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I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this so forgive me if it's not. I am a 19 year old junior (66 credits) at an unranked national university ( according to us news).If i graduate on time (May 2016) i will be 21. I am an accounting major.I currently gave a 3.9 GPA. I have no real work experience or extracurricular activities/volunteer experience. I worked at a fast food restaurant in my hometown last summer for only a month (because I had to leave to go back to school). When the fall semester starts I will be a mentor to minority freshmen at my school.Regardless of which career route I choose I do plan on volunteering more and becoming more involved on campus.

Questions.

1. I see that everyone says that GPA & LSAT are the most important factors in the law school process, but some say its about 60% of the decisions and some say 90%.I am not really interested in HYS because I hear that they don't really give merit scholarships and I do't want to be $300,000 in debt. My question is with me being a young K-JD applicant with very little work experience, would I have a chance at the lower T-14(excluding Northwestern) if I am above both of their medians (I have not taken the LSAT yet but just out of curiosity).

2.Would I benefit from staying another year in college to do a double major (possibly adding information systems, logistics, economics, or finance to accounting.)I also think I could spend this extra year to study for the LSAT and volunteer more.My school also offers a minor in Fraud Examination & was wondering if anyone knew if this would help me any in law school admissions or if I was to become an accountant.

3.How did you all know if law is for you or not? I was thinking if I took classes such as Criminal Law & Constitutional Law as free electives to give me an idea about how my 1st year in law school would go(I know the classes would be structured differently) I shadowed an attorney for about 3 hours one day last summer but did not really learn anything. I was not turned off by anything nor was I turned on.Spring semester of this year I took my first accounting class (Financial Accounting) & my first law class (Legal Environment in Business). I liked the law class the most out of all of my classes. Accounting was okay, nothing special though.

4. Would getting my M.Acc (Masters in Accounting) and passing the CPA exams boost my chances for admissions at the lower T-14.I was thinking I could go for my masters right after undergrad & by then I feel like I will know if accounting is right for me or not.Would certifications such as CPA,CMA,CFE help me with law school? Also I was thinking about getting my real estate license since it wouldn't take too long to get. Would that help me?I know that obtaining a real estate license is suppose to be fairly easy though.

1.) If above both medians? Sure. Probably even if you are only above the LSAT median. But it will hurt you where you are borderline, and you will probably get less money.

2.) Not at all. Graduate with one major, and a high gpa. If you don't mind waiting a year, get a job for a year, that will help you 100 times more.

3.) Read these forms. I read the Lgal Employment forum especially, and just browse the main site. There is a lot of info here. The best way to find out is to work in a law firm after graduating.

4.) No major boost.

Being young and lacking WE is not going to affect LS admissions all that much

When people recommend working between UG and LS, it isn't about padding your resume. It's about getting experience, maturity, and figuring out if LS is really the right decision.

Crowing wrote:Being young and lacking WE is not going to affect LS admissions all that much

When people recommend working between UG and LS, it isn't about padding your resume. It's about getting experience, maturity, and figuring out if LS is really the right decision.

Don't agree with this. WE matters, if not a ton. Not sure if it is due to LS looking for WE or maturity or whatever, but I know for a fact that it helps.

phillywc wrote:

Crowing wrote:Being young and lacking WE is not going to affect LS admissions all that much

When people recommend working between UG and LS, it isn't about padding your resume. It's about getting experience, maturity, and figuring out if LS is really the right decision.

Don't agree with this. WE matters, if not a ton. Not sure if it is due to LS looking for WE or maturity or whatever, but I know for a fact that it helps.

*Shrug* not gonna argue with you because neither of us has anything definite enough to really know. Clearly there is a significant degree of unpredictability beyond GPA/LSAT. People get into "more selective" schools while getting rejected by "less selective" schools all the time. What contributes to that is hard to tell from this side of the one-way mirror.

But whether it matters or not, I think it's pretty silly to consider what if any impact WE might have on LS admissions when deciding whether to work or not. Even if it matters, it's not by enough to be a major consideration in that decision which is going to implicate far more important choices.

Well, you may qualify for need based aid at HYS, so don't rule it out yet
But yeah, if you kill the LSAT you'll have some full rides headed your way in the T14

Keep the GPA up (don't double major), get some experience working in a law firm, bust your ass on the LSAT, and you'll be golden

You should stick with accounting.

Get a master's in accounting instead

Masters in accounting is useless. Just pass your CPA exams and try to get on with a Big 4.

Brut wrote:Well, you may qualify for need based aid at HYS, so don't rule it out yet
But yeah, if you kill the LSAT you'll have some full rides headed your way in the T14

Keep the GPA up (don't double major), get some experience working in a law firm, bust your ass on the LSAT, and you'll be golden

I'm an only child & my parents make about $150,000 gross. Do you think that I could get some aid or do they make too much for me to qualify?

airjordan2312 wrote:

Brut wrote:Well, you may qualify for need based aid at HYS, so don't rule it out yet
But yeah, if you kill the LSAT you'll have some full rides headed your way in the T14

Keep the GPA up (don't double major), get some experience working in a law firm, bust your ass on the LSAT, and you'll be golden

I'm an only child & my parents make about $150,000 gross. Do you think that I could get some aid or do they make too much for me to qualify?

You probably wouldn't get much, but keep that GPA and snag an HYS-level LSAT and you can get a full ride at a great school.

Working for a couple of years and getting your CPA license would help a lot with the job search and would obviously give you a nice career to fall back on. It would also provide you with time to decide if law school really make sense. I agree with others who said skip the M.Acc; you already have the accounting classes for the CPA so just do that.