Saturday, December 10, 2011

July 2005

Sunday, July 31, 2005

First catalogs


Got back my first catalogs from sending out those postcards. The University of San Diego, and California University of PA. The University of San Diego is overpriced, tuition alone is around $30,670 for 12-16 credits. The federal stafford loans will cover $18,500 but they grant federal work/study to students in the amount of an additional $4,000. Really though, if I want to spend that kind of tuition, I'd better be accepted to the University of Michigan, or some other top 10 ranked school. Sunny beaches just aren't worth that kind of dough.

The University of California in PA is probably an extension campus, at least I think that's how they got the name University of California, when they're actually in Pennsylvania. Anyway, their entire program revolves around training personel for the newly formed Department of Homeland Security. All I saw in the catalog was a Master's degree program they offer, not even an actual J.D.

Dr. Mars hasn't given us back our tests, she said they will be done on tuesday. The gap in posts here is because I've been using my Cassopia to jot down my thoughts. I was thinking I'd just be able to sync it with the PC and copy the writing to posts on the pre-blawg. I can't seem to get the sync function to work properly. There is some kind of communication error that occurs. Probably the port settings are wrong or something. When I get it figured out I'll post the stuff I've been writing on there.

The LSAC website took down parts of their website for updates. Using the USNews.com list of American Law Schools, San Diego is ranked 63, and my first choice, University of New Mexico is ranked 69. I'm not trying to diss on the University of San Diego, but that sticker shock really blew me away. They are harder to get into, they're LSAT standards are 91st percentile average. The evening part-time section is only 79th percentile average LSAT score. Of course, for that extra loot you spend you do get to hang out at the "Pardee" Legal Research Center. (Is it just me or does "Pardee" and "Party" sound an aweful lot alike?)

I guess now's the time to admit that one of my primary concerns about going to Law School is the astronomical costs. If anybody's really read through all this I decided to go to law school mostly because I was looking to move to New Mexico to develop some property that I bought. Then I got to thinking about what there is for a person to do out in the middle of the desert. Naturally I thought grad school. University of New Mexico has law school tuition rates of about $4,408 per semester, or $8,816 per year. That's the rate they advertise for in-state tuition. Students from out-of-state residency can expect to pay $10,697 per semester, or $21,394 per year. After living in New Mexico for one year students can apply for state residency tuition rates. Reasonably then, if I am accepted there, I should be able to complete a J.D. in three years at a cost of around $39,026 (21,394+8,816+8,816). If i were being extrodinarily frugal (which I realistically might be) then I could wait until I meet the residency requirement before attending and then pay only $26,448 (8,816 x 3). Now, when you consider that this is what I'm thinking, a school that advertises it's tuition rates to me at $30,670 per 12-16 credits (which is it anyway 12, or 16, that is a bit of a difference?) seems a bit extrordinary when that prices the J.D. at least $92,010. I'm pretty adament about not paying more than $60,000 for my J.D. The University of Michigan is ranked #7 of all 190 law schools, and I could expect to pay only $32,920 per year for tuition. So why then go to the #63 ranked law school and pay almost every bit as much? I can't figure out why somebody would.

Another attraction to the University of New Mexico is that New Mexico state law allows you to practice law as a 2L. From my understanding the restriction is that you aren't allowed to practice criminal law, probably because convicts could appeal on the grounds that they did not have competent representation. I wonder if they make you take some examination first like a bar exam or something? I guess it's something their 1L students can ponder.

Another point of interest was that the University of San Diego has alot of professors who have their A.B. and J.D. I assume that their A.B. stands for Artium Baccalaureatus. What caught my attention here was that I too have an A.B. degree, but mine stands for Associate of Business (awarded from a business school). Seems like they would have given me an A.B.A. (Associate of Business Administration), or an A.A. (Associate of Arts in Business), or even an A.A.S. (Associate of Applied Science, as I studied computer programming). Probably why they gave me the A.B. was just to cause some small level of confusion as to which degree I really have. That's my theory anyway.

