Enrollment

Finally got my enrollment letter.  They will enroll us and pick our professors for the first year this summer.  Looks like classes will start at 08:00 and last until late afternoon about every day.

Nothing like 15 hours of doctoral level classes to start your day.

A Little More Progress

Finally got my student number.  Used it  to setup my online accounts at my school. Then, while looking around found out that I had a  hold on  because  I  did not have a MMR (mumps, measles, and rubella) vaccination on record.  Since I had been out so long, I did not have the records.

So off to the campus clinic to get my MMR shot.  In and out in 5 minutes and hold released. 

This may be something good to know for returning students.

Orientation starts August 15th with classes starting on August 22nd.

Resignation

The hardest step of law school is behind me.  It is scary to give up a regular paycheck.

Unfortunately they are going to make me work it out.  So 3 more weeks of that paycheck is coming.

My Personal Statement

Reading this statement now, it seems unorganized, but it is what it is:

Dear Committee Members:

I feel that my 20 years of professional experience working for fortune 500 companies in a variety of roles, both technical and managerial,  and my degrees in Computer Science and Business Administration (concentration Information Systems) provide a strong basis for a career in law.  Part of this experience has included various legal experiences.  I have been involved in such things as requirements for document retention and depositions.

My many years of experience and practice in the martial arts have also helped to prepare me for the rigors of law school.  The martial arts schools I am involved with train the mind and body to withstand various mental and physical rigors beyond the usual.  They go beyond training in the martial arts to also train their members in self-reliance.  Part of this training is the discipline to ignore mental and physical “modifiers” to get the job done and achieve annual goals.  Modifiers are such things such as hunger, mental fatigue, physical fatigue, and emotional duress.

In addition to my interest in martial arts, other interests I have outside of my professional life are reading, music (piano and banjo), and woodworking.  I also volunteer my time with the Boy Scouts of America as a committee member, merit badge counselor, and camping trip chaperone.   From time to time I use my skills in wood working to help out organizations such as the Foster Children’s system.

I help my mother run a xxxx acre ranch.  During the spring and fall, I spend as much time as possible there doing annual maintenance chores such as fertilizing and spraying.  During the remainder of the year I spend time in the day to day operations.  We are in the midst of reorganization so that the land will not have to go through another probate (This is the 3^rd probate since 1976).  I have learned much about legally durable entities that we can use for this purpose.

On February 12, 2010 the phone rang at 06:30 in the morning.  It was my mother telling me that the paramedics were taking my father to the hospital.  He had suffered a major heart attack.  I got in the car as quickly as I could for the three hour drive, but before I could get to the hospital, mom called to tell me that dad had just been declared dead.  I was now the eldest male of the family.  The next weeks and months were a blur with all that had to be handled.  If not for mental modifiers that I went through in my martial arts training, I do not think I could have gotten through it as readily as I did.

One day in November 2010 I woke up one morning with chest pain.  Thinking nothing of it since I had stabbing chest pains since I was a child, I headed for work.  By the time I got to work, the pain was radiating down my arm and my fingers were tingling.  Fortunately nothing major was wrong and I had not really suffered a heart attack.  But, 3 scary days in the hospital makes you think about things that you do not usually want to reflect upon.  What did the future hold?  Am I doing what I want to do?  Do I have freedom to move almost anywhere and make a living?  Could I move back to the ranch and work nearby?

I spent the month of November deciding what to do.  I had a xxxx acre ranch and widowed mother on top of my wife and 2 children to think of now.  All this had to be done without any more guidance from my father.   I wanted a future with flexibility on where I could work.  I wanted a future in an exciting and dynamic career with unbounded limits of future learning.

Then it struck me.  I had always had an interest in law and legal matters.  I should go to law school.  A degree in law would fulfill my future career needs and fill a desire I have had since I was a young man, that of a Doctoral degree.  But what is the process?  How does on apply?  What, if any, entrance exams are required?

Using my background in information processing, I began an analysis of what law school was about. What was the process of getting in? What requirements would I need to fulfill?  What type of classes would I be taking?  Interestingly enough a trip through the local law school web site and use of Google quickly told me that LSAC was an organization that I needed to use to get in.  Via the LSAC web site, I quickly found out everything I needed to know and began the application process.

This brings me to where I am now, in the midst of the application process.  It has been quite a “ride”, coming to this point.  The applications, the LSAT, the writing, all part of it, are just the beginning.

If you have any further questions, please contact me by telephone at (479)426-8072 or by e-mail at garyc.dewtt@gmail.com.

Thank you for your time and interest. I look forward to hearing from you.

Getting In

Getting into law school is an adventure in itself.  As somebody that has been out of college for more than a few years, I didn't have the help of an advisor.

My best advice for folks is to use Google to search for law school admission.  Doing this I found LSAC, which is the organization that you use to apply to schools.

Through LSAC you apply to schools, apply to take the LSAT (the admissions test), request transcripts, send letters of recommendation, etc.

Speaking of the LSAT, don't do this test cold.  You won't do your best.  Its not a test of general knowledge, but a test of reading comprehension and logical thought.  You really need to take a preparation course for it.  I moved my score up 13 points (which is a HUGE difference in LSAT scoring).  This made the difference between going to a very low ranked school to my choice of tier 2 schools.  I was accepted at all of the schools that I applied to in spite of an undergraduate GPA that was not stellar.

The LSAT can be just the beginning of the application process, because now you need to apply, get letters of recommendation written and write a personal statement.  The personal statement should be just that, a personal statement.  I am not a good author of things like that, but muddled my way through.  The admissions committees seem to want something that is personal, not a pre-written template.  At least my personal statement was good enough.