Should I go to law school? I need an honest opinion here.

Graduate School Law School
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<p>I know that there is an oversupply of lawyers out there, I know that about 50% of new graduates are unemployed and I am aware of the fact that lawyers don't make over $100.000 a year right after they graduate.</p>

<p>However, I wanted to become a lawyer since I was a freshman in college (I'm an almost junior at a community college right now) and I helped my cousin, who is a lawyer, with some legal work, etc. I know what layers do and yes, it does get boring - but still, after all the information that I have heard and read and researched about I still can't hardly see myself as anything else than a lawyer.</p>

<p>I was looking into Nursing and I've thought about that as a backup career - but I think I should decide now what I'll do with my life. </p>

<p>I'm a Political Science major, I have a stable 3.6 GPA and I was looking into transferring to the University of Washington, U of Minnesota or U of Texas (not sure if I'd get accepted to Texas though) for Winter quarter/Spring semester 2012 - which starts in January 2012.</p>

<p>Right now I'm torn between transferring and continuing on with Poli-Sci and my plan to become a lawyer because of the above mentioned facts. I wanted to become a lawyer because it just fits me as a person.. it's kind of hard to describe, but I feel you have to have a certain personality for that kind of career. That's just my opinion though and I'm young and don't have any work experience in the legal field.</p>

<p>I don't know if I could make it into a T14 school. My GPA will be 0 when I transfer and the full Practice LSAT that I took (Beginning sophomore year and it was an old one from my cousin) was not really above average. I had a 165. </p>

<p>Should I continue on with my plan to become a lawyer? Or would it be best to just choose a career in Nursing now?</p>

<p>I honestly thought about also getting an Accelerated BSN if I won't get into a good law school (but then again, I wouldn't lose that much money if I would just now pursue a BSN). </p>

<p>To sum this long post up - should I follow my "dream" in that sense and risk getting burned, or should I just do Nursing and don't worry about becoming a lawyer anymore?</p>

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<p>Screw nursing go to law school. do something because you want to do it, not because of money or what anyone tells you. ALSO your GPA does start at 0 when you transfer, but law schools take ALL GPA into account. So they will factor in your CC GPA with your univeristy GPA. best of luck, hopefully i will be at law school in a few years also!</p>

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<p>Go into nursing, work a few years and then become a lawyer.</p>

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<p>Decision is yours. Things are not good for new lawyers coming out of law school now. Unknown how long the recession for lawyers will continue. So that has to be a consideration particularly because of the expense of law school (many come out with debt well over $100,000).</p>

<p>One thing for which you are in error is that your CC grades do not count for admisson-- for law school all college grades count; you submit transcripts from all colleges, including CCs, that you attended to LSDAS which calculates your college GPA for law schools (LSDAS is part of the same organization that administers the LSAT).</p>

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<p>What if you have all Ws for one semester? Will they calculate that as 0.0 GPA (thus hurting your GPA by a large margin) or will they disregard it?</p>

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<p>Please, please read over the thread, “top mistakes in choose law school,” it should have said in choosing a law school. Oh well. typos can’t be fixed after 20 minutes.</p>

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<p>Thank you everyone for your responses!</p>

<p>@ PerfectSky:I would go to Nursing school because of my own research about Law school and not because of what people told me or because of the money. My friends and my family were actually shocked that I considered giving up my dream of going to Law school. However, I did good in some Nursing prerequisite science classes and I know that I can get good grades in the others because they actually interest me, just like the Liberal Arts classes that I took so far. What worries me about law is that there’s no security. Even if I should make it into one of the T14 schools (which I don’t think I could get into, honestly), I would still be worried about finding a job because of other talented law students in my class.
Nursing is not only about the money - that would not be a good enough reason for me. I looked into Nursing because I volunteered at a hospital and I liked doing what I was doing and I like to help people. I think I’d be okay if I’d go to Nursing school - but I can’t say the same about Law school. I don’t know any Law school graduates except for my cousin, who graduated 20 years ago.
It’s a good thing that Law schools would actually factor my GPA in but I don’t know if I could get the same GPA in just one year at a 4-year university. So if I don’t do well at the university but my CC GPA is good I really don’t think my GPA would still be over a 3.5.
Don’t get me wrong… I normally always like to take risks but this is about my future career and about my own student debt. I feel like I should be cautious and not take any chances before deciding.</p>

