DEAD's Blog - schedules Forum

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OK. I guess I will begin by telling you a little about myself. I am 31 years old I have been married for almost 13 years and I have two kids 12 and 10. I am the 4th of 5 children and I grew up in a loud Greek family (and all that that implies). I have lived on the South Shore of Long Island for most of my life and I love it here. I LOVE NY. I love the food, arts, people, BEACH and I particularly like that we are a blue state.

I was in my first semester of college when I found out I was pregnant (oops) and my gpa reflects that. According to my undergraduate university I have a 3.4 but LSAC keeps telling people that I have a 2.9.

I didn't realize that people spend as much time as they do studying for the LSAT. I thought I was overdoing it when I studied for 3 months. I managed to get my score from a 155 to a 161. I struggled with the RC section (ESL) and did extremely well on the LR and game sections.

I am at the end of my cycle and am very close to declaring my school. I am in scholarship negotiations with St. John's University and I will likely enroll there. Another school that is a possibility is NYLS. I got warm and fuzzy feelings from them. I have <strike>two </strike> three schools that I am waiting to hear back from: BLS, Cardozo, and Harvard. Before you say anything, my brother paid for the application and insisted.

I have a dog named spot; he is a dalmation. I am including a picture of him that I played with on GIMP (free software that works like photoshop).


I know it looks evil.

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Alrightly then. For the past few weeks I have been obsessing over my future loans and repayment. After spending some time on the phone with T.H.E --LinkRemoved-- I have decided that they will be my lender. They are a not for profit lender and every representative I have spoken with has been informative and pleasant. They also have highly competitive programs that are aimed at lowering your loan.

I currently have about $30k in undergraduate debt and after working and reworking my finances I will have to max out my stafford loans and take an additional $5k grad plus every year (ouch)

Subsidized yearly limit = $8,500
Government pays the interest while you are in school.

Unsubsidized yearly limit = $12,000
You are responsible for the interest while you are in school.

Currently the interest rates on these loans are 6.8% and they are capitalized only after you have finished school and your 6 month grace period has expired (Make sure you understand your lenders capitalization schedule before you commit. It could cost you dearly)

I have the option of paying my loans back in 10, 20 or 25 years. You can only get a repayment term of 25 years if you have more than 30k in debt after you seperate from school.

There are no penalties for paying off your loan early so I have decided to take the max amount of years and just pay as much as I can. The other good thing about THE is that they offer great incentives. I will receive a 1.3% discount on my APR when I start to repay my debt which will bring my interest rate down to 5.5%

I will write more later but I hope that all of you are checking out the different lenders and seeing which one works best for you. I endorse T.H.E.

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My 2006 car got hit again, for the third time.... in ten months. Twice it was a hit and run (while parked) and once a driver backing out of their driveway into my car. Good times, good times. I have never owned a new car but I got a really great deal and it was more feasible than buying a new one. O well.

I am a very frugal person (no, not cheap). I have always had to be frugal because my husband and I started our family very young on our own, on LI, and on a blue collar salary. So I was thinking of all the TLS'rs out there who haven't learned the lesson of frugality and saving. If you are a person who cant hold onto a dollar and always seems to be broke- even though you make a lot of money- it's time to start learning how to tighten your belt. Before you get yourself in real trouble.

Top ten ways to save some money:

1. DON"T eat out. Eating out is expensive and bad for you too. Whether you are single or married with kids, you should be making your own meals. They don't even have to be gourmet, just edible. Start slow by cooking macorani and cheese and then add a meal every now and again. You will be used to it before you know it.

2. Don't buy on Credit, use CASH. When you buy on credit you are doing two things. First you are putting yourself in more debt and second you are not feeling the pain of handing over $$$.

3. When you go out shopping, think two or three times whether the item is necessary. If you are not 100% sure, then put it down and come back for it another day (if you even remember it).

4. Stop helping everybody else out. I don't mean don't help anybody, I mean don't help everybody. You know who you are. You are the one who "treats" when somebody is broke. This is not a bad idea sometimes, but you do it all the time.

5. Don't fall pray to fashion. You don't need to get everything that goes into fashion. Buy some quality "classics" and watch them last.

