Law school from undergrad Forum
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Re: Law school from undergrad
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Last edited by deant286 on Thu Jul 02, 2015 10:20 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Law school from undergrad
Fwiw I feel that I outperformed my numbers this cycle when applying in my third and final year as an undergraduate at a run of the mill public school. Then again, I had other stuff on my resume too. One school out of the fifteen I applied to asked me for an updated transcript with final fall grades. The school that asked happened to be a safety outside of the t-14. Due to varying cut-off dates by state and district of when people start school, I think I am basically the same age as other k-jds. Just do what is best for you.
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Re: Law school from undergrad
How in the world could that be average? It's a pretty big deal to get published.Mack.Hambleton wrote:Average soft at best. They're required in a lot of programs so you're not really going to stick out much imodeant286 wrote:Just happened to come across this thread and read this, but how much bearing does completing a thesis during undergrad have on law school admissions? How about co-authoring a publication in an academic journal? Are these two the sort of softs that actually can give you an edge? I always assumed not, but now that you are posing this question to OP my curiosity has been piqued.KMart wrote:By any chance can you get a thesis published?
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Re: Law school from undergrad
Don't go to law school until you're at least, like, 25. Going when you're like 22-23 is a huge mistake. Your early 20s are far too precious.
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- Mack.Hambleton
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Re: Law school from undergrad
I was referring to just completing a thesis, but getting something published probably would just be another average soft as well. There's lots of people with PHDs and lots of published work on LSN/TLS and they generally perform as their numbers usually would.UpandDown97 wrote:How in the world could that be average? It's a pretty big deal to get published.Mack.Hambleton wrote:Average soft at best. They're required in a lot of programs so you're not really going to stick out much imodeant286 wrote:Just happened to come across this thread and read this, but how much bearing does completing a thesis during undergrad have on law school admissions? How about co-authoring a publication in an academic journal? Are these two the sort of softs that actually can give you an edge? I always assumed not, but now that you are posing this question to OP my curiosity has been piqued.KMart wrote:By any chance can you get a thesis published?
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- UnicornHunter
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Re: Law school from undergrad
Kjd shouldn't be a thing. Go do something first.
- JedBartlet2016
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Re: Law school from undergrad
+1TheUnicornHunter wrote:Kjd shouldn't be a thing. Go do something first.
You'll realize if Law School is in fact what you really want to do
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Re: Law school from undergrad
I'm not going to advise someone to not go straight from undergrad to JD because I would be a hypocrite. I started law school less than two weeks after I graduated from college. However, I will say that it appears to me from my 1L section that the older students with work experience did better than the K-JDs on average. A lot of the people that did well were 25 to 30 years old. Hell, one of the guys that did really well is in his 40s.
At the same time, I also did really well as a 1L and I'm 23 years old. I wouldn't say you're necessarily at a disadvantage. It just depends on your work ethic. I feel like the older students tend to have a better work ethic. They weren't stuck in that undergrad mindset. I also did not get stuck in that undergrad mindset. But I know many friends that did. And honestly, I am surprised I didn't because I tended to slack a bit in undergrad. But I worked hard as a 1L and did well.
So it would probably help you to get work experience but you can still do well if you're mature and willing to work extremely hard.
At the same time, I also did really well as a 1L and I'm 23 years old. I wouldn't say you're necessarily at a disadvantage. It just depends on your work ethic. I feel like the older students tend to have a better work ethic. They weren't stuck in that undergrad mindset. I also did not get stuck in that undergrad mindset. But I know many friends that did. And honestly, I am surprised I didn't because I tended to slack a bit in undergrad. But I worked hard as a 1L and did well.
So it would probably help you to get work experience but you can still do well if you're mature and willing to work extremely hard.
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Re: Law school from undergrad
Yeah but it's not really about doing well in school, it's more about caring what should be cared about and getting maximum enjoyment out of life.lawman84 wrote:I'm not going to advise someone to not go straight from undergrad to JD because I would be a hypocrite. I started law school less than two weeks after I graduated from college. However, I will say that it appears to me from my 1L section that the older students with work experience did better than the K-JDs on average. A lot of the people that did well were 25 to 30 years old. Hell, one of the guys that did really well is in his 40s.
At the same time, I also did really well as a 1L and I'm 23 years old. I wouldn't say you're necessarily at a disadvantage. It just depends on your work ethic. I feel like the older students tend to have a better work ethic. They weren't stuck in that undergrad mindset. I also did not get stuck in that undergrad mindset. But I know many friends that did. And honestly, I am surprised I didn't because I tended to slack a bit in undergrad. But I worked hard as a 1L and did well.
So it would probably help you to get work experience but you can still do well if you're mature and willing to work extremely hard.
- chuckbass
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Re: Law school from undergrad
K-JD here as well. Not only will WE probably help with OCI in general, it will also help in every single interview when you are asked "why law," "why big firm," "why XYZ practice area." It's hard to give a compelling answer as a liberal arts grad, and while it still works out, it's just much easier for you to work for a year and then easily be able to communicate "I want to do XYZ because I have experience in this or ABC and blah blah blah."
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Re: Law school from undergrad
Eh, depends on what type of direction you have coming out of college. I know exactly what I want to do and I know exactly how I want to accomplish it. We'll see if I succeed in doing that. Because of that, those questions won't be difficult for me to answer.scottidsntknow wrote:K-JD here as well. Not only will WE probably help with OCI in general, it will also help in every single interview when you are asked "why law," "why big firm," "why XYZ practice area." It's hard to give a compelling answer as a liberal arts grad, and while it still works out, it's just much easier for you to work for a year and then easily be able to communicate "I want to do XYZ because I have experience in this or ABC and blah blah blah."
