<p>Hi, I am an 18 year old college sophomore. I attend University of Rhode Island and my majors are B.S. Microbiology and B.M. Music Performance. My GPA is about 3.22 at the moment. I expect to graduate in 2018, and until recently I have wanted to go into the sciences and have a cushy job in genetics or biomedical research.
However, a recent exploration (and I'm not going to lie, binge-watching Suits) has led me to see law school as a potential path for me. I have always been fascinated with the law, and the financial reward can be fantastic. I am the type of person to not give up until I am right and my point has been made, and my family has always joked that I would make an excellent lawyer.</p>
<p>My question is, could law school be a viable option for me? Is it too early to visit law schools in my area and sit in at classes? Also, is financial aid available? Overall, is this a good thing for me to be pursuing? I don't know very much about law school or the profession at all, but I would love some more info. Thanks.</p>
<p>Law is nothing like Suits. Law also has almost nothing to do with “not giving up until you’re right.” You will learn nothing about law from visiting law school classes. With that out of the way, if you’re interested in law school, the very first thing you need to do is get yourself an internship somewhere that practices law. See what it’s really like, then decide if it’s for you. Check your local District Attorney/Public Defender/Legal Aid office. They’re usually happy to take on interns. Your school may also have resources that can connect you with firms looking for free labor (one of the few things “pre-law advisers” are good for). </p>
<p>After you’ve interned and can form a somewhat more realistic picture, your first step is to bring your GPA up to a 3.6 or better. Then you’ll have to take the LSAT, the entrance exam for law schools. You’ll want to score at minimum a 165. Financial aid for law school exists in the form of loans, and law schools only give out scholarships for people with high GPAs or LSATs. You want to be one of them. </p>
<p>Thank you for your response, that is so helpful! I understand that law is nothing like it is shown on TV but that is where y initial interest in law came from. I met with my therapist yesterday and he told me that based on my personality, law would be an excellent career choice. </p>
<p>As far as law school, I sill want to visit a few classes just to get an idea of what the environment is like. I have heard that law school classes are astronomically different from other kinds of college courses in a variety of ways. </p>
<p>I have also heard that it’s a good idea to take a gap year or two between UG and law school to work in a law firm or office. Is this true with all schools or would some rather have students straight out of college? I want to have the highest chance possible to get into a top 50 school or maybe even a top 20. </p>
<p>My schedule is booked for the current semester but I will talk to my attorney generals office regarding opportunities during the winter and next semester. I am assuming that law firms generally operate 9-5 M-F. </p>
<p>I really hope that law school is an actual option for me and I’m not just kidding myself. I have also heard that if you don’t get into Harvard or Columbia etc. you might as well just give up. </p>
<p>The recommendation to get some internship experience is a good one, but before that I would take a step even further back and do some research on the various ways law is practiced.</p>
<p>Most lawyers never enter a courtroom. Of those who do, few trial lawyers earn the big bucks. The typical starting pay for an Assistant DA is not glamorous, and for every Johnnie Cochran there are 100 public defenders. </p>
<p>Some lawyers never even meet with a client, such as my friend who handles the state equivalent of Freedom of Information Act requests. Her entire workday is spent doing research in documents. You could be on an internal legal team at a corporation, writing and reviewing contracts, policy documents, and legal filings. There are a hundred different ways you can be employed as a lawyer, and if you spend some time learning about them you may have a better idea of which ones appeal to you. </p>
<p>Then, seek out an internship in one of the areas you think you’d like, to see if the shoe fits well once you put it on. </p>
<p>If you are going to become a lawyer because of a TV show and what your family jokes about (and, FYI, good lawyering skills aren’t what people normally think of), you are in for some rough, rough sledding.</p>
<p>I’m sorry if I was unclear; it’s unfortunate that you can’t take a little bit of joking, but that is not the reason. I just never saw law school as a potential option, and that was simply what caused me to consider it as a choice I can actually make. No matter what the occupation, it’s stupid to base the rest of your life off of a fictional program. I have my reasons. </p>
<p>And to the previous comment, thank you. I didn’t realize there were so many different legal occupations! I have a few different offices in mind that I am planning on contacting this November about potentially interning, but I will do a lot more research in the meantime. I have an interest in prosecution particularly, but there are definitely more options open to me. </p>
<p>I would very carefully consider this decision and be sure to get your grades way, way higher if you decide to proceed.</p>
<p>For example, you assume that law firms operate 9-5. They certainly do not; you work whatever it takes to get the job done, whether all night, on a weekend, etc.; my typical day is 8-8 and it can be very erratic. Microbiology and music performance are not typical majors for lawyers and they indicate that the typical lawyer profile (someone who is bookish and can read for hours) is not you. </p>
<p>Tell your therapist to stop giving you stupid career advice. If s/he wants to learn about law school s/he should come here, like you did. Advising a law career based on “personality” is absurd.</p>
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<p>They’re fairly different, but that shouldn’t enter your decision. Law school is 3 years of your life. Your career is closer to 40. Make your decision about the 40 part, not the 3 part.</p>