I've been exposed to a real temptation to enroll in a dual-enrollment program. I'm tempted is to enroll in a Master's program for Criminal Justice (one that can lead to a Ph.D) while I earn my J.D. The drawback of course is that I'm sure it's alot easiere to complete the M.A. and just scrap the entire idea of the Ph.D or the J.D. I'm trying to resist this temptation and overlook the possibility of enrolling in two graduate degree programs at once. I think this has a deeper draw for me because when I transfered the the University of Michigan I was still majoring in computer science. Therefore I'm always going to feel a certain level of self-imposed pressure to finish the B.S.C.S. degree (Bachelor of Science in Computer Science). I'm going to instead reject the siren's song of "it's only 30 more credits" when faced with the decision of enrolling for a Master's degree. I'll just concentrate on the fact that if I had stuck with computer science I would now be considering a M.S. instead of an M.A. (or probably even the J.D.). That will talk me out of it for sure.

I'm sure I'll find contentment somewhere in the future with just the A.B., B.A., J.D. No need to go all overboard with the Ph.D, M.A., B.S., M.S., and all that jazz.

Tuesday, July 26, 2005

Criminal Law test


I just got done with the Dr. Mar's midterm exam. There were 8 questions, and we had to pick four and make a decision based on an appeals case. The four I picked were examples of vicarious liability, acts by omission, murder v. manslaughter, and murder of a fetus. My decision was to uphold the lower courts verdict in all of the cases. I'm not sure if that was the right answer for all four of them, so I might have gotten one wrong.

In the case that I think I might have missed, there was a conviction of first-degree murder. A fictional man kidnapped his estranged wife and put her in the trunk of his car. After some time passes she drinks washer fluid to quench her thirst. She dies as a result. I upheld the conviction on the grounds that it was correctly established on the felony-murder rule. By committing the felony of kidnapping (now watch, kidnapping will only be a misdemeanor) the offender is culpable for any deaths caused as a consequence of his actions.

The act of omission came from the same case in which the above mentioned fictional man murdered his estranged wife. The fictional man's girlfriend was in the car and knew of the situation of the woman in the trunk. I upheld that the girlfriend's failure to act to assist the victim made her liable as an accomplice to murder. She received a fictional 15 year sentence as a result of her conviction of murder in the first degree. I think that maybe really I should have ordered a retrial for her with the charge of second degree murder because as an accomplice she was the Principal of the second degree and therefore not fully as culpable as the perpetrator of the act. If however the jurisdiction where she was convicted of murder in the first degree had a death penalty for that conviction then I would have ruled that she be retried on the lesser offense. Anyway, that's the only one that I think I might have gotten wrong, but I did fully explain my reasoning for upholding the conviction.

vicarious liability-
Some company regulatory statute violation. Didn't know that the employees were violating laws, didn't personally participate in the criminal actions, but still have to pay their fines. Profiting from criminal activity is not allowed, therefore the profits from any such enterprise must be forfeit to the state. [thereby ensuring that none profit from crime but the state]

murder of a fetus-
The trial court ruled that a man could not be convicted when tried under common law for the murder of his unborn child. I upheld their acquital on the ground that true, under common law a man cannot be charged with murder for killing a fetus. However, in the Michigan Penal Code a man could have been convicted of the murder that took place. Likewise under the statutes of the Model Penal Code, or even in California.

murder v. manslaughter-
I upheld the conviction of the trial court for the first-degree murder of his wife. The man killed her motivated by a suspicion that she was having an affair. The man appealed with the idea that he would be able to get manslaughter charges instead of murder because the she provoked the attack. In order for the act of provocation to have taken place the man should have actually caught her having the affair. For a successful defense in this situation the man must have acted in the "heat of passion" when he killed her. The facts stated otherwise in that the man based the murder only on his suspicions of his wife's affair, not the fact, and had plotted the murder out with great deliberation and intent. I ruled that it was murder and not manslaughter and that the jury had justly convicted him.

All in all, I think I did alright, but I see where possible defenses could have been raised on behalf of the defendants in these other cases. Arguments could have been made in exactly the opposite way that I ruled in each of these cases I'm sure. I just picked the ones that looked like I could make the best argument for supporting the trial court's judgment. Pretty fun playing appellate court judge this morning. When we get our tests back I'll post my "opinions"to the pre-blawg.

