Horror Story! Forum

[horriblegb]

You'd think people would put more effort and research into such a life-altering decision. .

+1

As well as the fact people keep saying, "Oh I am so proud that you got into to law school" And I keep saying, "Anyone can", it is scary, I just wished I had realized these things sooner

[cynthia rose]

This is just a symptom of the larger problem: many (most?) law school applicants are horribly, horribly ignorant of the application process, law school, and the legal field. I know this has been discussed in other threads, but I'm still in awe. You'd think people would put more effort and research into such a life-altering decision. But I guess that's the way it goes: survival of the fittest.

To the bolded part, I think a lot of lay people make the mistaken assumption that law school is a lot like med school - i.e., there may be rankings, but it's law school, so they must all be legitimately decent to good. And when people think about the stereotypical ambulance chasers or the "Have you or a loved one taken the drug blafeiojeiodadi? Have you experienced high blood pressure, hair loss, death, or even chronic blue balls??? If so, you may be able to join this class action suit. Call now!" commercials, they probably think those guys either got their law degrees from one of those obviously-not-legit mail correspondence classes you see advertised, or just don't have a degree. (I also think a lot of people do not realize that there are laws against practicing law without a license, probably because they get pro se mixed up with being allowed to practice in general.) I was no better; like I said, I didn't even know there was a such thing as a non-accredited law school. Still kind of flabbergasted at that.

On a related note, I've been contemplating starting a thread questioning why pre-law advisors and some law school career centers seem to suck so hard. This seems to be an almost unanimous position, especially with the pre-law advisors - they are just as clueless as applicants are at best, and give contradictory or flat out wrong advice at worst. WHY is this? This is possibly the most mystifying part of applying to law school to me: why these people have no guidelines or rules to follow, and thus are allowed to mislead so many potential students with no repercussions. I mean, seriously, I'm starting to consider becoming a pre-law advisor, b/c it's clear I don't need to know shit about the law or law school to be one.

I lol'd. You need to show them the light . But I think you're right, I have some friends i'm not sure if I should show them TLS. I probably should but I don't if they're ready for the real-ness you get on TLS. It's just hard when everyone else throws so much bs and blows so much smoke, do I want to show people how it really is?

Yeah, these are classmates from a paralegal program I just finished (I do wish I'd found this site before I signed up for that, but that is a whole other story). I like all of my classmates a lot, but it's not like we've known each other for years, so I don't want be that know-it-all, dream-killing bitch who is like "you know Cooley** is a tttoilet, right?" TLS can be pretty raw, and I think it's easy to get butt-hurt if you a) had a really rose-colored view of what law school is supposed to be and/or b) you've never been on a forum board before, ever. Forum boards in general can be pretty tough no matter what the topic, but once you've seen how one operates then you can usually handle some harshness anywhere else.

On the plus side, I sat at the front of the class, where people behind me could see my notebook, and I was definitely on TLS more than I was taking notes, so hopefully they got curious and are now lurking or posting, too.


**One of my classmates applied to some schools last cycle. Someone asked her if she was planning on starting this fall and whether she'd been accepted anywhere. She said she had decided to wait and reapply this cycle because she was going to need a break after finishing these classes. Then she said, "And I got accepted to one...I got accepted to Cooley. Which is the other reason I'm not going..." I think her actual reason was waiting to see if she could get $$$ anywhere by applying earlier but I'm not really sure b/c after "the other reason I'm not going," I was laughing to myself too hard to focus at the moment.

[tooswolle]

Dude I say you start that thread. My pre-law adviser was cool but he straight out told me that me being a urm would not help me at all.....seriously told me to apply to where your numbers can get in (which is solid advice) but we all know urm cycles are unpredictable and some can get in to way better schools then there numbers lead. As for those horror stories I don't think it's the students fault only. I believe the ABA should rain down on diploma mills and more importantly get there accreditation in check. 200 law schools = over saturated markets, over saturated markets = fierce competition = some people working a shitty job with 100k in debt.

[sophia.olive]

My offerings to TLS and that Ken guy
--ImageRemoved--

[Patriot1208]

My offerings to TLS and that Ken guy
--ImageRemoved--

the bible has showed us that offering only fruit is not a good offering.

