Other posts related to part-time

A Legal Endgame

Lincoln Adams | April 8, 2007 @ 6:44 pm

Alright, this has gone on long enough.

My decision on whether to attend law school or not has taken me on a road almost as long as law school itself. It all began in October of 2005, and it may finally, FINALLY come to an end on Friday the 13th, which is the deadline for the deposit I would need to make to secure my place in the part time evening class of the law school I applied to near my job. Interesting enough, this would mark the 18th month of this pre-law school to the DAY. Hmmmmm….

I’ve been asking for signs, for answers, for guidance, for ANYTHING to indicate whether this was the way to go. I got in return: nothing. But nothing might eventually become something this week. Because I couldn’t get the school to accommodate my night time working hours, I was ready to write off the legal profession once and for all and finally move on with my life. But then something happened at my job. Our night work got eliminated, leaving the possibility that I might actually get transferred to a day shift after all. There’s no telling whether this might happen or not, especially given the idiots that run the place here, but it’s certainly possible. I looked into the possibility of switching my acceptance to the school from part time days to part time evenings, and much to my surprise they were happy to accommodate me in this respect.

The issue now though is my night pay. I earn roughly $400 more a month just for working in the evenings. If it came to me having to voluntarily switch to a day tour (instead of being forced to switch) so I could attend school at night, then I wanted to do so without losing that money. One of my other co-workers at least was still getting night pay even though his hours had been switched, so I knew it was possible. I’ll have a meeting with my union rep this Tuesday to discuss the issue. My union rep also knew of a scholarship I might be qualified for, so we’ll be discussing that as well.

It also hadn’t escaped my notice that for the first time in the almost 7 years I’ve worked here, a new change would be instituted that could eliminate more than 50 percent of our workload. That this was scheduled to happen the same month that I would start law school was very peculiar. It meant the amount of work would soon be light enough that I could spend ample time studying on the job. It was yet another concern that had been squared away.

Finally, Uptown Girl is a lawyer herself. It raised new possibilities for a future relationship that could happen between us, but in what way I didn’t really know. Still, it was another peculiar coincidence. But whether all these strings of coincidences point to something or not remains to be seen. I guess what will seal it for me is being able to secure my night pay even if I start working a day shift. If that happens, it will be a minor miracle that would allow all the pieces to finally fallen into place, and the law school dream formerly left for dead comes alive once again.

If I know my luck though, nothing might actually be decided this week. If I don’t get a definitive answer from my union rep about the night pay until after the deadline, I would still be able to make a deposit, but I would not be guaranteed a seat unless someone else withdraws their enrollment. In this case I would just have to cross my fingers and hope for the best. Of course, if I can get night pay AND be able to secure myself a seat in school even after the deadline had already passed, than I bloody well owe it to myself to give this thing a real shot.

If God is merciful though, than this week will finally be the one to provide me some solid answers.

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As Roy Orbison would say:

Lincoln Adams | February 12, 2007 @ 3:14 pm

After going back and forth with the local law school that accepted me into their part time program, I finally made a decision.

I will not attend law school.

I knew if it was meant to be, the pieces would fall into place. Instead, my school absolutely refused to give me any leeway in granting me a schedule that wouldn’t conflict with my working hours. After conferring with my admissions counselor, the director of admissions, the assistant dean, and finally the dean himself, they flatly stated I must adhere to THEIR schedule, and I would be unable to change it should I be assigned to classes that fall within my working hours. For $25,000 a year and a debt load that will surpass more than a $100,000, this is how they’re going to treat me?

Up yours, law school.

Let’s get one thing straight: I don’t play by your rules. If I should ever attend law school sometime in this life, it will be under MY terms. The bottomline is, you’re all full of crap. You perpetuate a system that robs people of their financial freedom, commit academic fraud by doing virtually nothing to prepare your students for the real world of lawyering, and encourage the use of a grading curve that promotes back stabbing competition, as well as the false notion that students are doing well in classes when in fact they are HORRIBLE students, and are only surviving school because of their inflated grades.