Sponsor a child


Tommarow morning I have a test in Dr. Mar's Criminal Justice class. I'm going to go to bed so that I can get up and make it to class in the morning. I've been thinking about doing one of those sponsor a child things. I mean really it's like more than a billion people live on less than a dollar a day, and how many of them are children? I should really look into making sure that at least one of them gets their dollar a day. It could like buy their daily bread or something important like that.

Friday, July 22, 2005

Plautus, "The Haunted House"


Alright, so I read the play, it wasn't long, only 73 pages to it, not bad. Then I signed into Blackboard and started my quiz. Apparently I read the wrong play, because the quiz was over Hippolytus by Euripides, and NOT The Haunted House by Plautus. Fortunately most of the quiz was about the history of greco-roman theatre and the various playwrites...and not so much about that one play in particular. This time I got a 38/50 (76%), not as close as I would have liked to that 50/50 (100%) I got on the first test. Still, with an average of 88% it didn't hurt me too badly, and I'll just have to make better note of which play I'm reading which week.

I got paid today, finally caught up on all the bills. Still pretty much broke. I thought it was funny this morning picking up my check because of the girl at the cahier's office. Our student loan disbursements came through for us this week and we could pick up any financial aide overage today. Mine wasn't much this semester but what was funny was that after the girl printed my check I had to go stand at the other window where you can pick up payroll checks and she had to come over to that window to wait on me too. She laughed too bacause it was like she was just giving me one check right after another. She was just kinda like, "are there any more of these in here you want me to give you?". I should have told her "yeah, I'll take the chancellor's".

Yesterday they announced the tuition increase. I think it was 13.8% increase in tuition rates next semester. I think I can understand why they're going up so much so quickly. Last year the state offered the school a deal that went something like this: "If you don't raise tuition, we won't cut your funding." The University capped the tuition rates, and then the state cuts the funding anyways by like another 3%. This year the state came calling with the same deal, and I think the administration just told them to get lost. Originally I guess the deal was the state would fund 50% of the school and that's how the Flint campus was founded. Now the state has been reducing the amount of assistance year by year (now it's down to only around 33% of our funding). They're just like, well, we can't afford to pay for education anymore so we'll just have to underfund all of our schools. Students get to pick up the costs in higher tuition and fewer students will enroll in school. Less people will graduate from college and end up with salaries that won't generate the tax revenues for the state to fund education, and the state will cut educational funding again.

The beginnings of a vicious cycle that doesn't seem to want to stop until all of our public schools are gone. Now don't get me wrong, I'm glad THE STATE subsidizes education. But let's be realistic about it, the state is not adequately funding education. If only a fraction of the spending that was used in the name of "DEFENSE" was diverted education imagine what that could do for our society. What with the best defense being a good offense, we're really just funding massive war campaigns with our defense budget, when we could easily provide education to eveybody that needs it, or even (get this) just wants an education. Let alone feeding the hungery, or housing the homeless. Which could easily be accomplished if we could just bring ourselves to stop buying bullets just long enough to budget for housing development, practical agricultural programs, and education. I guess that's something we can think about while we're clutching our m-16's, hungery, ignorant, and with no idea where we're going...

Thursday, July 21, 2005

advising appointment


I had an appointment with Dr. Price yesterday after the interview. I went over everything with him and he thinks I stand a good chance of getting in at the University of New Mexico. He figures my rate of acceptance at right around 93%, which is quite an improvement from when I calculated it myself. I was looking at roughly even odds, but my gpa has gone up some and I scored one point higher on the LSAT (and their standards might have gone down some since the previous year's figures).

I get to read another play tomarrow. I have Plautus, "The Haunted House". There will be a quiz over it. On the first quiz I took for THE 300 History of Western Theatre I scored a perfect 50/50. Hopefully I can keep all my scores somewhat close to that. For Dr. Koch's class we took our first test last thursday and I got an 83%. Dr. Mars has us scheduled to take a test on tuesday. Summer semester is a little strange. They've doubled up the classes, so that we're in a 3 credit class for 6 hours a week instead of just 3 hours. So, in theory it's like I'm taking 18 credits, but the semester is half as long, so it ends up only being worth 9. Strange, but it's probaby good practice for this fall when I have 17 credits for real.

