Your friend sounds familiar--I majored in political science and minored in history. I had every intent of graduating and going to law school. However, I decided to take a year in between and work in a law firm to make sure it's something I really wanted to do. I loved it, but quickly realized I would be crazy to put myself through three years of school and the only thing I'd be certain of graduating with was about $150,000 in debt. I still loved the legal field though, so I went to get my paralegal certification. I have now been working in the legal department of a major insurance company for about a year and a half. I really don't see the need for paralegals dwindling any time soon, especially with the way the market is for lawyers. A paralegal can do pretty much the same work a first-year attorney can do, and it will cost the client less money. Also, I don't know in what area of the country your friend lives, but here on the east coast, I see paralegal positions open up pretty frequently. Sure, you most likely need experience, but your friend has some and if he has good references, I don't see it being a problem. I had no experience at all in litigation and I ended up working for three partners of pretty great firm. However, this is just my opinion based on limited information. If you have any more specific questions, just let me know!
I tend to agree with this. At least in New Orleans a good paralegal is a pretty hot commodity. You won't make what a lawyer makes, but you won't have the debt. You also won't have the stress and crazy work hours. Like anything, it is going to depend on the lawyers for whom you are working. There is a lot of truth to the fact that lawyers can be real bastards, particularly at larger firms and even more so with younger lawyers at large firms. It can be a nice gig. Your top salary isn't going to be senior partner kind of money, but you can do well as a paralegal given time and experience.
Have you seen an increase in illegal aliens due to the escalating drug war in Mexico? If yes, by how much? It seems like people try to cross unprepared for the terrain/conditions - Does this mean you guys are finding more corpses now? Have you found any? You say you are not a horrible racist dream wrecker, but do you have any racist colleagues? Or do they get screened out?
Is there any truth to the anecdotes that there is a large influx of nationalities other than Mexican, Central/South American people being smuggled across the border? The stories I have heard mention a lot of Asian folks....Chinese, Pakistani, etc.
Ever since immigration reform has started with the Gang of 8, apprehensions are up everywhere, especially Texas, which has shifted to being the most popular spot to cross and apprehensions have almost tripled in some places down there. Yes, there are racist assholes, but I've never seen blatant abuse or anything like that, more like "just deport em all back to where they came from" guys who refuse to learn Spanish (which is dangerous when you need it to keep you alive). The guides seem to not let the groups know about how long the journey actually is. They tell them they'll only walk for a few days, but once they hit the more rugged terrain they let them know that it's more like as week or even two. They also leave the slow ones behind, rob and beat the weak ones, and all that. They're only job is to get as many people across as possible, if they don't make it, they don't care, they already got paid.
The majority of crossers are Mexican, but most groups now have at least a few OTMs (Other than Mexican). The OTM groups have been gigantic, and believe it or not, are ridiculously resilient, and hike mountains like it's no problem. Can't say that about a bunch of my colleagues.
- How often do you apprehend coyotes? Are they typically American or Mexican citizens? Can you identify them, or are they like any other illegal in a group? Do they get special consideration if you do catch them? - Is it true that some border landowners will shot illegal aliens on site? - Have you apprehended the same person more than once? - What is your answer to the problem? What do you think will work? - What's your biggest drug bust in volume and value?
Most groups have guides, but they tell the others in the group that if they tell, that the cartels are going to kill their families, so getting a positive ID is hard. They usually run the opposite direction of the group anyway just to save themselves. Guides get separate and much more harsh charges than regular crossers, and may actually get jail time. I've seen guides from both the US and Mex. To my knowledge I haven't stopped the same people more than once, but we routinely get repeat offenders. I've seen a guy who had over 50 arrests just for crossing, gotta admire his effort. I'm somewhat moderate, and Mexico is such a shithole in so many places, we do need reform to make getting a visa (for work or otherwise) easier. A VAST majority of people we catch do just want to work and help their families, you better believe that if I had kids in Mexico and needed to feed them, I would do my very best to do what I could. I do my best to be as nice as possible to those that we catch, because fuck it, what's the point of being a dick? As far of the drug part, can't speak much about all that just because I'm not sure if I can, but I've seen upwards of 4000 lbs.
I have a friend I played hockey with in SD who was BP. Good guy. He always had to be discrete about telling people what he did for obvious reasons. Once in a strip club in vegas I mentioned it in a conversation with him and he got pissed, never know who's eavesdropping. How often are the coyotes and groups armed? Do you ever come in direct contact with cartel members, or is it more they take the smugglers and coyotes, get them to the border and send them on their way?
I've encountered a bunch of gang members, for I feel like the guys who are in the cartels be as desecrate as they can, as to not endanger everyday operations. Haven't directly dealt with anyone in the brush with guns, mostly pocket knives and all that. Thankfully.
For those not in the US, I believe 'nurse practitioner' means mya did a Bachelor's and a Master's in Nursing. Apparently as of 2015, for a nurse to be able to do become an NP they will need to get a Doctorate of Nursing. Mya, it seems like for you to stay an NP you won't be required to get the degree. Do you or any of your colleagues plan to get it anyway? What are your thoughts on this? Because mine are along the lines of:
Did all those hours I spent in after-school sports and anti-smoking clubs actually help get me into a state school? Or was it just my good SAT scores? Or the fact I took the time to fill out the application? Also, current substitute teacher/ soon to be another high school teacher here.
