Second-year law student Nicole Vahlkamp knew that pursuing law was a possibility since she was a teenager, but she had a career in business before ever attending Miami Law.
While Vahlkamp is originally from the Chicago area, she wanted to be close to Washington, D.C., for internships during her undergraduate career. So, the University of Maryland was the perfect choice, as she was also offered the Banneker scholarship.
While attending Maryland, she double majored in government and politics, and economics. This led Vahlkamp to a career in business after graduating, where she started a marketing consulting firm.
"After a few years of working in business, I decided that I wanted to go to law school, and I was already living in Florida at the time," Vahlkamp said.
Since she wanted to live and eventually practice law in Florida, she applied to law schools within the state. She applied to Miami after visiting the campus after having a really good experience meeting students.
During Vahlkamp's first year of law school, she mainly focused on her studies. "It's really hard to do anything, such as jobs or internships, besides school," she said.
However, thanks to the law school's strong curriculum and opportunities in litigation, she worked at the U.S. Attorney's office in the appellate division this summer.
"I got to watch oral arguments and sign up on circuit, and work on an appellate brief that was filed a few months ago on behalf of the government," she said.
This semester, Vahlkamp is interning with a federal judge in the southern district of Florida, and the following semester, she will be interning with the chief bankruptcy judge in the same district.
Vahlkamp is incredibly fond of Miami's legal community and plans to remain there throughout her future career. "Everybody in the area is incredibly tight-knit and supportive," she said.
She aspires to one day be a prosecutor with the U.S. Attorney's office but is unsure what type of litigation she would specialize in.
Vahlkamp says that one of her most significant pieces of advice for students applying to law school is to leverage areas where they can receive scholarships.
Studying for the LSAT is crucial because you can get scholarships based on your score. It's worth it to prepare, and take a lot of practice tests, according to Vahlkamp.
She also says when applying, make sure to try for both match and stretch schools.
"Those schools will give you scholarships, and you can leverage the scholarship offers from other schools when you're negotiating with the school that you might want to go to," Vahlkamp said.
Besides the tuition, the cost of living where you go is often overlooked.
Vahlkamp also recommends attending law school in the state where you eventually want to practice law.
"I wanted to start networking right away as a law student, which is something I've done," she said. "I've been able to leverage that network in order to get great opportunities."
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