Pre-Law Website - Excellent Advice

<p>I was looking up through Google the percentage of students at certain LSAT score levels (such as 12.5 % score 162 or above) when I encountered a frank and practical source of advice for students considering a legal career. It is the pre-law advisory center for Northeastern Illinois University (NIU). The following is an excerpt of its no-nonsense practical advice:</p>

<p>"The WRONG Reasons to Go to Law School </p>

<p>I'm a liberal arts major, and I don't know what else to do with my degree.
My parents want me to go.
I have always wanted to go to law school/be a lawyer.
I have always been fascinated by the law. It's intellectually stimulating.
I want to change the world.
I like to argue/debate.
Everyone else in my family is a lawyer.
I did well on the LSAT, so why not?
I want to make a lot of money.
Law school is so versatile. I can use it for something else, like business or politics. </p>

<p>The RIGHT Reasons to Go to Law School </p>

<p>I want to be a lawyer. (If you don't know what that means, go find out!) </p>

<p>The mistake many students make is that they focus on law school instead of on careers in law. Law school can be a fun, intellectually challenging endeavor. It can also help you to please your parents and to postpone your career decision making for a few more years. But ultimately, law school is just that—three years of schooling that prepares you for a career in the law. You are not even a lawyer when you graduate! You won't know enough to be one. You'll need to take and pass the state bar exam before you can call yourself a lawyer, and you'll need to gain experience before you'll be comfortable with that label. Since law school prepares you to be a lawyer, you will need to find out as much as possible about what being a lawyer is all about before you decide to go to law school. That means at least the following: (1) Talk to lawyers. Ask them if they like their jobs, and why. Find out what they do, and what they like and dislike about their daily activities. Find out if they are happy or stressed, challenged, or bored. Ask them whether they'd do it again. (2) Read legal journals and newspapers to find out about the advantages and disadvantages of the legal profession, current trends in hiring, current salary scales, and the like. (3) Most importantly, take a legal job of some sort. Spend a summer—or even better, a year—as a paralegal or legal intern in a law office, volunteer for a district attorney's or public defender's office, or assume some other legal undertaking. Nothing can substitute for this experience. Once you learn first hand what the practice of law is like, you'll be much better prepared to decide whether it's for you."</p>

<p>The NIU website then proceeds to answer each question regarding the wrong and right reasons for going to law school. Very good stuff...</p>

<p>I think they have the exact same thing as the U of I website (considering the similarity of the IL Uni system most likely) so that can be found with a search at uiuc.edu if you can't find it on google.</p>