I changed my fall schedule. I changed Spanish 1 for Spanish 2. In the catalog Spanish 1 can't be taken if you've had 2 years of high school Spanish. I'm wonder how I'll do in the Spanish 2 class.

Senatorial Courtesy. . . how the new Supreme Court Justice should be confirmed or disapproved...all I have to say about that.

Wednesday, July 20, 2005

the 11:00


Had the interview this morning. It went pretty well. That guy Alec that I called is starting law school this fall, he conducted my interview. What they seem to be looking for is somebody to field their phone calls. They have a receptionist, but they want some interns that they can direct the calls to from her. Then the intern will handle the initial pre-consultation interview. I'll need to record their information such as name, address, nature of their call, and as much other detailed information that I can get. They gave me a form that I could just fill out by hand to guide the calls. Then the information will by typed into a Word document and submitted to the attorneys. That way they can decide who they'll call back and what cases they might be interesting in handling without talking to anonymous callers for hours on end.

Next week I'll get a call sometime on Monday, Wednesday, or Friday before 4:00 pm. It will probably be Alec, but could be somebody else (maybe one of the attorneys). They'll just call me and finish the interview with a sample call to see how I handle it. Assuming that I compile the relevant information from the fictional case they will present me with, and get the information back to them in a suitable form, I should be called back for a final interview. Alec said that any call-back interviews from that test call will likely be for an orientation session. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

I got kinda burned in my Criminal Law class this week. Dr. Mars usually assigns a chapter to read in our text and we'll read the chapter and discuss the cases from the reading in the following class lecture. Well, I've been mostly reading the book one chapter at a time so that I'll have read the assigned chapter before the class lecture over the material. This method was working fine until we got to Tuesday's class and I got a look at the next chapter. It's about 70 pages long and spans from like pages 150-220. I'm a ways into it now, but I've still got some reading to do before tomarrow's class. It's amazing how much text they can fit on a single page...

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

Landed an interview


Well, I called Alec about the possible internship opportunity. First his secretary put me on hold, and then a couple minutes later he answered. I told him that I was calling to schedule an interview for the internship. He said they were doing telephone interviews only and that I could email my resume and they would do call backs for personal interviews. I answered his questions which were pretty much: 1) Are you presently a student? 2) Do you have any experience with telephones? 3) Do you have any office experience?

I told him that I am a student at the , majoring in Criminal Justice. I have my Associate of Business from , and I plan to apply to law schools this fall. I really don't have too much "professional" experience with telephones (actually mrs. pre-blawger use to be a telemarketer). I did however work in the University's theatre box office for two semesters. Then I told him that I have taken the LSAT, and I think the experience would be great for my personal statement.

Instead of a call-back he told me to come in for an interview tommarrow at 11:00 a.m. He then gave me the address and the name of the law firm. Apparently it's right accross the street from the University Pavilion in the Citizen's Bank building.

I think it's probably a good sign that he invited me in for the interview right away instead of waiting for a call-back. Anyway, I hope things go well tomarrow and wish me luck...I'll keep the world posted on the outcome.

Possible Internship


I went downtown to the University this morning for my Criminal Law class with Dr. Mars. On my way to class I noticed a new posting on the bulletin boards. It seems there is a law firm seeking a student for clerical work. Their flier reads as follows:

Help Wanted
Law Firm Seeks Student for Clerical Work
Sophomore Standing or Higher
$7.00 per hour Part Time; Internship credit can be arranged
PLEASE CONTACT ALEC AT xxx-xxxx
Office Experience a+
Microsoft Office Skills a+
Good Academic Record a+
Good Phone Skills a MUST
Call Alec at xxx-xxxx to Arrange an Interview Today!

Sounds interesting, and might look good in my personal statement (not to mention my resume has very little "real" experience that's relevant to anything). I'll have to call today and see about the interview. I'll have to call from the school when I go back (have Dr. Koch's Criminology class at 4:15). My cell phone only has like 4 minutes left on it, and Dialpad expired my VOIP minutes, again! I really don't "get" the concept of pre-paid phone services when your minutes expire after a set length of time, it's really just like having a monthly bill (just tri-monthly or whatever).

