Top Law Schools

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This is a question you have to answer for yourself.

I don't know anything about econ or quantitative finance programs but the GRE is like 10x less important for grad school admissions than the LSAT is for law school admissions.

What are your options if you take another year?

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mukol wrote:No idea what options are if I take another year. I'd probably end up in the Peace Corp, the military, or teaching English in Korea; none of those sound like super awesome options.

I've got solid softs (research + conference presentations + publications) for econ programs so maybe a year off and applying to PhD programs wouldn't be so bad.

stego wrote:I don't know anything about econ or quantitative finance programs but the GRE is like 10x less important for grad school admissions than the LSAT is for law school admissions.

What are your options if you take another year?

The Peace Corps is like a 2 year and 3 month commitment, not a year. It also takes a little while to get into the Peace Corps. The medical review can take a few months because they are responsible for your health insurance while you're overseas in a possibly remote area.

wouldn't you need to take GMAT instead of GRE for those programs?

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I would suggest approaching this in a different way. I note your answer to "what success means to you", but would like to caution that any answer to this question by other TLSers, due to the information we have been given thus far, would completely disregard your interests. Because saying "you should redefine success for yourself" is likely not going to take, I would suggest focusing on what the day-to-day life will be like in your target positions after (x) the JD or (y) the financial/econ/(bio-statistics?) program.

It would be helpful if you took time to investigate law school students and practicing lawyers in the areas in which you hope to practice. I would posit that those lawyers who pursued this career simply for the money are dissatisfied (and many depressed) because it takes more than that to have a fulfilling career. Also, finance careers can be just as lucrative (and allows for more extremes at the top), so even if money was your only concern, this question cannot be answered on that basis alone. You might also find the chart in the article below interesting re: debt levels.

Would really suggest re-thinking this before making such an important life decision. Good luck

http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB100014240 ... 1033770526

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mukol wrote:
What I'm really asking is IF you could go to an economics or quantitative finance masters program with better $$$, would you? Should I bail on everything and go do a bio-statistics program?[/url]

Someone already said the obvious, that this is really your choice. All that anyone can do here is help you weigh pros and cons, but ultimately what you desire out of an education and career won't be the exact same as what another poster says.

The only advice I'd give is to go ahead and apply late to those other grad schools, but stick with the law admissions process and send a deposit. It sounds like you won't really make your decision until after April 1st, so the few hundred dollars that you'll have to send for a seat deposit is nothing to cry about if you end up deciding that law isn't for you.

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mukol wrote:For sure. I've tried to run through as many of the outcomes as I can, but haven't found a winner. Definite upside potential with finance + quant skills, but also upside to JD.

I probably should've applied to the Vandy dual PhD/JD which is kind of what started the law school thing instead of being lazy 4 months ago.

Thanks Counselor Troi.

Troianii wrote:

mukol wrote:
What I'm really asking is IF you could go to an economics or quantitative finance masters program with better $$$, would you? Should I bail on everything and go do a bio-statistics program?[/url]

Someone already said the obvious, that this is really your choice. All that anyone can do here is help you weigh pros and cons, but ultimately what you desire out of an education and career won't be the exact same as what another poster says.

The only advice I'd give is to go ahead and apply late to those other grad schools, but stick with the law admissions process and send a deposit. It sounds like you won't really make your decision until after April 1st, so the few hundred dollars that you'll have to send for a seat deposit is nothing to cry about if you end up deciding that law isn't for you.

At any rate, it sounds like you'll be stuck between a sandy beach and a soft spot. Always a good thing, something I've recently found myself in. My options aren't as good as yours, but that's neither here nor there.

Also - lol, thanks for the Counselor Troi reference. I kind of like it haha

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I'm confused. Do you want to be a lawyer? Do you want to practice law? That's the first and most important question for whether you want to go to law school. A degree in economics or finance is totally different professionally and academically.

If you don't want to be a lawyer--and it sounds like you don't really care about that much anyway, so you probably don't--you have to find a job and work this year while you consider whether returning to another graduate program is right for you. Focus on doing well in school this semester and getting a job or next year; it doesn't need to be something transient like teaching abroad. Then you can focus on applying to the right economics programs in the fall if that's what interests you.

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