I'm getting plenty of enjoyment out of life and am quite happy with the choice I made.BigZuck wrote:Yeah but it's not really about doing well in school, it's more about caring what should be cared about and getting maximum enjoyment out of life.lawman84 wrote:I'm not going to advise someone to not go straight from undergrad to JD because I would be a hypocrite. I started law school less than two weeks after I graduated from college. However, I will say that it appears to me from my 1L section that the older students with work experience did better than the K-JDs on average. A lot of the people that did well were 25 to 30 years old. Hell, one of the guys that did really well is in his 40s.
At the same time, I also did really well as a 1L and I'm 23 years old. I wouldn't say you're necessarily at a disadvantage. It just depends on your work ethic. I feel like the older students tend to have a better work ethic. They weren't stuck in that undergrad mindset. I also did not get stuck in that undergrad mindset. But I know many friends that did. And honestly, I am surprised I didn't because I tended to slack a bit in undergrad. But I worked hard as a 1L and did well.
So it would probably help you to get work experience but you can still do well if you're mature and willing to work extremely hard.
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Re: Law school from undergrad
I'd love to see proof if you've got it.Mack.Hambleton wrote:I was referring to just completing a thesis, but getting something published probably would just be another average soft as well. There's lots of people with PHDs and lots of published work on LSN/TLS and they generally perform as their numbers usually would.UpandDown97 wrote:How in the world could that be average? It's a pretty big deal to get published.Mack.Hambleton wrote:Average soft at best. They're required in a lot of programs so you're not really going to stick out much imodeant286 wrote:Just happened to come across this thread and read this, but how much bearing does completing a thesis during undergrad have on law school admissions? How about co-authoring a publication in an academic journal? Are these two the sort of softs that actually can give you an edge? I always assumed not, but now that you are posing this question to OP my curiosity has been piqued.KMart wrote:By any chance can you get a thesis published?
- chuckbass
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Re: Law school from undergrad
I'm not saying that it will be difficult to come up with an answer in general, but it will be more difficult to come up with a good answer that you won't be further grilled on.
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Re: Law school from undergrad
Good. Will keep them away from topics that I might not be able to answer well.scottidsntknow wrote:I'm not saying that it will be difficult to come up with an answer in general, but it will be more difficult to come up with a good answer that you won't be further grilled on.
- Mack.Hambleton
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Re: Law school from undergrad
Go look at LSN profiles lolUpandDown97 wrote:I'd love to see proof if you've got it.Mack.Hambleton wrote:I was referring to just completing a thesis, but getting something published probably would just be another average soft as well. There's lots of people with PHDs and lots of published work on LSN/TLS and they generally perform as their numbers usually would.UpandDown97 wrote:How in the world could that be average? It's a pretty big deal to get published.Mack.Hambleton wrote:Average soft at best. They're required in a lot of programs so you're not really going to stick out much imodeant286 wrote:Just happened to come across this thread and read this, but how much bearing does completing a thesis during undergrad have on law school admissions? How about co-authoring a publication in an academic journal? Are these two the sort of softs that actually can give you an edge? I always assumed not, but now that you are posing this question to OP my curiosity has been piqued.KMart wrote:By any chance can you get a thesis published?
- A. Nony Mouse
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Re: Law school from undergrad
Pretty sure this is correct. Publications are decent softs, but not in the very small category of softs that overcome your numbers. PhDs are a good example - the PhD is a good soft and most PhDs do have publications, but they still don't generally outperform their numbers (the ones I know of who did especially well with admissions had stellar numbers to start with). Also, a lot of undergrad publications are in undergrad specific venues or as one of multiple authors, so not all publishing is a big deal (in the sense of making a candidate stand out for admissions purposes). If it's something like Elizabeth Wurtzel writing Prozac Nation that's going to be different, or if you've written a lot or won numerous prizes.UpandDown97 wrote:I'd love to see proof if you've got it.Mack.Hambleton wrote:I was referring to just completing a thesis, but getting something published probably would just be another average soft as well. There's lots of people with PHDs and lots of published work on LSN/TLS and they generally perform as their numbers usually would.UpandDown97 wrote:How in the world could that be average? It's a pretty big deal to get published.Mack.Hambleton wrote:Average soft at best. They're required in a lot of programs so you're not really going to stick out much imodeant286 wrote:Just happened to come across this thread and read this, but how much bearing does completing a thesis during undergrad have on law school admissions? How about co-authoring a publication in an academic journal? Are these two the sort of softs that actually can give you an edge? I always assumed not, but now that you are posing this question to OP my curiosity has been piqued.KMart wrote:By any chance can you get a thesis published?
- victory
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Re: Law school from undergrad
Anywhere I can find more info on this? The only person I've seen underperform their numbers wrt HYS this cycle was a KJD, but their performance was more KJD + weak softs.Mack.Hambleton wrote:KJD has been very bad for HYS admissions recently
CCN don't give a shit they'll take you if they have the numbers
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- Hat.trick
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Re: Law school from undergrad
I'm K-JD and i got my undergrad degree in three years so they only had four semester to judge my grades, same as you. My GPA wasn't that great at 3.76 and i got accepted everywhere that i applied, including Harvard, which was my dream school and where i'll be attending in the fall. I think what worked well for me were my internships and the fact that i had worked with two startup companies. But dont be discouraged at all, it can defiently happen.
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