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Summer School!?
Speaking of money, GW gave me no funding this summer to help out as I work for free at the public defender's office. I was at first pretty miffed about this; I mean, if helping raise over $60k to support public interest law at GW doesn't qualify you for a summer grant, what will?
But then I thought, hey, there could be very good reasons I didn't get any money. For example, they gave me money last year, so maybe they want to spread it around a little, which is good. Also, maybe the committee could see that I'm already going to pursue a public interest career, regardless of whether they encourage me by giving me money, so it figured the money would be better spent encouraging someone else. Fine. That last is a slightly perverse rationale since it seems to punish people who demonstrate a real commitment to public interest, but whatever. I don't have any knowledge of how the committee made its decisions; these are just possible rationales that I thought of and they made me feel a little better as I fished in my wallet and found only lint. For all I know they simply looked at GPAs and filtered that way.
But like I said: Whatever. I have to pay the rent this summer, and the only way to get a loan for the summer is to take at least three credits, so hello summer school! I'm so excited to get to take a class or two while I work 40 hours/week this summer! That is so awesome!! I mean, wow! What could possibly be better!?!
Grrrrr.
Posted April 19, 2005 09:08 AM | 2L
From an evening student, who manages 11+ credit hours a semester while working a 40 hour a week job (that usually ends up 50-60 hours per week): quit yer whining! :)
Posted by: -Dave! at April 19, 2005 10:29 AM
take a co-requisite. Get credit for your internship, spend less money in the spring.
Posted by: luminous at April 19, 2005 10:41 AM
As an evening student, I also echo Dave's sentiment.
I know you're going to Public Interest, but I just love the law students who complain about taking 15 credits and then want jobs in BigLaw. Don't they realize that all you do is WORK? :)
My favorite were people were in the part-time program because they couldn't get into the full-time program. They didn't work, took a part-time load, and STILL managed to complain.
Sigh.
Posted by: Tim Marman at April 19, 2005 10:48 AM
is there any way to ask the committee why you didn't recieve any funds this year? some people are willing to tell you. or ask them to reconsider. that's always an option with financial aid people (and it often works).
Posted by: monica at April 19, 2005 11:45 AM
are there other grants you could apply for? what about an equal justice america grant? can you bug the public interest office/ career services office until you get some suggestions on outside public interest grants?
http://www.equaljusticeamerica.org/ApplyForFellowship.htm
Posted by: mm at April 19, 2005 12:43 PM
that really, really sucks. I just wanted to underscore the past two comments re: asking why you got no money and applying to the EJW summer fellows grant.
And if worst comes to worst, set up your own personal donation fund? Maybe some rich attys who frequent your site will be your benefactors.
Posted by: Womanofthelaw at April 19, 2005 01:27 PM
What're you taking this summer? That sucks that you got shut out of grant funding...
Posted by: Gideon at April 19, 2005 05:51 PM
Dave & Tim: Yeah, I know. I promise to quit my whining around here. It's just one of those things, you know. I'm good at it, and we're supposed to do the things we're good at in life, aren't we?
Luminous: Yeah, I'm probably going to do the "outside placement" thing and do the job for credit. I was a little confused about how that worked, but I spoke w/the people in charge today and it sounds like I can get 3-4 credits for the job (at $1,213/credit!), then take the co-req in the fall. I think.
Monica: I could ask, but I'm not sure I care why they didn't give me funding. Whether their reason seems good or bad to me won't change it. They made me one of 8 an "alternates" for something like 50 grants, so that means they gave my app fairly serious consideration. There won't be any reconsideration b/c they've given out all their money (something like $165k total.)
MM: The EJA grant was a great idea -- thanks! Unfortunately, applications were due March 16th.... You're right; I can keep looking elsewhere. I'm sure there are other possibilities out there, but I'm falling into this trap where I'm thinking, "well, I've already borrowed up to my eyeballs, what's another $5k loan for the summer?" It's bad, you know?
Womanofthelaw: Um, I'm going to be asking all those rich attorneys who frequent my site (all two of them) to give me Aids Marathon Money, so I've got to keep my other requests for charity to a minimum. ;-)
Gideon: It sounds like the co-req will be something like "Public Interest Lawyering," which I wanted to take anyway, so no big deal, I guess.
Posted by: ambimb at April 19, 2005 07:15 PM
Ha! I was going to apply to GW to be a visiting student. Now I wish I did!
Posted by: DG at April 19, 2005 09:22 PM
Tim, Dave - Do you work full time for free? No? Ok, quit YOUR whining. I don't think (correct me if I'm wrong) the point of this post was "Woe is me, I'm going to have to work and go to school," it was "Woe is me, I have to take a class I didn't need to or want to this summer (and pay tuition) so I can afford to do a public interest job because I didn't get the public interest money that I helped raise."
ambimb: Sorry, that sucks. I hope you find the money somewhere.
Posted by: anon at April 20, 2005 08:06 AM
oops! i didn't check the app. due date before i left you the link! sorry!
good luck!
(my, i've used a lot of exclamation points.)
Posted by: MM at April 20, 2005 07:38 PM
