Why Washburn?

I'll be starting law school in the Fall.  Moving away from Wichita shortly before.  Taking my life back to college and away from the "real world" like a needle scratching vinyl.  I wouldn't call it a d0-over, as I'm fairly certain I wouldn't have been able to do this the first time around.  But now, I suppose, things are different.  I'm different.

I applied to 7 different law schools.  I've read where the current economic recession/depression hasn't noticeably increased the number of law school applicants for the current cycle, but rather the number of applications each applicant has sent out.  It would seem I'm of that statistic.

Of those 7 schools--Washburn, University of Kansas, University of Missouri Kansas City, Tulsa, University of Oklahoma, Southern Methodist, and William & Mary--I've been accepted to the first 4, waitlisted by the 5th, and am still waiting to hear from the sixth.  I applied to all but the 7th merely due to regional geography and realistic expectation of admittance; the 7th, William & Mary, had sent me an application fee waiver after I took my LSAT, but like the Anglo-monarchially-named Virginian teases they are, they were only setting me up for a bump-in-their-selectivity-ranking rejection.

My initial target school was KU, and, conveniently, they were my first admittance.  The others soon followed.  There was an interesting phone conversation with an OU admission officer who wanted to gauge my long-term residency aspirations for the state of Oklahoma.  I was honest, and then I was waitlisted.

Washburn and KU became my top two choices, especially once I received scholarships from both.  Washburn's offer exceeded that of KU's by about 6 times, however, covering nearly the full amount of my tuition.  Jackpot.

But it's not just about money.  Every time I've visited Washburn, I've felt like I've just belonged.  Conversations with professors, students, staff, etc. made me feel like they genuinely wanted me to study there.

In relation to other law schools, Washburn's "regional" status implies that I'll need to work in the Kansas area for around 5 years post-graduation, which is fine with me.  I'll also have lesser BIGLAW prospects than at, say, SMU, but BIGLAW = leasing my every breath, 80 hours a week, to the gears of a large legal machine that I've no interest in turning.  As the Doors say in 5to1 (and I promise this is the first and last time I'll quote Jim Morrisson), "Trade in your hours for a handful of dimes."  No thank you.

So Washburn it is.  I start on August 17th, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't really looking forward to it with a kind of nervous anticipation I haven't felt in a while.  It might be a temporary step back, but it's good to know that's the right direction.