Essays and stuff

So, I sent my (crappy-craptastic) essay ideas to my adviser. It took me FOREVER to get them in to him, but I hate writing about myself. It's kinda why I need help. So there you go.

I also mailed out my letter of recommendation requests (one yesterday, one today). For most schools, I'll be fine, but I like to have room to move, and UW's application is January 15. My one consolation is that they have on their website "up to two" letters accepted, giving me hope that if one recommender is exceedingly slow, I can get another one for my other schools, but it won't affect UW's application.

By the way, can anyone explain to me why UW's due date is so early? It's way before any of the other schools I'm applying to. Most are in February or March. Like I needed more stress. Especially frustrating: They're the one school I need to apply to. I already went there, they're local, here's where I want to practice, I need to apply to UW. I have to. So why is that the one that's so early? Answer: the universe hates me. Awesome.

All right, I have to go figure out Dean's Certifications now.

Update

So, I'm working on two one page essays, which will later be combined into one essay for my application. I'm finding it difficult to write about me. Yes, I can tell crazy stories about my life/family, but they usually aren't character building, really. Sure, Lefse stories, or stories about Reecekitty, or the story of that one time with the SeaFair pirate make for good stories. But how exactly does being emotionally scarred by an animatronic, perverted bear make me a better person. It doesn't. So I'm struggling.

I finished up my stuff for Letters of Recommendation, though. Mom looked over the letters, and had a few changes, so those will go out tomorrow. Which is good, cause then they won't get them until after Thanksgiving which means they're less likely to loose them. I wish I could've gotten these out a month ago, but there you go. Who's surprised. (You? Then you don't know me.)

Anyway, Thanksgiving's in two days and everyone's going to ask, so I better have a clear idea of where I'm applying and why. I should work on that tonight. (I fully expect to hear "Why don't you just go to school here?" a full 1.42 million times come Thursday. There's a thousand reasons to stay, and a thousand to go. I just have to figure out which reasons matter the most. An unenviable position, to say the least, especially when people you would think would be supporting you are going "I know it's ranked 70 spots lower than schools you got into elsewhere, but don't leave me for three years." Ugh.)

Update!

Yesterday I received a fee waiver from University of Virginia too! Whee!

A few things

So, my fee waiver list is now up to 6! Yay! They are as follows:
William and Mary
University of Illinois
Vanderbilt
UCLA
Columbia
Northwest

These are all very exciting to me. Now I just need to turn in my applications!

Also, I was not happy with my consultant. It just...wasn't going well. So I wrote them and asked for another one. It's a long story how I got there, but I'll let you know how all that goes.

I forgot

to mention that I got more fee waivers! One from the University of Illinois, one from UCLA, and the one I'm really excited about, one from Vanderbilt! That's four schools I can apply to for free! Except for what the applications cost me in sanity and brain cells.

But who needs either of those? I mean, seriously.

Long time, no post!

So, since my last post I have signed up with Kaplan's Admission Counseling program. Basically, you're hooked up with someone who helps people with their applications every year and know what they're doing. Talking with my counselor was a real ego boost because he mentioned schools that "wouldn't be a waste of money to apply to," that I had at least a long shot at, and they were schools I ruled out long ago. (Boalt? probably not, but thanks for saying so. I almost laughed when he said Stanford.) And my "target" schools? Well, he said I could do better. Which...I'll still apply to them, but it felt nice to hear that from someone who does this every year.

Updates

So, I have decided to go with the Kaplan consulting services. I was hesitant to commit to a service, especially before going on vacation, but now I'm back and have no excuses. Some schools start accepting applications this Saturday! Ahhhhh!

Also, scratch UT off my list. In light of recent events, that I won't address here because that is not what this blog is about, I can not go to law school in Texas. I just can't. So they're off the list. Well, that's one down!

And then there were...still too many

So I think I can take a few schools off my list. They're good safeties, but I don't need 900 safeties, and they're schools I wouldn't be too thrilled about attending if I got in, so off they come! They are:

University of Connecticut
University of North Carolina
University of Maryland
Wake Forest

Schools that will most likely be removed in the future before apps are due:

University of Oregon
Notre Dame
Fordham (?)
Boston College (I don't need to apply to BC and BU)

Anyway, that's where it stands now. I got a planner just for law school stuff, but it doesn't start until August so I can't use it yet! Oh no! If you knew my office supply addiction, you'd know how hard this is for me!