Simply put: You SUCK.

I wanted to be a lawyer for charitable reasons, but I finally had to come clean and concede that I don’t really love the law enough to survive the perils of law school, and especially the legal profession itself. It does interest me at times, but it’s certainly nothing I’m passionate about. I don’t like the idea of writing dry memos and briefs all day long, and certainly not as a junior associate slave for some two bit law firm. Reading legal material is absurdly boring as well, mostly because it’s hard to digest the pompous and sometimes godawful writings of judges and attorneys who had probably failed third grade English during their adolescent years.

I also realized my debt load would severely limit my options and would make me a slave to my loans unless I somehow struck it rich with a case or won the lottery. By not attending law school, I will be completely debt free in the space of a year, and at that point I will be beholden to no one. I can probably do more good as a non-lawyer who is debt free then as a practicing attorney who is over $100,000 in debt.

However, life can be a funny old dog sometimes. While I have decided not to attend law school now, it doesn’t mean the door won’t suddenly open up later on in life. There’s a saying in Scripture where God promises His people that they would be “the head, and not the tail.” I know the time will be right for me when I can attend law school as a head beholden to no one, rather than a tail who would be at the mercy of a corrupt and perverse legal establishment.

Though I’m a bit disappointed, I do feel like a heavy burden has been lifted from my shoulders. Now I can focus on getting myself healthy again, exploring interests and hobbies that I could truly be passionate about, and of course last but not least: finding the girl of my dreams. :grin:

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Part Time School, Full Time Idiots

Lincoln Adams | January 22, 2007 @ 11:55 pm

The law school I was accepted into part time is already starting to get on my flippin’ nerves. I emailed an admissions counselor to see if I could request that my class schedule be set up so it doesn’t interfere with my work schedule, since I work a late afternoon shift.

“In your first year, your classes are selected for you. You cannot choose a set class schedule. Our office of Academic records generates these schedules, and doesn’t do so until the summer.”

I wrote back indicating that it would be impossible for me to attend classes if I got a class schedule that conflicted with my working hours. Since the whole point of a part time day program was to accommodate people with nontraditional working schedules, I asked for some leniency or that we be able to work something out to both mine and the school’s satisfaction. My emails are now being ignored.

Beautiful. :rant:

I talked to one of my blogging buddies about it, and she let me know that her school allows part timers to choose what time they want to take mandatory classes, so I know what my school is doing is a crock of moose poo poo. If I don’t get an answer by tomorrow, I’ll either write to the director of admissions, or stop in person and give them mean looks. That failing, I’ll write to the dean of of the school, and failing THAT, I’ll wash my hands of law school.

Honestly, this really frosts my chocolate chip cookies. I’ve been in the workforce 7 years, and when a job pays me, then it’s expected that I would have to revolve around their schedule. But when I pay a school $26,000 a year PART TIME, then I bloody well expect to be accommodated as much as possible, dammit. :wife:

But I’m not overly upset about it. I’ll let the chips fall where they may, and if it’s meant to be, I’ll be starting my first classes in August. Right now I’m more concerned about getting my health and body in order. :wideeyed:

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A fork in the road

Lincoln Adams | January 20, 2007 @ 9:00 am

I was recently accepted into a part time program at a nearby law school. :cheer:

But I’m not THAT thrilled about it. :nocheer:

One of the reasons why is because I still haven’t made up my mind about law school. Regardless, this presents a far better opportunity than I had before. I won’t have to quit my job or move to another state, I’ll have the luxury of giving it a try for one semester, and if things don’t work out, or I decide it was a mistake, I can withdraw without suffering severe losses.

But man do I hate this school. It just oozes liberalism from every core, and there’s no doubt the professors will be leftist retreads who will probably spend half the time lecturing us on how Bush stole the election in 2000, ad the other half lecturing us on how Bush is the sole reason for global warming. My patience with libtards has reached its limit, so I doubt I’d be able to thrive in such an environment unless I can somehow zone out from my commie surroundings and go to a happy place in my head (which usually involves rolling around in the hay with Jessica Alba).

