Premed Applying to Law School? Forum

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marylinks

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Premed Applying to Law School?

Post by marylinks » Thu Dec 10, 2015 3:12 am

Hi guys,

Out of curiosity, is it possible for a premed student with a science major to get into law school? My GPA is 3.85 and I am from an Ivy League college. I was looking at acceptance rate for law school and I felt like I have a chance. Some schools accept 30% of the students! Wow!! Even lower tier medical school accepts 2% of applicants, and I feel super discouraged about the field of medicine in general. Honestly, I loved political campaign and the courtroom more than I like hospitals.

In terms of LSAT, I could spend some time studying for it. However, where would I obtain letters of recommendation? Almost all my professors teach sciences. And I haven't seriously done any prelaw stuff, other than organizing political campaign, and working at a public law firm for a summer. Well, I have a lot of volunteering hours and a research publication in the sciences, but what else should I do?

Any comments will be helpful.

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xael

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Re: Premed Applying to Law School?

Post by xael » Thu Dec 10, 2015 3:20 am

why do you want to be a lawyer

Doesthenamematter

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Re: Premed Applying to Law School?

Post by Doesthenamematter » Thu Dec 10, 2015 3:24 am

Do well on the LSAT and schools will beg you to come with that major and gpa

marylinks

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Re: Premed Applying to Law School?

Post by marylinks » Thu Dec 10, 2015 3:44 am

xael wrote:why do you want to be a lawyer
1) Ability to work with people - I get super depressed if I have to work alone, 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. Human interaction makes me happy and motivated, even if the interaction is crap and awful. This is coming from someone who worked in an emergency room before, where people are simply always upset at you one way or another.
2) Possibility of helping people who suffer injustice - I worked at a public law firm, and the amount of pro bono work they do is simply amazing. We helped so many people to avoid eviction simply because their landlords are manipulating the law. I imagine I will become someone who does public law, or law that deals with sciences. That's the whole reason why I was premed, because I wanted to help people. My volunteering hours show that.
3) Intelligence requirement - I like how in the legal field, critical thinking is required. I can memorize 300+ biochemistry slides in a day but I prefer someone asking me to write an analysis.
4) Debate skills - I like arguing with people and defend my arguments. I am probably not the most belligerent person you will meet, but I LOVE giving presentations and argue for something. I was president of debate at my school for 2 years.
5) Hot guys - I am a girl and I like men in suits. What can I say.

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Clearly

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Re: Premed Applying to Law School?

Post by Clearly » Thu Dec 10, 2015 4:30 am

marylinks wrote:Hi guys,

Out of curiosity, is it possible for a premed student with a science major to get into law school? My GPA is 3.85 and I am from an Ivy League college. I was looking at acceptance rate for law school and I felt like I have a chance. Some schools accept 30% of the students! Wow!! Even lower tier medical school accepts 2% of applicants, and I feel super discouraged about the field of medicine in general. Honestly, I loved political campaign and the courtroom more than I like hospitals.

In terms of LSAT, I could spend some time studying for it. However, where would I obtain letters of recommendation? Almost all my professors teach sciences. And I haven't seriously done any prelaw stuff, other than organizing political campaign, and working at a public law firm for a summer. Well, I have a lot of volunteering hours and a research publication in the sciences, but what else should I do?

Any comments will be helpful.
The good news is with a good lsat you could pretty much pick your school. The bad news is your reasons for going are either bad, or legitimate but would leave you broke. If you don't mind being broke for the opportunity to help people not get evicted and such, crush the lsat and go for free. Best of luck!

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equang

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Re: Premed Applying to Law School?

Post by equang » Thu Dec 10, 2015 4:01 pm

3.5 in molecular biology here... :( :( :( grats on your GPA though
Changed my mind on being pre-med after 4 years and switched to pre-law, broke into the 170s on the LSAT in June.

seems like anyone can get into law school...

Good luck on the switch! Talk to current lawyers (graduates from your alma mater), or friends who are in law school!