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<p>If you’re not looking for a top 14 school, don’t bother with law. Of the T14 only one, Northwestern, cares about job experience. That said, employers care about job experience. Those with good, relevant work experience tend to perform better in terms of employment. Contrary to what most 0Ls think, good work experience is generally not being a paralegal. That’s better than K-JD, but nowhere near as good as experience in a relevant business area. </p>
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<p>My typical hours are 9-7 if I’m not busy. They’re whenever I need to start to whenever I’m done if I am busy. If that means I’m working 100 hours that week, so be it. Government offices are more usually close to 9-5 though because of certain government compensation rules. Luckily, the hours is something an internship will help you see for yourself.</p>
<p>What I mean by operating 9-5 is that I currently only hae available hours after 7pm during the week so this semester is not an option for an internship. Sorry, I don’t think I included that. I just mean that I would need daytime availability. </p>
<p>As far as a T14 school, I don’t know if I’m good enough. I know I can throw Harvard and Columbia out the window because I will never be at a 3.9. Does this mean I can forget about law school altogether? I don’t want my work options to be limited by the school I went to. I know I can get a job if I go somewhere like RWU but I want to be able to get better and better jobs until I am satisfied, not be limited by where I went to school and ultimately what my undergrad GPA is. </p>
<p>The reason I came to this site is because this is probably the easiest place to come to for advice in this category. My school and my peers can offer me nothing in the realm of actual, real life advice. I want to know now, as a freshman/sophomore, rather than the spring of my senior year that way if this won’t work out, I can figure something else out. Thanks for the advice. </p>
<p>Get a 3.6 or better and a solid LSAT score and law school is available. However, that’s something you should worry about only after you’ve interned and figured out if you actually like the practice of law. </p>
<p>I feel like I’m safe for now; I need to raise my GPA anyways, regardless of law school. I don’t need to worry about the LSATs just yet.</p>
<p>If I have a 3.6-3.7 GPA, do I have a chance of getting into a good school? Also, from where I currently stand, exactly how hard will that be? I have 3.5 years left, taking ~18-20 credits per semester. Organic chem and microbio I are challenging me very heavily at the moment. I’m not expecting college to be a walk in the park, but I want to be prepared before I start slamming my head against a wall.</p>
<p>I have 2-3 law offices in mind in my state that I plan on contacting next month regarding some sort of work opportunity. How do I explain my situation to them and ask for work without seeming like I’m begging for a job?</p>
<p>helenaimee, with your background, if you do law, intellectual property law or startup law for sciences/tech companies is probably your best match.</p>
<p>Yes, with a 3.6/3.7 GPA, you have a chance of getting into a good school. You should be able to take your current grades and number of course hours completed, and number of course hours remaining and expected GPA in those courses, and determine how you will end up. However, if one of your majors is microbiology and it sounds like you’re viewing microbio I as a challenge, perhaps that major isn’t really what you should be doing if you want to raise your GPA.</p>
<p>Also, for your reasons for going into law:</p>
<p>“binge-watching Suits”: That is not a reason to consider law school.</p>
<p>“I have always been fascinated with the law”: In what ways? If so, why haven’t you done anything with law yet? I’m a lawyer and am not fascinated by the law at all, but I have done fine with it as a career.</p>
<p>“the financial reward can be fantastic”: It can for some, but not really for most.</p>
<p>“I am the type of person to not give up until I am right and my point has been made”: What does that have to do with the law? Wouldn’t that skill be valid in a lot of fields? In corporate law, though, which is what I do, it’s important to make a point but you also have to accommodate the other side to get a deal done.</p>
<p>“my family has always joked that I would make an excellent lawyer”: On what basis? Are your family members lawyers? If so, why aren’t they giving you advice and contacts? If not, why do their jokes carry any weight?</p>
<p>Your LSAT score is far more important than your undergrad GPA. Now I don’t mean to say slack off, but my son’s GF had a 3.9, Phi Beta Kappa undergrad but is a lousy standardized test taker and could not get her LSAT above 160. Did not get into a good law school- ended up at Penn State Law. Very tough time finding a job. She is still living at home and working part time for a local lawyer 18 months after graduation. My son got into three good (but not T14) law schools- top 25 school though. His GPA was not as good as hers but he had a 170 LSAT. He does not yet have a job. He only got his bar results last week but the job market is extremely bad for lawyers.</p>
<p>One thing that probably isn’t clear to you right now since you are just now looking at it is that when someone graduates from law school, they are not prepared to be a lawyer. You still have to take the bar exam- which is a 2 or 3 day (depending on the state- and more in a very few states) exam which almost everyone pays another 3 or 4 thousand dollars in prep courses for. The exam is given the end of July- results come out in October in most states and you can’t practice until you pass. So from graduation in May until bar results in October, you have pretty much no way of earning a living through law. Any student loan federal debt that you have will require payments beginning in November- so good luck with that.</p>
<p>Sorry if I sound pessimistic, but I don’t think too many people who haven’t been through it understand how difficult it is and the big bucks you hear about really aren’t there anymore. This is a pretty recent change- nephew who graduated law just ten years ago got the big bucks after graduating from a non T14 law school- but he also says that just doesn’t happen anymore. And most of the job postings for attorney jobs say 3-5 years experience. VERY few will take new attorneys.</p>