So from what I can gather 1st year is the most important year of law school?
So from what I can gather 1st year is the most important year of law school?
i have never been more glad that i'm not in law school like some of my friends. It sounds like an awful time with high stress. I had no idea that some law school grads go on to become paralegals. I wouldn't take that job now with a bachelors degree.
If I wanted a useless degree I would have done a fifth masters in a subject that is actually interesting.
wow sorry for the useless post.
To the OP:
Last I read law school admissions are based on GPA and LSAT so to get into a top school you'd have to do exceptionally well on the LSAT. They have tables on this. I'll see if I can find the one I'm referencing.
LSAC calculated my gpa at 2.65, and I averaged 173 on my final 10 practice LSAT's. When the big day came, though, I managed only a 169. If you are not consistently hitting 167's or better, I'd advise you to forget about it, because you're not getting into a decent school with your gpa and a 164. There is a world of difference between 162 and 168. So think about it before you fork over a big chunk of change.
The difference maker for me was that I worked for four years after graduation, then figured out that law school is something I really want to do and will work hard at. I spent nine hours at the library today, and generally spend three or four a night, just to stay on top of my classes. Yes, it's hard. But I know it will be worth it.
Oh, and with my numbers, I got waitlisted and then rejected from a low-40's school, waitlisted and accepted at a high-40's school, and accepted immediately from a low 50's school. I disagree with chuckd's recommendation to attend the best school to which you are accepted. While 38 is significantly better than 58, I'd say that 44 in the state in which you intend to practice is better than 38 on the other side of the country. One of my good friends is a 1L at a low-30's school out of state racking up serious debt. I'm at the high-40's school where we both did undergrad (#1 public school in our state). We both intend to practice in the same city, where most of the lawyers and many of the judges went to my school. I'm pretty sure she will have no advantage over me.
Well, I just checked, and the school that eventually rejected me is #36 (CU). Not that it really affects my point.
..................... wrote:
foundit wrote:My mom went to law school for a year and hated it. She said it was completely worthless. She got an MBA and did alright with that. I've heard people say that law sucks your soul out of you. It seems like you need to be one of the really competitive types to succeed in it. Maybe some lawyers can chime in with the more pleasant aspects of working in this field?
Oh, well if your mom thinks law school is worthless, maybe we should just abolish it all together!
Some people think medical school is too long and hard, investment banking makes you a whore and venture capital (my profession) means you are a heartless SOB who screws entrepeneurs for a living.
But some of us love those industries: for us your mom's, as nice as I'm sure she is, opinion on anything is worthless.
I just made that story up. Bitch.
While law schools say they look at the "total application" how true is this? Or is it just purely GPA/LSAT? Does anyone have any stories about your college running helping you get into a law school? I am at one of the top public schools in the country, do you think xc/track experience will help a decent GPA (3.45) but far from outstanding?
Someone has already mentioned it, but it's big enough to keep in mind. (I'll put it in caps.)CONSIDER WHERE YOU WANT TO PRACTICE WHEN YOU FINISH LAW SCHOOL, AND THINK ABOUT GOING TO A SCHOOL NEARBY. Don't think that a degree from the 100th ranked school will get you a job wherever you want to live.I think too many people, myself included, look at law school as an extension of your academic career (where you basically try to go to the best schools / programs possible.) It's not. It's the beginning of your professional career, and the contacts you make with classmates, professors, and employers are critical.The schools you're looking at (realistically, maybe 40th to 100th in ranking) don't carry the clout to automatically or easily get you a job in the city/state where you want to end up working. A kid from Harvard can probably make moves all over the place. The rest of us need to look at the situtation very differently.The practical effect is that it's better to go to the 60th ranked school in the region you anticipate working in than the 40th ranked school somewhere else, IF you're trying to work in a specific place. (I think the numbers get screwy as you approach the top forty, since it's easier to get a job coming from those schools.) Of course, law school is a big investment and you don't want to lose out by staying close to home (or wherever), but there are real costs associated with being picky about where you want to live.
wankydoodle wrote:
So from what I can gather 1st year is the most important year of law school?
