I want to be a lawyer....I think???

Student Lounge College Life
21

<p>Actually if you have above a 3.0, you have a fighting shot at at least a few of the top20 schools. No, you won’t get into HYS CC and Boalt (just steer clear of CA schools altogether-they’re notorious GPA whores), but I think someone in the top14 will bite for a 3.0-3.5/173+. Just rock the LSAT (173+). Even if your GPA is god forbid below 3.0, you’ll have a fighting shot with a 175+ on the LSAT. Northwestern, for example, loves heavy splitters with work experience.</p>

<p>If you have above a 3.5, you don’t get to call yourself a splitter. Even at the top 14 law schools with the exception of HYS, the 25/75 spread is 3.4-3.6 to 3.7-3.85 for GPA and 165-168 to 170-175 for LSAT.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/index.php[/url]”>http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/index.php&lt;/a&gt; This forum has a lot of specific info on splitters. But your chances aren’t totally shot. As for the job market, 3 years is a long time. The job market will (hopefully) improve.</p>

22

<p>icanread: The market is bad, getting worse, and is never going to recover. The world only needs so many lawyers, and year after year more and more schools are spitting out more and more lawyers. Unless they unaccredit all except the tier 1 and most of the tier 2 schools it will just get worse.</p>

23

<p>I used to want to be a lawyer…until I took this into account:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Lawyers work a ridiculous amount of hours. Some 80 hours a WEEK, and don’t even get back home until 7pm. What kind of lifestyle is that?</p></li>
<li><p>Most lawyers are NOT making top dollars. Despite what many think, some lawyers are making less than $50,000/year. If you are in the law profession for money, get out. Going to law school isn’t a guarantee that you will be making six figures. You’d be better off working as a nurse or a teacher (teachers start off with low salaries but those salaries increase over time).</p></li>
<li><p>If you are thinking being a lawyer will be like it is on “Law and Order”, think again. Most cases don’t even go to court, and lawyers just spend hours and hours on research and paperwork. BORING.</p></li>
<li><p>Law schools are being overflooded, and the demand for lawyers isn’t very high. If you aren’t going to a top law school and have a hell of resume upon graduation, you will have to compete real hard for a job spot.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>All in all, I rather be a teacher or a nurse. Teachers and nurses have way better job security and benefits, work a reasonable amount, and teachers enjoy more vacation time. Sure the salaries aren’t in the six figures, but so what?</p>

24

<p>Also, don’t forget all that DEBT too! And LOTS of it. I’d rather go out of a master’s teaching program with a STIPEND of money then go into law school with a ****LOD of debt. </p>

<p>But in the end, it’s all on you.</p>

25

<p>

</p>

<p>Not all lawyers work ridiculous amount of hours. I’ve known some who live comfortably and don’t put in exorbitant amounts of work.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>More notable school= better chance at “biglaw.” Not everyone actually wants to work “biglaw” anyway, though, and some would much rather spend their time at smaller firms. You’re right that most lawyers don’t make the big $$$, though.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>That’s analogous to saying that being a doctor isn’t going to be like how it’s portrayed on Grey’s Anatomy. Honestly, if you want a true perspective on law, then try to build connections with lawyers. There’s lots of people who don’t wish to partake in trial proceedings, anyway.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Not always. Many top schools have loan forgiveness programs for those people who aren’t making huge money after they receive their JD. Also, many top law schools give out full scholarships, such as Columbia’s Hamilton or NYU’s Ann Bryce scholarship–which comes with a stipend, I believe. Moreover, even if you don’t get into a t14 school, I’ve known law students who have received full scholarships to t20 schools without necessarily having t14 stats–although the school that gave out the scholarship probably didn’t know that. If you don’t want to go into “biglaw”, the opportunity to graduate debt-free from a t20 is pretty auspicious.</p>

<p>I’m not trying to be annoying, but I just thought that I’d clear up any discrepancies that I saw.</p>

26

<p>If you’re getting big scholarships at top law schools then law school is probably a good fit for you. It’s the people going to lower tier law schools and taking on massive debt that are dead in the water.</p>

27

<p>Are you open to other healthcare careers? You could go to dental school or pharm school. I hear they’re a bit easier to get into, although I don’t know if that’s saying much since med school is incredibly hard to get into.</p>

28

<p>

</p>

<p>Most do, especially younger ones fresh out of college. And the ones who are living comfortably without working tons of hours are probably older and have been in the field for quite sometime. </p>

<p>

</p>

<p>But one of the reasons many kids want to be lawyers is because of that image of prestige and excitement that shows such as Law and Order perpetrate when in reality, that is not the case.</p>

29

<p>

</p>

<p>Actually, the ones I was referring to have only been out of law school for a few years. Of course, this varies from person to person and field to field.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Well then, those people are extremely naive to believe the glorified images utilized for television.</p>

30

<p>When I graduate, I might take the LSAT just for the hell of it and apply to Yale/Stanford/Harvard, and if I don’t get in then I’m not even going to bother. Seems like it’s not even worth it beyond that point.</p>

31

<p>

</p>

<p>I notice one big field missing here: what do you think about Engineering/CS? Have you looked into that at all?</p>

32

<p>Thanks all for responding. First of all, icanread, you obviously don’t even know what my GPA is and second of all, you’re not on the admissions board at any of those schools, so I don’t really think that by you stating I won’t get in without any facts at all that you are correct in saying so. </p>

