Saturday, January 28, 2006
|I'll have the Granny Smith, and the Law Center she rode in on.|Everyone was pulling out there smoked turkey or chicken on pesto sandwiches from their little boxed lunches, followed by their gourmet cookie and petite salade and apple. Almost everyone's was Red Delicious, including mine. I despise Red Delicious apples. The skin irritates me. I feel like I'm chewing dried leather. I turned to the girl to my side who hailed from Harvard, "Do you think anyone has a green apple?" We put our keen Ivy League eyes to the task and scanned the room. In seconds she'd located the sole Granny Smith in the room, in the hand of a girl two rows back."I'm sorry, but would you mind switching apples with me? I am really more of a Granny Smith kinda guy."She looked at me. She looked at my apple. She grimaced (my apple was fine -- just red). She looked at her apple. She looked back at me."You're an admitted student, right?" The golden yellow name tag pinned to her navy blue t-shirt revealed she was already part of the Georgetown family. "Yes," I confessed. "Then you can have my apple." I wasn't ignorant to her desire to keep her original fruit. I asked her if she was sure."You're an admitted student. You get my apple."During admitted students' weekend YOU RULE THE SCHOOL. It was two days of gourmet foods, white chocolate fountains, being groomed and being schmoozed. I cannot and perhaps will not ever be able to see myself in D.C., but I realized that I could totally see myself at the Georgetown University Law Center.The Law Center (it's not a "school," and why is not something that was discussed) is beautiful -- everything is bright and shiny and new. Just like any law school campus, it's only 2 (maybe 3) buildings. The teachers all seemed very cool and liberal, the clinical program is expansive, Curriculum B provides a theoretical facet to an otherwise standard first year program (without being Yale or Chicago) and obviously having the Supreme Court as the figurative and literal background to the school has definitely seeped into the instruction as well as the drinking water. Oh, and the student body seemed pretty hot. But with a brand spanking new state of the art fitness center with spa and massage facilities in the same building as the first-year dorms (most students live off-campus after their 1L year), it's hardly surprising that toned and ripped guys and girls are walking up and down the halls.I feel safe in saying that for any student who is seriously weighing Georgetown versus another law school, Georgetown is going to win out. I do not know that any other top law school has so majorly and vastly rennovated in recent years (for instance, Yale and Michigan are bound to keeping their "old school" charm). And chances are all the money that's been dumped into Georgetown's campus combined with what is a clear attempt to drive up the numbers of its student body is going to probably mean a jump in its USNWR ranking (again, not that the rankings matter, but whereas a drop may be brushed off as being an "arbitrary" decision of USNWR, a rise is usually a cause for celebration).But for any student wondering if he can afford the Law Center, newsflash: They just spent a few million (billion?) dollars on a new library and that gym with cable-connected television sets on every aerobic machine -- they don't have any money for your grant. The average grant (for students who got them, not everyone does) was $14.5k this school year, and I wouldn't be surprised if that took a dip next fall. That leaves the average applicant who qualifies for grant money nearly $30,000 short of the bill ($59k - $14.5k in average grant - $18.5k in Stafford Loans = $26k).I bet you're wishing they'd just kept the apple and instead knocked a few duckets off the bill, right? Shucks.
promulgated by SWS2.1 at 05:19.
2 comments
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Tuesday, January 24, 2006
|Who greased this slide?|First, I was not going to apply to ANY school in the Maryland/D.C./Virginia area.Then, I applied to Georgetown -- I wouldn't get in and applying would let me know where I stand with other schools -- yeah, it was a reasonable plan.And then I got in, but I was not, NOT going to visit. Why visit a school I have no intention of attending?And now I'm trying to figure out Chinatown bus schedules to get myself down there by the check-in time for the Admitted Students' Days this Thursday and Friday.Do I no longer have any grip on any of my ideals? [Insert lame would-be lawyer joke here].
promulgated by SWS2.1 at 08:19.
3 comments
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Sunday, January 01, 2006
|Was it good for you?|So I've read a few things and heard a few people basically saying "Good riddance" to 2005. I suppose a year of hurricanes and cities being wiped out and prices not falling and AIDS not slowing and the general day-to-day crap of life just made 2005 quite the bust.But it was great for me. It may be the greatest year on record for me.I had returned to school and stared off 2005 with great grades. I got myself a well-paying and easy internship. I left Whole Foods. I worked two jobs over the summer, but both were easy and one, in addition to paying me, paid for my housing all summer. I moved to Paris where I discovered that I'm attractive and made some great friends, all while not being able to work and taking a few really interesting and informative classes. I've started getting into amazing law schools, which promises nothing but good things for 2006 and hopefully beyond. I'm feeling happier and healthier than I've ever been and I realize I'm tempting fate by sending these words out into the aether, but 2005 was just super awesome for me.So, I'm sorry it wasn't good for you, too. But, would you like to do it again?
promulgated by SWS2.1 at 06:49.
4 comments
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