Monday, July 18, 2005

additional information requests


Today I'm sending out some postcard "request for additional information" forms. I got them off the bulletin board in front of the Political Science department last week. I filled them all out and I'm sending them off today. Here is the list of schools I'm requesting information from:

University of San Diego School of Law
Boston University School of Law
Southern New England School of Law
Western New England College
University of Dayton
Hofstra University
William Mitchell College of Law
Creighton University School of Law
California University of PA
Golden Gate University School of Law
Franklin Pierce Law Center

I'll update the pre-blawg with the information they send me in the coming weeks. I have already received e-mail invitations from the University of Dayton and the University of Denver to come tour their schools. I don't have much confidence in the California University of PA, even before requesting their recruiting information. They remind me too much of those unaccredited schools that call themselves "The University of Yale", or "Harvard Community College"; I mean really, California University of Pennsylvania? Where are they again, California or Pennsylvania? Who knows, maybe they're not even accredited.

Sunday, July 17, 2005

mrs. pre-blawger


Mrs. pre-blawger has just sat down and read the pre-blawg so far (all three posts). She was upset that so far I haven't made any mention of the pre-blawger family. So, here goes; there's of course me, the pre-blawger, mrs. pre-blawger, and 3-year-old toddler pre-blawger, and there's one little pre-blawger on the way. Mrs. pre-blawger generally doesn't read anything that the pre-blawger writes, including the book that he dedicated to her...but, I mention the Pre-BLAWG to a couple of people this weekend (it seems everybody has a blog now-a-days) and mrs. pre-blawger decided to read it to see if I wrote anything about her in it. Well dear, now I have.

Personal Statement draft one


I'm writing to let you know some additional information about myself, as you requested. I suppose this will ultimately be the beginning draft of my personal statement as well. Hopefully this information will help you gain a more personal understanding about me, and why I want to go to the University of New Mexico Law School.

Susan Mitchell, UNM School of Law Director of Admissions, gave an extended presentation of basic information on the admissions process at UNM. The major key points to keep in mind are that the law school receives about 850 applications each year for about 100 openings. UNM admits about 2.5 people per space, based on the idea that not everyone admitted will attend UNM. A decided preference for admission is given to New Mexico residents.

The personal statement is very important. UNM wants to know: who you are, what you have done, why you want to go to law school in general, and why do you want to study in New Mexico in particular.


PERSONAL HISTORY-

Until I was seven years old my family lived on a farm, where my father was a hired hand. We lived in tiny house that was rent-free if you worked on the farm, or $200 a month if you worked somewhere else. In addition to this "free" rent, my father was paid $40 per MONTH, 20 lbs of hamburger, and all the unpastuerized milk we could drink. (You’d be amazed at how much better unpastuerized milk tasted.) The owner of the farm had two sons, Bob Jr. and John Boy. Bob Jr. was the eldest of the two sons. Bob Jr., who was college educated, was "groomed" to be the heir to the family farm business. John Boy, like my father, was a Vietnam veteran. John Boy, being the younger of the two sons, was not going to inherit the family business.

From this beginning, my father then went on to begin a career as a professional truck driver. He has been able to work his way up to a middle class income as a truck driver. Some twenty years since leaving that farm, he is now able to afford to live a comfortable, middle class, working American lifestyle.

Given the example that my father has set for me, I have a strong interest in continuing this trend of upward mobility that he has shown me is possible. The Way for me to accomplish this was to get the very best education I could. I am now very near to completing my second college degree.

WORK EXPERIENCE-

When I first graduated, I attempted unsuccessfully to "enter the workforce". Oh sure, I found work, but it was not even close to what I was expecting, or even jobs that I could have seriously considered as the beginnings of a career. For four years I worked for various companies, usually through some type of "staffing service". These staffing services would place a worker in a factory job where they would work six months and then be relocated to another factory. This way nobody had to give the workers any benefits or raises, as they were employees of the staffing service, and not the company where they worked. When I didn't work for these staffing services, I worked for two years as a Wal-Mart employee. When the 2000 Census came the U.S. Census Bureau needed temporary employees to conduct fieldwork. That's when I found my first job as a government employee.

