Emergency Question about enrolling this fall PLEASE HELP

[corbabe]

Hi, everyone I am currently moving into a new city and a new school that I recently become not to happy with.  I am about 5 hours from my home and want to practice law closer to my home, but decided to attend a school further away because I was not accepted to the local schools and was offered a decent scholarship at the school I am beginning to attend.  My LSAT scores were only 148 and 151 so i did not expect to many acceptances and or money for attedning any law schools.  Now that I am in my new city away from everything, family friends and girlfriend of 4 years, I am regretting my decision more and more.  I still have the option of getting out of my lease and I am definitely considering it.  This is where I need everyones help, I recently have found out that my scholarship is applied to tuition differently than I previouusly thought.  This has not made me to happy and I feel that I am paying more for an education that I may not have necessarily picked a few months ago.  Can you please help me with my choices???

My ideas are to stick it out and go to school.  Hopefully I will be able to transfer, I know this is not a good possibilty however and I do not want to be stuck in this city for 3 years. 

My other option would be to take a year off again, and study for the LSAT, I have never studied for it and took both tests cold.  They are the only two LSAT's that I have taken.  I would enroll in a Kaplan or Powerscore class something along those lines, work part-time and study full time for the december LSAT.  I really want to attend a local school in Pittsburgh such as Duquesne, Pitt or even WVU or Penn State I would be happy with any of those. 

Please help with ideas, or if you think these feelings will go away.  THANX

[cassise]

Don't start, if you do poorly then there is 0 chance of ever going back to a school you like.

[shaz]

i'm in a similar situation.  here are my thoughts:

1. if i bust my hump, i should be able to do ok.  i figure the worse case scenario is top 1/2.  
2. top 1/2 should be good enough to transfer home, if i want.
3. being apart from friends, family, and so could be a blessing.  hopefully, it allows me to focus all my energy into my studies.  

[shaz]

Don't start, if you do poorly then there is 0 chance of ever going back to a school you like.

this just seems like a terrible thought to me (although i admit it's a possibility).   

[corbabe]

thanks so far for some imput, this decsion is making me sick just thinking about it.  Any more thoughts would be awesome.  I am hoping to make a decision later tonight.  I really appreciate it.

[bamboomw]

I am sorry to hear about your current situation. In my personal experience, significant life transitions are almost always followed by feelings of anxiety and uncertainty, especially when taken out of my comfort zone (like when I left home for college, or transfered to a different college.   So I guess my only advice is to try and seperate the normal feelings of anxiety experienced when taken out of your comfort zone, with a genuine, gut feeling that UDM is not the right school for you.  As for me, sticking it out after transferring to Cornell has turned out to be one of the best decisions I have ever made.

If you have already made up your mind to leave UDM,  I would suggest re-taking the LSAT and applying next year.

I really do understand how you are feeling, and I wish you the best of luck.

One last comment-  If you are set on attending Pitt, Penn State, or somewhere else close to East PA, you may want to consider working your ass off at UDM, and then transferring to a more desirable school.  GOODLUCK!   

[corbabe]

I still havent made a decision yet, but again appreciate the help, any more suggestions, experiences or ideas would be great.

[cultural_vacuum]

Cor,

I sent you a personal msg.

[queencruella]

I still havent made a decision yet, but again appreciate the help, any more suggestions, experiences or ideas would be great.

I think your feelings are very common, but if you decide to go to this fall, you have to make the decision that you're going to make the best of it and have a good experience. With 2 LSATs under your belt that don't show a significant improvement, I don't know that it's worth taking another stab for next cycle. In addition, don't go in thinking you'll transfer after a year. Assume you'll be there for the long term and keep a positive attitude. The first few months will b e difficult, but once you make new friends and are more familiar with your surroundings, I think it will get better.

[I_Love_Iowa_City]

I wouldn't go to school specifically with the hopes of transferring.  Everyone assumes they will do well, but you can't be certain that you'll finish high enough in your class to have a good shot at being accepted at another school.

In your situation I would say trying to transfer is especially risky because you're the type of person who doesn't study at all for the LSAT.  I'm not trying to be rude, but with the limited information you have provided it makes it seem less likely that you'll finish at the top of your class.  The LSAT is a pretty big test to just blow off twice without studying.  After reading that in your post I have to assume that you might not take your first year classes very seriously either.  Especially if you're unhappy and end up taking trips home all the time.....which may happen if you're truly miserable in Detroit.

You may do great your first year, but it's not worth the risk if you think you'll be miserable for three years if you can't transfer.  Taking a year off to work on the LSAT, and your discipline, might be your best course of action......

Good luck.