Just looking for some general input: Forum

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wLaw_candidate

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Just looking for some general input:

Post by wLaw_candidate » Wed Jul 11, 2012 11:02 am

Hey there, I am pretty much going to law school and I just want to make sure I am making the best decision possible or at least if I am making a bad decision how to save grace.

First off:
LSAT 149
GPA: 3.38(2004)
GPA(grad): 3.83(2005)
no kids/ not married

So I'm about to embark on going to law school

I have paid my two deposits for New York Law School for the part-time program. I did it because I thought it would be easy to get into as well as I wanted to ability to work at day time and help with the debt.

Currently I'm working as a web designer/ web developer and I want to work in intellectual property, quite possible the video game industry.

I got accepted into Pace yesterday coming off the waitlists. Should I even care?



I don't want to work at a law firm to be honest, I want to work in house maybe for a start-up company.
I already work part-time for my friend's part-time company so I can always get the experience from there.
Right now I want to practice in New York, though I wouldn't mind practicing in California, though I am not really a fan of L.A. or
leaving NY.

My question is what should I do to make sure I reach the possibility of working in the video game industry?

thanks

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cinephile

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Re: Just looking for some general input:

Post by cinephile » Wed Jul 11, 2012 11:05 am

If you're sincere about working as a lawyer, then you're going to want to go to the best part-time program possible. If you live in NYC, I think that would be Fordham. Also, you should go to a school that won't cause you to go into debt. The best option would be to retake the LSAT and reapply.

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fanmingrui

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Re: Just looking for some general input:

Post by fanmingrui » Wed Jul 11, 2012 11:06 am

.
Last edited by fanmingrui on Wed Jul 11, 2012 8:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.

wLaw_candidate

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Re: Just looking for some general input:

Post by wLaw_candidate » Wed Jul 11, 2012 11:14 am

I see... however I have taken the LSAT a few times and I have taken courses as well as studied on my own and this is pretty much the highest I have scored in practice as well as on the exams.

Is there any other advice you can suggest.



@fanmingrui --> what does TCR mean?

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GirlStop

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Re: Just looking for some general input:

Post by GirlStop » Wed Jul 11, 2012 11:22 am

fanmingrui wrote:Unoriginal flame.

ETA: If not a flame, retake is TCR.
What about the OP caught your eye as a possible flame? Just curious, because I don't see it. Like...at all.

OP -->CINEPHILE's advice seems solid. Have you looked into Fordham?

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TLSwag

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Re: Just looking for some general input:

Post by TLSwag » Wed Jul 11, 2012 11:23 am

wLaw_candidate wrote: Is there any other advice you can suggest.
keep ur day job

and TCR = the credited response. maybe the LSAT really isn't for u ha

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Wily

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Re: Just looking for some general input:

Post by Wily » Wed Jul 11, 2012 11:24 am

You need to retake and score 15 -20 points higher or so to get into Fordham. 10+ higher to get into Brooklyn/Cardozo/St. John's. NYLS is not worth your money or time to attend.

TLSwag

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Re: Just looking for some general input:

Post by TLSwag » Wed Jul 11, 2012 11:24 am

GirlStop wrote:
fanmingrui wrote:Unoriginal flame.

ETA: If not a flame, retake is TCR.
What about the OP caught your eye as a possible flame? Just curious, because I don't see it. Like...at all.

OP -->CINEPHILE's advice seems solid. Have you looked into Fordham?
OP would need at least a 15 point LSAT swing for consideration to Fordham pt

TMC116

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Re: Just looking for some general input:

Post by TMC116 » Wed Jul 11, 2012 11:32 am

Please God don't go to NYLS. 260k and a higher chance of being unemployed/underemployed than *ever* working as a lawyer. --LinkRemoved--


Also, good luck w the Caliornia bar

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cinephile

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Re: Just looking for some general input:

Post by cinephile » Wed Jul 11, 2012 11:37 am

wLaw_candidate wrote:I see... however I have taken the LSAT a few times and I have taken courses as well as studied on my own and this is pretty much the highest I have scored in practice as well as on the exams.

