IU and the Weekend

Before I get to that, everyone might notice that I received Stanford’s rejection this weekend. That’s not surprising or disappointing, really, as I didn’t really expect that I’d get in. It was a long shot, but at least now I know, right? Right.


At any rate, I visited Indiana this past weekend for their “Spring Law Day” with about 100 other people. I’m not sure quite how to cover this, as I think an hour-by-hour accounting of it would bore most of you — hell, it would probably bore ME.

So Friday night I rolled into town at around 5:30. It was an 8 hour drive, but it went really quickly. That night I got to hang out with one of my fellow Interns from the past two summers. She was in charge of a cultural festival for the Muslim Student Association, which was neat — they had all sorts of Middle Eastern food, almost all of it was very tasty. After that we went for ice cream, which was good, and then off to a movie. The Ladykillers was alright… though I think it would be every bit as good on DVD as in the theater. There are lots of better movies out, though, so watch one of those instead. After the movie I headed to bed.

Satuday was the preview day. On the agenda was “coffee and pastries” where a bunch of apprehensive looking law school prospies ate breakfast and milled around while being engaged in conversation by current law school students. That was a good idea, because otherwise 2/3 of the folks would’ve just stood around staring at each other. Also during that time I found out that the Dean of the law school is an Auburn alum. That’s ok. When she told me so, I responded (as is required) with “Roll Tide” and she did not respond with that ugly, nasty W-phrase so I guess I win.

The intro and welcome as was expected. They went around and let us all (yes ALL) introduce ourselves. Some of the people were funny. Most weren’t. A few were funny looking. Most weren’t.

We had a mock law class before lunch which functioned only a bit like a real law class (as they’ve been described to me by current students) but we were to read an article they had sent on the issue of Justice Scalia recusing himself from the sierra club case. The most entertaining thing to watch in that was a guy who let his hatred of Bush blind him to the fact that he was debating with a professor of law. He kept getting shot down, and kept going back. The prof, at one point, said to the guy “So, reasonable people go around inventing evidence? Is that what you’re trying to say?” It was great.

During and after lunch we had a few panel discussions. One with students, one with alumni. Pretty basic stuff. The most entertaining part of those two was the fact that one of the alums was currently working at Bose, McKinney, & Evans… which most of you will remember as BoseLaw, Kiwanis’ attorneys. No, I didn’t make a scene, thank you very much. Later on we had tours of the campus and law library.

No need to go on at any greater length about this, but I will say that I was impressed by IU. If the law school is not, in fact, a friendly, warm, accepting, and familial type of place, they did a DAMN FINE job of making it look like it was. Even as a &#091cheerful&#093 cynic, I bought it. It really does seem like a good place to go to school, and I won’t be disappointed in the least if that’s where I end up. That’s a good thing. One side effect of that is that Alabama has been all but eliminated from the list.

So the current status is that three schools have been eliminated as prospective places to study next year. Two on account of rejections, one on account of not making the grade. That leaves UCLA and Georgetown to make my final decision. Georgetown claims that we’ll receive decisions by April 15. UCLA makes no such claim. This is important because IU wants a decision by April 19th.

IU’s deadline is worrisome, too, because they don’t require a deposit. Virtually every other law school does. IU takes you at your word, so I think I’d have a very difficult time changing my mind on Indiana in late May when UCLA finally makes a decision… I’m going to see if I can buy myself a little more time with IU, but I’m not 100% positive that’s an option. The other issue is that I still believe that the longer UCLA and G-town hold my application, the better my odds are. It’ll be interesting to see how it plays out. I’m very tempted just to make my decision on April 19th with or without UCLA’s decision… but that’d be a little silly, I think. We’ll see.


After the thing on Saturday I made the short drive over to Dayton to visit Kim and her housemates Mandy, Marina, and Christie… it was a good time (as usual). We hit a couple of bars, came back ordered pizza and watched The Princess Bride. Sunday afternoon I drove back to Tuscaloosa, stopping in Birmingham for dinner with a NEWLY ENGAGED Abby, so congrats to Abby and Matthew…

Definitely a full weekend, and I was definitely exhausted last night when I got home. Also, thanks to this weekends guest posters.