Today I traveled to Howard University School of Law in Washington, DC, for an admissions interview…

After being waitlisted at the university’s law school, I was contacted with the opportunity to participate in an interview (which is quite rare for law schools to do).

This was the first year that Howard Law offered the Prospect Opportunity Program (POP).

According to the e-mail I received from Howard Law, “This program provides an applicant the opportunity to demonstrate the depth of character and preparation for law school that is sometimes lost in a standard application process.”

In-person and telephone interviews are available on three separate days in New York City, Atlanta, Los Angeles and Washington, DC.

The interview was optional, but I thought it would be a great opportunity to learn more about the school, tell them more about me and to visit the campus and the surrounding area.

I think my interview went very well. It lasted approximately 25 minutes. After touring the academic building with an admissions ambassador, I was interviewed by two members of the school’s alumni.

We discussed my strengths and weaknesses as a student, my academic and personal background, what attracted me to the school and the field of law, and other topics.

I tried to remain friendly and personable while being sure to tell the alumni why I would make a good addition to the student body.

As the experts say, ‘you have to sell yourself’, but it’s also important to be yourself as well.

I felt much more comfortable at Howard Law than I did on my recent trip to Widener Law in Harrisburg.

Howard is located in a wonderful neighborhood, which has a Metro subway stop and bus stops coming in from the downtown area of DC.

The students were friendly, and the campus was quaint.

As you can see above, I took some pictures of my tour around the area.

Though I felt I presented a strong interview, I did have the chance to meet other students being interviewed today, and I think it will be a very competitive process.

However, I am proud that I displayed myself to the best of my ability.

I wish all schools had interviews and not just LSATs, GPAs, etc, to go by!

Photo taken by: Dennis DiPasquale

Yesterday I graduated from Rowan University in Glassboro, NJ, after three years of schooling with my undergraduate degree in Journalism, a Spanish minor, and an International Studies concentration!

Yesterday was my final for my online journalism, the class for which this blog was started. I had the chance to tell my classmates about this blog and what I’ve been working on throughout this semester.

As my last official post for the class, I’d like to you readers, that I do plan to keep up LawBound for the time being, until I make an ultimate decision about my academic future.

Please stay tuned this weekend for a detailed post on some recent (disappointing) school responses, and my decision-making process regarding law school.

Also, as you can see in the above pages, I will be developing a new feature, LawChat, which will be a weekly law discussion held on Twitter.

More to come soon. TGIF, readers!

As can be seen in the above slideshow, this past Saturday, May 2, I visited Widener Law School’s Pennsylvania campus in Harrisburg.

I was recently accepted to Widener’s PA campus and wanted to get a sense of the school. Unfortunately, there are no tours available on weekends, but my mother and I wanted to wander around a bit to see the facilities, and also to visit Harrisburg.

Below is some more information about the school and our trip.

According to US News & World Report, which has ranking information on Widener’s Delaware campus, not Harrisburg, the law school is a tier 4 university, with a full-time enrollment of 956 students in the fall of 2008, and a yearly full-time tuition of $32,040.

Here is some more information on Widener Law, based in DE, from US News & World Report’s 2009 ranking of law schools:

• The 25th to 75th percentile GPA scores for all students was: 2.85 to 3.4
• The 25th to 75th percentile LSAT scores for all students was: 149 to 153
• The overall acceptance rate was: 55.6%
• The assessment score by lawyers/judges (5.0 was the highest) was: 2.3
• The graduates known to be employed nine months after graduation was: 88.5%
• For more detailed information, members of US News & World Report can log into their Web site for more ranking info.

Traveling to Widener’s PA campus (located at 3800 Vartan Way in Harrisburg) took us approximately two and a half hours, the campus is 130 miles away. The majority of that ride is spent on a highway bordered with an abudance of farmland, and not much else.

Once we arrived, we found that the campus, which appears to consist of one small academic building, a bookstore/cafe and administrative offices appears to be in a small industrial park where other businesses are located.

There’s not much else in the area, except a few residences along the road leading up to the industrial park.

When we entered the academic building, we discovered that exams were in progress in most of the classrooms, so we tried to remain quiet and respectful as we briefly walked around the building.

There is no on-campus housing for students attending Widener Law in Harrisburg. I was provided a packet of some off-campus apartment complexes and their addresses, though, by the look of the area when driving around the community, there is not that much housing located close to the campus, and probably none within convenient walking distance.

We also journeyed into the downtown area of Harrisburg to see what it was all about.

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the state’s capital, which has a population of about 50,000 residents, seemed quite desolate on the Saturday afternoon during our visit.

It was overcast, but not rainy or cold, but the streets seemed rather bare and still, and there was barely a handful of people sprinkled along a few of the outdoor restaurants.

The city’s “main drag” appeared to be 2nd street, which spanned a few blocks, and had bus stops, some housing, a few restaurants and stores. It was quite small. There was also the state capital a block or two away and a few other businesses.

All in all, it was not a “city” or “urban” feel by any means.

It is probably more populated during the week, but it’s most likely just a municipality that serves the purpose of housing the state’s government buildings, which may offer some clerkship opportunities to Widener’s students.

Though I was unable to benefit from any tours, I believe my self-guided wanderings of Widener’s PA campus and the Harrisburg area, have served me enough to suggest that this school is probably not for me.

I realize that I have been very lucky to live most of my life in southern NJ, an area that borders a little bit of everything. I am in a bustling suburban setting, approximately 20 minutes outside of Philadelphia, and I can easily commute to NYC, Washington DC and other areas along the eastern seaboard.

I feel that for my law school experience, I would be happiest in an urban setting, whether I am staying in a metropolis, or if I am in its surrounding suburbs, like I am now.

So the search continues, as I wait to hear back from more schools’ admissions offices, including Temple Law, both Rutgers Law Schools, Seton Hall and UPenn. I also recently was notified that I was placed on the waiting list for Howard Law in Washingon DC.

Here’s a recap of Souter’s career on the court.

And here’s some insight into what kind of person Pres. Obama may seek to appoint.

What do you think are important qualities in a Supreme Court Justice?

umjanedoan's photostream / Flickr

Good news on my personal law front in terms of my undergraduate course work…

I am exempt from taking the final exam in my Criminal Law class at Rowan University, one of the elective courses I am taking this semester. The course’s professor was also my Law and Human Rights teacher a few semesters ago. In his classes, he allows students to be exempt from the final and receive an “A” in the course if their first two exams average to a grade that is 25% above the class average. I’m very proud and happy that it means there is one less final that I have to worry about, and the criminal law class was extremely interesting.

The effects of demography on criminal rates was something we studied, and we briefed cases in homicide, rape, burglary, theft and other topics.

One article that I read recently on the subject of rape, by New York Times columnist Nicholas D. Kristof, addresses some of the problems with rape cases in the criminal justice system and the way it’s perceived.

Read the article here.

Check it out here.

The economic challenges for states have prompted some to cut jobs, which means less public defenders to represent defendants and more overworked remaining lawyers who risk making mistakes due to their demanding case loads.

Read the article in Parade Magazine here.

MSN Careers with CareerBuilder.com posted the article online to give tips on what not to do when trying to impress at the workplace, like answering your cell phone during a meeting or skirting around the office dress code (I know I’ve been guilty of the latter one at least once).

You can read the article here.

Any workplace or internship etiquette Web sites you would suggest to LawBound readers?

As expected, much of our discussion focused on the declining job market and the challenges facing soon-to-be college graduates.

Thompson offered advice on resume-building and job search strategies, but one of his biggest emphases was placed on the importance of internships.

Read the entire column here.