Looking Ahead

On Thursday, I got my first two law school acceptances from NYU and Duke! Due to the 10-day Priority Track cycle Duke put my application into, I had been expecting a reply sometime around Thursday, but I was surprised by a call from NYU letting me know I was in. So much excitement, especially over the completely unexpected response from NYU! I still have quite a few schools to hear back from, but NYU was among my top choice law school and at this point, Columbia (at par with NYU) and possibly Berkeley (West Coast…) are the only other schools I’d consider picking instead.

So needless to say, this is a major change in outlook for me. Looking back over the last few months, it’s quite interesting to watch how my view of the future and future plans shifted. After my first disappointing LSAT experience, I wasn’t even sure if law school was going to happen this coming year, and I started fretting about what I might do in the gap year. The trouble was, nothing particularly appealed to me, and I found myself (very) half-heartedly researching options to teach abroad, attending career fairs, and scoping around for other possible options. I probably spent quite a bit of fall quarter in an unpleasant cloud of worry and uncertainty. After I got my score from the December LSAT, I could more reasonably expect to be in law school for the next year, but I wasn’t expecting how amazing it feels to have a good option (or two) for next year established :) 

When I visited the campus over the summer, I remember walking through the law building feeling that I couldn’t imagine being done with this large, daunting prospect of taking the LSAT and getting into a law school. Now that I’m on the other side looking back, it feels so good to be done! I’ve been blown away by all the support, genuine well-wishes and congratulations I’ve gotten in the last few days, and over the past year. From my professors who’ve shown their support through letters of recommendations and encouragement, to my family, to all of my friends who have motivated me both through being there as willing listeners and through being inspiring, driven, intelligent people in their own right, I couldn’t have asked for a better group of people. I’ve still got to figure out scholarships, financial aid, living arrangements and, of course, law school itself, but right now, I’m enjoying taking a justified deep breath, and relaxing.