Is there any other advice you can suggest.
Win the lottery? Without a better score, you won't be getting the scholarships you need to keep debt down. But even if you could go to NYLS or Pace for free, it wouldn't matter because very few of their grads end up better off after law school than they were before. To work in-house, you usually need experience and getting that first job will be dependent on where you went to law school and your grades. The odds of you improving on the LSAT are so much higher than the odds of being number 1 in your class.

But on the other hand, if you're a web designer and interested in starting your own start-up and being your own lawyer or something like that, in California you can attend a non-ABA school and still sit for the bar. If there is a non-ABA school that's part time and only costs a few hundred dollars a year (does People's College of Law qualify?) then you could become your own lawyer. You'd still face extreme difficulty getting hired by an existing employer, though.

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kalvano

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Re: Just looking for some general input:

Post by kalvano » Wed Jul 11, 2012 11:40 am

Any law school that will accept you with a 149 is not one you wish to go to.

Also:

1) While you may not want to work for a law firm, going in-house generally requires several years firm experience. Around here, 5-7 years seems to be the norm. It also typically requires coming from a strong law firm, which you probably won't get from a school that accepts 149's.

2) What exactly do you think you will do in video game law? I always see people post things like this without ever explaining what they think that area consists of.

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Nova

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Re: Just looking for some general input:

Post by Nova » Wed Jul 11, 2012 11:40 am

Keep your day job. Retake.

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GirlStop

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Re: Just looking for some general input:

Post by GirlStop » Wed Jul 11, 2012 11:42 am

OP, what are you thinking now? Is a retake definitely out of the question? I see that you've had a bit of experience with the LSAT, is it possible that the study methods you were using just weren't working? Or is the LSAT just not your thing?

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Wily

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Re: Just looking for some general input:

Post by Wily » Wed Jul 11, 2012 11:49 am

OP, also don't be scared away by the negative responses here (TLS has that effect at times). The posters really do mean the best when they are saying you shouldn't go to NY Law. It's overpriced (I assume you didn't get any scholarship?) and does NOT place well at all. You are better off retaking and applying to schools that will give you money and better chances of employment.

wLaw_candidate

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Re: Just looking for some general input:

Post by wLaw_candidate » Wed Jul 11, 2012 12:09 pm

Wily wrote:OP, also don't be scared away by the negative responses here (TLS has that effect at times). The posters really do mean the best when they are saying you shouldn't go to NY Law. It's overpriced (I assume you didn't get any scholarship?) and does NOT place well at all. You are better off retaking and applying to schools that will give you money and better chances of employment.
To be honest...not really scared away I'm used to the harshness/brunt of the internet posters, just lost on your slangs and acronyms-- hah.

And I don't like taking LSAT, studying for it was ok(though by more score maybe not)... taking the exam is another thing. I got too distracted or plain nervous on the exam. It wasn't like a test you take in school where you studied the material all year long and worked with groups and you can develop your answer(well at least the essay part of the LSAT felt like that).

I took it in 2004, 2005, and then just recently 2011(accumulating to more than 3 times in all).


However, as much as the advise seems daunting, too be honest I have faced worse odds before. I went to an undergraduate school that has bad placement for my major. And too be honest with a blessing and working the employment system I was able to find a job. So I understand going to a no-name school and the possibility of low employment statistics in an industry. However, with good networking those setbacks can be overcome. And I have made some contacts and still are trying too.



Video games! I want to work with dichotomy of how companies are creating software based on open source and proprietary libraries, and how the law can manage that the company can maintain a profit while giving back to the community. I want to work with historical nature of intellectual property in which creators where encouraged to display the inner workings of their innovation in order to be compensated and protected by law while or eventually bettering society. I want to protect triple A game developers from heavy entertainment publishers that want to shoot down a company over a likeness of a character( ie. Universal Studio v. Nintendo 1985). Though ironically now Nintendo is seen as the bully. I also don't mind doing endless research of going through cases and going through contracts to ensure good practices are being made.

But I also love to make sure the consumer is protected granted in a hard industry such as video games, protecting the consumer can be a heavy burden to a company in which with 1 bad retail season the company can be put into bankruptcy or file for it depending on how you interpret.


And finally I am quite bored of my industry. Yes I still love it, but I want a more of an intellectual challenge. Working hard doesn't bother me, it's just I want to advice to work smarter with the limited options that I have. Does that make sense?

