Britt, 1L

During the summer before law school, everyone told me to see my family and friends as much as possible because once law school started, I wouldn’t be able to see them very often. I worried a lot about how my relationship with my girlfriend would be affected and how I could maintain a close connection to my family in New Jersey when my work load was going to be so demanding. However, I’ve found that I really enjoy my new schedule and don’t often feel stressed out by it. Despite the rumors, I have plenty of quality time with those I care about and even a bit of down time for myself. I actually feel like I have more time now that I’m managing it well than I had during college, which often left with me with lots of actual time on my hands.

Two things I prioritized when school began were eating well and getting enough sleep each night. My girlfriend is also juggling a hectic schedule as a nursing student in her final semester, so sleeping well is something we both value. Balancing my relationship with her is obviously important and we both find that cooking dinner together each night gives us quality time together and a satisfying healthy meal. Some of our recent favorites are chicken pot pie and butternut bisque! I can’t describe how awesome fall comfort food is after a busy day.

Prospective students might wonder how I do it or what my schedule looks like. 1L classes are generally at the same time for everyone. My first class is at 10:30 until 11:50 with a break until 1:45, and my second class goes until 3:15. Although I wish I spent my lunch hour more productively, I often use it to socialize with my classmates or attend club meetings. On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday I tutor a 13 year old until about 5:15 and get home around 5:30. On Thursday, I have my law office meeting (I’ll write more about this soon) and get home a bit later. My girlfriend and I make dinner for about an hour, eat for a little while and by 7:30 or 8, I’ve started doing my reading for the next day. I do about an hour of reading for each class every night and spend a bit more time reviewing my notes from the prior day or outlining/briefing cases in preparation. I usually close my books and hop right into bed (after brushing my teeth of course!). Sometimes I’ll curl up with a TV show, but often I just pass out. Weekends are when I do the bulk of my extra work. Any written assignments, research, group work, etc… I try to keep my weekend evenings free and work through the later mornings and afternoons instead.

So, while law school is busy, it may not be AS BUSY as the rumors that are out there if you manage your time well. I have cut out TV almost entirely, which has freed up a ton of my time. Watching TV is an easy way to lose track of time and eat up a few hours without noticing while it’s happening. It was a hard habit to break, but when weighed against the other things, I knew I had more important things I wanted to do. I still see my family, and my girlfriend and I are spend lots of quality time together. We still go out to dinner, have gone to two out of state weddings, and are enjoying the last bits of warm weather. I feel well rested and well fed every day and have kept my stress to a minimum. Maybe the real trick is to not spend time being stressed about stress. I’ve seen this happen as time has progressed at school to other people and it just seems like a bad spiral to get caught up in. My advice is to make a plan, stick to it and try to remember what’s important; there’s always work you could be doing. Eating, sleeping and having some fun are just as important as studying.

I'm really excited to finally be blogging. As a prospective student, I read the NUSL blogs quite a bit and found them to have some really helpful insight about the school and what life in law school is REALLY like, so I hope to provide some of that as well. If anyone reading ever has any questions about anything law school related, please feel free to ask and I’ll get back to you in a future entry. If I don't know the answer myself, I will pass it along until an answer has been found!

A bit about myself. I’m originally from Oakland, NJ, a small suburban town just outside of New York City. I moved to Boston in 2005 to attend Simmons College and then to Jamaica Plain in 2008, as I finished up my last year of undergrad. I was a double major in Philosophy and Women’s Studies there and loved every minute of it. I knew during my junior year of college that I wanted to attend law school right after college.

The things I was certain I wanted in my law school; a smaller student/faculty ratio, a decent number of female faculty, near equal numbers of male and female students, a strong representation of students of color, and available financial aid. As a student who is the first generation in my family to attend college, I knew I wouldn’t be able to attend law school without some help. It was important that my law school had an understanding of this, could help me wade through the financial process and that I would find other students from a similar background. I thought it would be nice to have some active LGBT students on campus, but I had not really figured out a way to determine this. Even with that information, I still felt mostly clueless.

When I decided to apply to law school, Northeastern was an easy choice because of the great reputation of the coop program. It was also so close to an area I already loved and was familiar with. Once I was accepted, I attended an open house that really closed the deal for me. Something about the school just felt right and I knew it would be a good match for what I was looking for.

The other quality that made me chose Northeastern was that I felt they had thoroughly read my application and accepted me on more than just numbers alone. I was impressed to learn that students read applications and have a say in who their future classmates will be. Now that I’m here, I really enjoy collaborating with a diverse group of people who were really consciously chosen. And with the time I’ve spent at NUSL, it really helps to like the people I’m learning and hanging out with.