<p>for what it’s worth, I think the best bet for law would be Patent law, and the best medicine related field for the future would be Bio-engineering, Bio-medical-engineering, or a combination of computer science/technology with medicine.</p>
<p>^ Yeah, but unlike most of them, I actually have a really innate affinity for both studying and practicing law. I’m not trying to brag; I’ll readily admit that my math/sci skills are way weaker than most pre-meds, and that I’m not naturally the “smartest” student, but my public speaking, debating, and reading/writing skills are way ahead of the curve. Those things got me into Duke; they’ll get me on the Mock Trial and MUN teams, get me the best internships provided by Duke’s stellar career center, and they’ll help get me into a top 5 law school and (eventually) a top firm.</p>
<p>Also, once you graduate from law school, you certainly don’t have to go into law, per se. A huge percentage of politicians went to law school.</p>
<p>Obviously, if you go to the #20 law school, graduate in the 25-50 percentile, and don’t necessarily have any natural ability to be a great lawyer, your options aren’t going to be that great.</p>
<p>and yes, I actually think the biggest benefit of ObamaCare getting passed would be the fact that more and more gifted math/sci kids would go into medicinal RESEARCH as opposed to the practice of medicine. Might finally bring us moderately up to speed with the rest of the world.</p>
<p>There will always be crime so lawyers work is always assured. Also, when business is bad lwayers make a ton of money on bankruptcy and employment law. If business is just chugging along they make a ton of money reviewing contracts. If business is great they make a ton of money from securities law. In business, when business is mediocre or bad you lose your shirt. Only when business is good do you prosper. Lawyers always prosper no matter what the business climate is.</p>
<p>^ My point exactly. Because of the way American society and culture are constructed, people will ALWAYS need lawyers. Always. And lots of them.</p>
<p>Anyway, this is probably way too off-topic haha.</p>
<p>I actually am a bit concerned about my GPA taking a hit in college, especially since I’m in Duke’s most rigorous freshman program (on the humanities side, anyway), but I do think the whole “weed-out” thing is pretty much a pre-med problem. As someone said earlier, pre-law kids can major in just about anything that develops writing and critical thinking skills: Philosophy, PoliSci, English, etc. Those majors don’t tend to have extremely difficult weed-out courses or lengthy requirements. In terms of class hours, I can already see the difference. My pre-med friends have around 20 hours of class per week, counting labs, etc. I have 12.</p>
<p>Also (and this is just the vibe I’ve gotten so far, certainly not an experienced opinion), I feel like pre-med kids are way more competitive and less collaborative than pre-law, pre-business, or pre-ANYTHING kids. They just seem more self-focused, whereas most other college students (depending on the school environment, of course) don’t mind helping each other out.</p>
<p>well to be honest with you Hookem, I am considering both Law and Medicine because I know and understand the benefits of both, and have had substantial experience in college with both. I have a 3.75 GPA from a very tough curriculum at Hopkins and am looking to boost that up to a 3.8 or higher this coming semester/year.</p>
<p>What I mean is that the vast majority of students who are pre-law are NOT going to be successful in life. There are SO many lawyers out there, that unless you came out of the cream-of-the-crop schools, you are going to be stuck handling $200-$500 per case real estate deals, and a few small trials that don’t make much money or much impact at all.</p>
<p>Anyways, I will probably apply to both law and medical school and see which joint programs I can get into. I know a lot of people think this is ridiculous and too much work for little benefit, but I have a plan and greater scheme in all of this, and it would require both degrees lol :). no further explaining though, haha.</p>
<p>edit: and I beg to differ on your competitive/un-collaborative issue.
As a pre-med at Hopkins, my regular routine is to study in groups of 8 or more in the library before big tests, split up homework problems in physics, etc. These are some of the nicest people I know.
Yeah, there are a few that are not so nice…but just about all of my classmates in pre-med courses are very collaborative and willing to help.</p>
<p>edit2: whereas for doctors, anyone who graduates with a medical degree, be it from Podunk Medical School or Hopkins, will be making a pretty substantial amount (after residency).</p>
<p>^ That does sound ridiculous from a workload standpoint, but ridiculously cool from a theoretical standpoint lmao. Like I said, I wouldn’t be able to handle the math/sci curriculum for pre-med, especially at a place like Duke or JHU, but I have always thought that a joint J.D./MBA would be cool! haha if anyone watches Entourage, there’s a really funny scene where a guy’s like “who do you think you are??!” and Ari Gold sarcastically replies “Just a Harvard grad with a J.D./MBA from Michigan, THAT’S ALL!” lol</p>
<p>JD/MBA isn’t too hard at all lol. I find business as a whole to be rather easy and common-sense-like and don’t really see any point in taking/paying-for classes in it.</p>
<p>a JD/MPH would be could too.</p>
<p>
I apologize for the tone in my previous reply, and thank you for not replying in the same vein.</p>
<p>Back to the numbers, keep in mind that the 1 in 54 (which is less than the true rate, as I’ll explain in a moment) applies only to the chances of getting into this particular school. Med school applicants apply to multiple schools, and the better applicants get more than 1 acceptance. We don’t know from the published data you gave how many acceptances they had to award in order to fill their seats, but its pretty sure they didn’t have a 100% yield. If they accepted 1/2 of those they interviewed, the chances were about 1 out of 20. And looking at the big picture, across the country in 2008 42,231 people applied to med school, vying for 18,036 spots. More than 4 out of 10 applicants ended up getting in.</p>
<p>So knowing nothing more about a person than the info they applied to med school in 2008, their chances of getting in were 4/10. And this is a decline from the 1/2 that were getting in somewhere from 2003 to 2006 when Wall Street careers beckoned. So the odds haven’t really been so poor for applicants. Furthermore, many schools break down apply/accept ratios into a grid based on GPA and MCAT score. Given the pair, you can see how others have done with similar scores. Rates in the 80’s and 90’s are typical for the stronger applicants. A sample chart is at <a href=“http://www.career.cornell.edu/downloads/Health/AaChart2008.pdf[/url]”>http://www.career.cornell.edu/downloads/Health/AaChart2008.pdf</a> Amherst has a chart at [Amherst</a> Premed Guide – Chances](<a href=“Amherst College Guide for Premedical Students”>Amherst College Guide for Premedical Students)</p>
<p>With regards to law, you have a great deal of freedom deciding which courses and majors you want to pursue. If you aren’t at the top of your class, and you want to go to law school, you aren’t working hard enough or you haven’t got your priorities straight. And, if you have a low LSAT score, you haven’t spent enough time practicing.</p>