do you think the poor grades will be an issue in the future when applying to non-legal jobs?

Not sure what you're trying to accomplish.

No I wasn't screening for Northwestern. I wondered if work experience affected the way you handled law school. I think having outside work experience might have made you more confident in dropping out. Obviously there are other students at T14s who should drop out, but they will continue anyway.

I find it hilarious that people are harshing on the OP and trying to rationalize why they won't be like him. To respond to the various implied comments ITT:

1) Outside Y/S, every school has a grade range where you're pretty much fucked. Harvard had to hire a few dozen of its own grads for C/O 2011--no school is immune. See: http://top-law-schools.com/forums/viewt ... 1&t=181723.

2) No, law school is not a good place to find yourself. Most of the people there know what they want to do.

3) Going in with a more noble purpose than "doing it for the money" does not make you do better in school. Indeed, an intellectual love for the law is probably negatively correlated with grades. The people who really found the policy discussions intellectually interesting tended not to realize that exams were a game.

4) Within the typical narrow spread at a law school, LSAT/GPA doesn't have any impact on your grades. Between a 168 and a 172, it's a total crapshoot where each will finish in the class.

5) While people who perform at the very bottom tend to put in below a minimum level of effort, and people who perform at the very top tend to put in a very strong effort, within the middle 80% of the class, effort is largely uncorrelated with 1L grades.

OP did the smart thing--he realized he didn't want to be a lawyer and he realized his prospects were marginal so he didn't put good money after bad.

The point, since I haven't been clear apparently, is that an AMA thread only works if OP actually answers questions. OP may very well have useful advice to give, but if OP insists on revealing very little, there's not much use. And from the little that OP has revealed, it is hardly unreasonable to suggest that OP's decision to drop out was unprincipled, and that therefore this OP might be untrustworthy -- a conclusion relevant to 0Ls or similarly situated 1Ls.

i want to be clear that this question is entirely distinct from Cade McNown's line of questioning, because that guy's kind of a douche

my question is: why do you care if people know what school you went to?

There are very few dropouts every year from each school (attrition rates of like 3% for T14 schools IIRC), and once I admit to attending a school, it'd be fairly easy to figure out exactly who I am.

And I'm kind of a stickler for online privacy.

yes, i know that's why you aren't saying what school you went to. i was wondering why you're a stickler for online privacy, especially on a throwaway account.

I have no idea, actually.

I've always been like that. I never give my real DOB for online stuff, or my real name. I probably say stuff that isn't totally PC on the internet, and don't want that somehow linked back to me + have to deal with the repercussions. Maybe I'm just unreasonably paranoid.

interestingly, i'm pretty much the opposite of a stickler for online privacy, and i also have no idea why. i think i'm probably just a closet attention whore. if the inverse is true for you, that's probably a good thing.

I have no idea, actually.

I've always been like that. I never give my real DOB for online stuff, or my real name. I probably say stuff that isn't totally PC on the internet, and don't want that somehow linked back to me + have to deal with the repercussions. Maybe I'm just unreasonably paranoid.

What more do you want me to reveal? Anything that would be relevant or helpful to 0L's/1L's, I'm willing to share. Other stuff I'd like to keep under wraps.

that guy's kind of a douche.

Ty for the qualifier.

Did anyone at the school try to talk you out of it? If they did, did you think they were being honest or blowing smoke up your ass?

If I were a similarly situated 1L considering dropping out, I would expect you to answer loaded questions:
(1) at least a narrower range of schools than not YHSCCN, b/c Penn =/= Georgetttown.
(2) what alternative work you will do to pay back your $50K loans + interest, short term and long term, b/c someone who drops out b/c law school is a lot of work and his/her fellow students hurt some feelings isn't much of a baseline.
(3) what your ugrad major was specifically--> goes to your marketability, as you recognize, but also to your credibility
(4) why, given your high ability but low work ethic, you'll be any more successful in another field?

(1) at least a narrower range of schools than not YHSCCN, b/c Penn =/= Georgetttown.

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.