Elana Altman

Depressed Law & Order has been cancelled? Addicted to The Good Wife or The Deep End? Loved Legally Blonde? Law, lawyers, and law school are everywhere in pop culture. But I think we all know that you shouldn’t pull an Elle Woods and film an admissions video of yourself in a bikini in the hopes of getting into Harvard Law—just so you can get your boyfriend back. But if that was your plan, don’t worry, HC, in consultation with Susan Smith Blakely, attorney and author of Best Friends at the Bar: What Women Need to Know About a Career in Law, is here to help with advice from our guide to everything law school.  

Being Pre-Law 

The cool thing about law school admissions is that, unlike for med school, there are absolutely no specific required undergraduate courses. And you don’t need any specific majors either, so feel free to major in whatever you’d like, even it’s totally unrelated to law—like music or chemistry.

“Where do you go to college?” Who knew that simple question could cause so much stress?

It’s not that I don’t know the answer; I’m not that spacey. But, without fail, I always get the same reaction when I tell people I attend Wellesley.

“The girl’s school?” they ask, stunned. That, or they tell me about their hipster nephew/grandson/male neighbor who also goes here, in which case I tell them that they’re thinking of Wesleyan, and the two are not the same.

But yes, I attend a girl’s school. Or, as some politically correct Wellesley students prefer, a women’s college. Whatever. A nunnery by any other name is just as celibate.

Just kidding. Anyone who reads Rolling Stone knows all about “The Highly-Charged Erotic Life of the Wellesley Girl.”

Flashback to my spring break 2009. I was hanging out at a diner with my high school friends, when someone asked what we were all planning to do for the summer after our sophomore year. “I’m doing astrophysics research at the Museum of Natural History,” said one. “I’m mentoring children in China,” said another. “I’m interning at The Colbert Report,” said a third. As everyone answered except me, I started to freak out. What was I planning for the summer? I had no idea yet; it appeared that many of my cover letters and resumes had been sent into a vapid abyss (that is, the ones that hadn’t been rejected outright). But if you’re in that situation, relax. A few weeks later, I managed to secure an awesome editorial internship at TWIST magazine. And with HC, in consultation with Salwa Muhammad, the assistant director of internships and service learning at Wellesley College, here to help, you can still do the same.

If you feel like you’ve been sending your applications into an abyss, it’s possible it’s because that’s exactly where they’ve been going. “I interned at Seventeen magazine last summer and didn't get the gig until Mothers' Day weekend,” says Jessica Goldstein, a student at the University of Pennsylvania. I applied in probably Feb. or March, and never heard back. I sent them a follow-up in April and it turns out they never got my original application!” Feel free to follow-up over the phone with an employer you haven’t heard from after two weeks, says Muhammad. “Make sure it doesn’t say no phone calls,” she warns. “Then they may automatically disqualify you if you call.” If it says no calls, shoot them a follow-up email instead.

With one in five college students considering herself a vegetarian, campus dining halls can’t ignore the meatless masses. But can they provide tasty and healthy alternatives to chicken and beef? “We offer at least two vegetarian/vegan entree items at each meal,” says John Povermo, executive sous chef at Wellesley College. “We also offer one vegetarian soup for each meal.” “They try,” says Stephanie Buhle, a Wellesley senior who became vegetarian at 13, when her brother’s veganism caused her to realize she didn’t support the policies of meat processing plants. “I think it’s admirable that they try. They make things with tofu. If there’s a stir-fry with chicken, they’ll take it out for me. But then it’s just onions and peppers.” She finds herself often supplementing her meals with cereal and soymilk.

And that’s just it: there are plenty of eating alternatives for vegetarians on college campuses; they just don’t necessarily contain the proper nutrients. Pizza and veggie burgers are served almost everywhere, but these grease-soaked foods just add more starch and minimal amounts of protein to vegetarians’ diets. Of course, you could be like Molly Fitzpatrick, a junior at Harvard and also a vegetarian (“I’m a big softie for animals,” she says) who works at balancing her diet but is willing to throw a little more caution to the wind. “I eat a lot of fruits and vegetables, veggie burgers, and a disproportionate number of desserts,” says Molly. “My ideal diet consists solely of cake and cookies anyway, so I'm doing okay.” But what are the health concerns for vegans and vegetarians? Nutritionist Michele Sandone takes us through five components of a healthy diet that are often missed by vegans and vegetarians, and tells us how to make sure to fit them in—even in the campus dining hall.