<p>Hello. Sorry if this isn't the correct place to post this, but i'm having a major dilemma at the moment. I'm going to make it short and sweet. My parents have always dreamed of me becoming a lawyer. They, including others around me, say that I am highly intelligent when I put in all my effort and that I have a lot of potential. Becoming a lawyer is something i'd really enjoy. The thing is that I have a dream of being in the film industry. I've always wanted to become an actor (Yes, just like half of the world), but that's too far fetched seeing as I have no connections with anyone in the acting business. Apart from that I've always wanted to get into film editing. You know, the guy who works with CGI and editing the film to give it its final touches. Either that or the guy who films the movies (I have no idea what the majors for that are called, so if anyone could tell me i'd appreciate it). But anyways, what would you do? I'm afraid that if I follow the path to acting/film i'll just end up as a waiter in LA with a useless degree. Should I just stick to law? I've made the decision that I want to aim towards extremely high paying jobs, and those two fields take my interest the most. I just don't know what to follow and am scared of taking a leap of faith. This semester is almost over and I will be starting my transferable units (It's my first year in community college and I just got done with general education) so I don't have that much time to think. I believe in dreams to become reality, but I don't know when to just let dreams be dreams.</p>
<p>First of all, you need to do your research on what the current job market is like for lawyers. You don’t walk out of law school and start earning gobs of money unless you went to a truly elite university. Second of all, ending up as a waiter is a possibility from even lucrative degrees if you do not perform well. Attend a subpar law school and guess what you’ll be? A barista except with more debt. I doubt my math major friends with 2.2’s are going to get much in terms of jobs. Same goes for engineering with that low. I know some people from fairly prestigious university (think Berkeley humanities major) who serve me Starbucks in the morning before I go to school. Why are you aiming for only extremely high paying careers? I feel like that’s an incredibly unrealistic goal. Third, I’d look for more stable careers unless you truly think you’ve got the hustle in you to try with your high odds of failure. </p>
<p>If you want to turn your dreams into a reality, it’s going to have to come through hard work, luck, smarts, and networking. </p>
<p>I don’t understand why aiming for high paying jobs would be an unrealistic goal. I doubt it’s that hard to get into a firm. </p>
<p>All I know is that I don’t want to end up waking at 5 A.M. in the morning sweating my butt off doing some crappy job that I do not enjoy.</p>
<p>You probably have a better shot of becoming a successful lawyer.
A lot of people in the acting business have resumes down to baby ads for pampers. It’s very hard for a newcomer to break in the business… it’s also not as glamours as you may think… I’m talking about the things people have to do to land the big gigs. </p>
<p>You can major in anything and go to law school. I saw on another thread that you mentioned English and Political Science. Yes, those are common undergrad degrees for law school students, but it doesn’t matter what you major in. What will matter will be your GPA and your LSAT score.</p>
<p>Hoggirl is right. What schools would you be looking to transfer to? Are your CC grades solid? I don’t see any dilemma. No decision has to be made right now above and beyond where you’ll be after CC. Take all the firm/production/writing/direction classes you want. See if you really do enjoy them. If you do, great. If not, law school is still an option. Not to sound harsh, but it seems like you haven’t done a whole lot of research…into either the paths/careers involved in film production OR the path toward being a lawyer. I’d start there. </p>
<p>Hoggirl: What major better prepares you for the LSAT?</p>
<p>JoBenny: On the contrary, I have done A LOT of research on the path to becoming a lawyer, but not the film industry. I want to transfer to UCLA for my doctorate degree. That is, once I get my BS in a Cal State. I’m going to finish my first semester in CC with a very good GPA. I’m receiving an A+ in guidance, A+ in English, A+ in math, and A- in art.</p>
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<p>The highest scoring undergraduate majors for the LSAT are physics/math, economics, philosophy/religion, international relations, and engineering.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.potsdam.edu/academics/AAS/Phil/upload/LSAT-Scores-of-Majors.pdf”>http://www.potsdam.edu/academics/AAS/Phil/upload/LSAT-Scores-of-Majors.pdf</a></p>
<p>However, it is not obvious whether this is due to (self-)selection effects (i.e. the tendency of students with characteristics leading to better LSAT scores to choose those majors) or treatment effects (i.e. the majors’ giving them practice on things that help them do better on the LSAT). For example, the LSAT has a logic puzzle section that is probably easy for math and philosophy majors, but is it because the people who major in those subjects are good at logic in the first place, versus getting practice with logic in their majors? (Maybe both to some extent.)</p>
<p>As far as I know, if you’re not a logical person in math, you will do very badly. A course in logic is required here in my major before we begin the Real Analysis/Abstract Algebra sequences. Logic puzzles are always interesting. My girlfriend comes from a family who do logic puzzles and I’m pretty good at them as well. Even the board games we play together during “family bonding time” require strategy, logic, and some cunning. We go to bookstores during the summers and buy logic puzzle books to do for fun and we also play some Nintendo DS games even geared towards logic that are actually pretty fun (Professor Layton). We bought an LSAT test booklet and went through it one time from the same bookstore. I think the LSAT can ultimately be learned, but it would help if you were a logical person to begin with.</p>
<p>That being said, we do get a lot of logic trained into us. You need to make the right deductions from the information given for a proof statement and then arrive at the right answer with clear logic/reasoning shown. If you’re not making the right connections, you don’t do very well…The spread for my Abstract Algebra II class had a good amount of A’s and B’s, a few C’s, a bunch of F’s on our most recent test. Hopefully these people at the bottom of the class will drop the major and save themselves.</p>
<p>Physics majors I feel like need to be logical people when making assumptions to problems to sort out all of the unnecessary stuff as well as engineering majors. </p>
<p>However, you do not need to be a math major or hard science major to do well on the LSAT. There’s an anthropology major I know (girlfriend’s brother) and that guy is the most logical, quick-witted person I’ve ever met. Although, he is very childish in many ways, annoys people and cannot hold a job. He would kill the LSAT like he’s killed every standardized exam, but I think he would make a lousy lawyer. </p>
<p>@Granata:
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<p>Your law school will dictate how much you’re going to make. Like I said, you need to research it. It doesn’t seem like you’ve done your homework. I had contemplated becoming a lawyer, I’ve taken the LSAT, and I decided not to become a lawyer after all. When I was researching the information, it seemed like a horrible idea to become a lawyer unless you got into a tippy-top school. There are websites that should help you like TLS. UCLA would get you regional employment. If you can get into UC Berkeley, hopefully you have the high GPA and high LSAT (which is very important, sometimes 50% of the admissions game) to get in. You need to be competitive in other respects, but I don’t think those matter as much as the main two. Really, though. If you don’t get a great LSAT score, it will seriously kill your chances despite high grades. People are stuck with useless degrees because they had unrealistic expectations. My advice: Double major in something practical and something you’re passionate about.</p>
<p>Also you could take film classes and also any other law school pre-req and consider entertainment industry law</p>