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What if your LS goals change from your application?

Posted: Wed Jan 20, 2010 9:42 pm
by CordeliusX
What if you want to be world-savior lawyer and then take all corporate law courses? Or you are a dynamo financial guru who wants to make corporate counsel and then exclusively focus on environmental law?

Do schools expect you to fulfill your application "mission statement" should you give one?

Re: What if your LS goals change from your application?

Posted: Wed Jan 20, 2010 9:43 pm
by APimpNamedSlickback
CordeliusX wrote:What if you want to be world-savior lawyer and then take all corporate law courses? Or you are a dynamo financial guru who wants to make corporate counsel and then exclusively focus on environmental law?

Do schools expect you to fulfill your application "mission statement" should you give one?
if you apply like mother theresa and pick courses like gordon gecko, you will be c&f pwned. hth.

Re: What if your LS goals change from your application?

Posted: Wed Jan 20, 2010 10:56 pm
by twopoodles
I had a professor tell us that when applying to graduate school you should act like you know exactly what you want to do, even though chances are very good you'll end up doing something else entirely. I assume its the same with law school.

Re: What if your LS goals change from your application?

Posted: Wed Jan 20, 2010 10:58 pm
by prezidentv8
twopoodles wrote:I had a professor tell us that when applying to graduate school you should act like you know exactly what you want to do, even though chances are very good you'll end up doing something else entirely. I assume its the same with law school.
This is probably true in reality.

Re: What if your LS goals change from your application?

Posted: Wed Jan 20, 2010 11:01 pm
by Pearalegal
Schools expect this to happen...as basically every graduate program allows you to do.

Evidence of this can be found in the fact that public interest scholarships almost always come with the guarantee that you will pay back the money if you don't pursue PI summer work or finish out the time commitment the scholarship sets (BC, for example, requires you to pay back anything you still owe if you leave PI work before 5 years after graduation).

I suppose that could be seen as the exact opposite of what many people do when they enter biglaw...stay in for a few years, make money, pay off debt, go into PI work. Just, you know, in the reverse.

Re: What if your LS goals change from your application?

Posted: Wed Jan 20, 2010 11:04 pm
by Cupidity
The reason they want to know your interests are so that they can recruit you. Many schools offer some sort of alumni/faculty/student pairing for admitted students. Other schools will send you relevant information from on campus student organizations or journals.

If you are interested in environmental law, they will pair you up with these people/organizations. It's a way to up their yield.