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nicknar

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Re: Premed Applying to Law School?

Post by nicknar » Thu Dec 10, 2015 6:33 pm

Yeah, if you do well on the LSAT you'll be an amazing candidate. The one thing for applying from a science background is that you'll have to prove to the schools that you can write well, which means you'll also need a very strong personal statement to demonstrate those skills.

In terms of LoRs, I would say so long as you have two professors who know you well then you should be fine.

Also, there is no right answer on TLS for why you want to go to law school. If you say you want to do it to help people and make a difference in the world, people will say that you're going to be poor so you're making a mistake. If you say you want to go into biglaw and make money they will tell you the market is terrible so you're making a mistake. If you say you just genuinely enjoy the study and practice of law they will say that you must be mistaken. It sounds like you have some first hand experience with the field and would be making an informed decision. Yeah it's a risk, but if you understand and are willing to take the risk, I think you should go for it.

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Clearly

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Re: Premed Applying to Law School?

Post by Clearly » Thu Dec 10, 2015 6:56 pm

nicknar wrote:Yeah, if you do well on the LSAT you'll be an amazing candidate. The one thing for applying from a science background is that you'll have to prove to the schools that you can write well, which means you'll also need a very strong personal statement to demonstrate those skills.

In terms of LoRs, I would say so long as you have two professors who know you well then you should be fine.

Also, there is no right answer on TLS for why you want to go to law school. If you say you want to do it to help people and make a difference in the world, people will say that you're going to be poor so you're making a mistake. If you say you want to go into biglaw and make money they will tell you the market is terrible so you're making a mistake. If you say you just genuinely enjoy the study and practice of law they will say that you must be mistaken. It sounds like you have some first hand experience with the field and would be making an informed decision. Yeah it's a risk, but if you understand and are willing to take the risk, I think you should go for it.
That's nonsense and not what I said. I said if you want to help people by doing public interest law, you should crush the LSAT and go for free. I love when people who joined TLS two months ago decide that the whole community is anti law school and distort what is actually a very responsible message to send. If you want to do biglaw go to a school that places well for biglaw and try to minimize debt because biglaw careers are often short. If you want to do public interest law, either go to a school with an elite LRAP (HYS basically) or get a huge scholarship because those jobs don't pay well. Tell me wise sage, what should the advice be? Follow your heart? Pay $300,000 to make $45k a year? Do you think people getting evicted have money to pay lawyers? That work is almost always taken pro-bono.

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Re: Premed Applying to Law School?

Post by BigZuck » Thu Dec 10, 2015 8:36 pm

I do think reasons 1-4 (I'm going to ignore 5) are poor reasons for attending law school. Like, they make sense as an 0L but once you figure out what law school is and being a lawyer is, I think you'll be pretty disappointed. I guess number 2 is probably the best, but even with a true THIRST for JUSTICE I could see you being pretty disappointed in the long run. Maybe not though, maybe your THIRST truly can't be QUENCHED and you'll find something fulfilling.

Get a high LSAT and you can write your ticket.

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nicknar

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Re: Premed Applying to Law School?

Post by nicknar » Thu Dec 10, 2015 8:59 pm

Clearly wrote:
nicknar wrote:Yeah, if you do well on the LSAT you'll be an amazing candidate. The one thing for applying from a science background is that you'll have to prove to the schools that you can write well, which means you'll also need a very strong personal statement to demonstrate those skills.

In terms of LoRs, I would say so long as you have two professors who know you well then you should be fine.

