1) I did most everything I wanted to do before law school in the year I took off after undergrad. The best thing to do is seriously just relax and hang out with family and friends as much as possible before law school. Once you get to law school, it envelopes you and sometimes it gets hard to find time for them when you are at your busiest. If you are really dying for something to get you ready for law school at UM, read the Buffalo Creek Disaster and A Civil Action. You may get Professor Alfieri for Civil Procedure (I had him) and you will need to read both of these before the first class. You'll be ahead of the pack if you read these and have him; I didn't know I had to read these books before the first class and didn't find out until 8am on a Friday, Monday was the first class. Professor Alfieri is a pretty intense professor who makes you stand up when you are called on, but he is a great professor at the same time. Other books that may be a bit more general but good to read are Law School Confidential and Getting to Maybe.
2) As far as places are concerned, try and be as close to school as possible. A house might be hard to come by this year unless you are a local. The houses generally speaking don't advertise and are pretty difficult to find. I found my duplex, which also has a backyard, on craigslist. Don't freak out too much about finding a place ASAP, I didn't sign my lease until the middle of July and that isn't at all odd. I was used to signing a lease in my college town and you had to sign for a place as early as January for the next year. The opposite is true in Miami; most of the places are incredibly reluctant to have the place sit on the market at all. Then again the market has gotten much worse, and a great deal of condos are coming on the market in Miami, so that will give you some wiggle room to haggle prices. I have a few friends with pets, and most places I have seen allow you to have pets, but some may have a weight limitation below 40 pounds. If that was the case...I would just say that your pet is 40 pounds...
http://www.law.miami.edu/ps/ps_07.php?op=7That is a good place to start if you are looking at the apartments around UM. A good deal of first years live in the University housing or the Valencia. Like I said I got a 1000sq/ft 2 room duplex for 1100 a month, so there are places you can find if you look hard enough. If you are looking for more specific information, just ask, I feel like I've already babbled on too much on housing
3) As far as a summer job is concerned, I decided to study abroad this summer. The summer abroad program is amazing and I couldn't resist. Other people seem to have gotten jobs if they were flexible, a few got paying, most non-paid jobs. Miami has a pretty amazing career services center and if you are flexible you'll get a good job.
4) My debt is going to be pretty hefty, but thats a fact of life if your family isn't wealthy, or you had an amazing GPA and LSAT. The good news is last I heard the average starting salary out of Miami was around 105k a year...which also includes those public sector jobs that make much less than the private sector.
Anything else? I'm happy to lower the stress a bit for anyone if I can.
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