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I'm new in this forum.
I'm very confused about taking a MA in english. The only reason why I would be interest in taking my masters in english is to help my writing skills, communication, public speaking, and everything that would help me in law school. I know I want to go to law school, I know I want to be an attorney. However, English is my second language. Although, I completed my bachelor's degrees in the U.S. (Pol. Sci & Bus. Adm. ), I feel like I still need to work in my writing and communication skills. I have never taken the LSAT test, I have taken the Kaplan LSAT class, which it was difficult for me to keep up.
In my junior year in college, I started as an intern for a state senator and Assemblyman office, as a legislative aid. At the end of my internship, I got hired full-time. After graduation, I started working for the Assemblyman's law firm, which is a real estate firm. I'm still working there, I do closing books and I help other attorneys with other matters. They all encourage me to take the LSAT and leave my fears behind. My family has been on my back for me to take this LSAT. My sister is a Doctor, english is her second language too. However, she went to med. school in our country, she was already a doctor when she moved here. She is very different than me, she is a fighter and never gives up. She took the requirement exams to revalidate her title in the U.S. I believe there were 4 exams total, 8 hours each. she studied day and night for 8 months, and she passed them all. She is now the director of her department, works full time in a very prestigious hospital and bought a dream house, which is a big accomplishment for her and our family. However, I do believe that her career and law are two totally different fields. Doctors do not need to be perfect writers, or have the best communication skills, or big researchers. Whereas, attorneys do. She doesn't want me to do my masters. she thinks that is a total waste of time, that I should just study hard for the LSAT and just battle whatever comes my way in law school.
What do you think?
thank you!

I agree that whatever you learn or do during the MA program likely won't help you in law school or as an attorney and will likely be a waste of time.

Getting the MA won't help you get into law school either. The LSAT is the most important factor for getting into law school, so I would focus heavily on that.

Legal writing isn't anything like what your MA would teach. Also if you really did want to do this for the purpose of improving your language skills, you'd need to do an MA in composition/rhetoric/communications/writing rather than in English, which will teach you about literature and how to write academic articles about literature, which doesn't really transfer to law in any direct way.

You would probably benefit from taking a practice test as a diagnostic, to see if your language skills really are an issue. But even if they are, an MA is a long, expensive, and really inefficient way of improving the skills you say you want. You'd be just as well off learning/improving those skills in law school. If language poses a problem for doing well on the LSAT, getting a tutor is a better solution than doing a MA. (Also, Kaplan classes are generally held not to be very good.)

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Just want to reiterate that an MA in English has nothing to do with improving your English-speaking/writing abilities. If you're in a graduate program, it's expected that you can already write well and want to do high-level work with English literature.

Again: don't get an MA in English to improve your reading/writing skills. First, take a practice LSAT to see where you are. Based on the fact that English is your second language, you're probably going to need to study a lot to do well on it. In the meantime, gaining work experience in the U.S. will help improve your speaking and communications naturally as you have to interact with people in English everyday. Also, start reading a lot (law, philosophy, science, psychology, literature), especially if you think you need work on your reading skills, or if you do badly on the reading section when you take a practice LSAT. It doesn't have to be dense reading, at least not in the beginning, but do push yourself as you go along. This will help you get you ready not only for the LSAT but for law school.

Tell your family a lot of people can take a year or two to do well on the LSAT, that you have a lot of studying ahead of you and to get off your back. Keep posting in these forums and you'll get help!

THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH for your early response and advice. I honestly, feel more encourage to study harder and take this LSAT!!! if any of you have any advice on best ways to study for it, I will appreciate them a lot.

thank you all once again, this is my first time in a forum and I'm really happy I registered.


best of luck to all.

cavalier1138 wrote:Just want to reiterate that an MA in English has nothing to do with improving your English-speaking/writing abilities. If you're in a graduate program, it's expected that you can already write well and want to do high-level work with English literature.

This.

If you want to be a lawyer, go to law school. Getting a Masters in English would be a waste of time and money.
Like Cavalier says, it won't improve your English-speaking and writing skills too much.

On top of what everyone else said, if you want to improve your english, taking some sort of advanced classes or self-studying would be a much better option than a master's. Itd teach you the type of English that's more applicable to everyday life as well as the LSAT.