Amy, 3L

Nothing like an old school Snoop Dogg reference, right? I've heard it through the grapevine (read: Admissions office) that there are some questions/concerns/fears/slight panic surrounding financial aid and paying for law school. I know this is a huge financial commitment for many of us. I wrote about this in a post last year, but some specifics might be helpful.

- Perspective: Breathe. This will be expensive and some people (myself included) will have six-figure debt after undergrad and law school. You have to know and accept that fact going in. There's no way around that. Keep breathing.

- Knowledge is power: There are post-graduation debt relief options available. Legislation passed in the last couple of years has been promising; Income-Based Repayment (IBR) reduces monthly minimum payments required based on current income and the College Cost Reduction Act (CCRA) allows for loan forgiveness for federal student loans after 10 years for those in qualifying public interest positions (especially relevant for NUSL students and grads). Be careful, because only certain types of loans qualify for the program, so do your research before you sign anything. Go to equaljusticeworks.org and ibrinfo.org to find out more. (Sign up for the Equal Justice Works email alerts, too; they're helpful and they only email you about once every month or two.) Once you've picked a school, get to know your Financial Aid staff. At NUSL, we have a great woman named Mary who answers all kinds of questions. I stop in to see her once every couple of months for a financial aid "check up" or sorts, make sure I've filled out any relevant forms and that my account is current. Stay proactive and you'll be fine.

- Budget! Make a budget and stick to it. I'm serious. I didn't do this my first year and that was a big mistake. Before law school, several people told me an old adage: "If you live like a lawyer when you're a law student, you'll have to live like a law student when you're a lawyer." Minimize your debt by borrowing the least amount possible and monitoring your living expenses. You can't control how much law school tuition will be, but you can control your other expenses to some degree.

- Be realistic. You will get to have some fun. Budget for a movie and a drink with friends from time to time. You still get to be human sometimes.

- Keep breathing. Don't panic. If you really want this, you can find a way to make it work. It will be worth it.

And no, I'm still not over the Vikings' loss. My heart needs time to heal. It might also need a new quarterback.

I'm sorry I've been delinquent in my blog postings. The holidays came and went in a blur and suddenly we were back in class. And then the co-op selection chaos started. I had several interviews in a week, but it was worth it. I'm going to be co-oping at the DA's office here in Boston, and I'm really excited about it. My last co-op was policy-based (and interesting), but I wanted to work with people on the next co-op, jump into cases and get my hands dirty this time. This co-op will allow me to that. I'll most likely handle some of my own cases because I will be certified as a student practitioner in Massachusetts. (Every state has their own rules on this; check the rules in different states as you're deciding on law schools if student practice opportunites are really important to you.) Not gonna lie, it's a little frightening to think about actually handling criminal cases, but I'm more excited than nervous.

I'm not so excited about Tuesday's election results. That's all I'm going to say about that.

The other major competition I care about this week is on Sunday night. Never in my life did I think that I would be cheering for a team with Brett Favre on it and against New Orleans, I city I love. But this is where I find myself this week. Go Vikings!!!

One of the other things I love about co-op is the fact that we all pick up unique and in-depth knowledge and skills, and then bring them back to school. It never fails that someone in your group for some class will be able to answer offer a suggestion based on something they learned on co-op. It makes a difference when you take the general concepts you learn in classes and then have to use them out in the real world with real people impacted by the outcome.

Also, I passed the MPRE! Ironic, seeing as I'm just starting the Professional Responsibility course, but oh well. I'm taking 5 classes this quarter and working a part-time job, so any class that I have a head start on is great.

In other news, I'm aware that my Vikes stumbled a little last week. It's ok, everyone has to show their humanity sometimes.

This first week of classes was so long! I'm so tired and feeling a little overwhelmed with being back in class. Then again, I may just be feeding off the massive amounts of stress in the building right now with all the 1Ls about to take their first semester finals. I really should not be this tired at this point, but I'm exhausted already. Hopefully this will change next week. Until then, there's espresso.

Classes start again on Monday, making this the first time I won't be in finals right before Christmas. I've decided that I need to diversify my academic record, so I'm not taking any courses related to public health law this quarter. I'm going to try to focus on litigation, another legal interest of mine. To that end, I've signed up for advanced legal research, federal courts, negotiation, and trial practice. NUSL has this mildly frustrating waitlist system for some of the more popular classes, so I've got my fingers crossed for a couple courses.