<p>@sybbie719: I thought about that but I think if I go for Nursing, I’ll stay in Nursing. I would get a Masters and try to become an anesthetist or I’d get my Phd and become a Nurse practicioner. </p>

<p>@drusba: Thanks for explaining that my GPA would be taken into account. I read about that before but I totally forgot about it. I feel that because it is my decision I should especially not take any risks and the debt is enourmous, I know. I did Running Start in my senior year in high school and I did get a nice scholarship at my CC this year to prevent some undergrad debt… but it would still be a lot of money to get a J.D degree. </p>

<p>I feel like I’m torn between doing the right thing and choosing a promising, secure career field and between doing what I want to do and ending up unemployed.</p>

<p>One thing that bothers me and that I couldn’t find out by research was that the legal career seems to diminish. A lot of people google answers to legal questions nowadays and I am afraid that, in a few years, people won’t need to ask lawyers anymore. With nursing and the healthcare field in general - I feel like that can’t be replaced. People will always need doctors and nurses.</p>

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<p>From above: “What if you have all Ws for one semester? Will they calculate that as 0.0 GPA (thus hurting your GPA by a large margin) or will they disregard it?”</p>

<p>Withdrawals are not counted within the LSDAS GPA unless it is specified as a punitive withdrawal (such as college gave you a WF for withdraw and fail) in which case it is calculated as 0.00.</p>

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<p>AHEADOFTHEGAME, you are correct in that alot of legal work may prove to be dispensable in the future. Already, biglaw firms are using advanced software technology to do alot of the grunt work (paper review for discovery, etc.) instead of employing lawyers to do it. However, this only emphasizes the need to go to a top flight law school. The need for lawyering complex cases and transactions will never go away. There is no substitute for astute legal analysis. But this type of work will continue to be concentrated more and more to elite law firms that deal with highly specialized, complex issues that have increasing cross-border implications. These law firms only hire at top law schools. The upshot is that the vast majority of lawyers will see the profit margins on their work squeezed while the elite law firms and the minority of lawyers at those firms will continue to prosper.</p>

<p>The practice of law is not what it used to be. Its increasingly bottom line driven and becoming globally competitive each passing day. The simple fact is that if you are not part of the elite lawyer corps (biglaw or an attorney in a top govt agency like DOJ), your employment prospects and salary potential will be severely limited.</p>

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<p>@AHEADOFTHEGAME, it does seem like nursing may be a better option for you. I Guess im in a similer situation to your, but maybe the opposite. i really feel like sciences are my weak points, and more writing intensive classes seem to be my strong point. i have been debating between optometry school and law school for a while now. I have pretty much researched both sides of the fields, and to be honest it seems like both medical and law have their ups and downs. all of the health profession people seem to be complaining about the lack of jobs, or if they do get jobs their part time, and then from the law side it seems like a lot of people are complaining about jobs also. Maybe everything has just been bad for everything with the economy not being so great. The great thing i have noticed about law is that their are MANY different career options when graduating where if you become a nurse your going to be stuck doing nursing. Here is something i found a few days ago about the many different jobs you could possibly do after law school. <a href=“http://www.stcl.edu/career/handouts/What%20Can%20I%20Do%20With%20A%20Law%20Degree.pdf[/url]”>http://www.stcl.edu/career/handouts/What%20Can%20I%20Do%20With%20A%20Law%20Degree.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>hope this helps some!</p>

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<p>@graduated31: Thank you for your thorough explanation! I think I will go into Nursing… even though it’s hard for me to now prepare that I won’t be transferring to a 4-year University this coming January. It always was my dream to go to UW (the U of Washington) and graduate from there and then go off to Law school - but maybe it’s better for me if I do Nursing and then maybe, in a few years, go and get my J.D. degree when - and if - the job prospects for lawyers will be better then. </p>