Also, there is no right answer on TLS for why you want to go to law school. If you say you want to do it to help people and make a difference in the world, people will say that you're going to be poor so you're making a mistake. If you say you want to go into biglaw and make money they will tell you the market is terrible so you're making a mistake. If you say you just genuinely enjoy the study and practice of law they will say that you must be mistaken. It sounds like you have some first hand experience with the field and would be making an informed decision. Yeah it's a risk, but if you understand and are willing to take the risk, I think you should go for it.
That's nonsense and not what I said. I said if you want to help people by doing public interest law, you should crush the LSAT and go for free. I love when people who joined TLS two months ago decide that the whole community is anti law school and distort what is actually a very responsible message to send. If you want to do biglaw go to a school that places well for biglaw and try to minimize debt because biglaw careers are often short. If you want to do public interest law, either go to a school with an elite LRAP (HYS basically) or get a huge scholarship because those jobs don't pay well. Tell me wise sage, what should the advice be? Follow your heart? Pay $300,000 to make $45k a year? Do you think people getting evicted have money to pay lawyers? That work is almost always taken pro-bono.
Apologies. No it isn't what you said, and I didn't mean to imply that all that was totally coming from you. The tone of "those reasons are bad" set me off and I associated it with the general attitude of TLS, which I do really believe is there, that only some chosen few are truly equipped to go to law school. Obviously not everyone thinks that way but I have, in my paltry two months here, seen people responding that way again and again. The advice to be cautious, and if you want to do public interest either go to a school where you can get it paid by scholarships or go to one with a good LRAP program, is good advice. I agree with the advice. I am trying to follow that advice myself. It's the tone that bugged me, and I connected it to the tone that a lot of other people on this site take when they talk down to people about their reasons for going to law school, that's all.

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Re: Premed Applying to Law School?

Post by BigZuck » Thu Dec 10, 2015 9:45 pm

nicknar wrote:
Clearly wrote:
nicknar wrote:Yeah, if you do well on the LSAT you'll be an amazing candidate. The one thing for applying from a science background is that you'll have to prove to the schools that you can write well, which means you'll also need a very strong personal statement to demonstrate those skills.

In terms of LoRs, I would say so long as you have two professors who know you well then you should be fine.

Also, there is no right answer on TLS for why you want to go to law school. If you say you want to do it to help people and make a difference in the world, people will say that you're going to be poor so you're making a mistake. If you say you want to go into biglaw and make money they will tell you the market is terrible so you're making a mistake. If you say you just genuinely enjoy the study and practice of law they will say that you must be mistaken. It sounds like you have some first hand experience with the field and would be making an informed decision. Yeah it's a risk, but if you understand and are willing to take the risk, I think you should go for it.
That's nonsense and not what I said. I said if you want to help people by doing public interest law, you should crush the LSAT and go for free. I love when people who joined TLS two months ago decide that the whole community is anti law school and distort what is actually a very responsible message to send. If you want to do biglaw go to a school that places well for biglaw and try to minimize debt because biglaw careers are often short. If you want to do public interest law, either go to a school with an elite LRAP (HYS basically) or get a huge scholarship because those jobs don't pay well. Tell me wise sage, what should the advice be? Follow your heart? Pay $300,000 to make $45k a year? Do you think people getting evicted have money to pay lawyers? That work is almost always taken pro-bono.
Apologies. No it isn't what you said, and I didn't mean to imply that all that was totally coming from you. The tone of "those reasons are bad" set me off and I associated it with the general attitude of TLS, which I do really believe is there, that only some chosen few are truly equipped to go to law school. Obviously not everyone thinks that way but I have, in my paltry two months here, seen people responding that way again and again. The advice to be cautious, and if you want to do public interest either go to a school where you can get it paid by scholarships or go to one with a good LRAP program, is good advice. I agree with the advice. I am trying to follow that advice myself. It's the tone that bugged me, and I connected it to the tone that a lot of other people on this site take when they talk down to people about their reasons for going to law school, that's all.
You're arguing against strawmen, what you think you're reading isn't actually what people are writing.

It's true though, like 98% of people who go to law school shouldn't, for a variety of reasons. It's not that they are inherently not equipped to go to law school cuz they're dumb or anything like that, but most people's reasons/situations don't justify attending IMO.

(I think I solidly fell within that vast majority of people, for whatever that is worth)

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Clearly

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Re: Premed Applying to Law School?

