Iowa(?) vs. Brooklyn($$$) Forum

[BigZuck]

OP and I have been PMing and he thinks retaking would be a wasted year of his life.

Maybe chime in with your retaking stories for some (positive) encouragement.

Applied to law school in my late 20s with same LSAT score as the OP, options were places like Hastings and Houston at sticker, decided to retake/reapply and work at my crappy 30K a year job for another year and be even older when I applied, jumped to the mid 160s, retook again and jumped into the high 160s, reapplied, got big scholarships at places like UCLA and UT along with half rides to schools like Duke and Cornell.

Even if the OP scored lower and decided to give up on law school altogether that would be far less of a waste of his life than going to either of these schools. There is basically a zero percent chance that either school will get him big law in a big city.

[TheSpanishMain]

How is retaking "wasted", OP? You end up at a better school with more money, giving you a better chance at actually achieving your goals. In the meantime, you work and save some money. That's not wasting. That's actually one of the best uses for a year you could ask for. How old are you, anyway? I guarantee there's no reason to be in such a hurry, other than you probably have boomer parents who think you ABSOLUTELY MUST GO RIGHT NOW or you're destined to be come a pothead basement dwelling embarassment.

A thought experiment for you: imagine you're in your car driving somewhere. You come to a bridge, and unexpectedly, it's collapsed. There's a giant hole in it and in the water below you see corpses floating amid wrecked cars.

You can either A) turn around and find an alternate route, even though it's going to add an hour or two to your trip or B) gun it and try to jump the collapsed bridge, knowing there's a good chance you'll die/be horribly injured, but it will potentially save you a little time.

See what I'm getting at? You're taking an enormous risk just to "save time" even though there's no rush to begin with. You only get one shot at law school. There's no do-over. If you go for it now just because you're impatient, you could be destroying any chances of actually achieving your goals.

[timbs4339]

I don't have a retaking story because I fell into the same mindset OP did. It was the recession, nobody was hiring, I had offers in hand, and I wanted to get started on my real life. It's silly and immature, but it's not uncommon.

OP, you really need to stop thinking your legal career begins with law school. It began the first day you set foot into a college class and started working towards your GPA. The LSAT is huge.

I cannot even begin to explain how elitist and stratified this profession is by where you went to school. Biglaw is one of the worst offenders, but any highly sought after legal job is the same way. Let me be clear about this: if you screw up one or two 1L grades even at Iowa you will never work in a biglaw firm in a large city. Not in your entire 40 year career. Brooklyn, you have to be essentially perfect- you can't get sick the week of finals, you can't have a professor who decides to get drunk before grading your exam, you can't focus on 90% of the curriculum and then the exam happens to be the other 10%. If you wanted to be a trial prosecutor on Long Island or work family law in Des Moines we'd be giving you much different advice, but as it stands now you need to retake.

[riku33090]

How is retaking "wasted", OP? You end up at a better school with more money, giving you a better chance at actually achieving your goals. In the meantime, you work and save some money. That's not wasting. That's actually one of the best uses for a year you could ask for. How old are you, anyway? I guarantee there's no reason to be in such a hurry, other than you probably have boomer parents who think you ABSOLUTELY MUST GO RIGHT NOW or you're destined to be come a pothead basement dwelling embarassment.

A thought experiment for you: imagine you're in your car driving somewhere. You come to a bridge, and unexpectedly, it's collapsed. There's a giant hole in it and in the water below you see corpses floating amid wrecked cars.

You can either A) turn around and find an alternate route, even though it's going to add an hour or two to your trip or B) gun it and try to jump the collapsed bridge, knowing there's a good chance you'll die/be horribly injured, but it will potentially save you a little time.

See what I'm getting at? You're taking an enormous risk just to "save time" even though there's no rush to begin with. You only get one shot at law school. There's no do-over. If you go for it now just because you're impatient, you could be destroying any chances of actually achieving your goals.

Actually I do have very traditional Asian parents that think I must absolutely go right now. I'll consider retake. Oh and I am 23.

[BigZuck]

How is retaking "wasted", OP? You end up at a better school with more money, giving you a better chance at actually achieving your goals. In the meantime, you work and save some money. That's not wasting. That's actually one of the best uses for a year you could ask for. How old are you, anyway? I guarantee there's no reason to be in such a hurry, other than you probably have boomer parents who think you ABSOLUTELY MUST GO RIGHT NOW or you're destined to be come a pothead basement dwelling embarassment.