For virtually that reason alone, I had opted to attend a more conservative school in another state so I could myself in a community where people were at least close to the same wavelengths I was on. And let’s not forget the babes. :shades: A college atmosphere that draws a more conservative crowd would provide the kind of dating mill that I was desperately searching for. If I stay here, the girls may still be hot, but they’ll also most likely be vicious, man hating freaks with a favorite pasttime of conducting public castrations. Finding a pure and gentle cuddly soul amongst a lot like that might prove to be a bigger undertaking than building a space shuttle using nothing more than plastic straws and toothpicks.

Then there’s the matter of the cost. Even part time, tuition is still expected to cost me roughly 25 grand a year. Right now I’m currently on pace to pay off all my debts (from car payments to my old college loan) in another year or so. The thought of being completely debt free in a relatively short period of time is an extremely enticing one for me, but it would be something I would have to forgo pretty much for the rest of life should I decide to attend law school. The cost benefit analysis here tells me this crap just isn’t worth it.

But then there’s the matter of whether I was born to eventually enter this profession. I haven’t read anything remotely legally related in a while, and over time my interest in the law has waned. Whether that’s an indication that being an attorney just isn’t for me, I dunno, but it’s not an encouraging sign. I SHOULD have a notable amount of passion for pursuing this endeavor, but I just don’t. But then again, I don’t seem to have a passion for much of anything these days, except kicking back on my easy chair and watching syndicated reruns of Scrubs.

The good thing is that I still have 3 months before making a final decision. And even if I should decide against attending law school, things might easily change given enough time, and maybe I’ll make another run at it after a few years have gone by (or when I inherit a 10 million dollar trust fund). :grin:

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Part Time Scheming

Lincoln Adams | November 6, 2006 @ 11:39 am

So the other day the thought occurred to me, “Why not apply to the local law school here part-time?”

The idea made perfect sense. For one, I wouldn’t have to uproot myself and move to another state, and more importantly, I wouldn’t have to give up my job either. I’d also have a chance to try it for a semester to see if it’s something I can really do, instead of investing thousands upon thousands of dollars only to end up realizing it isn’t for me. Plus, the school is literally just down the road from where I work and they also allow you to attend part time during the day, meaning I wouldn’t have to change my hours either (since I work in the evenings rather than during normal working hours.)

Even though it’s an ultra-liberal school, nobody says I have to STAY there. If things work out and I ace the first semester, I can tell them to sod off and then transfer to my school of choice. It really would be a good way for me to test the waters, because if I can ace the first semester at a secular, whacked out leftist school while working a full time job on top of it, then I’ll know I’m on to something here.

But, there’s still the matter of getting accepted first. They have an early decision process where I could apply and bind myself to attending only that school if they accept me. I believe I’m given priority consideration if I take this route, so it’s very tempting. Early Decision (ED) requires me not to apply to another other school under the same early decision process, and to withdraw my application to any school once and if I’m accepted to this one.

Slight problem though…

I’ve already been admitted (though deferred) at another law school in Virginia, the one I’ve been planning to attend last year. Since my admission has been deferred, then technically, I haven’t really applied to any schools this year. But… if I am accepted at the local school, then I’d have to withdraw my admission to the one in Virginia. Maybe. Or maybe… I could just play stupid… :nerd:

I don’t want to have to commit to attending the local school just yet, but I do want the advantage of being an ED applicant. Could I pull a fast one here? I can’t see how they’d be able to find out. There’s no record of me having applied to any other schools this year, and there won’t be. :grin:

But, Providence seems to have stepped in, as I couldn’t get the ED form to come up on my online application to save my own life. It simply refused to merge with the main application. Very curious. So I finally gave up and applied under the regular process. Ah well… whatever will be, will be.

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