that before the new school year begins and the registration office is deluged by registrations for school/classes.

I'm also starting to mentally prepare. I'm going back to my yoga and meditation practice that I started during my grad school days and then took a sabbatical from when my kids were born. I now need to get back to that so that I can keep my sanity. My husband jokes that we'll all be going to law school together, and that the kids will know tort law and contracts before they can spell.

...a good start

11 am
Faxed my admissions packet off to Concord today. Now the waiting starts. I'm hoping to hear before the end of the month. August 30 is the LSAT registration deadline. I really don't want to take the LSAT. For me, taking a multiple-choice standardized test ranks right up there with having dental work done. The part of this whole JD thing I'm dreading the most is the MBE (multi-state bar exam) part I. That's the 200 multiple-choice test on legal theory. Part II is the essay exam. I emailed a friend today telling him I'd far rather take the "baby bar" (first year law exam) than the LSAT. Essay questions over the four core law subjects. I'm used to those types of exams. I took those kinds of exams all through graduate school. Bring it on! Multiple choice tests, however, are a lot more intimidating for me. The first two questions I asked my admissions counselor were: "what is your bar pass rate?" and "what does your school offer in terms of bar prep?" It turns out one of their required classes is a bar prep class.

I'm also getting used to the lawyer jokes. Those don't bother me as much. I will be the 6th or 7th person in my high school class (out of a class of 95) that has gone to law school, and probably the 15th or 20th out of my college class (a class of 120) to go to law school. I'm in good company. The only profession with a higher percentage was medicine.

4 pm

Heard back from Concord. My admissions file is done save for my transcripts. Yaaay! Now I get to wait....and wait.....and wait.

What do you call 300 lawyers at the bottom of the ocean....

From my journal 7-30-06:

I'm almost there. I don't want to jinx it, but everything is done but the final admissions board review. I heard from Ernest Westbrook (my wonderfully helpful admissions advisor. He's been great.) this morning. Cautiously optimistic is how I would describe him this morning. Very pleased with my essay. Very impressed with my application, my application exam, my application essay. Apparently the board member in charge of reviewing essays was impressed with this one. I received the admissions application package this morning.

So, I'm now sitting here in my office beginning to chronicle this weird, amazing journey to / through law school I've started. Not on a whim, but certainly not how I pictured it. I envisioned filling out my application, enduring weeks of waiting, then being told I qualified to take the exam, then hearing that I either did well enough or not enough. Not this application on fast-forward that I've been experiencing. Talked with Ernest two weeks ago Tuesday. Sent a list of questions two weeks ago Friday. Didn't hear from anyone, so sent another email to Ernest on Monday. Talked with him again on Wednesday, and made an appointment to do the pre-admissions interview on Thursday. Did the interview on Thursday. Turned in the exam Thursday evening. Submitted the essay Friday noon. Talked with him this morning. Started filling out paperwork this morning, after hearing that I had a solid recommendation from Ernest and he was hoping for good things from the admissions board.

Now I've filled out most of the paperwork, and I need to send transcript requests to the schools so that I can get transcripts sent to my file. What a day. I could very well know by the end of August, beginning of September if I'm going to law school or not...at least at Concord. There's a very big part of me that is scared to death by all of this. There is another part of me that is ready for the challenge and looking forward to it.....Then there's the finances. Ahhhhhhh!!!!! I know that I can probably get a loan to cover this - but still - its a decent chunk of change.

Now I just have to keep my nerves under control until this all sinks in. I've bookmarked the pages at the Concord bookstore with the graduation regalia and all the other commencement stuff to keep the big picture in mind. I wonder if this is how the medical school applicants feel once they've gone through their interviews and they're waiting to hear from the medical schools. The overwhelming feeling of "what was I thinking?????"

Oh well. Dr. John Kim is pulling for me. He thinks its a great idea. Dr. Paul Kim thinks its a bad idea - but along the lines of one more lawyer in the world is a bad idea. Gary is supportive. I'm sure that Pippa, Darlene, and Jen would be supportive if they knew. I should probably write Pip and let her know. It's out of my control at this point, anyway. Hugs for me.

Keep watching this spot....more updates on my law school app to come!

First Post

This is a blog so that my family and friends can keep in touch with what is going on with me. Between working full-time, taking care of two kids, and getting ready to go back to school, I have found myself not able to keep in touch with family and friends as well as I would like. So this blog is an attempt to remedy that. I got the idea from a story on NPR (www.npr.org) about how more people are using blogs to stay in touch.

Welcome to my blog.

JM