Amy, 3L

I'll admit it, I get bored easily. For me, one of the best things about NUSL is that your daily life changes every few months, and September has been nothing but change. I began my second year about a month ago at Tufts School of Medicine as part of the dual JD/Master of Public Health program. Second year really is night and day from being a 1L, which has been great. Also great: knowing I'll finish both degrees in 3.5 years instead of 5.

Going from Civ Pro and Contracts to Epidemiology and Environmental Health has been a little difficult, but it really is a nice change of pace. Unlike law school, there are usually concrete answers in a scientific setting; you definitely know when you've found the right answer. On the other hand, that means when you're wrong, you're wrong. A brilliant argument isn't going to help you when your numbers don't add up. (Also unlike NUSL, they give actual letter grades here. I had forgotten what being graded on a curve feels like.)

I was worried that being at Tufts for 2 semesters would cause me to lose touch with my NUSL friends and the law school world in general, but so far, that's not the case. I'm at the law school 2-3 times a week, studying in the brand-new building or taking advantage of the free printing. I've also been able to continue being a part of the Black Law Students Association and volunteering with the Admissions Office.

This blogging thing is also completely new to me, so stay tuned!

What's better than a fancy cocktail party/dinner at the federal courthouse with some of the biggest names in the Boston legal community? Not paying a cent for it. NUSL gave out 50 free tickets for students to attend the Anniversary Celebration on Saturday night. Despite thinking it might be kind of stuffy, I actually had a really good time. There were older and newer alums, as well as quite a few big, important people. I sat one table away from the Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. It was a good chance to flex our networking muscles, too. I ended up talking to an alum I had met before, a partner at one of the big Boston firms. We got to talking about the health law division at his firm, which is of course somewhere I would love to end up someday with my dual JD/MPH degree. Gotta pay those loans back somehow!

It was great to hear some of the reasons these people think NUSL is so unique. I think we sometimes get tired of explaining or defending our law school and the way it does things (no letter grades, co-op, etc). I wouldn't have it any other way, but it was nice to spend the evening with people who already "get" NUSL's public interest vision. (By the way, I heard that NUSL was just named the top public interest-focused law school in the country!)

At the end of the night, getting all dressed up was totally worth it. I mean, come on, have you ever had crab w/ chardonnay sauce?

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday! I was struck this week by how much Boston has become home over the past year and a half. I really feel like I'm part of a community here, both through NUSL and Tufts, but also through other friends and people I've met in my new neighborhood. If anyone is worried that Boston seems too big to make a home in, I'd encourage you to come visit and challenge that notion.

One drawback to the JD/MPH program: my law school friends just finished their finals, while I'm just gearing up for mine. I don't have any actual exams, though, so maybe I still get the last laugh. OK, back to my Health Communications project...

I'm finally back to reading cases for a health law class. It's been about six months since I've read legal decisions, and I really missed it. I know that makes me a dork, but... oh, well. This semester is shaping up to be much more rigorous than the fall: four courses, an internship, starting my Master's thesis, and a part-time job to pay (some of) the bills. Life as a graduate student may be stressful at times, but it's never boring, I promise you that.

I have to say that I'm less than impressed with the administration over at Tufts. The MPH students are treated a little like second-class citizens. It's not enough to make me regret doing the MPH, but something worth noting. Yet another reason I'll be glad to be back at NUSL.

This weekend, I spent some time with some law school friends that I haven't seen in a while. We had a great time catching up and discussing our current classes, etc. I'm pursuing health law, while another is co-oping in the drug court and one is interning for a federal judge. We're all on very different paths, which I think is indicative of NUSL in general. There are many different interests among students, and I enjoy learning from others whose goals are different from mine.

On an entirely different note, biostatistics may not be as bad as it seems... but now that I've said that, I'm screwed.

As soon as we started our MPH program, we found ourselves using the term "cohort." A lot. Usually used to refer to a research group, we've been using it to refer to ourselves. As the JD/MPH "cohort," we've gotten very close. It's been great to have a group of 12 women (yes, we're all women this year) who are so brilliant, hard-working, and supportive. Whether it's studying together or complaining together about how we miss law school sometimes, I love experiencing Tufts with them. It's like the normal NUSL "help each other out" attitude taken to another level. This semester is particularly numbers-heavy, so we're going to need each other more than ever.

