Law School Journey Report

After an arduous and eye-opening trip, we are safe and sound, back in Bloomington. Even with the eager anticipation of living in another place come fall, we were so happy to retreat to the comfy cradle of the home we know.

On Thursday the 17th, we left for Nashville to visit Vanderbilt. Great experience there. They completely wined and dined us...putting us up at a four-star hotel for two nights, feeding us at probably some of the most expensive restaurants in town...it was tough, but we endured. We really loved the professionalism of the school, students and faculty. They have given us the best offer thus far, and Nashville left a warm spot in my heart.

By Sunday night, we were in Durham, NC, ready to tour Duke the next day. Not impressed. Our tour guide was a complete frat boy, the library was your typical, boisterous undergrad meat market...which should not be in a graduate law school. The facilities were not that impressive. The only thing we liked was the weather.

On Tuesday, we toured the elegant, regal, stately, could-I-give-it-any-more-praise-like-adjectives University of Virginia in Charlottesville, VA. The school has a plethora of history, beginning with the founding of it by Thomas Jefferson. Many of the buildings look as if they were built in the likeness of his "Monticello." Very classy place. The students and faculty were very accommodating, friendly and professional, and the weather was beautiful. The town was gorgeous, sitting at the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The atmosphere was almost majestic, and I kept hearing the Cambridge Singers' rendition of "A Mighty Fortress is Our God" running through my head. Nick had a great meeting with the dean, who informed him of his merit scholarship, although we won't know the exact amount until sometime this week.

From there, we drove about 45 minutes of the Skyline Drive, heading north. What majesty! It was absolutely breathtaking. Because one can only drive about 35 mph on that road, we had to exit onto a main highway eventually, because we had a 3 hour drive north to Pennsylvania. We stayed with my uncle and aunt that night, and got up insanely early the next morning to travel about 2 1/2 more hours to University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

Yuck.

Any delusions of grandeur that Nick may have had about living in a city of that magnitude quickly vanished. It was ugly, dirty, overcrowded, expensive, and just plain hard. People always talk about how great living in a big city is, because there is so much to do. "Yeah, " I told Nick, "IF you have the money to spend on all of it..." The Ivy League school was cold and impersonal (even the administrative staff). The facilities, as my husband put it, were stuck in the seventies.

The funny thing was, it was supposed to be rainy the whole time we had visited the other schools, and sunny the day we visited Penn. Well, just the opposite happened, adding to the loathing of not just Penn, but Philly itself. Nick said that was God's way of telling us "no" about Penn. I was quite relieved. We spent the rest of the trip visiting family in western PA and in northern Indiana- a relaxing way to end our journey.

There is a good chance we'll have our decision made up by April 1st, as that is the deadline for acceptance of the full-ride offer that Vanderbilt gave. This will be a tough one to walk away from, since we loved Virginia so much. I told Nick that I loved both Nashville and Charlottesville, and that I would be happy at either place.

We are thankful for such a successful and fun trip, and we pray that God will lead us in the right direction. We covet your prayers, also.