Pre-Law School Reading

I've heard a lot advice on what you should (and shouldn't) do in your pre-1L summer. I've already decided my top priority is going to be to get settled in Minneapolis, and then to explore the city and relax before I'm sucked into the law school void. But I'm also inclined to do some law-related reading beforehand, not in the sense of trying to actually learn the law or memorize anything, but just get myself more acquainted with some other law-related stuff. My dad's recommendations are On the Nature of the Judicial Process by Benjamin Cardozo and The Bramble Bush by Karl Llewellyn, which are the things he read before going to law school. So I'll start with those and hope they're enticing enough to stick with.

I also have a couple of books that fall into the Overly-Thorough-Handbook-for-Neurotic-0Ls genre, Law School Confidential and 1L Of A Ride: A Well-Traveled Professor's Roadmap to Success in the First Year of Law School.  I had Planet Law School as some point too, but I guess I didn't think too much of it since it was tossed. I've skimmed both of these, but I don't remember much about either of them. I'll probably take the time to revisit both of those once it starts getting closer to September and my law school-related neuroses kick into full gear.

I visited BU back in March for an accepted students day thing, and one of the professors suggested his own book, The Legal Analyst: A Toolkit for Thinking About the Law. I downloaded a copy and am currently about 2/3rds through it now, and it's proving to be interesting (and dense) reading. It's not about specific laws, but what sort of considerations and thought processes are behind certain types of laws and policies. I have no idea how helpful this might be in law school, but I'm enjoying it enough to where it doesn't matter. (Also, it taught me about a type of social dilemma sort of thing I hadn't heard discussed before, the stag hunt. It's worth looking into if you're interested in implications of the prisoner's dilemma and game theory.)

Another book that's high on the to-read list is Flagrant Conduct: The Story of Lawrence v. Texas by Dale Carpenter. First of all, this is supposed to be really good. It's also written by a UMN professor and is about an important case that took place in the homeland, so I really have no excuse not to read it.

Outside of those things, I kind of want to revisit some of my favorite books I haven't picked up in a while. I've been saving some of David Foster Wallace's stuff to read, and I definitely need to work some Gaiman in. And then I have a sort of tradition of taking on an enormous novel for summer reading; previous years have been Infinite Jest, 2666, and The Corrections. Maybe I should break with the pomo trend and go for something different. Hmm.

Yep, that's my summer reading plan. And like every summer reading plan I've made, I'll probably get to about two of the books I mentioned.

Okay, this time i'm going to law school for real.

I've been a 0L for a long time. By that, I mean that I've made plans to start law school in the falls of 2010 and 2011, and in this upcoming fall of 2012. I've basically been a professional almost-law-student, except not the professional part, because that would imply get paid any sort of reasonable amount. So.

Why the hell would I put myself through this? Once is more than enough for the vast majority of applicants. But, judging from how many times I've put myself through this process, I seem to derive an expensive masochistic pleasure from jumping through these hoops multiple times.

Three rounds of law school applications sent out to twenty school in total. Four (!) LSATs taken. Four deposits sent in. Five law schools visited. 

Here's the quick rundown of what's happened in these three years:

My first year of being a 0L (or I could call it my -2L year, I guess), I made the error of waiting to apply to schools until fairly late in the cycle. I got in at a few decent schools (and waitlisted at a bunch of good ones), but lost a chance at getting any money at any of them because they had apparently given all their money away. After thinking about my situation, I decided to wait another year, and approach the process more seriously, getting all my apps out way earlier. 

So, my second year of being a 0L (-1L?), I did it right. I applied to the same basic list of schools, except I applied much earlier. Alas, I was waitlisted at many of the places as I was the previous year, but I got some acceptances and money that I hadn't seen before. Nice! I went and visited a couple of these schools, and felt kind of so-so about my options, even though they were pretty solid academically. For the amount of money I was still going to have to go into debt to attend, I wanted to be really really happy with my choice. And so. I decided to retake the LSAT for the fourth time.

What happened with LSATs 1-3? Well, that's a good question. And it warrants a blog post of its own because it's a bit of a story. So, to skip ahead and leave the tale of my long-drawn-out LSAT-angsting for another day, I did well enough on my fourth LSAT to make my prospects at law schools quite a bit better. I applied to schools, got into some really good ones, though I didn't see much money. After looking at my options, I resolved to attend BU at sticker price, and sent in my deposit, waving a sad goodbye to the first chunk of money I would send off into the law school void.

BUT WAIT. I had applied to UMN (a school I had been waitlisted at previously) last-minute, and received an acceptance packet from them just after sending in my check to BU. In disbelief, I read that I had received a very generous scholarship. Sold, Minnesota.

And so I'm following the money all the way to cold, cold Minneapolis, to an awesome law school where I'm going to graduate without much debt. And I'm really happy with this prospect, and am glad I spent all that time in 0L limbo waiting for the right option. At least I hope it's the right option. We'll see.