EDUCATION-

When the temporary assignment with the Census Bureau ended, I set about finding all I could learn about starting a career with the government. I began my training at a state sponsored Career Development Center. The State of Michigan operates a career development and job placement/retraining service called "Michigan Works!". A state employee there helped me get educational funding from both the state and federal government to attend some classes. I enrolled at Baker College and attended an extension campus near my hometown. In August of 2003 I graduated from Baker College with an Associate of Business degree. While at Baker College I studied Computer Information Systems/Programming and graduated with a 3.3 GPA. The highlight of my academics at Baker was constructing an automated robot that could stack boxes.(1)

While I was studying at Baker College, there was a class I needed to take that was not offered until the following year. I did not want to wait a year to take the class I needed in order to graduate. The only way that I could take the class earlier was to go to another school and transfer the credits back to Baker College. I found the computer-programming course that I needed at the University of Michigan in Flint. In January of 2003 I started my first class at the University of Michigan. Computer Science 270, COBOL programming, was the first course that I had there. It was essentially the course that let me finish my degree at Baker College.

I then transferred some of the credits I had earned at Baker College to the University of Michigan. Only 31.66 semester credits were transferable from the 101-quarter credits Baker College had counted towards my Associate of Business Degree. As a student at the University of Michigan I am working towards a Bachelor of Arts Degree majoring in Criminal Justice. I have been attending full time as a student there for the past 18 months and now have 83.66 total credits. I need to attain 120 credits to graduate from the University of Michigan and thereby earn my second college degree. I have already enrolled in summer and fall classes, and I fully expect that the next winter's semester will end with my graduation.

POST GRADUATE-

When I graduate from the University of Michigan certainly my employment opportunities will have been greatly expanded from the days when I first began training at the state’s career development center. I have given serious consideration into the employment options that I can find working for the State of Michigan, and I feel some genuine career opportunities do exist here.

However, some time ago, I bought land in the state of New Mexico. When I purchased the property it was because I wanted some place warm that I would have a reason to go visit someday. Michigan weather can be bitterly cold sometimes, and owning the land in New Mexico reminds me there is always someplace where it is nice and warm. I've seen the land I purchased by aerial satellite images, and it is near the Rio Grande River, and the Manzano Mountain range. It is also neighbors with the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge, a property of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.

When spring comes next year I will be a graduate of the University of Michigan. I then plan on relocating to New Mexico to develop my land. I have the plans already drawn for the home that I would like to construct there, and have even secured an estimate from a company that could prefabricate the home to my specifications.(4)

I have also been watching the New Mexico State Personnel Office website for posted job listings.(3)
I definitely will apply for positions that become available working for the government in New Mexico. At the very least I already have the forms ready to file to become a Notary Public in New Mexico. Ideally though, I will be accepted to the University of New Mexico School of Law where I will earn my Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree.

I hope this has told you a little about myself and gives you some of the information you need. I know you were wondering what got me interested in the study of law, and I will tell you that it actually came about sometime after I took Anthropology 100 with Professor Jennifer Alvery. From the materials I found in her lectures, text book, and required reading (Standing in the Meatpacking Line: Iowa Beef Packing) I began to seriously challenge my notions and ideas about society. Criminal Justice and the study of Law might not be intuitively deduced from the desire to learn more about U.S. society and social structures, but I would argue that with my career aspirations, and in the context of american culture, assuming the "role of authority" might in fact be the surest route to gain the influence need to bring about some level of social reform.

Saturday, July 16, 2005

Pre-Law advising


Academic advising at the University of Michigan Flint consists primarily of the department chair or one of the instructors sitting down with a student and planning their next semester's schedule so they can "graduate in a timely fashion". I've done this myself recently with the department chair of the Criminal Justice/ Sociology/ Anthropology department. She helped me construct a schedule that allows me to take 9 summer semester credits, 17 credits in the fall, and then just another handful of credits left to pickup in the winter semester for graduation. The 9 credits that I'm taking now are SOC 384 Criminology, CRJ 380 Criminal Law, and THE 300 History of Western Theatre.

