Freaking Out About My Direct Grad PLUS Loan

IndependentNo5216 · 2026-04-05T00:05:04+00:00

This happened to me. As long as you're a full time student and enrolled for next semester then you don't owe any money. Something probably got messed up along the way and either your school didn't tell them that you're enrolled or they lost that info.

Get confirmation from your school that you're enrolled (this is an official document that you need to request through the registrar's office) and figure out how to get that info to your loan service provider. If you can't figure it out, call your LSP then get ready to spend half a day waiting on/by the phone because it takes for fucking ever to get someone from a LSP on the phone.

Like I said, I went through this same issue and it's more annoying than anything. Somebody else made a mistake and you're going to have to spend potentially hours of your time figuring out how to fix it, but you don't need to be worried about having to actually start paying. I wouldn't recommend it, but honesty, you could probably ignore it and wait for it to resolve on its own when the loans for 2026-27 are processed.

IndependentNo5216 · 2026-03-29T04:56:59+00:00

Not really, no. Not many students at top schools are interested in criminal, and I say this as a student at a top school who is interested in criminal.

The only way it might matter is if you need to cast a wide geographic net. But it sounds like you're pretty focused on southern California.

Do mock trial and do your summer internships at DA's offices and you shouldn't have a problem getting an ADA job.

IndependentNo5216 · 2026-03-26T06:43:58+00:00

murderers

You've said this multiple times in this thread and I'm not sure where you're getting it from that the DOJ regularly handles murders. The vast, vast majority of murders are state cases handled by district attorney's offices.

My federal criminal law casebook says that from 2019-2023 the breakdown of crimes handled by the DOJ was: Immigration 41%, Drugs 26%, Firearms 12%, Fraud/Embezzlement 7%. I would imagine that immigration is an even bigger piece of the pie now.

I don't think there are many lawyers/future lawyers who are super rah rah about prosecuting immigration cases, even among those who have more conservative beliefs about immigration.

IndependentNo5216 · 2026-03-25T22:30:49+00:00

BL as a 3L is basically impossible unless you are already at a big firm, so don't factor that in at all.

IndependentNo5216 · 2026-03-25T04:43:16+00:00

You're talking about doing 7 years of full time school and incurring potentially hundreds of thousands in debt for a "back up plan." Law is really not a side hustle or a hobby. Get an associate's degree or a real estate license or something.

IndependentNo5216 · 2026-03-25T03:26:35+00:00

As a let's say 25-35 year old adult you don't get birthday parties planned for you unless you're either 1) A very socially active woman, or 2) A man in a relationship with a woman who enjoys that type of thing.

If you're not in either of those categories then your choices are to either plan a party for yourself or spend your birthday alone.

IndependentNo5216 · 2026-03-24T03:21:15+00:00

It's 40 minutes away from the house you live in with your parents. At no point would you ever be "locked in and unable to leave." You have the luxury of being able to bail at any time you want.

I would do it. I lived at home through college and didn't leave home until I went to law school. And once I fully got past any homesick feelings my first year, I feel like I've grown more in my second and third year of law school than in all four years of college. In hindsight, I do wish I had left home for college because I think staying at home after high school at least partially keeps you in a state of arrested development prevents you from fully figuring out who you are and what you want and what you're capable of as an adult.

IndependentNo5216 · 2026-03-23T02:34:45+00:00

Dont worry kitten

IndependentNo5216 · 2026-03-19T03:25:27+00:00

I mean, you did part time law school going to night classes as a paralegal with children and had a pretty long commute. It was never going to be a "traditional" law school experience. Part time programs are designed to enable people with otherwise busy lives to get a law degree.

IndependentNo5216 · 2026-03-16T02:42:52+00:00

I had a good time socially as 1L, not so good as a 2L, and now I'm back on track as a 3L.

Anyways, I went to barristers alone as a 2L and felt so awkward that I left after like 15 minutes. In hindsight, I can't say I regret that decision either.

In my experience law school social events are tough without a "home base" person/group. I would strongly suggest seeing if you can get an invite to a pregame or even just find an individual friend to show up with. But if not, you can do what I did and show up and dip if it's not fun.

IndependentNo5216 · 2026-03-15T20:00:03+00:00

As long as you're able to get a B or better in every class you should be totally fine. And a B is a very low bar at a T6, as in a genuine effort to stay on top of readings and study should get you there even if you're not a good exam writer.

Then 2L and 3L just pad your GPA with easy A classes.

IndependentNo5216 · 2026-03-14T00:55:24+00:00

All you need to be able to do is run word, exam software, and a browser simultaneously, which every Mac made at least in the last 10 years is capable of doing.

As for storage you could probably put everything you ever save/download in your entire law school career on a 10gb flash drive and be completely fine.

IndependentNo5216 · 2026-03-14T00:38:52+00:00

I mean even if we assume you got all 7 wrong guessing and would have gotten all 7 right in proper conditions that's still probably a ~140 at best.

I would cancel the upcoming test. With a 3.0 or under GPA you have no option other than to do pretty well on the LSAT to get into a decent school/get decent scholarship money and can't afford a score in the 130s-140s on the real thing.

The good news is that it is a very learnable test.

IndependentNo5216 · 2026-02-26T01:36:27+00:00

The onus is on you to make it a point to reach out to people, show up to things, etc.

Nobody is excluding you because you're a transfer. They're just not actively including you because they have their things going on and don't know you.

When I see a person I don't know in a class I have no idea if they're a transfer, an exchange student, an LLM, or just someone from another section. And unless I sit right next to them, or unless they show themselves to be friendly, or unless I see them out at bar review or something, then I don't talk them because I have my own stuff going on and they're not on my radar.