[CanadianWolf]

I don't think that your friend can enter an ABA law school as a transfer because he is currently attending a non-accredited law school.

[sophia.olive]

My offerings to TLS and that Ken guy
--ImageRemoved--

the bible has showed us that offering only fruit is not a good offering.

I didnt read anything like that in the LR bible.......
Maybe i missed it?

[arklogic]

Word. My best friend went to law school 2 years ahead of me. He was 3.5/173, and went to the local T3 with just minimal $...just never bothered applying anywhere good, because he assumed he couldn't get in. Decisions w/o information = bad.

What a pity...

I'm very glad I found this forum while in UG. The lsat prep forum for motivation and solid advice alone is golden. I don't know of many people interested in law (in the real world, at least ), so it's nice to be able to discuss any aspect of it in detail here.

[tooswolle]

yep tls has been golden in helping me somewhat disseminate what law schools are looking for . Unfortunately I haven't received much help in my lsat prep. Im stuck in the 160's with LR being my weakest area. Does anybody have a methodology that works to reviewing the wrong answer and knowing why it was wrong and why the right answer was right? seriously, I'm missing a ton of LR and if I can get control if that I'll be in the 170's.

P.S. that sucks for anyone going to a non accredited law school as they can't transfer to an ABA accredited law school from what I heard.

[vickers711]

I think this site sorta did good things and bad things for me.

1. It did, like many of you, make me a prestige whore and I ended up choosing to go to a T5 outside of my regional area, far from my friends/family, because of it and I honestly think it's a great decision, and will give me great opportunities.

2. It made me feel like I should not even apply to HYS because my numbers were far from 180/4.0, and I'm "only" soft URM (S. American), not Mexican/AA ...and then I got into pretty much every school I applied to, which makes me think I may have had a shot at T3, although I also feel like I should be happy with my T5 w/ small scholly.

So if i can emphasize anything to anyone after having gone through this cycle is APPLY EVERYWHERE!! Even if you think you don't stand a rat's chance in hell. If I can do it, you might be able to. And if you don't get in at least you know you tried... I'll forever live with my uncertainty...

[bk1]

I think this site sorta did good things and bad things for me.

1. It did, like many of you, make me a prestige whore and I ended up choosing to go to a T5 outside of my regional area, far from my friends/family, because of it and I honestly think it's a great decision, and will give me great opportunities.

2. It made me feel like I should not even apply to HYS because my numbers were far from 180/4.0, and I'm "only" soft URM (S. American), not Mexican/AA ...and then I got into pretty much every school I applied to, which makes me think I may have had a shot at T3, although I also feel like I should be happy with my T5 w/ small scholly.

So if i can emphasize anything to anyone after having gone through this cycle is APPLY EVERYWHERE!! Even if you think you don't stand a rat's chance in hell. If I can do it, you might be able to. And if you don't get in at least you know you tried... I'll forever live with my uncertainty...

I'm pretty sure most people on TLS feel that even a 0.1% chance of acceptance is worth the app fee.

[The Jerk]

2. It made me feel like I should not even apply to HYS because my numbers were far from 180/4.0, and I'm "only" soft URM (S. American), not Mexican/AA ...and then I got into pretty much every school I applied to, which makes me think I may have had a shot at T3, although I also feel like I should be happy with my T5 w/ small scholly.

I wouldn't blame that on TLS. One glance at Harvard's 75th percentiles would have told you that a 3.96 and a 176 would give you almost a lock, and a 3.85 and a 173 (with some good softs) make you quite competitive.

[GettingReady2010]

I think that when more people discover TLS, law school admissions and law school in general will become ultra competitive. You would not believe how many people know nothing about TLS, or if they do, they never utilized its wealth of information. Think about what would happen if everyone bought the Bibles, followed pithypikes study guide, and studied 3+ months. I think many of us would not be going to the school we are now. Whenever I talk to someone, it's always the same story - "I'm taking Kaplan's weekend course, so I'm golden.

On an unrelated note, the poster is dead-on who mentioned how people that know nothing about law school perceive law school the same way as medical school (i.e. they think anyone who gets into LS must be this unique and bright individual).

[westinghouse60]

I'm glad I randomly took a practice LSAT one day and realized it was a lot easier than I thought. So I realized I have a chance of getting into a top school, found this site, etc.

