. Forum

[yoursinkai]

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[MoneyMay]

Dude go get drunk and come back in 2 years when you take the lsat.

[CanadianWolf]

Consider investigating two goals: 1) Getting into law school & 2) Practicing law.

Getting into law schools is primarily about achieving a high LSAT score, then about your GPA--assuming that you're not an underrepresented minority (URM). (URM status can result in significant boosts in the admission process.) Your numbers, LSAT & GPA, will also determine whether or not you receive scholarship offers from law schools.
A "high LSAT score" varies from one law school to another. Those having the strongest chances for admission will have an LSAT score above a particular law school's median LSAT score for last year's entering class & this year's pool of applicants. Same, but having a lesser impact, with respect to your GPA.

"Why do you want to become a lawyer ?" is also an important consideration. Talk to practicing attorneys about the practice of law to see if your vision of what a lawyer does is realistic.

[Mack.Hambleton]

This^

don't just go to law school because of parental pressure or if you think you're gonna make a ton of money

[PeanutsNJam]

keep your 3.94 gpa, study for lsat, get 173+, enjoy HYS/T14 fully.

If softs are hurting your GPA, drop the soft.

[hearsay77]

keep your 3.94 gpa, study for lsat, get 173+, enjoy HYS/T14 fully.

If softs are hurting your GPA, drop the soft.

+1 the student government and clubs and stuff won't make a difference. I'd still try to do some internships, both so you can figure out if you actually want to do law, and to have something to put on your resume, but focus on your GPA over the other stuff.

[BigZuck]

Cosigned

There's also no such thing as a year's worth of full time work experience for a K-JD

Use that senior year to have MAXIMUM FUN POSSIBLE

Also, don't go to law school until you've been out of undergrad for a few years at least

I think it's shameful that law schools even accept K-JDers. Poor kids.

[yoursinkai]

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[BigZuck]

Cosigned

There's also no such thing as a year's worth of full time work experience for a K-JD

Use that senior year to have MAXIMUM FUN POSSIBLE

Also, don't go to law school until you've been out of undergrad for a few years at least

I think it's shameful that law schools even accept K-JDers. Poor kids.

I don't plan on being a K-JD- I meant to say that I would start working in the spring of my senior year, continue to work for another year, finish around February (so I would have one year's experience), then study for June LSAT.

Is that an appropriate timeline for when to start studying for the LSAT? I know some who are in my year who have already started but I feel like that doesn't make any sense. Also, any feedback on whether or not the place you gained work experience can tip the scales? For example, something like Teach For America vs. a job at a lobbying firm? The former sounds more rewarding, but, money is an object.

Add a few more years of work to that plan and you have yourself a plan. Your early 20s are far too precious to spend on law school.

Don't do TFA unless you want to be a teacher long term. Pad your resume in some other way if you're just looking to pad.

You can work full time and study for the lsat. I would just make sure you give yourself enough wiggle room to take it at least 3 times before you start applying to schools if need be.

[ChemEng1642]

Focus on your GPA and make sure your major can set you up for a full-time job right after undergrad. I'm not saying don't do political science since I don't really know what opportunities that offers, but right now that is a more important factor than all of your softs.

[TasmanianToucan]

Get yourself a summer internship of the sort that can become a job after graduation. That way you will have the opportunity to work for a living for a couple of years and have an option other than law school.

[ctmnyc]

Definitely don't study for the LSAT in college at all. I have some friends that studied senior year and were so miserable while I was having a blast and going to Vegas for the weekend -- you only have so many years in college. I would say start studying around 4 months before the test, and MAYBE take a diagnostic earlier. I took one my junior year just because I was curious and didn't end up studying for the LSAT for another two years, and my two-year-later diagnostic was 8 points higher. While you're in school, focus completely on maintaining that GPA. I also don't recommend "finishing" working before studying for the LSAT -- I studied while working full time and did just fine, you'll just have to be really discerning with how you spend your free time. You don't want to have a gaping hole on your resume.

As someone who was pretty set on law school coming into college, I made to sure to keep an open mind over those four years. One of the best things that made me be completely sure law school was the right path was to do a lot of different kinds of law-adjacent internships/jobs earlier on in college, which allowed me to figure out what I like to do and what I don't like to do. After four years I was able to make a more educated decision about what a career in law would look like and whether it was right for me (obviously it was).

[bretby]

Cosigned

There's also no such thing as a year's worth of full time work experience for a K-JD

Use that senior year to have MAXIMUM FUN POSSIBLE

Also, don't go to law school until you've been out of undergrad for a few years at least

I think it's shameful that law schools even accept K-JDers. Poor kids.

I don't plan on being a K-JD- I meant to say that I would start working in the spring of my senior year, continue to work for another year, finish around February (so I would have one year's experience), then study for June LSAT.

Is that an appropriate timeline for when to start studying for the LSAT? I know some who are in my year who have already started but I feel like that doesn't make any sense. Also, any feedback on whether or not the place you gained work experience can tip the scales? For example, something like Teach For America vs. a job at a lobbying firm? The former sounds more rewarding, but, money is an object.

This, for all intents and purposes, is the same as being a KJD. I would just focus on doing well in college while also challenging yourself intellectually. That is, don't take classes just because you think they're an easy A - this is such a tragic waste of an education. Beyond that, choose your job on the basis of your interests and skills. To someone's point above, it would be helpful to spend some time around a law firm (which you can do by legal temping in the summer) or whatever other kind of law you are interested in. School will always be there, as will debt, so your best bet is to slow down, take one thing at a time, and do things because they make sense for you now.