Yesterday my mother and I took the bus down to Boston so I could attend the LSAC forum.  The contrast of these two activities (bus v. forum) provided some interesting stimuli.  The constants of the day?  That I’m old.  And that I really, really want to go to law school.

On the bus ride down we picked seats across from “college girls who came to Portland to visit boys for the weekend and were going back to Boston hungover and complaining about it the whole way”.  This was a lovely opportunity for me to tune into the Greatest Hits of Stevie Nicks on my iPhone and get some practice test questions done (see, old). I did a great job on the logic games considering that I was multitasking (cursing the girls’ chatter and marveling at the fact that someone in New England does in fact wear skinny jeans and that they come to Maine to get laid because that just seems backwards).

We got to the hotel just in time to miss the Forum 101 introduction and I joined the registration line.  The line of extremely good looking 22-year-olds wearing their first suits.  Many with the temporary X pleat stitch still intact.  I wore a sweater and dress pants.  Close enough.  I had some wonderful conversations with school reps, got a lot of pamphlets, and realized a lot of prospectives had come with printed lists of questions for each school.  The reps were surprised I’d been out of school for four years.  Perhaps they expected that with that sort of life experience under my belt I wouldn’t be naive enough not to wear a suit or that I would have been able to stop drooling over all the well dressed boys.

I attended a session on the application process, which was extremely helpful.  Well, except for the fact that there were two gunners.  In the application sessions.  The moderators couldn’t call on them for questions fast enough.  I just watched this ping-pong game with awe and some satisfaction that there’s no way I’ll end up at the same top 5 schools the gunners will.  I did have some moments of self doubt.  But, at the very least, I was not the girl who stood up in front of fifty strangers and asked the Directors of Admissions for Duke and Wake Forest “how forthcoming she needed to be on the misdemeanor section” of her applications.

Exhausted and loaded with admissions brochures, business cards, and IP course lists I met my mother in the lobby and we went to lunch, where I ordered two dirty martinis and negotiated my way into extra blue cheese stuffed olives.

For the past three days my inbox has been flooded with requests from law schools begging me to pay attention to them.  Begging me to put them on my list (I should probably make a list).  Begging me to come visit them at LSAC FORUM 2008 [insert various booth number here]!!!!

That’s right.  It’s Boston Forum time and there are a copious amount of random law schools that I’ve never heard of just dreaming about having me stop by their booth, get a brochure, and perhaps have a five minute conversation with an admissions representative who will not remember a damn thing about me as soon as I walk away from the table.

Obviously I have some hesitations and nerves surrounding this day trip. 

I love that this seems to be the only Forum taking place on a weekday on the entire list.  I actually considered flying to Chicago for their Forum since it was A)taking place on a Saturday and B)in Chicago.  But no, Boston’s the easiest and cheapest one though I’m taking a vacation day to attend.  The Monday choice also seems to indicate that most prospective students do not have jobs.  I could be generalizing here, but hey, that’s what I do.

So, I am already annoyed at LSAC and the throngs of other potential students that I’ve decided are much younger than I am and brilliant and have help paying for school and that I might elbow if they’re walking too slowly because if there’s one thing I know it’s how to navigate a trade show floor quickly and efficiently and without having my ass grabbed (see Miami Boat Show 2007). 

But I guess I am thankful that so many schools are directing me to their booths and probably cutting down the number of stops I have to make before I can go to Cheesecake Factory and start drinking.  I’ve had about ten emails today from schools that I’ve put an X on the map for (in the I’m not stopping there way).  There seems to be a common theme for these schools and I’ve devised a set of parameters for my time at the Forum:

1. School must not be in Tennessee
2. School must not be in Mississippi (do not want to have to sing song in head to spell state)
3. School must not have touted how GREEN they are in their emails (seriously, 7 have)

I’m pretty sure Gmail will be alerting me to new booth related emails for the next five days so this list will grow.  I’ll be spending some time this weekend (in between logic games and subsequent bottles of self-pity wine) working out my day at the Forum.  I’ll also be figuring out if I should capitalize Forum or if I’m only doing it because it makes me think “Penthouse” and that makes me giggle.