Post by Clearly » Thu Dec 10, 2015 10:04 pm

nicknar wrote:
Clearly wrote:
nicknar wrote:Yeah, if you do well on the LSAT you'll be an amazing candidate. The one thing for applying from a science background is that you'll have to prove to the schools that you can write well, which means you'll also need a very strong personal statement to demonstrate those skills.

In terms of LoRs, I would say so long as you have two professors who know you well then you should be fine.

Also, there is no right answer on TLS for why you want to go to law school. If you say you want to do it to help people and make a difference in the world, people will say that you're going to be poor so you're making a mistake. If you say you want to go into biglaw and make money they will tell you the market is terrible so you're making a mistake. If you say you just genuinely enjoy the study and practice of law they will say that you must be mistaken. It sounds like you have some first hand experience with the field and would be making an informed decision. Yeah it's a risk, but if you understand and are willing to take the risk, I think you should go for it.
That's nonsense and not what I said. I said if you want to help people by doing public interest law, you should crush the LSAT and go for free. I love when people who joined TLS two months ago decide that the whole community is anti law school and distort what is actually a very responsible message to send. If you want to do biglaw go to a school that places well for biglaw and try to minimize debt because biglaw careers are often short. If you want to do public interest law, either go to a school with an elite LRAP (HYS basically) or get a huge scholarship because those jobs don't pay well. Tell me wise sage, what should the advice be? Follow your heart? Pay $300,000 to make $45k a year? Do you think people getting evicted have money to pay lawyers? That work is almost always taken pro-bono.
Apologies. No it isn't what you said, and I didn't mean to imply that all that was totally coming from you. The tone of "those reasons are bad" set me off and I associated it with the general attitude of TLS, which I do really believe is there, that only some chosen few are truly equipped to go to law school. Obviously not everyone thinks that way but I have, in my paltry two months here, seen people responding that way again and again. The advice to be cautious, and if you want to do public interest either go to a school where you can get it paid by scholarships or go to one with a good LRAP program, is good advice. I agree with the advice. I am trying to follow that advice myself. It's the tone that bugged me, and I connected it to the tone that a lot of other people on this site take when they talk down to people about their reasons for going to law school, that's all.
All good man. I agree some people could really use a softer tone, but I don't honestly think most of the people told not to go to law school would be better off going to law school. But, even the harshest critics of law school wouldn't tell an ivy 3.8 pre-med student that she shouldn't go to law school at all. All of the questions address what she expects out of a legal career, because most people have seriously misguided views of what being a lawyer is like, and what it pays.

Basically the flowchart is: figure out if the person has the potential to...
a) attend a great school at sticker
--1) understands that only biglaw pays big money, how bad biglaw is, and is willing to suffer through it to repay debt
-- 2) understands that public service pays very little money, but that LRAP can help and fully understands the consequences of LRAP

b) attend a not as great school with big money
--1) understands that big money jobs are very rare, wants to do local/state PI, understands the opportunity cost of 3 years of lost wages.
--2) has a job lined up, is well lectured on the likelihood of that job remaining available 3 years from now.

If neither a nor b, advocate not going to law school, or if low LSAT is the problem, retaking.

Once you get the financial expectations in line, its important to make sure people know what they are getting themselves into, and thus why you see people asking "why do you want to be a lawyer".

Maybe people are being too cut and dry, but this is the process of 90% of on-topic posters. The reason it seems like a harsh place is that the vast majority of people that post either don't have the stats to not ruin themselves but refuse to retake, or are pursuing a legal career in their heads that doesn't mirror the legal career they're gonna find in the real world. When I joined this site I was bombarded with retake or don't go. I retook and did well, got better options, and people made sure my expectations were in line with the path I was on. They were. I was congratulated and wished luck. I had seriously misguided views on a lot of things, and people weren't super nice about it, but I would be at a much much worse place if this forum didn't clarify these things for me.

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