A thought experiment for you: imagine you're in your car driving somewhere. You come to a bridge, and unexpectedly, it's collapsed. There's a giant hole in it and in the water below you see corpses floating amid wrecked cars.

You can either A) turn around and find an alternate route, even though it's going to add an hour or two to your trip or B) gun it and try to jump the collapsed bridge, knowing there's a good chance you'll die/be horribly injured, but it will potentially save you a little time.

See what I'm getting at? You're taking an enormous risk just to "save time" even though there's no rush to begin with. You only get one shot at law school. There's no do-over. If you go for it now just because you're impatient, you could be destroying any chances of actually achieving your goals.

Actually I do have very traditional Asian parents that think I must absolutely go right now. I'll consider retake. Oh and I am 23.

Time to yank the chain and/or readjust career goals

[TheSpanishMain]

Actually I do have very traditional Asian parents that think I must absolutely go right now. I'll consider retake. Oh and I am 23.

I figured, yeah. Between your username, doctors for parents, and the conviction that if you're not in law school by the time you're 23 you're a complete failure, I was thinking we were dealing with some hardcore Korean parents.

I get it. They don't want to tell their friends that their son is waiting for a year to study. They want to brag to everyone about how their son is in law school. Whatever. I get that you don't want to let your parents down, but don't sacrifice your career for their pride. They're doctors and presumably rational people comfortable with data. Show them LST and show them how few people from Brooklyn and Iowa get the jobs you're after. Tell them that you appreciate their generosity too much to waste their money on a crappy school.

You're not in an awful position. You want Big Law in a big city, so presumably NYC. I think you're insane for that, but to each their own. You said your parents would cover the COA, so if you could squeak into Cornell, even at sticker, you'd be set up nicely. Even Fordham be better than Iowa. Or reevalute the whole "Big Law" thing. But as of right now, goals and choices are a complete mismatch.

[BigZuck]

OP- are you paying for this (through loans, presumably?) or are your parents footing the whole bill?

If they are paying and you don't mind the very real possibility of wasting 3 years of your life and having nothing to show for it then go for it I guess. If its just their teat that will be harmed then suckle away my friend.

But by the same token, what's worse? The failure of a son who wasted 1 year to retake the LSAT and get a school that gives him a good shot at his career goals? Or the failure of a son who spent 3 years to get a useless JD and is just living at home and working a crappy non-legal job?

[InTheHouse]

Actually I do have very traditional Asian parents that think I must absolutely go right now. I'll consider retake. Oh and I am 23.

I wonder if your parents are assuming that the ABA is as good a steward of the legal profession as the AMA is of the medical profession.

If your parents are footing the bill, why is scholarship money from Brooklyn factoring in your calculus?

[TheSpanishMain]

3. Loan but my parents are doctors they can afford it

I interpreted this as your parents were going to make your payments for you.

[timbs4339]

It would be foolish for your parents to let you take out the loans and then make the payments after you graduate. They'd be wasting tens of thousands in accrued interest and origination fees. If they are not wealthy enough to pony up the dough up front that's yet another reason not to go. But the more basic reason is that your goals are very very narrow- how many law students in the country do you think want to work NYC biglaw vs. ones who actually get there?

[should-i-do-it]

bro, my parents are asian too, i went to law school two years ago and found out that the employment numbers were really shitty so i left after a couple weeks, im retaking in sept, my parents were pissed too and it took them a while but i was finally able to get them to understand that just getting a jd doesnt guarantee you anthing, its better for me to spend a year/two, retake and go to a better school/get more scholly dollars, also its your life you don't need to give a shit about what your asian parents friends think.

[riku33090]

OP here.

Its been a year, just want to say i have accomplished my goal. Just got a V40 offer.

Anything is possible.

[hdunlop]

Someone wins the lottery every week.

Congrats, for real, that this time it was you.

[riku33090]

Someone wins the lottery every week.

Congrats, for real, that this time it was you.

LOL winning the lottery? HAHAHA okay.

[Ravenclaw23]

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[A. Nony Mouse]

The OP decided on a school over a year ago.