The Many Moving Decisions of Miss Twenty-Something Law Student

Okay, so moving cross-country (or partially cross-country, as the case may be) isn't a new thing to me. But this will be the first time I've undertaken a move like this without a dorm room (and the included amenities and furniture) waiting for me on the other side. And that just makes this whole process a little bit more difficult.

During college I acquired quite a bit of "stuff" and I had to get rid of 75% of it when I moved back to California, so everything that I ended up keeping was really special or useful to me. And in the last two years that I've been out of college, I've managed to accumulate even MORE stuff. Now that the time has come for me to be a big girl and get my own (unfurnished) apartment, I have to decide what "stuff" comes with me and what stuff stays. 

Let me give you a clue: I want it ALL.

Needless to say, there aren't very many scenarios in which I can keep or even use all of my stuff. And how much I ultimately decide to part with will determine how I move to Dallas in 50 days. Here are the options that I've explored.

1. Moving Truck - I could rent a moving truck from a company like U-haul or Penske. These trucks run about $850 to pick up in my hometown and drop off 6 days later in Dallas, and have a mileage limit of 1750 miles. Now, it's only 1300ish miles to Dallas, so I'm thinking that I would be fine as far as mileage goes, but if I rent a truck I still have to pay for gas and hotels, etc. These trucks get about 12 mpg on the freeway, so at $4/gallon that's an extra $440 in gas at least, not to mention food and lodging. I'm thinking that this option, in total, will cost me about $1600 when all is said and done, plus will take 4 days (1 to load, 2 to drive, 1 to unload).
   
2. U-Haul Trailer - I could rent a small trailer to hitch behind our car/truck. To pick one up in my hometown and drop it off in Dallas 6 days later would cost about $150. Now, the added expense here would come from the mileage and money put into our personal vehicle. Since I'm not planning on taking my car to Dallas, we would probably use one of my parent's cars. We have a hybrid and a small truck, and odds are we would end up taking the small truck (it's older and an extra car, anyway, so no one cares about the added mileage...plus it's tiny and gets good gas mileage). The bad thing about this option would be that someone (probably my dad) would have to drive the truck to and from Dallas, and one of these trips he would be by himself. :/ Total I think that this option would end up costing about $650.
   
3. ABF U-Pack Pods - This option is the least amount of stress. The pod is delivered to my house, I pack it, they pick it up and 4 days later it's dropped off in front of my apartment in Dallas. The contents are insured, so that's another worry off of my mind. It is pricey though, and we're looking at about $900 for the door-to-door service. In addition to that price, I would have to get a plane ticket to Dallas for myself, which is an additional $200, so our total out the door would be around $1100. STILL, it does make it exponentially easier and less stressful on me, which makes it more valuable.
   
4. Two Suitcase Limit - In this option my dad and I fly out to Dallas, and whatever I can pack with me in two suitcases (technically three, since my dad wouldn't need two) is what I end up starting with in Dallas. Of course, this means that the big things -- my bed, my amazing bookshelf, my books, and my mementos and knick-knacks -- couldn't come with me. I would have to sell everything possible before leaving and use the proceeds from that to set myself up with some Craig's List and IKEA furniture before school starts. I might ship myself a box or two of books before moving, but other than that...no comforts of home. While this option is the cheapest (only the price of a plane ticket), it's the least amount of "stuff," and it would probably cost me more in the long run to replace my stuff than it would just to move my stuff.
   
5. Road Trip - In this option we load the little truck down with as much stuff as it can hold, strap the mattress with a tarp over it on top, and take a road trip to Dallas. This option would fit an amount of stuff somewhere between options #4 and #2, which is doable without being outrageously expensive to supplement once I'm in Dallas. This option would probably cost about $500 in gas, food, and lodging.

So, those are the options I'm weighing right now. I think ultimately it will probably come down to my dad, who is the one who's going to be doing the lifting and taking the time off to move me in. It's kind of an overwhelming amount of information to process, isn't it?

You can make it into law school, but can you pass the bar?

So, the 2010 Bar Exam results for the state of California are pretty interesting.

You can see a break down by school, which is the best way to judge similar schools in the same state.

Personally, I find it a little disheartening. I also think that the only reason that the overall pass rate is so high is ONLY because Stanford has a 98% pass rate. And when you look at the TTT and TTTT schools and the number of people who have to retake after graduating (and the percent of retakes that pass!) it's pretty scary.

I work at my local Bar Association (after being laid off during a round of budget cuts at a mid-law firm here in town...the legal field is DEFINITELY not safe from the economy, people!) and so I get to meet a lot of attorneys and support staff from all over the city, in all sorts of jobs and practice areas. If you're interested in getting some good advice about law school and the bar exam, start attending events through your local bar association, or with the local Young Lawyers sections...it's pretty great, and often free for students.

Recently I had a lot of contact with someone identifying themselves as a law clerk at a well-known firm in town. Being that it's the middle of the school year, and that there aren't any law schools here in my fair hometown, I was a little curious about him, and so at a recent event where I met this person I thought I might pick his brain a little.

He went to a T4 law school in California a few years after his undergrad, after working at a law firm for a year or two as a legal assistant (sounds familiar). He figured he wouldn't have any problem getting a job, so the fact that he didn't have a good GPA or a great LSAT didn't bother him, so he went to law school anyway.

Honestly, with his connections (the legal market where I live is pretty insulated, and if you work for a few years at a firm and make a good impression it doesn't really matter where you go, you're in like Flynn), he probably could have gotten a decent(ish) job post-grad.

If he had been able to pass the bar.

I felt sorry for him when he told me he's taken the exam 5 times since graduating six years ago, and hasn't ever been able to pass. And then I realized that it's probably a pretty common story. I mean, it's obviously common enough that Grey's Anatomy worked it into their story line. I remember that there was an episode about a girl who had taken the bar 4 times and failed each time, and then when it came time to take it for the fifth time had some sort of breakdown and couldn't subject herself to failing yet again, so rather than just give up she pretty much mutilated her hands in order to have a legit reason to skip out of the test.

Can we say cray-cray?

Ultimately, you have to go somewhere that not only teaches you the law, but will also prepare you to pass the bar. You can take as many bar prep classes as you want, but if you don't have a solid foundation upon which to build, you'll never be able to make it through the two-day endurance test/hell that is the bar exam.

I know that this is a MAJOR case of crossing a bridge before you come to it, or counting your eggs before they hatch, or whatever, but it's definitely something to think about when choosing a law school.