Why I've decided not to attend law school

[unattended bag]

TLS Community:

This forum has been an enormous help to me during the time that I took the LSAT and filled out my applications. Although sometimes I did not get the information I wanted to hear, I appreciated all of the advice. It is partly because of that advice that I have decided not to pursure law school any further. As such, I will soon be withdrawing the rest of my applications. I am not posting this as a deterrent to other applicants, nor am I saying that the things people post on TLS should be treated as Gospel. Rather, I'm hoping to add my 2 cents to the wealth of information already available in the hopes that people will continue to make informed decisions regarding their futures.

From the time I began thinking about law school, I considered it to be a financial investment. My rationale was that the money I would pay for a legal education would be returned to me in spades. And while it's true that you have to spend money to make money, most of you probably know by now that a JD is not a guaranteed path to wealth. If you're chasing the money, you're looking in the wrong place. If you pay full price to go to law school and you're not absolutely positive that you want to be a lawyer, you're essentially locking yourself into at least 10 years of work in a job that you will potentially hate (this obviously does not apply to most T-14 grads or to people with significant scholarships).

On the other hand, if you genuinely want to be a lawyer, don't let people convince you otherwise. If money is not your main motivation and you are already committed to your dream, the debt should not deter you from pursuing your passion. There are plenty of paths toward a happy existence, and I suppose if there's anything truly worth going into debt for, it's education.

I guess what I'm trying to say here is that if you're not sure about whether or not you actually want to be a lawyer, you owe it to yourself to figure it out before your first loan payment is due. Don't make the mistake I almost made and pay full price for a mediocre law school, thereby confining yourself to a career that isn't really your pasion. If you think that "you have no other options", you're wrong.

Thanks again to the entire TLS community, and good luck!

[Kaitlyn]

Good for you. It sounds like you came to a conclusion many, unfortunately, have to wait until they are in law school, and have already made a substantial investment, to realize. And it's great that this forum can be helpful in less obvious ways. Good luck with your future endeavors!

Oh, and just out of curiosity, where had you applied?

[nealric]

[AreJay711]

Damn it!

OP: Congrats on keeping an open mind. From my experience, and from a quote I read somewhere, money finds successful people, not the other way around. Good luck with you future endeavors.

[irish017]

I'll call you from my private jet or yacht. Your choice.

/thread.

[jgloster]

HEY

[T6Hopeful]

Hey OP, that's absolutely great that you were able to make that tough decision. Personally, I've started second-guessing this entire path too. While for now I remain committed to law school, I will also have a tough decision to make come the return of all my applications and hopefully, scholarship offers. This internal struggle has actually led me to withdraw myself from ED consideration after a fall grades request (which I don't think would necessarily be an auto-ding, since they seemed to offer it in a pretty understanding acknowledgment), and that substantial debt is not by any means something to brush off by saying you'll work hard and necessarily get a great job.

I wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors, and that you will ultimately remain satisfied with your decision.

[bigkahuna2020]

tl;dr
kthxbye

I love how so many people consider this forum their blog.

[thecilent]

Retake.

[Fresh]

Retake.

lol