<p>I'm interested in Teach for America. I realize that most top law schools are willing to give you the 2-year leave and then will allow you to enter after it has been completed. However, what would be a more logical thing to do:</p>
<p>1.) Do Teach for America and THEN apply to Law School (perhaps taking time to study for the LSAT during those two years?)</p>
<p>2.) Study for the LSAT, apply, get admitted, and then do Teach for America and let them know that you will be on a 2-year leave.</p>
<p>If you could tell me the ups and downs of both, I'd appreciate it greatly.</p>
<p>or you can take LSAT's while in college and get your score-</p>
<p>apply for Teach for America and do the 2 year commitment--
and then apply to law school after you completed your first year of TFA.</p>
<p>I think it is a judgement call. But- in all honesty from what I have heard, you will have more time to study for the LSAT's as a college student. Your commitment to the TFA program and teaching is pretty hard core. Teaching and studying for the LSAT's may not be the ideal situation. Also be aware that many TFA school districts expect you to continue your schooling by either getting teacher certification or a Masters in Teaching. So you may not have that much free time to study for the LSAT during your time with TFA.</p>
<p>IMO - I think you will have more time to prepare for your LSAT's while you are still in college.</p>
<p>My d is planning to put her TFA application in soon. She has already taken the LSAT's. She is not applying to law school this admission cycle.
Good luck.</p>
<p>I'm not really familiar w/ law school admissions, but it seems to me that you have nothing to lose by applying before you do your TFA. If you don't get in where you want to, you could just re-apply during or after your two years. Someone w/ more knowledge/experience would probably be able to tell you if that's a good strategy or not.</p>
<p>If you defer admission for the 2 years due to TFA, you may actually be (or at least feel) obligated to attend the Law school that deferred you.
you may easily be able to get out of the deferred admission agreement, but that is going to give you one more bureacratic detail to deal with--
The TFA experience may also make you a stronger applicant due to your work experience and teaching background. You may become a more compelling applicant due to your experience thus helping you gain admission into a "higher" level law school. </p>
<p>BUT DO NOT apply to TFA if your main goal is to get into a better law school. Teaching is too hard, and these students deserve better than a "law school applicant" using TFA as a stepping stone to a better law school.</p>
<p>2 years is a long time. Your interests may change and you may view the couse offerings and clinics at the individual law schools differently after your TFA experience. Therefore, I see a benefit to applying to law school later on. If my kid does not get into TFA (and it is extremely competitive), she'll probably apply to law school next fall.</p>
<p>The people who interview prospective TFA'ers are well aware that many students want to use TFA as a way to get into a better law school, grad school, etc. and are smart enough to weed those people out. They want people who have a serious interest in the teaching profession. I saw a statistic that something like 70% of TFA graduates stay in the teaching field.</p>
<p>I respectfully disagree. TFA brags about all the different fields its alumni go into. See Teach</a> For America - Our alumni
It is not necessary to claim that you want to teach as a career. My kid has several friends who did TFA with the intent of just doing it for two years. Several others were accepted by TFA but then decided to do other things. None of these kids lied and claimed to want to do it for more than two years. </p>
<p>Take a look at the graduate school partnership link on the page I've listed above. There are some special scholarships available to TFA grads, and some of these are for law schools. Yes, some people do TFA in part to get these scholarships. Nobody tries to "weed them out." </p>
<p>In fact, if you are interested in a career as a teacher, I would suggest that there are FAR better ways to go about it than TFA. One program I would recommend is NYCity's Teaching Fellows program. You'l serve the same sort of inner-city population TFA does, but get more support, and end up with a master's degree and teaching certification. (And regular classroom teachers won't be as antagonistic as they sometimes are to TFA kids.)</p>
<p>Back to the law school question--it all depends upon what you are aiming for. IMO, apply to your reaches, as long as they will let you defer. If you get in, defer. If you don't reapply. At LEAST take the LSAT.</p>
<p>I have to admit, I never looked at the TFA website until 2 months ago when d informed me she was seriously considering applying for TFA.
Based on my read, many of the teaching sites do expect you to continue your graduate education and obtain teaching credentials and a Masters in Teaching. At the very least, you are expected to continue taking education courses and obtain an alternate teaching certificate. It also appears that you are an employee of that school district and the TFA distinction becomes less important once you are in the program. In almost every TFA district, you must pass the Praxis exam before you are allowed to teach-<br>
so- the bottom line, TFA expects it members to be "teacher ready" and to continue taking graduate education courses throughout the 2 year commitment period.
whether TFA was always like this- or it is more recently expecting its members to obtain graduate teaching credentials- I do not know.
bottom line to OP- take the LSAT while you are in college. You will have better control over your free time as a college student than when you teach!</p>
<p>Check with the law schools where you think you might apply, as some only allow you to defer for one year. For a two year gap you would have to reapply to those schools.</p>
<p>or #3 : You could not apply to teach for america at all if you arent interested in teaching but rather leveraging yourself forward towards a law degree.</p>
<p>Truer words were never spoken. There are certainly corps members who quit after a year, or don’t even make it through the first year, because it’s HARD. TFA is upfront about this, and corps members/alumni even more so.</p>
<p>You do realize that you are responding to a 3.5 year old question. I am sure OP has made a decision by now whether or not to do TFA or Law School.</p>
<p>“You do realize that you are responding to a 3.5 year old question.”</p>
<p>Who cares? It was on page, someone bumped it, and I’m sure someone out there can benefit from the truth. I did a year of service through the Americorps program at a low performing school and it was hard. Not something you do to “polish your resume” for law school. Do it because you have the genuine desire to do it.</p>