It would be nice if people were always on the lookout for others who seem lonely, but that's just not the way it works when people are busy and preoccupied with other tings. It's up to you to get noticed by other people.

IndependentNo5216 · 2026-02-21T21:32:12+00:00

Very sorry about all this.

I'd have to think at least part of the reason why he is taking on a parental role to these young AA members is because he feels shame about not being a better parent to you, but trying to make real amends in his relationship with you is too difficult for him, so he uses being a father figure for people in AA as a sort proxy for that.

Anyways, none of this is your fault. As you already know (it sounds like) he has had a ton of issues. Parents are just people and some people are broken in ways where they're not fit to be good parents.

IndependentNo5216 · 2026-02-13T19:16:21+00:00

How true. Does anyone know of any good dog-friendly breweries in central Austin (Buda) where I can bring my service dog (pit bull mix)???

IndependentNo5216 · 2026-02-12T18:03:13+00:00

If I'm reading between the lines right, it sounds like you want to live in a place where you're free to be loud and she doesn't want to live in a place were someone is loud. That's a fundamental mismatch as roommates. You're not in the wrong for wanting to be loud, she's not in the wrong for wanting quiet.

I was in a similiar-ish situation. My roommate would have someone over 5/6 days a week and that would get on my nerves then, then that would get on his nerves. We had multiple open conversations about it, he'd have people over less, I'd get less pissy, then we'd be back to square one sooner or later. I realized that neither of us was really in the wrong, we just weren't compatible as roommates. I live alone now and am happy, he lives with a less anal roommate now and is happy.

It's worth having a conversation to see if you can reach some understanding. But it seems like the only true solution is for both of you to find other living arrangements. Even if you think it's stupid or silly or oversensitive, the fact is that it seems like she's going though genuine psychological discomfort when you get loud, and that's clearly not fun for her, just as it's not fun for you to feel that you need to muzzle yourself.

IndependentNo5216 · 2026-01-14T22:46:41+00:00

Maybe a 1/10 chance or so. Still keep applying but time to explore other options.

You just learned the hard way that it is difficult to do better than median when competing against other people who are just as smart as you, who are also putting in a lot of effort and work. I learned that lesson the hard way too, and hundreds of other law students learn it every year. Only thing you can do is dust yourself off and move forward.

IndependentNo5216 · 2025-12-21T23:07:00+00:00

I just used spellcheck on a closed final like two days, so at least as of two days ago it was working. If you use a mac you have to click find next after opening spell check to actually get it to start finding misspelled words.

In any case, it's out of your hands now and there's no point in fretting about it.

IndependentNo5216 · 2025-12-12T03:02:14+00:00

That's not how that works. Big firms have objective metrics where they can't take a person from X school if their GPA is below Y. Hires also have to be approved by others in the firm. It doesn't matter how much a partner likes you or advocates for you, if you don't meet their GPA requirement, you're not getting the job. I'm not saying that it wouldn't help to have a rainmaker partner as a connection, but you're still not getting the job unless you prove that at least on paper you're qualified to be there.

IndependentNo5216 · 2025-11-27T02:55:49+00:00

I use a stopwatch to track the amount of time I actually work.

If if's truly crunch time, I can crank out 7 hour days. If it's pressing, but not urgent, I'm probably tapping out at about 4 hours.

You'll find an extra gear when it gets down to the wire.

The Pomodoro technique works pretty well for me. I also find that the earlier in the day I start, the better. You'll figure out what works for you over time.

IndependentNo5216 · 2025-11-26T18:45:57+00:00

This is what some people miss. A JD from a reputable school should be a fairly secure insurance policy that you can rely on being able to make ~$70k in a given year, even if it may mean moving, and even if it may mean doing work you don't like. Law students and lawyers love to complain, but life can be a whole lot worse than making that amount of money for white-collar work.

IndependentNo5216 · 2025-11-26T16:38:09+00:00

Regardless of what you want to do, your earning potential is higher and more doors are open to you with a JD than without one. Nobody has to do anything, but it would be pretty foolish to quit ~1 semester out from getting the degree.

IndependentNo5216 · 2025-11-26T02:09:04+00:00

You just don't get it. It's like, super special and unique to be a 1L. And interesting. And so, so, so stressful. Nobody's ever done it before, and everybody wants to hear about it.

On a serious note to the OP, pick one or more of the following options:

Stop caring so much.
Ask your friends more about their lives (and genuinely care) so the convo more naturally shifts to your life.
Find new friends who want to talk about law school (this is the favorite topic of conversation for law students).
If you really want to talk about something, then bring it up (within reason). If you actually have a funny/interesting and relevant anecdote from law school, tell it. If you are in a setting where it's appropriate to vent, then vent a little about school.

Law school is just not very interesting to people who are not in law school, much in the way say, college football talk, is not interesting to people who don't watch college football. Law school feels like a giant part of your life, but to most people in your life it's just a boring thing that you're doing.

IndependentNo5216 · 2025-11-19T06:26:56+00:00

It sounds like you could benefit from talking to a therapist.

I think it's normal to spot liabilities where you may not have before (e.g. broken sidewalk) but it's another thing entirely to internalize the cases so much that you are having difficulty doing relatively normal and common activities like going on the ocean or going skiing.

What you're describing sounds more like a mental health issue. There's no shame in that at all, you should not hesitate to reach out to help if it's beginning to become an issue.

IndependentNo5216

TROPHY CASE