When people ask how I chose where to go to law school, it's inevitably followed by some comment about the "smallest price tag" or "whoever coughs up the most scholarship money, right?" Wrong. I'll be honest: NUSL was not the cheapest school I got into, and they didn't throw loads of money at me (or anyone else, for that matter). I chose NUSL for three things: the co-op experience, the JD/MPH dual-degree program, and the focus on social interest law. I've never regretted my choice. All three of those factors have delivered for me thus far. My legal education and law school experience in general have been enriched by these unique NUSL qualities. I'm done gushing like a Hallmark card now, I promise.

Back to reality: money does make the world go round, and having more of it makes some things easier, true, but please do not make your law school decision based solely on price. You will be disappointed in the long run. I know that my NUSL and Tufts degrees will get me where I want to go if I put in the work and that's all that really matters. Yes, I'm going to be in debt up to my eyeballs when I finish, but who isn't? No matter where you go to law school, most people will need loans and be in substantial debt when they graduate. (If you happen to be independently wealthy, good for you, you can stop reading now.) The truth is that I was poor when I started law school, I'm poor now, and I'll be even more poor when I finish. And I'm not alone. So what? We will all eventually get jobs and pay back our loans (someday). If I'm going to be paying it back for 20 years, I want to make darn sure I get the most out of my law school experience and NUSL is the place where I can do that. Let someone else go to the cheap law school that's not a good fit for their career aspirations. Sure, they have less debt, but I'm going to have a job I love getting up for every day. That's worth a lot of ramen noodle nights to me.

Just when things were starting to settle into a routine again, they get shaken up! Not that I'm complaining, it's just the way things go at Northeastern. A full course load, the Master's project, and a 20-hour per week job don't leave a lot of extra time, but it's doable. I even managed to spend time with friends this weekend.

In all that free time, now I have to find time to go through the co-op interview process. (I got three so far!) It's a very fast process. When you get an interview request, you only get 24 hours to call and schedule the interview. If you get a co-op offer, then you have 3 days to accept or decline the job. Yes, there's a time crunch, but I'm all for making this anxious "will I, won't I get the call" period as short as possible. I'm presented with a choice between a paid co-op with mildly interesting work and unpaid ones that sound amazing. Some people find those two things together, it is possible. I'll let you know if I get any offers from these interviews (three of them in three days).

I've also begun spending working at my ALE placement. It's great to be in an office where people passionately love and believe in what they do! (It's also great to get some perspective and real world experience in the middle of an academic quarter!)

Time to go iron my suits and brush up on my interview skills....

I've met a couple incoming 1Ls who've come to visit and one of you even contacted me with a question, which completely made my day! It's really nice to know people find this blogging thing useful. Keep those questions coming and we'll do our best to answer them.

In the meantime, I'm trying to decide whether to continue plowing through my Evidence reading on hearsay rules or find some trashy summer reality television to kill some brain cells.... hmm... tough choice...

Yes, it's only been three months since my last set of finals. I just took my first law school exam in over a year. Luckily, I was pretty prepared and it really wasn't that bad. My brain is now mush, however, and I'm having a little trouble putting together coherent thoughts. Or incoherent thoughts. Or any thoughts whatsoever, actually.

OK, only two papers and a Master's thesis to go. No big deal, right?

(By the way, I highly recommend adopting an "eat whatever you feel like eating whenever you feel like eating it" policy during exam periods. It really does make you feel a little bit better. And on this note, I'm going to meet classmates for mass amounts of pad thai...)

I went to a couple of beginning-of-the-year events with law school friends this week, and I noticed that some people looked at me strangely when I introduced myself. You know, that "don't I know you from somewhere?" look. Turns out lots of people have been reading the blogs! I wasn't on NUSL's campus last year, so this is the first time I'm running into people who are reading my entries. It's a little scary, to be honest. Glad to know people are enjoying our random ramblings.

Walking into my co-op the day after the Obama health care speech made me realize that I'm not the only health care geek out there. My co-workers talked about cheering at the TV too! Some of them had people over and served food and drinks. It's comforting to know that eventually I could earn a paycheck doing what I'm doing now (for free).

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.