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Nova

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Re: Just looking for some general input:

Post by Nova » Wed Jul 11, 2012 12:12 pm

wLaw_candidate wrote:
I took it in 2004, 2005, and then just recently 2011(accumulating to more than 3 times in all).
You can take the LSAT 3 times every two years. You could retake in Oct and Dec if you wanted. You REALLY should.

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Wily

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Re: Just looking for some general input:

Post by Wily » Wed Jul 11, 2012 12:15 pm

Nova wrote:
wLaw_candidate wrote:
I took it in 2004, 2005, and then just recently 2011(accumulating to more than 3 times in all).
You can take the LSAT 3 times every two years. You could retake in Oct and Dec if you wanted. You REALLY should.
This. Go register for the Oct. taking.

As for your video game idea, it sounds like what you're mainly interested in is intellectual property law. That form of law, like most prestigious fields, hires mainly based on the ranking of your law school, and less importantly on your grade average in the law school. You're almost certainly not going to get a good IP job coming out of NYLS. Really, really, seriously, don't go there if you want anything other than small law in fields like personal injury or family law.

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wLaw_candidate

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Re: Just looking for some general input:

Post by wLaw_candidate » Wed Jul 11, 2012 12:28 pm

Wily wrote:
Nova wrote:
wLaw_candidate wrote:
I took it in 2004, 2005, and then just recently 2011(accumulating to more than 3 times in all).
You can take the LSAT 3 times every two years. You could retake in Oct and Dec if you wanted. You REALLY should.
This. Go register for the Oct. taking.

As for your video game idea, it sounds like what you're mainly interested in is intellectual property law. That form of law, like most prestigious fields, hires mainly based on the ranking of your law school, and less importantly on your grade average in the law school. You're almost certainly not going to get a good IP job coming out of NYLS. Really, really, seriously, don't go there if you want anything other than small law in fields like personal injury or family law.

Out of curiosity is it possible that you can all state what legal field that you work in? Or at least where you are in law school right now and your focus

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Nova

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Re: Just looking for some general input:

Post by Nova » Wed Jul 11, 2012 12:31 pm

wLaw_candidate wrote:
Out of curiosity is it possible that you can all state what legal field that you work in? Or at least where you are in law school right now and your focus
Most of us are still in school. I go to a Top 20 and am pretty unfocused.

wLaw_candidate

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Re: Just looking for some general input:

Post by wLaw_candidate » Wed Jul 11, 2012 12:35 pm

And by the way no one answered my question about Pace Law School?

Is it worth it?

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Nova

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Re: Just looking for some general input:

Post by Nova » Wed Jul 11, 2012 12:37 pm

No.

LST; Pace c/o 2011 wrote:36% of graduates were known to be employed in long-term, full-time legal jobs. This figure includes an unknown number school-funded jobs.
63.5% graduates were employed in long-term jobs.
60.8% graduates were employed in full-time jobs.
28.4% of all graduates secured job offers by graduation.
--LinkRemoved--

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Honey_Badger

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Re: Just looking for some general input:

Post by Honey_Badger » Sun Jul 15, 2012 9:31 pm

wLaw_candidate wrote: And I don't like taking LSAT, studying for it was ok(though by more score maybe not)... taking the exam is another thing. I got too distracted or plain nervous on the exam. It wasn't like a test you take in school where you studied the material all year long and worked with groups and you can develop your answer(well at least the essay part of the LSAT felt like that).
This concerns me. If you are this flustered by tests and studying for the LSAT was "ok," how do you think you will do in law school? I'm asking a serious and realistic question....no need to answer me, just be honest with yourself.
wLaw_candidate wrote: I took it in 2004, 2005, and then just recently 2011(accumulating to more than 3 times in all).
I think this is a really unfair statement to YOURSELF. Very few people are living the same life, with the same knowledge and same experiences today that they were eight years ago. Your statement above implies you've grown/learned very little since 2004, therefore you don't expect to make major gains. I'm betting there's a chance you are selling yourself short.
You can (and SHOULD) retake....I would try different methods or classes and aim for December, unless you can get your ass in gear for October. If you decide to try this, please post what your study schedule is like; perhaps your method and time commitment are what's preventing you from a much higher score.
Going to a school with a 149 would also be selling yourself short. I applaud your ambitions, but caution you against short-term planning out of boredom.

