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Hi everyone,

I'm recently finishing up my graduate program with a masters in engineering and applying to law school for the 2013 cycle after taking the LSAT this upcoming June/October. I want to enter a career in patent law and was interested to know which option would be the best for a) law school admissions and b) employment after law school.

1. Engineering International Fellowship
2. Full-time Industry Position (Technical/Engineering)
3. Technology Transfer Department in University
4. Academic Research in University
5. Paralegal/Technology Specialist in IP Firm
6. Study for Patent Bar in Summer and Patent Agent position starting September

Bunch of different options, please let me know what you think!

why are you going to school so much?

collegebum1989 wrote:Hi everyone,

I'm recently finishing up my graduate program with a masters in engineering and applying to law school for the 2013 cycle after taking the LSAT this upcoming June/October. I want to enter a career in patent law and was interested to know which option would be the best for a) law school admissions and b) employment after law school.

1. Engineering International Fellowship
2. Full-time Industry Position (Technical/Engineering)
3. Technology Transfer Department in University
4. Academic Research in University
5. Paralegal/Technology Specialist in IP Firm
6. Study for Patent Bar in Summer and Patent Agent position starting September

Bunch of different options, please let me know what you think!

Those are all equal for law school admissions, in that none of them will make a big difference in your chances, if at all.

Samara wrote:

collegebum1989 wrote:Hi everyone,

I'm recently finishing up my graduate program with a masters in engineering and applying to law school for the 2013 cycle after taking the LSAT this upcoming June/October. I want to enter a career in patent law and was interested to know which option would be the best for a) law school admissions and b) employment after law school.

1. Engineering International Fellowship
2. Full-time Industry Position (Technical/Engineering)
3. Technology Transfer Department in University
4. Academic Research in University
5. Paralegal/Technology Specialist in IP Firm
6. Study for Patent Bar in Summer and Patent Agent position starting September

Bunch of different options, please let me know what you think!

Those are all equal for law school admissions, in that none of them will make a big difference in your chances, if at all.

I would think some of them would give you a much bigger leg up for OCIs though.. I'd think a Patent firm would love to see a experience in a full time engineering company; I would guess moreso than research at your school or being a paralegal.

None of them really make a big difference in admissions. They are all good softs.

Patent bar/ patent agent, however, will make a HUGE difference in your employment prospects. That's easily the best choice out of those options.

collegebum1989 wrote:Hi everyone,

I'm recently finishing up my graduate program with a masters in engineering and applying to law school for the 2013 cycle after taking the LSAT this upcoming June/October. I want to enter a career in patent law and was interested to know which option would be the best for a) law school admissions and b) employment after law school.

1. Engineering International Fellowship
2. Full-time Industry Position (Technical/Engineering)
3. Technology Transfer Department in University
4. Academic Research in University
5. Paralegal/Technology Specialist in IP Firm
6. Study for Patent Bar in Summer and Patent Agent position starting September

Bunch of different options, please let me know what you think!

Here is what you do: enjoy the summer. Seriously. Lounge by the pool and bask in the sun and have one last summer of bliss. Im not being a clown, either. Im serious. None of those things are going to make a bit of difference once 1L starts to anyone but you (in that you will regret not taking advantage of the precious free time you had).

Studying for the bar before law school even begins...really? That would be a tremendous waste of energy. Just relax, get ready for school and enjoy yourself. 1L flies by, and THAT is the summer where you start making career/future moves.

I do not have any intention to go into IP so I don't know which of these will be most useful in the future. But ignore this guy:

TheGreatWhiteHorse wrote:Here is what you do: enjoy the summer. Seriously. Lounge by the pool and bask in the sun and have one last summer of bliss. Im not being a clown, either. Im serious. None of those things are going to make a bit of difference once 1L starts to anyone but you (in that you will regret not taking advantage of the precious free time you had).

Studying for the bar before law school even begins...really? That would be a tremendous waste of energy. Just relax, get ready for school and enjoy yourself. 1L flies by, and THAT is the summer where you start making career/future moves.

dailygrind wrote:I do not have any intention to go into IP so I don't know which of these will be most useful in the future. But ignore this guy:

Got it all figured out, huh?

Okay. OP can ignore me if he likes, but he/she will see, councilor. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Ahhhh...I suppose I missed the fact that he was graduated already. My fault.

Yeahhh...don't waste an entire year. Work experience is important. Im not an IP guy, either...so Im not sure about those specific prospects. But DO relax for the final summer.

If you don't do the patent work, doing paralegal work will help (1) show admission committees that you are serious about law and not just flip-flopping (some people do and then drop out), and (2) show future employers that you are task-oriented and can think like a lawyer. Grad school helped sharpen my analytic skills, and working as a paralegal taught me how to meet more than 3-5 deadlines a semester. The two complement each other well for law school applications.