In other news, my Vikings are 9-1. Yes, we had to hire the enemy to do it, but we're winning, so I'm a happy camper.

So the never-ending parade of standardized tests continued for me this weekend with the MPRE. The Multi-state Professional Responsibility Exam is the ethics portion of the bar exam that you take while still a law student. You don't have to score very high to pass, so it's likely the least stressful exam we have in law school. The best part was that it was administered by some very well meaning but slow elderly women who repeated the directions in triplicate. It reminded me of those standardized tests we took when we were in elementary school where filling out your name and filling in all the lettered bubbles below each letter took you an hour. Now we're adults. They still gave us an hour.

I'm not sure how I feel about my MPRE performance, which I'm told means I probably did well. It's strange because during the review lecture, we were told that most people are naturally more ethical than the Rules of Professional Conduct require. The lecturer actually said, "When answering questions, ask yourself what Jesus would do. Then take one step back from that and you've got your answer." Now I just have to wait five weeks to see if I'm sufficiently ethical, but not too ethical. It starts to mess with your head a little if you think too much about it.

We're registering for winter classes already? Not cool. I wanted to pretend like I'll never have to go back to class again for another week or two. Oh, well. The good news is that unlike the problems I mentioned in my previous entry, registering for classes is actually really smooth with the new online registration system. I registered for Federal Courts and a trial practice course, among others. It'll be nice to just go to law school again; no MPH classes, no thesis, just straight up law school.

I've spent all evening baking pumpkin chocolate chip cookies for a potluck lunch at co-op tomorrow. Should be a good time, provided I can get these bits of pumpkin I just discovered out of my hair by then.

Anyone who has read any of my blog postings knows that I'm a big fan of the JD/MPH program in many respects, but there is one thing about it that I really dislike. While it's one program, it's administratively two separate schools. Getting a law school and a medical school to work as one has been, well, a challenge. (Insert your own "doctors and lawyers not getting along" joke here.) Getting the different departments within NUSL to recognize the unique aspects of the JD/MPH program has been nearly impossible. I've had to clarify which co-op rotation I'm on three times now with the Co-op Office and Career Services is sending me frightening emails about not having a job yet because they still think I'm graduating in May. Don't worry, Career Services. When the time comes, I'm sure I'll be freaking out enough for the both of us.

I'm still a fan of the program, but I'm saying that you have to be proactive about making sure all of your paperwork and dates are correct between the two schools. Oh, and the federal government. Nothing worse than them trying to collect from you when you still have a year of grad school left.

Ugh. A year of grad school left? Really?

If you buy yourself a new ipod touch to celebrate finishing your Master's thesis, do not become so absorbed with it that you miss your train stop. Just a thought.

I'm still enjoying co-op. I feel human for the first time in a long time. Co-op gives you perspective that you can't get anywhere else. Just the other day, I was thinking, "I could actually see myself doing this type of work long-term." Now I just hope that someone could see themselves paying me to do this type of work long-term.

On a totally unrelated note, it's colder in Boston tonight than at home in Minneapolis. There's something a little wrong with that. No, actually, there's something a lot wrong with that.

I turned in my thesis paper! For the first time in 13 months, I have no homework, no reading, nothing when I get home!!! (Except for the MPRE. grrr.) It's amazing to go to work, make a little progress on my interesting projects, then leave it all there and not have to think about it until I go back the next day. I'm rediscovering these things called "friends" that I haven't seen in a while and becoming one with my maxed-out DVR.

Co-op is going well. I'm the only full-time intern, so I'm really treated as a regular employee. I have my own assignments, and work on some projects with attorneys or other interns. My main project is getting ready to leave the research and planning stage and enter the "so what are we going to about it?" phase. I'm actually enjoying health policy work than I thought I would. Not to say that there aren't days where I miss working in a courtroom and seeing actual clients and cases every day as in my last co-op, but this is a great experience thus far. I am getting to help with a little fact investigation on the litigation side of the office, which is a nice change of pace every once in a while. Tomorrow we're attending a legislative hearing, which should be interesting. Field trips are always fun, except for the "wearing a suit" part. But it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make.