I would maintain that college running does very little to determine an admissions decision. At MOST, the extra stuff (not your GPA or LSAT) figures for less than half or a third of the decision, unless you come from a seriously underrepresented demographic. Gay eskimos, for example. Your undergrad institution, reccommendations, demographic, course of study, trend in grades, prep school / distinguishing background, sports, and other extracurriculars make up the rest. That doesn't leave a lot for sports.
Think about it in this horrible way: For most people, if you score three or four more points on the LSAT, it will outweigh your entire athletic career. You might not get into a school with a 160 and a solid record in sports that you will definitely get into with a 164, other things being equal. The difference at the top of the scale is even greater.
(I'm mad 'cuz I was an athlete and I'm sure it didn't count for shit.)
i know a guy who ran at stanford for a year in law school and was pretty damn fast. law school sounds horrible, though, from him and all my other friends that have been there...
I've been practicing 17 years, and these same stories about the lawyer glut were posted on the bulletin board outside of my advisors office during undergrad 20 years ago. This is nothing new.
I started off in a decent sized firm (55+) after turning down some large firms. I realized within days that I would HATE firm life. I eventually went to three-lawyer shop before starting my own practice.
I landed a great gig teaching employment law seminars around the country when I first opened my own shop, and when I taught them locally, I was basically getting paid to advertise (standing in front of a room of business people for six hours discussing the law) and it was a huge boom for me which resulted in all kinds of business in different areas.
I enjoy being the captain of my own ship and cannot imagine what things would have been like had I stayed in a firm. The practice of law is just like every other business: Work hard, do what you enjoy, be creative and the work will find you.
bump this for more law school advice if anyone has it!
Would it help if I pretended to be not-straight on my application? They cannot prove otherwise...
FWIW, I teach at a law school, and worked both in government and at a big firm before being lucky enough to get my current job. The vast majority of lawyers I know are fairly happy with their careers. The ones that are the happiest are the ones who had a pretty good understanding of what they wanted to do with their law degrees before they even went to law school. Many of these folks are not doing the big firm thing. Instead, they are working either for the government or for public interest groups. Even though they are not getting rich, most find their work quite stimulating and rewarding.
My law school happens to draw a lot of students who are interested in environmental law, and so tends to draw idealistic types. But even the ones who go to work for big firms tend to be pretty happy. Again, I think the key is that most of these folks seemed to know what they were signing up for, in advance.
The ones that seem to be the least happy are those who go to law school simply because they don't know what else to do when they graduate from college. Some of these folks seem to act as if they suffer a rude awakening when they finally learn what their realistic career paths look like.
Tryon - are you at VLS or L&C?
anyone else taking the LSAT this saturday?
L&C.
I met a chick last week who works at The Gap. Turns out she has a law degree from Ohio State and hasn't been able to find a job in 2 years.
She was pretty hot though. Might text her later.
chuck d wrote:
and don't try to run for a school during law school. it seems pretty clear from your grades that you're not the best or most focused student. your first year grades are very, very important for your future employment. don't add something that would take time away from studying. i can't stress this point enough.
Bad advice. Running can release stress and improve studying. Avoid other things such as; going out too often, drinking heavily, or gratifying yourself more than 11 times daily.
uh, no. i'm guessing you're not a law student/lawyer. running can do those things. running for a school, on the other hand, causes you to miss class, miss study time, and piss off your professors. law school your first year is not like undergrad. you don't choose the times of your classes, the school does. and it is inevitable that practice time, meets, and other team commitments will conflict with class times. there are ABA-mandated attendance requirements for classes that, if you don't fulfill, you fail the class. if you think you had professors in undergrad who didn't like students who miss class or come late/leave early, wait until you meet law professors. this is professional school we're talking about here. students are expected to act like professionals. maybe this isn't how you think school should be but that's how it is. law school - at least at the schools worth going to - is not something to be taken lightly. if you want to be successful and not piss away the ridiculous tuition being charged, it is your first priority by a long, long distance.
by all means run. but running should fit around school, not the other way around.