Law School Diary: Law Students Get Apartments More Easily

In this week's Law School Diaries column, law student "Elle Woods" gets a summer job.

Elle's Law School Diary:

Aside from actually finding someplace to work, the hardest part about the summer job hunt is figuring out summer housing.  Now that I’ve spent hours upon exasperated hours scouring the internet for summer sublets, I almost wish I had just taken a job in Philadelphia, stayed in my own apartment, and avoided this entire process.  Or maybe not.   I’m actually very excited to be in New York for the summer again.  I worked on Wall Street every summer during undergrad, and always had an absolute blast.  Two things have made me question my decision to take this job, though.

First, finding a nice, reasonably priced apartment is nearly impossible.  Let me clarify that working at a non-profit does not pay well (or at all, for that matter).  In the past, I used to live in Columbia or NYU’s summer intern housing.  To give you an idea, think back to your freshman year in college and the dorms you lived in.  Now add $1200 to the monthly price. And now add a few cockroaches.  That’s essentially what this housing is.

In the grand scheme of things, it’s really not that bad; it’s a structured program through a university, so you know what you’re getting, and the prices are fairly reasonable so far per New York standards.  However, I refuse to commute from the Upper West Side all the way to the Financial District, so Columbia was out, and by the time I got around to submitting my NYU application, all of the cheaper apartment options were taken.

So, on to Plan B.  I was on Craigslist around the clock for a week. Once, I even got cold-called in class while I was busy checking out “Spacious Luxury 3BD in the Village” (ha, yea right!). I was desperate to figure out my summer housing ASAP so that I could let my job know what dates I’d be working, and also so that I could sublet my own apartment here in Philly.

I sent out dozens of emails with my copy-and-pasted text, including a line something like, “My name is Elle Woods and I’m a law student at UPenn, etc. etc.” I didn’t realize how strategic saying that would actually be!  I got a ton of responses that started with “Oh, hey! I’m a law student, too!,” or something of the sort.  In fact, the apartment that I finally just signed a sublease agreement for belongs to a Fordham Law student, and her roommate is a young attorney.

I love the advantages that come with being in this “legal fraternity.”  The thing with Craigslist is that you never really know for sure what you’re getting. I didn’t have time to go up to NY and look at apartments in person.  It was a relief for me renting from a fellow law student, and I’m sure it was comforting for them knowing that the person living in their bedroom wasn’t some irresponsible nut-job.   In fact, several people pushed me to the top of their list simply because I was a law student.  I’m glad to see that law school is paying off in small ways well before graduation.

The second thing that concerned me was that I was putting myself into a New-York-City-shaped box.  I’ve heard at a lot of law-related events that it’s hard for Penn Students to convince employers that they want to be somewhere besides New York.  Obviously, if there is some tie to a region (you’re from there, you’ve worked there, etc.), then that’s not the case.  I, however, am from Upstate New York, I went to school in Upstate New York, and I’ve worked for three years in New York City.

Oh, and did I mention that I want to work in Washington D.C.?  D.C., especially, is a hard market to break into, and my resume screams New York.  I’ve seen that the same is often true of firms in Philadelphia.  For instance, I interviewed with a city-wide minority program, the purpose of which is to encourage law students to stay and practice in Philly.  There’s a common notion that kids from Penn are often not given as many jobs through this program as they otherwise would be, simply because firms expect them to hop over to New York or D.C. as soon as they graduate.

For me, specifically, it was a challenge trying to prove some sort of tie to Philadelphia when the first time I had ever even been here was move-in day eight months ago.  So I’m obviously worried that I’ve sealed my fate by accepting yet another job in New York.  I guess we’ll have to wait and see about that until on-campus recruiting in the fall. But for now, I’m excited to just get through the next two weeks of final exams, and spend, what should be,another glorious summer in New York City.

Photo by numbphoto