Evil Milkman

Anybody who has been through law school or knows anything is certainly welcome to ask questions, comment, give advice, etc...

I'll try to make this brief. I've got to run to work shortly.

All right. I'm 20 years old and at junior level in college and am currently majoring in business (marketing). I'm enjoying it enough, I suppose, but I've come to the conclusion that I am very interested in going to law school. My heart, I believe, is set on the legal profession. I've contacted some of the staff from the school, and have a general idea when to apply, take the LSAT, and so on.

I would apply somewhere around October, 2006 and take the LSAT in June, 2006.

For now, I just have a few starter questions.

• I realize there is no actual "recommended" or "required" major for law school; having said that, I'm interested in a lot of majors, including business (of which I'm already a major in). Would it best to take mostly courses that would help prepare me for the first year of law school (i.e. philosophy)?
  
• This question goes along with the above: I know that great undergrad grades are quite important, next to LSAT scores. There seems to be a lot of argument surrounding choosing easy classes for a good GPA versus interesting classes for a possible lower GPA. Like I've said, my interests are broad and I only chose business for my undergraduate major because it seemed to be the most viable for after graduation. Now that I've decided that I wish to study law, I desperately want good grades. My GPA currently is around 3.6. Any honest advice?
  
• The law school I'm thinking about attending is a 3rd tier school. Would it be significantly better to attend a 1st tier school, even if that school is out of state (I'm attending a college only an hour from hometown), more expensive, and generally less convenient?

To be completely frank, I'm quite stressed about this decision. I feel relieved in the sense that I've decided a path to take, now I must follow through with the rest of my undergraduate career.

I'll probably be on later tonight and tomorrow to post other inquiries about law school. Please, if you would like to help but need more information, feel free to post or PM me.

Anxst

A close friend of mine just went through this exact thing, so I can offer some secondhand advice based on her experiences.

First, your major isn't really a big consideration from what I understand, especially since you are majoring in a basic technical area such as business. However, you may want to look at taking a few classes that would help prepare, such as any logic or rhetoric classes that are offered. Both of those would be a big help.

Next to your LSAT score, it seems grades are really important in getting in. My friends LSAT scores were rather good, but her slighlty lower grades put her on the waiting list. She got called in to school the day after orientation started (and wasn't that exciting...she didn't even have a place to live there) to go to U-Penn. Take classes that will be helpful to you, but still stick with things you'll get good grades in.

If you have the option, definitely go to a 1st Tier school. With a lot of the firms out there, they serve as a kind of 'old boys' (no offense to the ladies, but that's the term that came to mind). Many people have gotten drawn into internships simply because they went to the same Law School half the firm went to.

If you like, I'll ask my friend if you can contact her. If she agrees with it, I'll PM you her email address. She's the one who finally got me off my ass to look into going back to school, and is always willing to help people work to better themselves.

Good luck!

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Don't mind me. I'm just releasing the insanity pressure from my headvalves.

asaris

Honestly, as a first-year law student, it seems like schools only look at GPA and LSAT. They might take into account other things you've done (like working or grad school), but I doubt they look at what courses you take. That being said, you'll need good logical skills to do well on the LSAT, and good rhetorical skills as well to do well in law school. And as far as I can tell, being an interesting person (beyond being a good goal in itself) is going to help a lot in making contacts. A lot of law students seem virtually identical. If you can talk a little about philosophy or literature or whatever, it's going to help you make connections in way that's not accessible to a lot of law students. If you have any specific questions, feel free to PM me.

Oh, and 1st tier vs. 3rd tier? It depends a LOT on what you want to do. Let me use my personal experience as an example. One of the careers I'm thinking about is prosecution, in particular working as a county prosecutor in Western Michigan. If I was sure about this, I think I might have been best off going to Cooley Law School. It's cheap, and they probably would have given me lots of money. But I'm not sure, and the better school you go to, the more options you'll have. I ended up having to choose between a higher ranked school on the East Coast and a somewhat well ranked school in the midwest. Since I'm most likely going to practice in the midwest, I decided to go to the less well ranked school. I guess the point I'm trying to get across is, where you want to try and go to depends a lot on what you want to do with your JD.

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"Die Deutschen meinen, daß die Kraft sich in Härte und Grausamkeit offenbaren müsse, sie unterwerfen sich dann gerne und mit Bewunderung:[...]. Daß es Kraft giebt in der Milde und Stille, das glauben sie nicht leicht."