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Re: Just looking for some general input:

Post by wLaw_candidate » Mon Jul 16, 2012 11:28 pm

Honey_Badger wrote:
wLaw_candidate wrote: And I don't like taking LSAT, studying for it was ok(though by more score maybe not)... taking the exam is another thing. I got too distracted or plain nervous on the exam. It wasn't like a test you take in school where you studied the material all year long and worked with groups and you can develop your answer(well at least the essay part of the LSAT felt like that).
This concerns me. If you are this flustered by tests and studying for the LSAT was "ok," how do you think you will do in law school? I'm asking a serious and realistic question....no need to answer me, just be honest with yourself.
^I understand your concern but I actually explained or hinted in my previous post what my problem with the test was. I didn't like the fact I wasn't able to get familiar with the material as in true academic setting. No I am not relying on memorization but more like relationship learning. In class, outside class, and amongst groups, one gets to place these elements together. While studying for the LSAT there was nothing really to grasp upon. Yes I learned techniques but they weren't helpful if you had a minor mistake so you could go back and check as when you start writing out an essay.


Plus, on the LSAT you have multiple choice, whereas on law school exam you can write out your answer and develop it— though in a short time. Some might say this is way harder than the LSAT, but to someone like me that doesn't like multiple choice and also prefers to write out their answer law school exams are ideal. Plus, there will be less questions on the exam and more ability to focus on them, granted they are exponential harder or they demand more attention as the sequence of the questions hold a certain pattern but have different facts that require different explanations of certain laws.
Honey_Badger wrote:
wLaw_candidate wrote: I took it in 2004, 2005, and then just recently 2011(accumulating to more than 3 times in all).
Honey_Badger wrote: I think this is a really unfair statement to YOURSELF. Very few people are living the same life, with the same knowledge and same experiences today that they were eight years ago. Your statement above implies you've grown/learned very little since 2004, therefore you don't expect to make major gains. I'm betting there's a chance you are selling yourself short.
You can (and SHOULD) retake....I would try different methods or classes and aim for December, unless you can get your ass in gear for October. If you decide to try this, please post what your study schedule is like; perhaps your method and time commitment are what's preventing you from a much higher score.
Going to a school with a 149 would also be selling yourself short. I applaud your ambitions, but caution you against short-term planning out of boredom.
^ I like your enthusiasm, but I think you took that out of context and added an emotional element to my statement. I stated it to show I have unsuccessful track rate with the test. I have grown with other fields, I admit but that wasn't my point.

I like your input, but let's say I consider my score does jump and we look at the average area traditionally I would reach 150-155 range, enough to get a scholarship but only a 4th tier school(which is a positive), however the money I would spend on going to LSAT courses would probably take out some of those funds. And I would still end up on the waiting lists for other schools that tier 2 and tier 3. To me I feel I am still in the same boat.

I am also looking for advice in which people from tier 4 schools actually made it, even if they had to work twice as hard as someone in tier 2 school. I have heard from alumni from my college telling me that after 5 years in the field they were on top level competing with those who went to tier 1 and tier 2 schools. Or even people that transferred and learned that it was better than re-taking the tests.

And lastly it isn't only because I am bored, it's actually something that I wanted to do for a long time— and that was the emotional moment.


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romothesavior

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Re: Just looking for some general input:

Post by romothesavior » Tue Jul 17, 2012 12:07 am

Retake or don't go. Take a class if you need to.

The schools you are talking about going to are the true bottom-feeders of NYC and all of them have terrible job placement. You need to put the time into studying... really commit yourself to this if you want to do it. Don't just be content with a bad LSAT because it is easy. If you want to be a lawyer, you need to work at it starting right now. It is far easier to improve your LSAT score and get into a better school than it is to get great grades once there.

If you go to Pace/NYLS, you will be throwing six-figures on a roulette table for a <50% chance at a job. That is a horrendous idea. Don't sell yourself short. Retake or don't go.

Seriously? What are you waiting for?

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