[vickers711]

2. It made me feel like I should not even apply to HYS because my numbers were far from 180/4.0, and I'm "only" soft URM (S. American), not Mexican/AA ...and then I got into pretty much every school I applied to, which makes me think I may have had a shot at T3, although I also feel like I should be happy with my T5 w/ small scholly.

I wouldn't blame that on TLS. One glance at Harvard's 75th percentiles would have told you that a 3.96 and a 176 would give you almost a lock, and a 3.85 and a 173 (with some good softs) make you quite competitive.

well, with my LSAT score being far lower than the 25th percentile of most of the schools I got into, TLS just reinforced the futility of me even applying to a higher ranked school, and I guess it made me far more numbers driven than I should have been, considering other factors in my application.

[vickers711]

I think this site sorta did good things and bad things for me.

1. It did, like many of you, make me a prestige whore and I ended up choosing to go to a T5 outside of my regional area, far from my friends/family, because of it and I honestly think it's a great decision, and will give me great opportunities.

2. It made me feel like I should not even apply to HYS because my numbers were far from 180/4.0, and I'm "only" soft URM (S. American), not Mexican/AA ...and then I got into pretty much every school I applied to, which makes me think I may have had a shot at T3, although I also feel like I should be happy with my T5 w/ small scholly.

So if i can emphasize anything to anyone after having gone through this cycle is APPLY EVERYWHERE!! Even if you think you don't stand a rat's chance in hell. If I can do it, you might be able to. And if you don't get in at least you know you tried... I'll forever live with my uncertainty...

I'm pretty sure most people on TLS feel that even a 0.1% chance of acceptance is worth the app fee.

i disagree. lots of people won't bother if they don't feel they have much of a chance.

[Knock]

2. It made me feel like I should not even apply to HYS because my numbers were far from 180/4.0, and I'm "only" soft URM (S. American), not Mexican/AA ...and then I got into pretty much every school I applied to, which makes me think I may have had a shot at T3, although I also feel like I should be happy with my T5 w/ small scholly.

I wouldn't blame that on TLS. One glance at Harvard's 75th percentiles would have told you that a 3.96 and a 176 would give you almost a lock, and a 3.85 and a 173 (with some good softs) make you quite competitive.

well, with my LSAT score being far lower than the 25th percentile of most of the schools I got into, TLS just reinforced the futility of me even applying to a higher ranked school, and I guess it made me far more numbers driven than I should have been, considering other factors in my application.

. Well there always exceptions to every rule, and as a non-urm with a 168 LSAT getting into U. Chicago, you are definitely that exception . Congratulations, care to share what other factors made your cycle so successful?

Also, if you had such impressive factors, you had to know that your application and cycle was going to play out at least slightly differently.

[vickers711]

2. It made me feel like I should not even apply to HYS because my numbers were far from 180/4.0, and I'm "only" soft URM (S. American), not Mexican/AA ...and then I got into pretty much every school I applied to, which makes me think I may have had a shot at T3, although I also feel like I should be happy with my T5 w/ small scholly.

I wouldn't blame that on TLS. One glance at Harvard's 75th percentiles would have told you that a 3.96 and a 176 would give you almost a lock, and a 3.85 and a 173 (with some good softs) make you quite competitive.

well, with my LSAT score being far lower than the 25th percentile of most of the schools I got into, TLS just reinforced the futility of me even applying to a higher ranked school, and I guess it made me far more numbers driven than I should have been, considering other factors in my application.

. Well there always exceptions to every rule, and as a non-urm with a 168 LSAT getting into U. Chicago, you are definitely that exception . Congratulations, care to share what other factors made your cycle so successful?

Also, if you had such impressive factors, you had to know that your application and cycle was going to play out at least slightly differently.

Actually my LSAT was less than that...I fudged the 168 a while back and changed it now. I was actually in the low 160s. and I think it was all basically my personal experiences and a little bit of work experience. But I honestly didn't feel like it would have given me such a boost considering how numbers driven everyone is on TLS. Which is why my words of wisdom after this cycle is don't believe the hype. I was applying with many friends as well and the numbers didn't determine where they ended up either (non-URMs) So beware, especially if you feel you have more to bring to the table than the average applicant. That should make everyone feel better, right?