How do you guys filter applications? There must be some primary criteria that are first met to make the job easier. Who sorts through the unfiltered applications? Are they only looking for GPA and test scores?
How often do you call bullshit on people's admissions essays? College admissions essays are the bullshitiest of bullshit; from what I remember, they'd make James Frey blush. So how often you you end up saying "Look, dude, you took a week long trip, you didn't fix African poverty"?
Well I work in undergraduate admissions, so I have never seen a GRE score or a letter of intent. I have looked for myself, however, as my school will pay for my masters degree if I want to pursue it. I've found that most masters programs are pretty transparent about their requirements. They tend to state if they require a certain GPA and/or test score and I have sometimes seen programs state that if you do not have X GPA, you need Y test score. If grad school admissions are anything like undergrad, your GPA and test scores will be weighed somewhat equally. There are a lot of essays that are filled with fluff, but I think a lot of admissions offices kind of encourage it. My school does not require an essay, so the ones I read are not often trying too hard to build up something that isn't genuine. Many times, you can tell based on the student's GPA/ACT/SAT if their essay is going to be genuine. BSing an essay isn't a death knell; in our office it is completely secondary to GPA and test scores. I would estimate that about 75% of the essays I read are the student trying to convince me why I should accept them. I really only take an essay or letter of recommendation into consideration if the student is borderline, unless a high-achieving student opens up about things like criminal history, drug/alcohol use, etc. In most cases, the people who are sending multiple essays, resumes, letters of recommendation, etc., are the ones who don't need to. Not all of the students who fill out an application follow through with the other required materials (high school transcript, test scores, app fee), so there are plenty of apps that float in space. Beyond that, I work for a large state school that has been doing quite well generating applications in recent years. On our staff, there are about 15 people who are initial reviewers of freshman applications including myself. We all have the authority to accept a student, but if we feel a student should be denied, our director has final say. in tough cases, we all meet in a committee once a week and discuss borderline applicants one by one. Committee review, to me, sometimes feels like that scene in "Animal House" where they toss beer cans at Flounder's picture on the projection screen. In peak application times, which tend to be November and December, we all actually have to take part in mandatory overtime to keep up - usually about an extra six hours per week. All of our application reading is run through a software that allows us to place the highest achieving applicants at the top of the queue if needed. That way, we can make sure we are accepting scholarship-eligible students in a timely manner. Other than that, we all have an equal share of reading the good apps and the bad. It depends on the school - not all state schools are created equal. One of our in-state peers requires a 2.4 high school GPA to be admitted to its engineering college whereas in most cases at my school, a 2.4 GPA would be denied from the university altogether. Sorry, a 2.4 student should not be building bridges. It can also depend on what the school's application numbers were looking like during your senior year. I hate to look at what I do as a business, but universities do need tuition dollars to keep their doors open and to avoid layoffs. I have heard of schools admitting students that in other years would not have even sniffed the waitlist because their application numbers were in the crapper. For scholarship and honors consideration, your high school co-curriculars probably carried some weight, but just for getting into your school, they didn't carry anywhere near the weight of your GPA and SAT score. I used to work for a for-profit college (the kind that advertises during "Maury") and this used to be the case for that type of admissions. The Feds put a stop to that sometime in 2011. I think that perk led to a lot of SHADY practices at for-profit schools who now have a terrible reputation for overselling and not delivering - basically tell prospects whatever they want to hear as long as it gets them in class. I was forced to be quite pushy on a daily basis, which is definitely NOT the way to sell to 17 year olds. For-profits and many smaller liberal arts private colleges still operate on a quota system. Those admissions reps work their asses off to get each and every student who shows up on move-in weekend. That 800-student division III school in rural Michigan doesn't get its applications on name alone. My office does not operate on a quota system, but I still oversee an in-state and out-of-state territory and I can track the number of applications, acceptances, and enrollments compared to that time a year ago. If there are any significant increases or drops, my supervisor would know about them. BTW, this blog does a pretty good job at poking fun at the intricacies of the admissions field: http://admissionsproblems.tumblr.com/
You are right ma'am (or sir, but I seem to recall that you are a ma'am). I was working as a critical care RN, which I hope most people know is a seriously fucking very very hard job, and had been tossing around the idea of going back for my NP. Once they started talking about changing the entry to practice to being a Doctorate program, I hightailed it back to school so I could be grandfathered in with "just a" Masters. As far as getting a Doctorate, I originally would have said "hell no" because I don't see the point (and the student loans and hours of studying and giving up a social life are fresh in my head). But I am working at the place where I got my Masters and could go back for a Doctorate for a ridiculously reduced tuition rate, so now I am at the "never say never point". Man, my job as a NP is a sweet gig though. For any RN's who are thinking about it going back....do it....it doesn't suck.
An umbrella? Must have been one of the compact ones. Fun fact, there is almost like a suction affect that occurs so if you have the desire to shove something up your ass, make damn sure it is long enough that you can keep a good grip on it or you will become a story that starts with "you will never believe what I saw today...." Just a friendly PSA....
Did you find out about this so-called "suction effect" from your job...or your social life that you cling to so desperately? Just curious. Welcome to the perils of talking about sticking things up your ass...every comment turns you into a suspect.