02 November 2024

Sailor's Log | Law School Application Weeks 1 + 2 [excluding the prelude week when we took the campus tour]

From the looks of it, the Law School application process is ... extensive but not unruly. It basically requires a third-party^ credential collector + the application to whatever (or whichever) school(s) one plans on attending, etc. Both steps can sort of be accomplished simultaneously but only after the first step is officially started, and last week, I officially started the first step. 

The first step (for the specific school to which i am applying) is to compile all of my credentials through the third-party credential collector. All together, I have to gather all of my undergraduate &or graduate transcripts (i only have undergrad degrees), obtain two letters of recommendation, take/submit an LSAT score, and write a personal statement. 

Then I apply to Law School.

The Law School then pulls my credentials from the third-party credential collector. And there's other stuff required on that application, but we'll cross that bridge when my brain is not mush.

I secured my undergraduate-granting transcript in the middle of October, around the time we toured the school, and then I had to order two other transcripts to ensure that I would be ordering the correct transcripts for the third-party credential collector, etc., and after those transcripts arrived, I submitted my institutions (that cannot be changed once submitted) and paid the one-time registration fee. 

I also secured both of my letter-of-recommendation writers around the same time as all of my transcripts were being ordered and delivered, and I submitted one of them to the third-party credential collector, and I am waiting for the other to return from vacation so that I can get him the details. 

That leaves the LSAT and a personal statement. 

Not to be cocky, but as a person who has been a writing practitioner for the better part of two decades, I am not sweating the personal statement. A few bullet points have already revealed themselves, and for the past week, nothing new or more has revealed itself. Thus, I will most likely get a first stab at the thing jotted down sometime this coming week.

And so, the final piece of the hoop (that then must be jumped through *iroll*), an LSAT score.

The Law School I wish to attend accepts either an LSAT or GRE score, and so, I've opted to take the GRE. I honestly don't know which one is "better" or whatever, but when we (the bodybuddy/lifemate&i) were still mulling this thing, we bought a GRE test-prep book (is thick), and so, I'm going to take the GRE. If I had to take the LSAT, I would go out and buy an LSAT test-prep book, but since I have this GRE book, I'm taking the GRE *claps hands together to rid herself of riddance* 

And so, there must be some way to bypass the required LSAT score, and so, I need to send an email to the very friendly admissions person I met two weeks ago *jots down note on to-do list*

Fortunately, I do have enough time to take the GRE twice, if need be, but goddamn, I literally haven't taken a math class since my freshman year of college, which *ahem* was in the tender year of 2004. 

OH MY FUCKING GOD!

*starts breathing heavily*

*hyperventilates*

*sits on yoga mat until sanity returns*

So yea, I was an accelerated K-12 student. By the time my senior year of high school rolled around, I had run out of required math classes, so I didn't take a math class in the fall of my senior year. According to the three transcripts I received (one community college [10.5 credits obtained while in high school], one private university [attended from freshman year 2004 through junior year 2007], and the flagship state-school from which I graduated [attended from fall 2008 to graduation in spring 2010]), I got an "A" in College Algebra in the spring semester of 2004, the last semester of my high school career. And then, in the spring of 2005, the freshman year of my college career, I got a "B+" in Pre-Calculus Math, and that was the last time I took a math class requiring more knowledge then basic addition/subtraction/multiplication/division (in the spring of 2006, i got an "A" in financial accounting, but accounting is very straightforward, mathematically speaking). 

And I took zero math classes at my graduating institution.

Like I said, it's been a long-fucking time since I've done any math beyond the elementary basics, and so, I'm a bit rusty. 

I also job a management-level job that I am supposed to job full-time. 

I obviously submitted a request for a temporary schedule change due to my striving toward "higher education," etc., and none of my higher-ups had any issues with it (i'm very efficient). I already worked fewer than 40 hours, but now I have official clearance to be unavailable 8 hours/week for the next few months. 

And so, I present my current job-schedule + study schedule ::


Temporary Jobbing Schedule (until no later than 05Feb25)

Monday :: 8-hour shift
Tuesday :: 4-5-hour shift
Wednesday :: 8-9-hour shift
Thursday :: 4-hour shift
Friday :: 8-hour shift


Study Schedule | Week 1 October 21 - 27

Tuesday :: ~4 hrs before jobbing
Thursday :: ~3 hrs after jobbing
Saturday :: [was scheduled as a study day, but i passed out so hard on friday, slept for twelve hours, and then for three hours on two separate occasions throughout the night/morning, so no studying happened on saturday]
Sunday :: ~6 hrs

Study Schedule | Week 2 October 28 - November 03 (current week)

Tuesday :: ~5 hrs before jobbing
Thursday :: (learned my lesson and took the second-half of this day off as my rest day)
Saturday :: 4 hrs + 2 hrs (the bodybuddy/lifemate is upping me to two-a-days, so we went for a run in between sets today, and now i'm done with my studies, and i'm writing this thing, today being the saturday being referenced right now, and i am so fucking tired)
Sunday :: [scheduled] 4 hrs + 3 hrs or whatever amount of time is needed to complete two sets 



As I build up my stamina, the two-a-days will hopefully become easier, and I will finish the GRE test-prep book with enough time to also review the book again before taking the first stab at the GRE in mid-December.

So, if you're wondering what I'm up to, I'm neck-deep in bringing my sexy-math mind back.

*peace*






^[updated 22Nov24] not a "third-party" per se, but it feels like a third-party, because you are directed there from the school's website. as i'm wading through this process, i've learned that it IS the party.