6. Modify your lifestyle. Do you really need to go to every movie, concert and club? Cant you choose just a few of these items?

7. Be a planner. If your'e not planning your purchases, vacations, student loans in advance than you are probably throwing your money away. There are often coupons, incentives, sales and tricks that can save you a lot of money and pitfalls that can cost you dearly.

8. Choose your own adventure. Don't be a follower when it comes to making money decisions, do what is right by you. Just because all your friends are buying a house doesn't mean you have to. Maybe your friends need a car but you don't.

9. Find fun things to do that will add to your life and not take away from your wallet. Start sketching, writing, walking, singing, swimming...

10. Turn off the TV, it's good at making you want to eat, shop, and drink. Remember they pay a lot of money to people to train you into THEIR lifestyle. All these schools that are teaching us law are teaching them marketing. Do you really want to bark on command?

Money = power over your time, being able to help the people you love, being a generous community member......

If you haven't started good money habits yet, now is the time. Not tomorrow.

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Although my ultimate career goal is to become a lawyer, I realize I have spent the past 3 years concentrating on getting into law school. Now that I have been accepted to some programs and decided on my school, I feel an immense release of stress and uncertainty; I also feel an overwhelming urge to update existing and create new goals.

I have heard that people who write out their goals are generally more successful at achieving them so I will be spending the next few months organizing myself.

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Just got waitlisted at Brooklyn. Getting into Brooklyn Law School is a personal challenge for me; it was my ideal school when I first started researching law school three years ago. I am happy that I did not get rejected but this just means I will have to "dazzle them" (quote from the movie Parenthood starring Steve Martin).

Lately I have been working on crossing off pre-LS to-do items. I am in the middle of a big one; we are doing some serious remodeling to our home. The extra space will allow for a peaceful place to study. Then I will take care of purging and reorganizing documents. I hope everybody can afford atleast 6 weeks before LS to get themselves together because starting with a clear head is a plus.

Back to work. I am in charge of clean up Smile.

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My husband is still working on the remodel and I have been doing all the gardening. I lost 3 pounds from the heavy duty yard clean-up, yip yah.

I have been having weird dreams lately about LS, they get scarier and scarier every time. In each dream I am not prepared, each time I didn't have my schedule, pens or paper. The dreams seem to be getting more vivid as the start date approaches. The realization that there are only a handfull of weekends left must really be affecting me. Having children had a similar feeling; knowing that labor is going to suck but not knowing how bad. When I wake up, I wonder why I am letting LS bother me so much.

"Make sure you go to the dentist right before LS" am I really going to be that busy? Is it going to be as bad as others make it out to be? I just don't know. I guess I am stuck being the piggy who built the house out of titanium and hope that helps me sleep?

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My LS's price tag left me sticker shocked. So, in a spur of the moment, I decided to go back to waiting tables. My last few jobs have been stuffy office jobs so it was rough going back (I mean on my body)...ouch. I'm not making enough money to put a dent on my soon-to-be loan; I wont even be able to keep the job for very long (yes I told them), but somehow it makes me feel better to have it. So I might as well keep it.

I withdrew from all but 3 schools. This is what my cycle currently looks like

Accepted
Hofstra 20k Withdrew
Touro 20k Withdrew
Pace 9.5k Withdrew
CUNY Withdrew
NYLS 30k Withdrew
St. John's 15k <<<closer and closer to becoming my alma mater

Waitlisted
Brooklyn

Denied
Fordham
Cardozo

Crickets
Harvard

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3 months!!!!!

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I had another nightmare last night. The same freaken one; It's the first day of school and I don't have my schedule, pen or paper; I am utterly unprepared; I had no idea school had even started; The good news is I remember the section number I was given in my dream, B3-a.

I cant believe we only have another 2 months until school. Today I bought pens and highlighters.

Harvard denied me admission.

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Random update: I have 10 pounds to lose to reach my LS goal. Will I do it? Can I do it? Only time will tell. I will have to cut my caloric intake considerably, which will make me cranky. This is the sprint to the finish line. Lord help me.

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I guess I am really going to LS. How many of you have your schedules already?