Thanks for all the wonderful opinions!

So from what i gather: None of what I do next year will significantly affect Law School admissions, other than a higher LSAT score, and majority of the choice difference comes down to compensation and consideration for future employment after law school.

Certainly Patent Agent would be the ideal position for next year, but I'm studying for the LSAT now to take in June, so to become a patent agent, I'd need to study for Patent Bar over the summer and apply for employment in August concurrently with my law school applications. Seems like a pretty hefty summer, but is it worth the work for just a year?

Second, the Engineering Fellowship is the most prestigious one in my field, biomedical engineering. I would have a chance to work at Harvard Medical School, and take original research to a developing country to apply it (Big plus for Law School applications?)

Finally, employment sucks right now lol, so I'm probably going to apply for everything and get whatever I can find.

collegebum1989 wrote:Thanks for all the wonderful opinions!

So from what i gather: None of what I do next year will significantly affect Law School admissions, other than a higher LSAT score, and majority of the choice difference comes down to compensation and consideration for future employment after law school.

Certainly Patent Agent would be the ideal position for next year, but I'm studying for the LSAT now to take in June, so to become a patent agent, I'd need to study for Patent Bar over the summer and apply for employment in August concurrently with my law school applications. Seems like a pretty hefty summer, but is it worth the work for just a year?

Second, the Engineering Fellowship is the most prestigious one in my field, biomedical engineering. I would have a chance to work at Harvard Medical School, and take original research to a developing country to apply it (Big plus for Law School applications?)

Finally, employment sucks right now lol, so I'm probably going to apply for everything and get whatever I can find.

What is your GPA? Have you taken any LSAT practices tests?

I would pick the Engineering Fellowship myself. Of the choices, that one sounds by far the one most likely to affect your law school admissions cycle. Especially if you can be competitive for YSH, that seems like the kind of soft that would push you over the edge. We would need to know your GPA to know what kind of effect it could have.

It also sounds like a neat opportunity, the likes of which you may never have again. I don't know anything about patent law, but it sounds like being a patent agent would be similar to the work you would do for your career. Unless you come to find out that the patent agent job or another choice would give you a significant leg up at OCI compared to the Fellowship, I would want to do the Fellowship. There's plenty of time for your career later, why not take the opportunity to do something cool and unique? It also sounds like it would dovetail better with the application process, timing-wise.

That's just my thoughts as someone completely uninformed on the career path of patent lawyers.

my gpa isn't nearly as good to get into HYS or T6 (i have around a ~3.3) although I have a huge upward trend and 4.0 at my grad program (but it probably won't count for admissions)...practicing around 165 right now, hoping to break 170-175 by June.

Two ways to approach this IMO:

1.) Do the fellowship because, frankly, you might change your mind and decide to stick with your original field. If you're good enough to get the "most prestigious fellowship" in that field, I don't understand why you're so quick to do something else.

2.) Do the patent bar because it will provide some bump to your OCI prospects.

I don't think the other options make much sense.

collegebum1989 wrote:my gpa isn't nearly as good to get into HYS or T6 (i have around a ~3.3) although I have a huge upward trend and 4.0 at my grad program (but it probably won't count for admissions)...practicing around 165 right now, hoping to break 170-175 by June.

Is ~3.3 your LSAC GPA? Mine dropped from 3.3 to 3.09 when LSAC got a hold of it.

So, assuming you will be a 17X/3.3 applicant, you'll be such a large splitter that it likely won't get you into T6 territory (though it's worth a try, especially at NYU) but it may help you get into MVP straight up, instead of riding out waitlists. You'll get NU and GULC, probably Cornell, and probably at least one of MVP.

Samara is right about the UGPA from the LSAC. They butchered my GPA once they figured in the semesters I went to various podunk community colleges here and there over the years. But that shouldn't be a problem (not saying that will even be the case with you). Address any issues with your gpa in an addendum and believe me, the upward trend absolutely counts!

The thing to remember with admissions, is that it may seem like a rigid set of standards, but it's actually a very fluid, case-by-case process. They take trends, work experience, diversity, etc into account.

Hopefully! All I've been hearing on Law School forums is that they just care about numbers. Then when I'm reading US News all the deans are saying how admissions is based on "intellectual ability not entirely express in your grades". It's quite funny, I would probably trust the forums more though.

Those arent mutually exclusive, though. All that really matters are your LSAT numbers. Then, what the deans are saying is true about ugpa numbers. Its more holistic. If anything, that just shows that low gpa/high LSAT splitters are probably okay.