When I was filling out profiling information on the LSAC website they provided me with the contact information for the pre-law advisor at the University of Michigan, Flint. I called the pre-law advisor, Dr. Albert C. Price, and scheduled an appointment with him. Dr. Albert Price is a professor of Political Science and Public Administration at the University of Michigan, the pre-law advisor, and the Director of the Law and Society program. He can be reached at: acprice@umflint.edu

I met with Dr. Price and he advised me that I should 1)be realistic about the schools that I apply to, 2)take the LSAT, 3)gather my letters of recommendation, and 4)work on my personal statement over the summer. Since my meeting with Dr. Price I have taken the LSAT, secured two letters of recommendation, and made a draft list of schools I plan to apply to. The Pre-BLAWG is my attempt at gathering together the general materials for my statement; well, that and a place to try and keep my head together.

Dr. Albert Price gave a speach at this year's "Hash Bash" at the Ann Arbor campus. For those of you who haven't heard of the Hash Bash it's when a bunch of University of Michigan students, and some guests of ours, meet at the Ann Arbor campus to smoke some pot as an act of civil disobediance against "unjust" drug laws. The police mostly leave us be (as somehow it being a "political" action inspires them to ignore us). Mostly though it's just a good excuse to get high.

Anyway, for his actions at this year's Hash Bash Dr. Price took some flak in our school's paper. Some gibberish about devaluing our education when our professors promote drug legalization. The local Flint Journal even picked up on the story. Heck, when I went back to tell him my LSAT score some television station was in his office doing an interview with him. Great way for a guy to self-promote I suppose.

Statement of Purpose


As this is the opening of this blog I thought I'd do a little explanation, "Statement of Purpose" thing and see how this thing works. This blog was inspired by all the great (and some not so great) blogs I've been reading that law school students have put together. See, I'm a prospective law school student (or what I like to think of at the "Future 1L's of America" [another name I considered for this blog...]). Among the community of law school student web logs (or "blogs") some authors have taken to refering to thier law related blogs as blawgs, therefore I felt the title "Pre-BLAWG" to be a fitting title to my blog as I am not yet admitted to any law school as I have yet to apply. The Pre-BLAWG will chronicle my experience as I journey from my senior year of undergraduate studies at the University of Michigan to the wonderful world of law school admissions.

As an undergraduate I have studied at Baker College [where I earned an Associate of Business degree (A.B.)] and at the University of Michigan [where I will be graduating from in May, 2006 with a Bachelor of Arts degree (B.A.)]. While at Baker College I majored in Computer Information Systems / Programming and the main highlight of my collegiate "career" was assembling an automated, box-stacking robot (details at www.vrmlstudent.50megs.com) . Since I transfered to the University of Michigan I have changed my major to Criminal Justice, and written my first book.

During this past winter semester Kaplan made a visit to our school and they were offering free practice testing for graduate school tests as a way of promoting their "study" courses. I made the decision to take a practice law school admission test, and I did pretty well on the test. I scored a 155 on the practice test, and while it's not the absolute best score I didn't think it was too shabby. (as 150 being the median score I did solidly better than half the students who took the test...) At the practice test session they warn you that studying for the LSAT isn't terribly productive as most students are not able to raise their score by more than 3-4 points (an awesome sales pitch for thier $1000+ courses). In spite of this good advice I proceeded to study for the LSAT and I took 4 additional practice tests (checking my answers each time to see how I got the answers wrong) and scored 155, 155, 156, and 154. The practice tests that I took came from the 2004 Kaplan LSAT study guide. (Higher score GUARANTEED!!!) I registered for the LSAT and took the test June 6th, 2005 in Ann Arbor at the University of Michigan campus and scored a whopping 156. Yep, all that study really paid off. Still, that's not a terribly bad score (placing me in the 68th percentile of all test takers) and I'm wagering that at least a half-way decent law school somewhere will still take my money.

My grades as an undergraduate haven't been all bad. I managed to squeeze out a 3.30 at Baker College, and I'm pulling a 3.08 at the University of Michgan. My target school at this point is the University of New Mexico. It's a fairly well recognized school (ranked #100 on the list that ranks law schools) [of course "the list" only ranks the top 100 law schools out of the 190 "accredited" schools]. Okay, so not exactly the most ambitious choice I could make but I still figure my acceptance probability at only around 50% based on those handy-dandy charts they publish that calculate such things based on gpa and LSAT score.