The First Of (Hopefully) Many Fee Waivers

I found out that William and Mary gave out fee waivers to pretty much anyone with an LSAT over 165. Hey, that's me! Why didn't I get one? Who knows, but I emailed them about it and they said to email the dean with proof of my LSAT score and they would send me one. Which is neat.

However, I have to do a paper application. Which kinda sucks, because I was looking forward to only having to send my LORs and all that to only one place. So, I'll probably apply, but it won't be the first place I worry about.

I hope I get more waivers, cause at 70 bucks a pop, it's kinda hard to apply to too many. But I need to, as a splitter. I'm concerned I won't get many, since I took the December LSAT last year, which they count for last cycle. So I'm afraid they'll think I'm not applying this fall. Though I did take the June one, which is for this cycle...

Schools...and stuff.

Ok, I'm going to try to list all the schools I'm even vaguely looking at. I'm sure I wont' think of them all, and will have to go home, glance at my enormo notebook, and update this post, but here goes. (Alphabetically, not desirability)
Boston College
Boston University
University of California - Los Angeles
University of Chigaco
Columbia University (auto reject, here I come!)
University of Connecticut (but not really, I'm pretty sure. Big safety)
Cornell University
Duke (mainly for Rick)
Fordham University
Georgetown University
University of Illinois
University of Iowa
University of Maryland
University of Michigan (on the fence on this one)
University of Minnesota
University of North Carolina(but again, I don't think so)
New York University
Northwestern University (it's in Chicago, not Kirkland)
Notre Dame University
University of Oregon
University of Pennsylvania (private. tricky, no?)
Seattle University (local safety, if they don't yield protect me)
University of Texas
Vanderbilt University
University of Virginia (maybe?)
Wake Forest University (although that's really more a product of I haven't taken them out of my notebook yet.)
University of Washington (instate)
Washington University in St. Louis
College of William and Mary
University of Wisconsin


Also, I'm still looking at admissions consultants. Part of me is hesitant because I think "I didn't have any amazing extracurriculars, and my gpa didn't exactly have an upward trend after I started working, and I have nothing to say in a personal statement. Those consultants are going to laugh and laugh at me." But then I shape up and think "better them than the adcoms." So now I have to pick one. Bugger.

Update

Ok, so I'm not mad at the scale. It means they think it was easier, and if that's what they think then fine.

After thinking about it (and talking to my crazy supportive friends and family), I am now proud of this score. It makes me not crazy out of the running for places like Columbia anymore, and makes other places like Cornell look somewhat attainable. So there you go.

I'm thinking of hiring an essay consultant, mainly because in my opinion I am spectacular in no way. Which doesn't make for a very interesting personal statement. "Hello. I'm pretty boring. But on the other hand, I most likely won't be charged with any petty crimes while in law school. Bland is good!" Not exactly what they're looking for.

I don't know what I expected

171. It came today. 171. That's only two points better than last time. But I don't know what I thought it would be. I'm just going to have to OWN my personal statement if I want to get into the best school possible. As a splitter, I must wow them with my other stuff.

The conversion chart was, to put it bluntly, insane. Minus ten gave you a 168. That's the harshest scale I've seen. That's insane. I only missed seven and I got a 171. Usually minus 10 equals a 170 (on a more or less average basis.) This is ridiculous. I'm a little mad.

Still waiting

It's 8:30 and still no score. I'm...going...insane.


Make it stop, please.

Suicide Watch

They didn't release the scores today. There is an entire community of desperate people out there who can't sleep tonight. It's horrible.

DUN DUN DUNNNNNNNNNN!

So I guess precedent dictates that our scores will come out today sometime. I'm a freak right now. I shouldn't be this way about something that 1) I have no control over and 2) I've already done once.

I don't think you understand how many times I've hit refresh already today. And it's only 9:04. This sucks. Hardcore.

I think...

that I might die. Scores don't come out until Friday. FRIDAY! And yet there I am, today, Wednesday, refreshing my email. Like an idiot.











Although I hear sometimes they come Thursday.

Waiting...and waiting...and waiting...

At first, the wait wasn't too bad. "I already took it, so no worries! I'll welcome the break from law school stuff for awhile." But now? Geez. I'm going crazy. This test could change my target schools, my impossible-dream-but-try-anyway schools. And it's driving me insane not knowing. What if I bombed it? What if I aced it (not possible)?

