Law School Decision

Deciding where to go to law school may have been one of the hardest decisions that I have had to make. When I was choosing for undergrad the answer was so clear to me; I was meant to be at Saint Mary's. It truly felt like home and I would not be the same person that I am today if I had gone anywhere else. But, with law school it felt like I needed to think about so much more than just how I felt there. I had to consider finances, location, areas of specialty, and then at the very end I would take into account how the campus felt to me, or at least that is how I was always told to approach this decision.

Well, plans are all fine and dandy, but as they say, plans are meant to be broken. In the end, I got into 3 different law schools: DePaul, IU McKinney, and Loyola Chicago ( I still haven't heard from University of Chicago so maybe it will be 4, who knows). The first thing I was told to consider was the location of the school. They tell you that you should go to school in the state where you think you will practice law in the future. I don't know about you, but that was a lot of pressure for me. I don't even know what I'm going to want for dinner tomorrow, let alone where I want to live 3 years from now. So, I decided to limit myself to the midwest, specifically Chicago and Indianapolis, because I had family and friends there and I don't like to be lonely. Luckily, I got into schools in both locations so now I had choices.

The next big consideration I had was areas of law that the schools specialized in. Personally, I want to go into health law so I was only looking at schools that had programs in this area. But, it is also important that the school as a whole is well-ranked. At least it was for me. Because, you may change your mind on the area of law that you want to practice and you don't want to have backed yourself into a corner and now you're stuck doing health law when all you really want to do is patent law (do those people really exist?). So, I had to make sure that the schools had my desired program as well as a good overall academic standing.

The factor I thought would play the biggest role in my decision was finances. I have some debt after undergrad and the idea of taking on even more was a little scary, I'm not gonna lie. Luckily, I got scholarship offers from all the schools that I applied to. IU even offered me a full ride, which is relatively unheard of from law schools. Pro-tip: it is more than ok, and usually expected to ask for more money from schools you have been accepted to. Especially if you have also been accepted to one of their competitors i.e. a school of about the same size, in the same area, and ranked relatively equally. So, if you do get an offer somewhere, do not be afraid to ask them for more money. The worst that they say is no, so it's a no lose situation. Being in debt for the rest of my life was something that I was scared of. I did not want to feel limited because of the constraints of debt, and having a full ride offer was enticing. I knew I needed to do some serious thinking before making a decision.

So, now I have been accepted to 3 schools that are all great, and I have gotten money from them all. The next step in my process was to go and visit them. Remember what I said before about making sure a school feels right and is a good fit for you? This is where you implement this. You are going to be spending a majority of your next 3 years at this place, you need to be happy there. If you are not happy you will not perform as well and that could impact job prospects in the future. Also, self-care is super important and is something that a lot of people forget about, so make sure you love where you are going.

All of these things I needed to consider really stressed me out. You can ask my friends and family, but I had more than a few breakdowns. I was so worried that my decision was going to disappoint the people I loved. But, I realized that in the end it wouldn't matter if I disappointed anyone (which I have been assured that I haven't) as long as I didn't disappoint myself. So, I sat and I thought and when I made my decision one of my best friends, Kate, said to me "duh. I could have told you that was your decision weeks ago. You just figured it out?" I suppose after 3 years of me saying that to her I deserved this. But, I had to come to the decision on my own. I could not let anyone else choose for me. It was time to be an adult. #adulting #finally

Going into this whole situation, I thought that finances would and should play the biggest role in my decision making process. But, in the end this was not the case. And, that was really hard. It was hard because all I ever hear are horror stories about people being in debt for the rest of their lives and I was worried that would be me. I turned down the opportunity of getting out of law school debt free because I fell in love with Loyola. I loved the campus, I loved the people I met, they were high ranked both overall as a law school and the health law field, and I wanted to be in Chicago. When it came down to it, I thought that I would regret making a decision based solely on money more than I would regret the debt I would have later. Life is too short to make choices purely based off of finances. Sure, it definitely plays a role, but if you are in a position to handle the debt and taking that on means being your happiest self, then by all means, take on some debt. It won't be easy, but in the end it will make all the difference for you. Luckily, I have the most supportive group of family and friends who love me no matter what choices I make. While they worry about me, their biggest concern is my happiness and they love me unconditionally.

I am so excited to be starting law school at Loyola next year! I will be in Chicago, a city that I love, surrounded by friends and family that I haven't had the opportunity to see much recently. I am so blessed to have had the opportunity to choose between so many great law schools, and I am blessed to have found a place that feels as much like home as Saint Mary's does. I cannot wait to see where the next 3 years take me, but if it is anything like the last 4, I will be a better version of myself than I am today.

#school #law #adult #lawschool #choice