The End of the Apps

Although the actual applications were done a little while ago, I realized that in my blogging negligence I never posted The List. So here we go, in alphabetical order:

Berkeley
Georgetown
Loyola (not the one in Chicago, one in LA affiliated with Loyola Marymount in San Diego)
Pitt
Temple
UCLA
University of Virginia
USC

So, those of you who are geographically savvy realize that half of those are in *gulp* California. Yep. And only one is here in Pittsburgh. *another gulp* (Of course, Pittsburgh only has two schools and no offense to Duquesne alumni, but no way am I going to a Catholic school that required a long fight and a longer list of caveats before it allowed a gay-straight student alliance.) We'll see what shakes out I suppose.

Out of that list, my top picks are probably UCLA, Loyola, Georgetown, and UVa, with Berkeley coming close behind. Those first four have the most established backgrounds in public interest law, which is what I want to do. Berkeley isn't very far behind from what I've seen, and besides...it's freakin' Berkeley; 'nuf said.

The funny thing about that list is that, out of those five top picks, four are in the top 15 in the country, and one isn't, but that one, Loyola, is probably the front runner at this point. I do think the other four would have more to offer in terms of connections and other resources, but the number one reason why people who intend to work in public interest don't follow through is that they don't make the money to pay off their student loans. While I'm fairly confident that I'll get accepted to at least a couple of my higher ranked choices, Loyola is more likely to drool over my application and offer substantial scholarships, so... Of course luck has it that Loyola Marymount is also a Catholic school, but some research and talking to some folks confirmed that they don't have the same issues that Duquesne has.

At any rate, the reason why the title of this post is for the END of the apps is that yesterday and this morning I finished up my financial aid applications. My head is swimming from all kinds of estimate this, add up that, blah blah blah. I thought it would be a cakewalk when I finished the FAFSA in about 15 minutes. Then a few of the schools also required that I fill out the Need Access app at needaccess.org. Holy crow...that thing was a freaking beast, and compared to a lot of people I keep really close track of my meager monies. Whew! My heart goes out to all those people who don't just fill out a 1040EZ every year like I do. I know my time of mind boggling tax forms will come someday, but I wasn't expecting it just yet!