Going To Law School

I also fear that my interest may be too academic, if that makes sense. At times that makes me consider legal academia as an option. I know from previous grad school that I have the temperament for acedemic work, and my exposure to legal scholarship gives me the (possibly false) impression that it favors a wider-ranging and more interdisciplinary approach than other quarters of the academy. But is the job market as dire as in the humanities/social sciences? And is the choice between practice and scholarship one I'd have to make in my first year of school? Please to make my life decisions for me, ILE.

there might be more choices than just practise or academia if you are interested in black letter law, which i suppose is what you mean about the academic interest. for example, you might look for work at whatever organisation drafts legislation in your country, or the local law reform commission, or go into some kind of legislative policy type work. i have just commenced as an associate to a supreme court judge and it is ALL scholarly stuff. which is cool and completely different to what my mates in firms are doing.

Become a law librarian. Get a joint J.D./M.L.S. and work in an academic law library.

Some schools have tuition repayment programs that help you A LOT with your debt if you choose public interest or something low-paying. You should look into this more if debt is the only thing keeping you from doing it.

Funny to read my old posts on this thread. I think I'm already in a pretty different mental place than I was 1-2 years ago. Still thinking law school - Fall 2008 at this point - but feeling less entangled with other peoples' ideas of what I should do and more able to sort it out for myself. Starting to think music/entertainment/IP law might be a good field and have been speaking to a few people who have done it.

One question - I have a 170 LSAT from last year and not very good grades (though I'll be 5+ years out of school when I apply). I know I didn't do my best (I scored 175 on my last practice test, and I think I could prepare more than I did) - should I retake the LSAT or is it not worth it?

170 is good

Yeah, I'm just wondering if I should try to edge up a few points to help make up for my bad grades

i'm not sure you want a better score

You mean it won't do me any good? Or you mean you don't think I really want it?

i mean it might even hurt your chances

i might depend on what you mean by 'bad grades' tho

2.9

so yeah, what i said. i mean yes, there is to some extent such a thing as 'make up for', but a disparity can send a certain message and the greater the disparity the stronger the message.

Interesting point.

on the other hand, from a numbers perspective, either way the school would have to be willing to accept your grades, and the marginally higher the LSAT, the marginally higher their average.

(not like i really know what i'm talking about in any event here)

(also, it helps that you're not applying out of school/there's distance between your LSAT and your grades)

((temporally))

or just dont go to law school at all

fine then

go to the best school that you can get into (fordham is def. w/n reach w/ great LSAT and shitty GPA) -- and, IF you kick ass 1st year, transfer to another school.

i know this for a fact b/c i had a good LSAT and shitty GPA, and fordham accepted me (though i turned them down). i am also aware that there's been some "bracket creep" in the law schools since i've been out.

I'm applying. The ball is rolling. FTW

Requests are out for rec letters and I have some idea of how I'm going to do my essay. My LSDAS account is set.

Is there any reason not to use LSDAS for as much shit as possible? Also is there any really good reason to *target* rec letters to specific schools?

fuck a personal statement. FUCK a personal statement. FUUUUUUCK a personal statement

fuck a forced narrative w/"lessons learned"

I'm sure it is trite to say so, but once you send off your personal statement/forced narrative/application, you are going to feel so much better. But doing them sure is unpleasant.

Downside of doing it early is way to much time to think about it.

For your statement of purpose or whatever, what on earth should you wirite? It says "why do u want 2 go to law school lol" , but does that mean you should describe the area you want to focus on, etc.? ? ?

From what I've read and heard, not really unless you REALLY have a strong, strong interest in a very specific area. Otherwise you'll just sound like a fool since you probably don't know half a shit about law, and they don't really expect you to. I recommend looking through one of those law school essay guides - the Princeton Review one I have is pretty good.

What every admissions guide I read says over and over again is that the essay is your chance to differentiate yourself from other candidates and to show why you are more than just an LSAT score and a GPA. You probably want to talk about some kind of life/work/school experience(s) that influenced your character and/or shaped your decision to go to law school. This by no means needs to be an experience in a pre-law class or legal internship or debate team. You could talk about a sport, a musical interest, a travel experience, your family, really almost anything as long as you can use it to show that you have strong character and strong reasons for attending law school, and also that you can write in an organized, clear and persuasive manner.

i don't know how widely applicable this is, but I used to work at a place where everyone basically applied to law school after a 2-year stint and I proofread a coworker's personal statement that struck me as kind of trite and saccharine and she got into many excellent programs, including Harvard Law. not that I'm recommending that anyone write a trite, saccharine statement, but hers certainly wasn't wonky about the law or even about the law in any direct way. It was just about her.

Also, from what I understand, if your numbers are in the upper middle range or higher for the school you're applying to, your essay isn't going to matter as much. They're going to scrutinize it more carefully when you're a borderline candidate.

this isn't college. isn't a grad school p.s. just a cover letter, basically?

no

I mean not exactly. The book I read has interviews with a bunch of admissions officers at top 20 law schools. They all say that they don't want to see people just repeating whatever is on their resume. At the same time, you're supposed to be more mature and focused than a college applicant, and most schools prefer to see something more relevant than "my study abroad experience" or "I admire my grandma."

But law school is different from other grad schools in that they're not looking for previously acquired content knowledge. An English graduate program expects you to know literature very well. Med school expects you to know science very well. Law schools, for whatever reason, like to think that they're going to be the ones shaping your legal mind, and they're ore interested in seeing good raw material.

more

I don't think a cover letter is supposed to just repeat what's on your resume either (though I'm one of those anti-"objective" people). I think the essay should be a convincing statement of purpose - an argument about why you're choosing to do this that demonstrates some self-knowledge (and knowledge about what you're getting into, though you don't have to know what you're going to do in any specific sense), as opposed to a college statement that's supposed to reveal what's distinct about you that would make the class more interesting.

(which isn't to say that law schools are uninterested in making their classes more interesting, but they're going to do so with people who have a pretty clear sense of purpose with regard to something interesting)

but what do I know, I only got into a few of this top 20 schools. I never took Kaplan or Princeton Review, just a ghetto LSAT course that gave me a lower score than expected (non-marginally lower than when I took it a second time without studying).

I will reiterate what I said a year ago...

Take a LONG, HARD, REALISTIC look at the money end of the decision.

Please. Everyone goes in thinking that they are going to be in the top 10%. The overwhelming odds, obv., are that you will not be.

Me, I got lucky. I landed what is turning out to be a great job that I intend to hold down for a long time. I also have a gainfully employed spouse, so my student loan payments are not crushing.

Still - do not go in blind. This is a SERIOUS financial undertaking.

I don't think you're really contradicting what I'm saying, gabbneb.

don't sweat the personal statement. just write something half-way coherent, and you'll be fine.