Top Law Schools

For those of you who are done completely with apps and know where you are attending, what the heck are you doing with your leisure time now?

So far I've:

• Read a couple of books (Dean Koontz's The Darkest Night of the Year and Kafka's The Blue Octavo Notebooks)
• Read up on Michigan (school and state)
• Watched too many YouTube videos with the words "law" or "law student" or "law school" in their titles
• Checked TLS and LSN habitually
• Visited and read way, way too many law students' blawgs
• Helped friends study for the December LSAT

It's sad, but I feel like I'm still in applying/studying mode! Not to mention everything seems rather anti-climactic now that I'm not sweating my apps. How are you folks getting over the post-cycle slump?

Sad but true: I made an Excel spreadsheet with average salaries from the schools I applied to and tried to calculate how much money I would make for the rest of my career life (less costs for each school and interest) if I choose careers in the private sector or government at each school....

• Read up on Virginia (school and state)
• Watched too many YouTube videos with the words "law" or "law student" or "law school" in their titles
• Checked TLS and LSN habitually
• Visited and read way, way too many law students' blawgs
• Helped friends study for the December LSAT

OP, we have a lot in common.

My motivation at work also tanked the day after my acceptance and took about a week to recover. Now that I'm up to my eyeballs in work to get through before the holidays, motivation is not difficult to find.

StCuervo wrote:Sad but true: I made an Excel spreadsheet with average salaries from the schools I applied to and tried to calculate how much money I would make for the rest of my career life (less costs for each school and interest) if I choose careers in the private sector or government at each school....

hmmmmmm.....

Lucky bastards.. My cycle hasn't even begun so I can't possibly think of it being over.

neskerdoo wrote:

StCuervo wrote:Sad but true: I made an Excel spreadsheet with average salaries from the schools I applied to and tried to calculate how much money I would make for the rest of my career life (less costs for each school and interest) if I choose careers in the private sector or government at each school....

hmmmmmm.....

I know it sounds weird but I'm trying to decide between Georgetown and in-state tuition at George Mason and between a big firm job and a government job. So I was looking at projections of how much school would cost versus how much I might expect to make going to different schools in different sectors... I was just trying to see if the extra cost of GULC was justified and how difficult a career in public service would be.

I knew what you meant; that is exactly why I posted "hmmmm..."

StCuervo wrote:

neskerdoo wrote:

StCuervo wrote:Sad but true: I made an Excel spreadsheet with average salaries from the schools I applied to and tried to calculate how much money I would make for the rest of my career life (less costs for each school and interest) if I choose careers in the private sector or government at each school....

hmmmmmm.....

I know it sounds weird but I'm trying to decide between Georgetown and in-state tuition at George Mason and between a big firm job and a government job. So I was looking at projections of how much school would cost versus how much I might expect to make going to different schools in different sectors... I was just trying to see if the extra cost of GULC was justified and how difficult a career in public service would be.

So what did you find out?

I think when mine is over, I'll do a lot of what OP has said (minus the helping friend's study part - none of my want anything to do with law school). I'll likely be working a lot too.

...and also twidling my thumbs while incessantly looking at the calender, waiting for September.

jsporter wrote:

• Read up on Virginia (school and state)
• Watched too many YouTube videos with the words "law" or "law student" or "law school" in their titles
• Checked TLS and LSN habitually
• Visited and read way, way too many law students' blawgs
• Helped friends study for the December LSAT

OP, we have a lot in common.

My motivation at work also tanked the day after my acceptance and took about a week to recover. Now that I'm up to my eyeballs in work to get through before the holidays, motivation is not difficult to find.

Glad to see I'm not the only one feeling neurotic.

milymo wrote:So what did you find out?

Well my numbers are going to be a little different than other people's projections because I have been working for 10 years (so I have a shorter career-life at this point than most of you). Basically I found out that interest is a b*tch -- the interest on GULC loans versus Mason loans brings down your expected earnings a bit -- but, even with interest factored in, the average GULC grad in the private sector in DC will make about $200,000 more than the average Mason grad in the private sector in DC over a 30 year period. Of course there are different scenarioes for loan-repayment and promotion and raises and where you work so this is all very speculative.

I was surprised that the difference was so modest (although 200K is nothing to laugh at).

The other thing I found is that government jobs really don't make sense when you are straddled with law school debt. In my job right now I make more than the average government law salary. So why should I take on law school debt (whether from Mason or GULC) to take a job that pays me the same or less than what I make now? That just doesn't make sense to me. So I've really cooled on government jobs since playing with my Excel spreadsheet.

Who works for the government to make money?

I wait
Then I wait
Then I check Gmail
Then I refresh Gmail
Then I log into TLS
Then I wait
Then I check Gmail


repeat 4x/day or as needed

Some attorneys I work with have strongly recommended working through bar prep. materials (if you can get your hands on them for cheap) that deal with subject matter in the 1L classes (contracts, property, torts...). One of them gave me their PMBR tapes to use. Apparently the bar course materials do a great job spoon feeding you the black-letter law (rules), whereas in law school the Professors try to make you synthesize the rules/law from a bunch of complicated cases (i.e. think like a lawyer).

I have a job, which apparently isn't that common for people who posted in this thread (as evidenced by some of the neurotic behavior).

But most of my time at work is spent thinking about law school, browsing TLS threads, looking at financial aid stuff, etc.

All of the activities I listed (minus helping friends study) can easily be done at work. Of course I'm not billing out during time I spend on YouTube, but I'm still at work.

Yeah, I was referring to the job salary excel sheet project. I think my coworkers would be pretty pissed if they caught me doing that at work.

jsporter wrote:All of the activities I listed (minus helping friends study) can easily be done at work. Of course I'm not billing out during time I spend on YouTube, but I'm still at work.

my billable hours are looooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

just too much else to think about.

SoftBoiledLife wrote:I wait
Then I wait
Then I check Gmail
Then I refresh Gmail
Then I log into TLS
Then I wait
Then I check Gmail


repeat 4x/day or as needed

+1

Habitually checking out the admitted students website at UVa.

And I am getting lots of sleep.