Beginning at the beginning

I have wanted to create this blog for a long time - ever since I began researching which law schools to apply to, and discovered just how precious little information is available for part-time students. I put it off until I actually got accepted somewhere. I didn't want to jinx myself by calling myself a law student prematurely. But, now that I have been accepted at two schools and know that I will be going to a law school in the fall, I can officially call myself a law student!

I have spent almost my entire collegiate career working a full-time day job while going to school at night. This is how I received my Associates, Bachelors, and half of a Masters degree. Like many people, the conditions of my life are such that I have to work to support myself, so I have to find ways to attend school at night. I have learned a great deal about myself and the world because of this. For starters, in my next life I plan to be independently wealthy.

I finally applied to law school in December of 2006. I don't mean finally as in "everyone else has already done it, so I have finally joined in." No, I mean finally as in it has been something I have wanted to do since I was an undergrad, but there was never a good time to commit. The most important criteria for me were schools with good reputation that offered part-time evening courses. Surprisingly (to me, anyway), there wasn't too much of a choice in the NYC area. Luckily, I live in New Jersey, so was able to include Rutgers Law and Seton Hall to my list. If I still lived in New York, there would have been only two options - New York Law School or Fordham Law. (full disclosure - I applied to both).

So, as I chart these sparsely documented waters, I plan to blog about what types of opportunities are available to part-time evening students, since the same opportunities that full-time day students don't always apply to us (for example - we can't clerk for a judge or intern at a big firm after our 1L summers - so how do we compete with those who can?).

• Can we realistically join law review?
  
• What about student organizations?
  
• Will we be eligible to interview on campus on evenings or weekends?
  
• Will the reading load be manageable?

I plan to tackle these issues (if I have the time!!), so that anyone thinking about going to school part-time will know exactly what they're in for - straight from someone in the trenches.