It doesn't help that every time I go to TLS to see what people are saying about waitlists or what have you, someone's on there with "what do you think the scale will be?" "what time does the email come?" And like and idiot, I always read those threads. They never help my nerves, just make me think about the test more.

Poops.

I'm going crazy!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Self-Destruction...or was it?

Yesterday I was lurking on some of the message boards on top-law-schools.com (tls) and some people were rehashing select questions. It was really unhealthy of me to be hanging out there, but I did. Well, I stumbled on a question they were discussing that it turns out I got wrong. And it was in the games section, which is usually my best. It was a stupid mistake that I shouldn't have made.
Part of me is so mad about it because now I'm freaking out about everything else that I thought I did right at the time.
But part of me is relieved. Even though you know it's completely implausible, you always secretly hope for a 180. Now that I know I can't really get one, I've been able to let go a little. But I can promise you that I haven't been looking at their LSAT question threads any more.

LSAT

I took it. I feel it went ok. At least, I answered every question. I most likely (assuredly) didn't answer every one correctly, but I made it through each section, and double checked answers I was unsure of. So whatever happens, I know that I tried my best and it's probably the score I deserve.

They did kind of freak me out before I even started because I brought my driver's license for my photo id. Well, I got it 3 plus years ago when I was still signing my whole name. Yeah, my whole name? Kinda long. So awhile ago I just started putting my first initial and my last name. When I took the December LSAT, no one cared that the signatures didn't match. This time they decided they did. So I had to resign it so my signature would match my driver's license. The end result being that my admission slip has two signatures. Hopefully that won't be a problem and they don't call me in a week harassing me about it. At least my thumbprint is still the same.

The test was not that bad. I felt the logic games (analytical reasoning) section was easy. I like logic games, 99% of the time you KNOW you got it right, not "I think I picked the right answer. Maybe?" These ones, at least for me, were particularly enjoyable. I got to take a mini-power nap during that section.

The comparative reading wasn't that bad either. I thought [another passage] (to be inserted at a later date, when the LSAC can't get mad and put a note in my file that says "horrible person! do not let into law school!") was WAY harder.

My experimental section was one of the three Logical Reasoning. Those are my hardest sections, so having an extra one wasn't all that much fun. But it could've been worse I suppose.

I think one girl in my section got in trouble. After the writing section was over, one of the assistant proctors walked up to the main proctor with a writing sample, topic sheet and pencil in her hand. They whispered furiously and the end result was the writing sample in question was set aside from the stack of all our other writing samples and papercliped to a blue piece of paper. I think she kept writing past when time was called to finish her sentence or thought or what have you. Big no-no. She looked pissed. As in angry, not drunk. Just to clear the air there.

The part that kills me is I have to wait THREE WEEKS for my score. I knew I was in trouble when I'm still taking the test and in the middle of section four I found myself thinking "I wonder what my score is?" I wasn't even done with the test yet! I'm not going to make it!

Well, that's it for now I guess. I'll keep you updated as soon as I know anything.

I'm free!

But not really! I'm done with the test, though. Which, by the way, is awesome. I felt so much more calm and in control this time. I may get the same score, but at least I wasn't freaking out as much.
Well, more to come at a future date. For now, Kiwi and I are going to a celebratory dinner!

Oh, the wait will kill me!

Last PrepTest

I just took my last preptest before tomorrow and got a 173. That's good (it's better than what I got last time), and I'll take it if I get it tomorrow. But hope springs eternal! I can't help but hope that a section of logical reasoning is extremely easy tomorrow, or that the comparative reading trips up everyone but me and throws the curve.
Will any of that happen? Probably not. But I can dream, can't I? ;)

PS You think I was a freak worrying about studying? Wait until you see me ever so patiently waiting for my score for three weeks.

Still studying

I just finished the logical reasoning bible. ugh. So I'm going to eat and then take another preptest. I get the feeling the eating thing is going to last awhile. I'm a bit of a staller.

First Day of Blogging!

So, I've decided that this can be my law school blog. I'll just link everyone here and keep people up to date! I know the only people who will read this are KeeYoun and my mom, but that's ok. It's two days until my second LSAT on Monday. I'm on a break from studying before I tackle the new comparative reading samples the LSAC published. I really hope that I do better the second time around.

At any rate, this will be my update central. So welcome! I'll try to remember to put everything on here. Well, that's the plan anyway. Anyone who's seen the dates in my diary knows I have trouble with regular journaling.

Love to you all!
~Liz