And planning on working for a nonprofit when the OP has no interest in public policies but want to be an important person like Elon Musk or Steve Jobs doesn’t make sense either.
I think the OP should work for a few years before making plans to go to a top law school . Talking about T-6, T-7 isn’t really relevant without any kind of career plan or an understanding of how difficult a top law school would be for someone who doesn’t like school. Finally, the OP keeps telling us he doesn’t have any defendants. Dependents, I’m guessing?
OP - I noted that you do not want to be a “worker ant”. If you go to any T-14 LS and go to work in big law, you will make big law money as a junior associate but you will be the “worker ant” for 3 to 5 years as you get trained, mentored and gain the experience and network to lateral out. LS is 3 years of hard work. The first year is the most important as most big law recruiting happens in the fall before your 2L year when you are competing for summer associate positions that nearly always lead to full time offers following graduation.
@solostish, if you go to a “T7” school (never heard that term before, but I get it), you’ll have plenty of job prospects and will not have to worry about ending up in a tiny firm at low pay. A large law firm job isn’t guaranteed, but pretty much everyone from those schools who wants one gets it.
Go to law school only if you want to be a lawyer. If you do not want to be a lawyer, do not go to law school. It’s that simple.
I hated college but I liked law school, and I like law practice.
We all want to be the next Steve Jobs or Elon Musk, but most of us don’t end up like that so drop that idea.
Most attorneys, including myself, my husband and virtually every other attorney I know, did not graduate from a T-14 school. In fact, I never heard of T-14 until I came on this board and I have been a practicing litigator for 30 years. It’s like the prevailing CC sentiment that your life is nothing if you don’t make it to the Ivy League. The reality for the vast majority of people who attend law school is that their lives can be successful and fulfilling even if they go to a commuter college and law school, don’t belong to a fraternity and don’t work in Big Law.
If your goal is to be in a white shoe firm and make tons of money, you probably need to go to a top school. Bear in mind, however, that it is unlikely that you will get to litigate anything for years and years. OTOH, I was trying cases within a year of being admitted to the bar.
You have been told that if you don’t like school, law school probably isn’t for you.I agree with that advice. It’s a lot of work. I personally loved it, school was my milieu and I enjoyed the whole atmosphere but it is not easy. Like HappyAlumnus, I hated college, but loved law school and I greatly enjoy being a lawyer.
Statistically that is incorrect, if the intention is to be a “successful” lawyer. According to the BLS, we graduate 2x as many lawyers each year as the country needs. Thus, at best half of today’s law grads, can obtain a job actually lawyering. Of course, every year, thousands of lawyers go do something else, and become “successful and fulfilling”, but in those instances, they didn’t need a JD to begin with.
Don’t go to LS unless you like the practice of law. Try to work in a law firm in some capacity to get an understanding of what lawyers do and the hours they have to spend at work. I have lots of friends who are graduates of law schools but no longer doing anything related to law. They were totally unprepared of the workload and the demands put on them by senior lawyers.
FWIW, a relative just became a partner in a Vault top 5 firm. He billed 3500 hours each year for the last 2 years!! Absentee father and husband.
And what most law school wannabes don’t understand is that to bill even 2000 hours, one has to put in ~2400, since staff meetings, training, lunch with recruits et al, don’t count as billables.
In addition, I doubt a law school would be interested in a teenager - 19 is too young. Professional schools like to see young adults in their 20’s, preferably with some professional experience.
Reputable MBA’s require at least 2 years of work where you made an impact.
If you dislike school, it may be time for you to try new experiences - rather than graduate.
How about you try to get a co-op for Fall 2017 rather than graduate Summer 2017?
And for Spring 2018, study abroad?
In addition, you make yourself more employable, take classes in CS, Statistics, Industrial/Organizational psychology, Labor relations, Economics, Foreign Languages, to complement your Political Science degree.
You are going to school practically for free - build the best academic portfolio you can, don’t waste that opportunity. Have internships or externships. Participate in co-ops. Study abroad (or even intern abroad).
(And while universities take AP credit, professional schools and companies don’t really care what you did in high school, they look at your college record.)
There are campaigns currently going on at the national, state, and local level - are you part of any, in any capacity?
You may be right that some of the people who don’t go into law might not have needed the JD to begin with, but it can’t hurt, as long as you don’t go so deeply into debt that you don’t have a life. A number of my classmates never practiced law with a firm but instead went into family businesses, such as a trucking company, a couple of real estate management companies, restaurants and the like. Their legal skills and law licenses brought a different aspect to the business and allowed someone who might not have been interested in how trucks work, for instance, or who didn’t want to cook to be involved.
My only point was that if someone really wants to be a lawyer, it isn’t necessary to go to a T-14 school to do so.
yes, I understand your point, tech mom. And you are correct. One can go to a non-accredited law school in some states and “be a lawyer” but that doesn’t mean such person will make a living do so.
While this is a common marketing argument made by law schools (aka spin to line their pockets with more money), to me, this is just a plain waste of three years of someone’s life. IMO, it is just plain stupid to go to law school if one does not want to become a lawyer. There are plenty of other ways to learn about a trucking business…perhaps just taking a few bookkeeping & business management classes at the local Juco.
I agree with bluebayou. Spending 3 years in law school makes no sense if someone doesn’t plan to become a lawyer? Why? Because you learn almost nothing in law school that is relevant for day-to-day work, even in a law firm.