<p>Its getting pretty close to judgement time for me, I'm about to enter my Senior year and I have a very difficult choice ahead of me; law school or grad school. For some time I had convinced myself that grad school (and a PhD) was without a doubt the proper course of action but I was somewhat dissuaded with the rather monotonous nature of a career in engineering, and am now considering law (particularly patent law). I worry though, that my technical education has not prepared me very well for law schools, and that if I were to get in I would not do well there. Its not necessarily that I don't like to read/write, but my courses demand me to crank out problem set after problem set while doing very little reading/writing. So on the one hand, I find a career in law (especially intellectual property) to be very appealing because I will in some ways remain on the forefront of science/technology, but I really worry that I am setting myself up for failure if I go to law school. </p>
<p>I was just hoping to get others perspective on how engineering majors (particularly with similar backgrounds) have/do coup with this situations. I have never experienced anything like having to read hundreds of pages a night and memorize the content of them, so I worry.</p>
<p>Also, I was somewhat curious as to how the admissions process would work with someone like me. I am a Mechanical Engineering major at JHU with a cumulative GPA of 3.85, practice LSATs have ranged from 160-165 with no prep. I'm not sure what level of schools this would make me competitive at, and I was also curious as to what impact being an engineering major would have on whole process.</p>
<p>You can always take bar review courses before starting law school (yes, the ones people usually take AFTER graduating, when getting ready to take sit for the bar); legal writing courses the summer prior to starting LS would also help. Don't let your technical background be a major obstacle if LS is what you want. Nevertheless think long and hard whether LS (and a legal career) is truly what you want. Law school is a huge investment of time and money. The last thing you want is to regret your decision half-way through, when you are thousands of dollars in debt.</p>
<p>Adding a few more things in: you should take a technical writing course before you graduate. The reason is that legal writing is a lot like technical writing. You'll have a big advantage over other people if you know technical writing - you'll be used to writing in a very, very structured manner. </p>
<p>As for other things: take a course that will demand a lot of reading and writing, prefereably an upper-level history course or the like, where you'll have to read, research, and write. That will be good preparation for law school.</p>
<p>You can always take courses after graduation, which can be a lot of fun - consider that to make sure you know that you'll like what you are doing.</p>
<p>Consider other career paths: finance, working at an engin. firm and getting a masters, working and getting an MBA, or a lot of others that I haven't thought of. Do law if you are passionate about it.</p>
<p>You do not need a law degree to pass the patent bar; at the very least, browse around the USPTO website for information on that. Consider taking the patent bar before law school; you can practice as a patent agent (not attorney) without having set foot inside of a law school.</p>
<p>Finally, spend a year as a paralegal. I know that you'll get paid peanuts, but it's well worth it. I really wish I had done that instead of working as an engineer. You'll learn a lot about how lawyers act, think, and work.</p>