A T14 Mistake? My 200k Gamble
Posted: Fri May 28, 2010 7:43 pm
I never thought I'd be caught up in chase for prestige. I went to a god damn community college for christ’s sake (and it will likely show its ugly face in my terrible prose, if you bother to keep reading)! What business did I have thinking I could even compete with the best and the brightest the nation has to offer? Fuck you Berkeley and your "holistic" method of evaluating transfer qualifications. Was it really necessary to show me that merely being reasonably thoughtful (not even smart) was enough to get by at a good college at the undergraduate level? Fuck you TLS for introducing me to the concept of so-called elite Top 14. I could have lived a comfortable life...
Nevertheless, I was content to take my mediocre LSAT score and mediocre GPA and go to BU with 90k. The 18-story building wasn't much to write home about, but it had a great view and the professors were the best I've seen. On top of that, I could get by with a job I liked - my dream in high school was to be a great public defender or district attorney, always in court making arguments to a Jury of 12 - and get home at a reasonable enough time to enjoy the decent money I'd make after a few years. All of this in the city of Boston, the cradle of liberty! The Sons of Liberty were founded there, how much more could a kid want?
That all changed when I got off the waitlist for a school at tail end of the T14. Eight spots. Was I really going to trade in my spot at a school I had become particularly fond of, a future I had planned out for the next five years (at least!), for 200k worth of debt and 50/50 chance at either bankruptcy or slaving away for the man (remember, I went to Berkeley) and not having a family until my late 30s. It was my sorting hat moment, only Harry had the choice between two awesome extremes – Slitherin or Gryffindor. My choices were much more nuanced (read: boring) and with a much greater potential downside considering my life isn’t a work of fiction. I made my decision, it was irrational, and now I have to live with it.
I know these Gtown kids are smart and I know I’ll finish in the middle/bottom of my class. But kids who get into T14 schools (barely, and choose those schools over perfectly good options elsewhere) deserve no pity, no sympathy, and certainly no admiration from those who are content with living a comfortable life without being over schooled.
While I have no idea how the course of events will turn out in my life, I imagine it will be a lot like Ellie Woods. Only, I’m a guy, I’m not blond, and things probably won’t be as hunky-dory in the end when my professors and classmates find out there is nothing deeper behind the pseudo-intellectual silence I’ll exhibit in class.
So I guess this blog is a form of Judeo-Christian masochism. Cathartic to me and hopefully entertaining to those who are willing to read my journey through law school as a 1L.
Nevertheless, I was content to take my mediocre LSAT score and mediocre GPA and go to BU with 90k. The 18-story building wasn't much to write home about, but it had a great view and the professors were the best I've seen. On top of that, I could get by with a job I liked - my dream in high school was to be a great public defender or district attorney, always in court making arguments to a Jury of 12 - and get home at a reasonable enough time to enjoy the decent money I'd make after a few years. All of this in the city of Boston, the cradle of liberty! The Sons of Liberty were founded there, how much more could a kid want?
That all changed when I got off the waitlist for a school at tail end of the T14. Eight spots. Was I really going to trade in my spot at a school I had become particularly fond of, a future I had planned out for the next five years (at least!), for 200k worth of debt and 50/50 chance at either bankruptcy or slaving away for the man (remember, I went to Berkeley) and not having a family until my late 30s. It was my sorting hat moment, only Harry had the choice between two awesome extremes – Slitherin or Gryffindor. My choices were much more nuanced (read: boring) and with a much greater potential downside considering my life isn’t a work of fiction. I made my decision, it was irrational, and now I have to live with it.
I know these Gtown kids are smart and I know I’ll finish in the middle/bottom of my class. But kids who get into T14 schools (barely, and choose those schools over perfectly good options elsewhere) deserve no pity, no sympathy, and certainly no admiration from those who are content with living a comfortable life without being over schooled.
While I have no idea how the course of events will turn out in my life, I imagine it will be a lot like Ellie Woods. Only, I’m a guy, I’m not blond, and things probably won’t be as hunky-dory in the end when my professors and classmates find out there is nothing deeper behind the pseudo-intellectual silence I’ll exhibit in class.
So I guess this blog is a form of Judeo-Christian masochism. Cathartic to me and hopefully entertaining to those who are willing to read my journey through law school as a 1L.