[We're following one post-grad as she grabs that diploma, packs up her college life and heads on out to the big, bad world. There's a lot of change comin' her way and one big challenge: The LSAT.]

So, it’s crunch time. From this point on until October 9^th, my life is really about one thing and one thing only – the LSAT. Of course, I will still have everyday life to live, but from this point on my post-grad life really is going to be dictated by what I am convinced to be as one of the most evil tests in all of existence.

And I’ll be the first to admit – I am terrified. I’m absolutely shaking in my Rainbow flip flops at the thought of one test having so much power over my life.

You gotta do what you gotta do though, right? And what I have to do is do well enough on the test in October, so I don’t have to take it again in December, and come out with a score that satisfies me enough to get into a good law school for Fall 2011 admissions.

A lot is riding upon this exam. If you aren’t familiar with the whole “getting into law school business of admissions,” the LSAT is the end-all-be-all factor in admissions. According to Top Law Schools.com, “Your undergraduate GPA and LSAT score are the two most significant factors that admissions committees look at. The fact that a four hour standardized test carries as much, if not more, weight than four years of classes should tell you how important the LSAT is.” Yikes! Read More »

For college seniors, the fear is setting in right about….. now. Finals are coming to an end, graduation is looming (or already happened), and with nothing else to do, you’ve got a lot of time on your hands to think. And wonder. And freak the f**k out.

I remember when I was finishing my senior year. I developed a paralyzing fear that would wake me up in the middle of the night (even after wine pong night when NOTHING should wake you up). For the first time in my life I had no idea what was coming next, where I’d be, what I’d be doing, or who I’d be doing it with. And if that isn’t enough to make you crap your pants, well, you’ve got nerves of steel.

Of course, now different things scare me. Like Guidos, my parents finding my “list,” and people with tracheotomy holes (OMG I just Googled that for spell-checking purposes and nearly barfed), but thinking back to that point in my life still, to this day, gives me pangs of anxiety. Some CollegeCandy writers are at that point, so in an effort to get everyone thinking of something besides the bleak economy and leaving the best 4 years of their life behind, I asked everyone to share their biggest fears this week. And – BONUS! – I got some dedicated CollegeCandy readers to share too!

Ricki – University of Michigan: My biggest fear is spiders.  I always have to check the ceilings before I go to bed, just in case.

Rachael – University of Miami: My biggest fears are losing people I love, truly being alone, failure (aka living in my home town forever). Oh, and snakes – I can’t stand snakes. *Shudder*

Andi – Drake University: Getting a paper cut on my eyeball, and having someone throw-up on me. [A CC reader! Submitted via Twitter]

Brittany – University of Saint Thomas: Rejection and hydroplaning. Read More »

I’ve always believed that change is a good thing. It can take you out of your comfort zone and introduce you to new people, new places, and new experiences that you would never have known otherwise. I’m all for change, really I am,  just not when that change removes me from my carefree lifestyle of afternoon classes, friends, parties, and little to no responsibilities.

Everyone says that college is the best four years of your life and now, with only a few short weeks left of it, it’s finally starting to sink in. I wake up in the morning (feeling like P. Diddy) without the sound of an alarm, go to a class or two, and just hang out all day with my friends. I do what I want, when I want, and besides a few participation points deducted from my grade when I’ve been too hungover/lazy to go to class, there’s been very few repercussions.

Sure, I’ve definitely had some stressful times in college, like when I pulled three all-nighters in a row so I could finish my final project or that time I forgot about a midterm exam. But in the grand scheme of things, college life has been awesome. Actually, awesome doesn’t even begin to describe it. I’m not sure there’s even a word. It’s been….rad? Read More »

What's that noise? Where's Olivia Benson?!

Some days I wake up in my NYC apartment, put on my robe, and walk around with a bowl of oatmeal saying “man oh man, am I real adult or what?” I pay bills, I clip coupons, and I change my sheets on a biyearly basis. It’s kinda like I’m checking my mailbox twice a day to see if anyone has sent me an official “you’re a functioning grown-up” certificate. It’s kinda equivalent in my head to a law degree or an MBA — in the sense that all three are frame-able.

But some nights, I lay awake in my bed, heart racing, scared sh*tless that a serial killer is going to break-in to my apartment, steal my stuff, murder me, and then use double-ply toilet paper to purposefully clog the very fragile toilets. My fears get even worse when my roommates spend the weekend away and I’m stuck hypothetically protecting our apartment all by myself. I go through enough possible murder scenarios in my head before bed that I could win in a “worst ways to be killed in NYC” brainstorming competition against Law and Order SVU and Lifetime Movie Network.

And I make things worse by watching scary movies alone. I don’t know why I ever thought watching the Home Alone trilogy before bed was a good idea. After making that genius movie decision, I slept with a butter knife under my pillow and a complimentary restaurant box of matches in my hand. Read More »

I have no idea what I want to do with the rest of my life. And yes, I know there are others in the same boat. I know I don’t have to declare a major for another year, and I know there’s time. I’ve heard it all. But it doesn’t leave me any less nervous.

In some ways, I like the unclear path. I am taking classes because they sound interesting, not because they will help me complete a major. I am learning just because I want to, and my grades are just because I want to try my best, not because I know I am looking for a certain grad school or want to impress future employees. For all I know, I could be studying subjects which will be completely irrelevant to my future. So I have no pressure.

Except, I still have pressure. In some ways, it’s even more than I had in high school. Sure, it’s not like I know I have to get a certain GPA and do certain activities to get into college. But now that I’m here, I can’t believe there’s no more plan. I am the kind of person who plans out her entire future—not minute-by-minute or a 10-year-plan, more like a general idea of what’s to come– but now I have no concept of past college. All my life, I knew I was going to go to graduate high school and go to college. Now I’m here, and I can check that off the list. Read More »

In a little under two weeks, I am going to college. Between the time I received Wellesley’s acceptance envelope and this very moment, I seemed to go through two basic emotions: excitement and terror. Excitement for the obvious reasons—no more telling my parents of my every location, no more taking classes just to make my college application look good, and no more dealing with the social drama of public high school, especially being around fourteen-year-old freshmen who think they know it all.

But wait.

Now it’s my turn to regress back to being a freshman, to leave the comfort of seniority to once again be pushed into a world where I am at the bottom of the ranks. This drop in status happened in middle school. It happened in high school. And I have no doubt it will happen in college. Read More »