KevinP wrote:You sound just like me in terms of online privacy, and I also plan on dropping out if I end up in the bottom 1/3rd my 1L. Is there any advice you would give an incoming 1L? It's threads like these that make me not want to leave my well-paying, stable job that I love.
At the risk of incurring Cade Mcnown's wrath:
Disclaimer: I bombed 1L year, so definitely take this with a billion grains of salt
I'm going to approach this question assuming that you're already fully set on going to LS. If someone else asks for a 0L "Should I go to law school?" perspective, the answers will obviously be different
1) Work hard. Work really hard. I went into law school with a certain degree of cockiness (see: arrogance) and paid for it. Like I said before, you're going to be competing with extremely smart individuals and it all really comes down to how hard you work + some degree of "getting it" before everyone else does.
2) Set goals and be realistic about them. If you want biglaw, you know you're going to have to (basically) be above median at a T14 or top 10% at other schools to have a good shot. If after first semester, you're not where you want to be, ask yourself if it's worth continuing on or if you should get out then and save yourself some money.
3) Know when to cut your losses. I think you've got this one figured out already, but yeah. Imo, there should be a lot more people dropping out of even T14 schools after 1L grades come out. But I guess they either really love law or are hopelessly optimistic.
4) Take care of your body. Seems really simple to do, but it's a lot harder in practice when you've got tons of reading + legal writing assignments to do. Remember, you've only got one body - better take care of it.