Student Blogs: 1st Year

Summers, for me, are always islands in the middle of an
ocean of things I’d rather not be doing. This past summer was no different, but
I tried to make it one hell of an island. But, you don’t care what I did last
summer. So, I’ll just tell you about the things that have some bearing on law
school.

First, get whatever financial arrangements you have to take
care of out of the way early in the summer. The last thing you want is to have
some kind of unexpected delay to occur a few weeks before you begin your first
semester. The financial aid department sends out a book on the subject, in
which they practically spoon feed the process to you. You’d be surprised how
easy they make it to get yourself into $28k of debt. At least, I found the
process to be relatively painless, but ask me in three years, when I’m paying
it back, how painless the process is.

Second, the school sends out a suggested summer reading
list. I ended up reading two books from that list, “1L” by Scott Turow and “A
Civil Action” by Jonathan Harr. They were both good books, but I don’t know
that they helped me a whole lot in law school. So, what would I read if I got
to do it all over again? Well, I’d probably get a vocab book. One thing I’ve
learned is that judges like to use words not utilized by the average everyday
linguist. The more words in your vocabulary, the easier reading the cases will
be. Also, you’re writing will be more efficient if you can use one word in
place of three, which is super helpful when you’re 100 words over your word
limit when writing a paper. Keeping with the writing aspect, it’s probably not
a bad idea to get a grammar book. It will be helpful when reading a statute,
where a comma can mean everything, or for your own writing. I mean, unless
you’re an English major, how many of us really know when to use a semicolon? I
realize that these books aren’t any fun and I wouldn’t read them, if given to
me last summer, but in hindsight they aren’t a bad idea. Hooray, hindsight.

Third, if you have the opportunity, enjoy yourself as much
as possible. I know it sounds cliché, but the better mental state you have
coming in, the better off youÔøΩll be. Good luck.

Feel free to ask questions by emailing aaronsblog@mail.widener.edu or clicking the discuss link.