I'm a Michigan resident though, and have been all my life. If I go to law school here I imagine the following scenario: My odds of being accepted to the University of Michigan Law are less than 5%, and probably closer to 1:1000. The University of Michigan being the #7 law school in the nation, and me not being a perpetual top 5% super-student. However, Michigan State University seems to be somewhat more forgiving and I have figured my odds of acceptance at somewhere around 80%. Still there's always Cooley... Cooley law school is one of those places that accept almost anybody (of course your money's good here), but they have a failure rate of around 75% because not everybody is law school material. If I apply to Cooley, which I'm sure I will simply because it's free to apply, I'll be scratching my head if I'm not sent an acceptance letter. I figure my probability of acceptance will be somewhere between 99% and definate (99.999%). Anyway, that's where I'm at, and I'm hoping to be accepted to the University of New Mexico after I apply later this year. After all, I would never want to belong to a group that would have me.

There are some other reasons why I want to attend law school at the University of New Mexico (besides the seemingly even odds of acceptance). I made a land purchase of a 1.06 acre parcel of land some 16 months ago in, you guessed it, New Mexico. Winter in Michigan can be, and most often is, a bitterly cold season. That was my primary motivation for buying land in the Chihauhaun desert. The parcel of land is located about 30 miles south of Albuquerque, near a town called Belen, New Mexico. It's between the Rio Grande and the Manzano mountain range. It has a nice view of the mountains and a water table. After I made the purchase I began to look for something to "do" out there, and that's when I happened along to find the University of New Mexico. When I began to ponder graduate studies, that became the first school on my list.

As you may or may have realized by now, the primary purpose of the pre-BLAWG is to work out materials for my "personal statement". That's the one of the final steps that I have before I can begin applying to law schools. I have two letters of recomendations submitted to the LSAC (Law School Admission Counsil). They have one and the other should be on it's way any day now. I still have to pay them the $112 or whatever it is to have them compile my data before I can fill out applications. One of my letters of recommendation came from a professor Charles Spurlock. The interesting thing about him is that he taught at the University of Michigan for only one semester. He taught Sociology 270 "Race and Ethnic Relations", but the school dumped him and he's teaching back at MSU now, where he was a student. Anyway, he offered to write us shining letters of recommendation and I took him up on the offer. Looking back, of course, I wonder if he made the offer after he realized that he was being fired. Not questioning his professionalism, I'll save his letter for when, and if, I apply to Michigan State University and probably not too many other schools. Sorry Charlie.

My second letter of recommendation is being, or has been (how am I to know?), written by Dr. Larry Koch. Dr. Koch is a professor of Sociology also and I am taking my second course with him, Criminology. When I took a course with him last winter semester I asked him if he would write me a letter of recommendation (as I got an A in his class) and told him that I could wait until the summer semester when I would be taking his SOC 384 Criminology course. Well it's summer semester and lo and behold I'm in his class. We just took our first exam for the class and he said he'll definately write my letter. When we discussed the letter of recommendation I told him that since he had last seen me (just 8 weeks previously in the winter semester) I had written my first book. He feigned interest and I gave him the book to read. Interestingly, 3 weeks into the class he's assigned us nearly 500 pages of reading and he still hasn't finished my 164 page book.

The last letter that I'm going to gather is to be written by Dr. Kenneth Litwin. He's a Criminal Justice professor, and he's doing his dissertation on homicide. I'm sure that there are things I could, and probably will get around to saying about him. I still have another course to take with him this fall though, and probably another course in the winter. If I can disipline myself enough to keep the Pre-BLAWG going I'm sure he'll become a frequent subject. I'm just wondering how much I can get away with saying about him knowing that 1) he may read the Pre-BLAWG [it's not impossible], and 2) he's agreed to write me a letter of recommendation [so he can't be all that bad]. But here, I might as well get it out of the way now...there have been rumors that he became so knowledgable about the subject of Criminal Justice...from prison. Now, I'm not saying he's a serial killer or anything, and young minds have active imaginations, but one is led to wonder about the motives of a man who spends a good portion of his life studying murder.
 

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