Obviously, this isn’t something you can do immediately, but I suggest moving now. I know that there are leases, and jobs, and packing, and goodbyes. It’s likely a full month and a half to two months before your law school starts up. But I would move sooner rather than later.
<
p style=”clear: both”>Learn the Terrain Maybe you’re a fresh-faced college grad moving to the big city to start law school. Maybe after five years of working in the big city, you’re heading back to school in small college town. Doesn’t matter, it pays to learn the area before law school starts.
What are the good and cheap restaurants? Who can deliver food on command? What bars water down the drinks just enough that you can go out on Friday and get up and study relatively early on Saturday? What coffee shop has lots of outlets but doesn’t mind you sitting there with the same cup of coffee for four hours?
As important as those questions are, something a little bigger is at stake. Very few who went away to college regret the experience. Not because the college away from home was more intellectually stimulating than the one near home, but because they were on their own immersing themselves in a culture that was different enough to be exciting, but similar enough to feel safe.
You can do the same thing if you’re moving away to law school. I stayed in the same place as undergrad for law school; I moved back home for a month and a half, not even as long as moving back for the summer. But even still, seeing the same college town from the lens of a college graduate and postgraduate student was exciting. Don’t miss out on that opportunity in law school.
<
p style=”clear: both”>Knowledge is Power All law schools will have people with inside knowledge of the locale. For college towns, it will be graduates of the undergrad institution. For larger cities, it will be people who grew up and/or worked in the city for a while. They know the cool bars that the undergrads don’t frequent, they know the little place with the fresh produce, and they know the local coffee shop that is not as corporate as Starbucks but also not a commune with an espresso maker.
If you can become one of those people, or at least start down that path, it’s a great way to build a group of friends that isn’t obsessed with law school. You’ll attract people who want to live there, and who don’t just see the city or town where the law school is as some unnecessary hassle to be navigated between stints of studying at the library.
As someone who stayed in their undergrad college town for law school, I had great respect for the people who enjoyed it, as opposed to the people who suffered through it because the law school was there. If you start to learn the local scene, you’ll find that there’s people who wish everyone would stop bitching about what’s missing or what there’s too much of. No place is perfect and the sooner you come to terms with that, the more you’ll enjoy the little quirks of the city you’ll be living in for three years.
So move early if you can. If you can afford to quit your job, pay for two leases for a month or so, pack up and move soon, I would consider getting to where law school is going to be and start enjoying it. Because if you believe the hype about law school, at the very least you might not get the chance to enjoy that place for a year or so.
{ 2 trackbacks }
{ 0 comments… add one now }