<p>I have a 3.5 overall right now, which is going to go slightly down after this semster. My major GPA is a 3.0 but that’s only because I just switched majors and have only taken one class in which I got a B, so it’s safe to say that I am going to be able to raise that once I get to take more classes. I’m not a complete lost cause. </p>

<p>As for the long hours, I wanted to be a doctor. Doctors work long hours too. I just worked 55 hours this week alone (for a part time job). I used to work 10 hours or more in the ER. I’m not worried about that. I work hard. I’m used to it. Ok so there’s lots of lawyers, the economy is bad yaddah yaddah yaddah. If I really want to go for this I’m gonna gain enough motivation to be good at what I do. I’m gonna throw my all in it and you can guarantee that I will have the LSAT score and GPA necessary to go. I don’t understand why everyone here has 10,000 reasons not to be a lawyer when there are just as many reasons not to choose any career.</p>

<p>I don’t watch Law and Order, I’ve seen it maybe 3 times my whole life. Yeah it’s a good show. But when I wanted to be a doctor did I think it would be like HOUSE, M.D.? No and I still don’t. I’m not ignorant enough to believe that life is like a TV show.</p>

<p>ThePrincessBride, while it’s great that you want to be a teacher or nurse, I don’t. I have no desire to do either of those things, I’ve already looked into it. </p>

<p>DCHurricane, I have looked into things like dental/PA/research but I still find that I’m just not really into healthcare anymore. </p>

<p>Recharge, that’s not true. Good luck with the LSAT but not every good lawyer came from Harvard or Yale.</p>

<p>Oh and thank you maea, I do appreciate you pointing that out, but I’m not really the engineer type. And although computer science could be interesting I know I will not want to do that for the rest of my life. Like I said I don’t like math and I’m horrible with physics (partially the reason why my GPA is getting lower by the minute).</p>

33

<p>

</p>

<p>And a better chance at just about everything else, too. </p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Outside of Harvard and Yale, these programs are often not very generous. And you don’t simply need to be making less than “huge money;” in many cases, you need to make under $60K to get anything at all. They also don’t help everyone who qualifies.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>They only give these to people with extremely good numbers. Most schools aren’t going to give you significant money unless your numbers are above their medians.</p>

34

<p>If you have a 3.5 with a slight expected decline, you’re fine for just about everywhere except for HYS, Boalt and Duke. For HYS you need above a 3.7 and Boalt and Duke are notorious GPA whores. Even CCN are possible with the right LSAT score. </p>

<p>The economy sucks, but this is a recession, not the end of the legal profession as we know it. And considering that the vast majority of biglaw unfroze salaries and are announcing start dates, things look to be on an upswing. I don’t know if this is a dead cat bounce or if things are really picking up, but we’ll see. The economy will improve. And when it improves, legal jobs will be abundant again. It won’t be 2007 perhaps ever but hiring will pick up.</p>

35

<p>You should consider getting an internship or research in the field you’re interested in – or even a week-long job shadow.
It serves good purposes, in my opinion.

  1. Allows you to see what the real-world application entails
    and
  2. Will either serve as extreme motivitation or disillusionment</p>

<p>Use your parents, friends, family, etc. to get you connections and pull strings. Spend the summer working along professionals in a variety of fields and see which piqu</p>

36

<p>So it seems like plenty of people have given you advice, which is great. Whether it be good or bad advice, you have a snobby attitude toward it all…</p>

<p>… Sound like you’d be a GREAT lawyer, I say go for it!</p>

37

<p>

</p>

<p>Duke is not a notorious GPA whore. Their median and 75th percentile GPAs are lower than UVa or Penn and well below Berkeley (which is no longer called Boalt). </p>

<p>

</p>

<p>This is a good idea, though it’s worth noting that the practice of law varies dramatically depending on your field and where you work (e.g., big firm vs. sole practitioner).</p>

38

<p>Woofles, I don’t have a snobby attitude. I’m not arrogantly going around trashing everyone’s advice, I’m just explaining that I have thought over the circumstances and what they entail. I didn’t mean to come off as snobby, in fact, I’m not a snobby person at all. You’re totally misinterpreting everything I wrote. It’s the internet, I even thanked people for giving advice. How is that snobby?</p>

<p>I was just saying that some of these reasons for not becoming a lawyer exhibit flawed logic. I mean, just because it’s not like law and order? If that was the sole reason I was going to law school I’d be in trouble. And I appreciate everyone’s response to my original post. I was just looking to see whether or not anyone had any experiences like mine and what they were doing about it.</p>

<p>Thank you futurenyustudent, you’re the only one who seems to understand that the economy will get better eventually. I still have a couple years of undergrad and all of law school to go. The economy will eventually pick up.</p>

<p>Thanks for your input Americanski, I can see where you’re coming from. Scholarships are hard to come by unless you have the top crudentials.</p>

<p>Plattsburghloser, you’re right, I think I might benefit from some hands on experience in order to know for sure.</p>

39

<p>

</p>

<p>Never said you were.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>That’s what I meant.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Which is why I mentioned lower ranked schools that give out large amounts of money to students who probably don’t have t14 stats. You may not have NYU numbers, but you can still get a full ride to schools like Emory. If you’re looking to practice in Atlanta and aren’t gunning for a 160k+ salary, you should be good with this option (or other similar schools.)</p>

40

<p>

</p>

<p>That statement was in reference to PrincessBride’s list of reasons not to be a lawyer. east89, you’re right, I agree with you. TV is never like a career whether it’s Grey’s Anatomy or Law and Order.</p>