"The Germans believe that power must reveal itself in hardness and cruelty and then submit themselves gladly and with admiration[...]. They do not believe readily that there is power in meekness and calm."

-- Friedrich Nietzsche

Rodney

Like most knowledge-worker professions, the law requires you to take in data, organize and analyze it, and form arguments or conclusions based on the analysis. Take classes that give you practice in this kind of work. Philosophy -- much as I don't care for most philosophy academics -- is one field; political science is another; journalism -- basic reporting and editing -- is good, too, for the method discipline it teaches. I knew a lot of journalism majors who went straight on to law school and did well.

TM875

Why are you stressed about this decision? If this bothers you, then maybe law shouldn't be something you look into. Lots of high pressure decisions and all that...

Anyway, I was an Economics major in college. Graduated with a GPA around 3.67. I did an accelerated Master's program, so I had an MBA when I was 23. Not wanting to be out of school for too long, I took my LSATs and went to law school.

I'll cut to the chase...it's hard. Really, really freaking hard. I passed all requirements to get an MBA with no problems. Law school is a different piece of the pie. I got my degree in two years, but I had no life (unlike undergrad, where I partied all the time). If you're dedicated, go for it.

If you're not - or don't think that law is something you want to do for the rest of your life (remember that lawyers are very, very unhappy people)...then just get an MBA. They're as common as pigeons nowadays. It's not hard, and offers you a few more years in school to decide on what life course you want.

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"I've made only one mistake in my life. But I made it over and over and over. That was saying 'yes' when I meant 'no'. Forgive me."

maleficent

Back when I was graduating college (from a pretty good university in the Northeast) i was seriously considering law school. After several conversations with daddy-dearest (a lawyer) and several of his judge and lawyer friends, (and this was back in the mid 80s - which is a different time and place now) that when applying to law schools, you really want to go to the best possible school, not the school you can afford (Loans and such can be paid back your legal education is not something you want to cheap out on.)

I was a double major in math and finance and graduated with a 3.8 average, with LSAT scores in the top 10 percent of all people taking the tests. I applied to Harvard, Columbia, and Stanford as my top three choices... I got rejected at my top three choices... I got into my fallbacks, but at that point, I wasn't sure that the return on my investment would be there. (On further review, I sometimes wish I had gone to Law School instead of dropping out of an Engineering program.)

Long story short -- Choice of school matters especially depending on what type of law you want to practice, better schools will get you in the front door of a lot of law firms rather than Podunk University's school of law.

As for your grades right now -- your GPA is good but not great, you've got 3 semesters to do something about it. You also might want to take a look at the courses you are taking, if you are taking Easier courses, you might want to bulk up a little and drop those and take some harder stuff....And really bust your butt when it comes to the LSATs -- those matter...

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Redlemon

My sister thought that she wanted to be a lawyer. After graduating from undergraduate, she spent a year as a paralegal, which made her realize that she didn't want to be a lawyer after all. It is a big monetary and time investment, so best to be sure.

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I can't read your signature. Sorry.

boom29

I have struggled on whether to go Law School for the past two years and I can still honestly say that I don't know. I have read books and I have talked to lawyers, professors and career counselors.

Major doesn't really matter too much, but it would be got to take philosophy and rhetoric courses (as others have mentioned) to help the critical thinking aspect of things.

If you plan to apply to Law School right out of undergrad, GPA is very important. Don't take easy courses just to boost up your GPA, the admissions people look at your course work and your school in putting your GPA in perspective. The LSAT is just as important, make sure to prepare for it because it very well could determine where you'll be able to go.

Going to a top tier school is exponentially better than going to a 3rd-tier school. It has been mentioned, but there are firms that will only consider candidates from the tops schools. In that sense, a 3rd-tier school will limit your possibilities of employment and your salary base/ceiling post graduation.

Don't feel like you have to go to Law School straight out of undergrad. Take a few years off and get into the work force. Not only will you be able to reevaluate whether you really do want to follow this route, but you will also gain valuable work experience that does make an impact on how Law Schools look at you. Furthermore, working for a few years, will lower the impact of your GPA a bit -- of course, the LSAT will still be as important.

Law Schools is very expensive and time consuming so don't rush making a decision.

I recommend looking/buying at the following book:
How to Get Into Law School
It is a great read, it is very informative and it will really make you think about your decision. Being in a similar situation as you, this is the best advice I can give you, if you have any questions for me feel free to PM me.

Evil Milkman

Thinks for all the honest advice everyone.

Now I've got a lot of self-searching to do.