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So I had two questions about age regarding law school and job prospects.

I'm going to be at least 27 when I enter law school and this is assuming that I'm able to enter right after I finish UG, and not have to wait to retake the LSAT or something. So my first question is, will I be very out of place compared to the average age of everyone else there?

My other, more important question is, will being 30-31 hurt my employment prospects for big law? And will starting at that age give me less time to build up a career?

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Fish127 wrote: My other, more important question is, will being 30-31 hurt my employment prospects for big law? And will starting at that age give me less time to build up a career?

It will likely help you. If you were 10 or 20 years older there might be an issue, but you'll fit in better at 30 than at 25.

There are lots of posts about this issue on the forum, and the consensus is that for the age range you're talking about, age doesn't make a whit of difference and is often a positive. Starting at 27 isn't old. (It may seem that way based on traditional educational patterns, but many people make career changes throughout their lives, so the "traditional" pattern is not at all the only way to do law school.) Big law doesn't have a problem with hiring 30 year olds.

Whether you will feel out of place will depend on where you go - there are some schools with very few non-K-JD students, and there, yes, you might feel a bit odd. But most schools people from a variety of age groups. (The average age of enrollment at my school was 25 last year, but given that probably half were K-JD, there were still plenty who took at least 1 or 2 years off; the age range was 21-46.)

As for having less time to build up a career - yes, obviously you will technically have less time to build your career than if you started law school at 22. But I'm not sure how that can play into your calculus - you can't change anything about it. And you can still reach your career goals; 5 years is nothing in the grand scheme of a lifetime career.

Just look at Northwestern. They traditionally accept students that are "older" and have work experience and their average age at matriculation is 25 and I would guess at least 33% are 27 or older when they start, yet Northwestern has among the largest percentage of their grads go into biglaw firms, often ~50% of their grads. Some might argue that it's due to the added experience (and hence, age) of their grads that contributes toward their graduates' success. I even read somewhere that Princeton Review ranked Northwestern #1 for career prospects. So no, being 27 won't hurt you.

It helps.