<p>@PerfectSky: I feel you! I have straight A’s in all my Liberal Arts classes and sciences are not exactly my strong suit either. The classes for Nursing however are not as hard as the classes that you have to take for Pre-Med (I don’t know what classes you’d have to take for optometry school though). You could look into the curriculum at your University/Community college or I could elaborate a little more if you’re interested but it is definitely doable if you’re willing to study every day and do not procrastinate.
My brother is interested in the medical field and as far as I know from what he has researched and from what I know, docs are in demand - even though you have to really know your Pre-Med stuff to get into Med school and you really have to study hard for the MCAT. If you’re good in both the sciences and math then I’d definitely consider medicine. I don’t know exactly how the job market for optometrists is but as far as I know the job market is pretty good (I just did a quick research :). Maybe it depends on which state you live in? I live in Washington and here the job outlook seems to be good. You can also look here, maybe that might help you in some way: [Optometrists[/url</a>]. According to the Bureau of Labor optometrists are in demand as well.
This might also help you out: [url=&lt;a href=“ASCO – Association of Schools and Colleges of Optometry”&gt;ASCO – Association of Schools and Colleges of Optometry]Home</a> - Association of Schools and Colleges of Optometry](<a href=“http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos073.htm]Optometrists[/url”>http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos073.htm).
Law might have many different career options… but I honestly would only go to Law school if I’d want to become a lawyer. Why would you want to go to Law school only to not practice law in the end? I’m sorry but that doesn’t really make sense to me. With Nursing, you have a lot of career options within the field. I would try to become a Nurse anesthetist or a Nurse practitioner but you can also go to Law school if you get a BSN and then take the LSAT. Here’s pretty much an overview of all the different career options: [Nursing</a> Careers - Discover Nursing](<a href=“http://www.discovernursing.com/nursing-careers]Nursing”>http://www.discovernursing.com/nursing-careers).
If you should decide on Nursing: it’s really competitive to get into Nursing school right now. I will try to transfer into a BSN program but I know that I will probably get rejected and I know that I will most likely have to apply more than once and to more than one school to get into a program.
I hope I could help you out in some way!</p>

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<p>Don’t mean to sound a negative note, but don’t buy the canard that going to law school opens a limitless avenue of job possibilities; it doesn’t. I’ve been a lawyer 30 years, and experience tells me that getting a law degree will make you marketable as a lawyer. Period. In fact, in light of all the specialized master’s degrees now available, I can’t imagine any field where a law degree would put you at an advantage. Every story I’ve seen-e.g. Lawyer now Hollywood producer-usually puts the pertinent facts-person was producer before going to law school, parents own a movie studio, etc-in the tiny print, if at all.
So if you want to be a lawyer, go to law school.</p>

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<p>Go to law school if that is your goal.</p>

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<p>First question you need to get answered is whether the W’s will drag you down. Was it punitive? If not, don’t worry about it. If so, that’s incredibly bad news. </p>

<p>Second, 165 is not bad. Don’t go to law school with it, but it’s a good place to start. You can self-practice and improve your score. Check out the PowerScore Bibles (you should be able to get them from your local library, if not, try to get it cheap online, etc.) and get a whole bunch of real preptests (they sell a bunch in books of 10, also get those cheap online). Practice. With practice, plenty of people raise their scores 10+ points, which could put you in range for some very good schools with scholarship. </p>

<p>Third, pull that GPA up. Aim as high as you can go, you want at least a 3.8.</p>

<p>If you can get a 3.8 with a 170+ LSAT score, you’re in range for some good schools.</p>

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<p>Thanks everyone for your feedback! </p>

<p>@justbreathe: I didn’t receive any W’s… My worst grade was a C- but my GPA did recover from that because I’m thankfully on the quarter system and could raise it back up again with some easy classes. </p>

<p>Sweet! It was a practice test so I’m not really sure if that would be my real score but I’ll work on it and will hopefully be able to score higher with some more practice. Thank you for your tips!</p>

<p>I’m pretty sure that it will go up. I have a 3.6 right now but I have decided that I’ll stay at my community college for this next year - till June '12 - and graduate with my Associate from there. I have to take some more Electives so it really should go up. </p>

<p>Thank you! I’ll give my best to end up with both a 3.8 and a 170+ LSAT.</p>

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<p>Remember – at the end of the day the world always needs lawyers (think about the diverse areas of law that affect EVERYONE – e.g. family law, personal injury law, real estate law, criminal law, etc.) Don’t worry about employment – you’ll cross that bridge when you get to it. If law is something that you understand and can work with (judging by your experience helping your cousin out), then you obviously have a knack for law. I suggest you pursue it because not only will you be challenged by your studies and career, but you’ll also be very satisfied with every achievement. If law is your thing – do it.</p>