Graduating from Undergrad a Year Early Forum

[jva255]

Hi all,
I am currently going into my third year of undergrad and will be graduating this spring. When I started college, it was never my initial plan to graduate from undergrad a full year early, however with high school credits and taking a certain number of hours throughout college, I'm currently on track to graduate in spring of 2020 rather than spring of 2021. With that being said, I am unsure whether I should apply to law school this fall - and only have two years of grades on my transcripts - or wait until next fall after I have graduated to apply and essentially take a gap year to work or find an internship. I have spoken to my advisor and pre-law advisor at my university and they have not given me much insight on this situation and I have scoured the Internet for answers and come up with nothing. I would still be ready to apply this fall (LSAT, rec letters, personal statements, etc) but I'm not sure if it would be best to wait a year and apply. I've read through this forum of people in the past saying they've planned on taking 20-25 credits a semester to graduate in 3 years and apply and read the advice of everyone saying to stay all four years, however in my case I've taken every possible extra class I can for my major and minor as well as any random gen ed you could think of and still cornered myself and I'm needing some help. Thanks so much in advance!

[Slippin' Jimmy]

Hi all,
I am currently going into my third year of undergrad and will be graduating this spring. When I started college, it was never my initial plan to graduate from undergrad a full year early, however with high school credits and taking a certain number of hours throughout college, I'm currently on track to graduate in spring of 2020 rather than spring of 2021. With that being said, I am unsure whether I should apply to law school this fall - and only have two years of grades on my transcripts - or wait until next fall after I have graduated to apply and essentially take a gap year to work or find an internship. I have spoken to my advisor and pre-law advisor at my university and they have not given me much insight on this situation and I have scoured the Internet for answers and come up with nothing. I would still be ready to apply this fall (LSAT, rec letters, personal statements, etc) but I'm not sure if it would be best to wait a year and apply. I've read through this forum of people in the past saying they've planned on taking 20-25 credits a semester to graduate in 3 years and apply and read the advice of everyone saying to stay all four years, however in my case I've taken every possible extra class I can for my major and minor as well as any random gen ed you could think of and still cornered myself and I'm needing some help. Thanks so much in advance!

While I think its pretty great to graduate early if it does not negatively impact your GPA, I'd strongly caution against going straight through after graduating early. I went straight through after doing a normal 4 year run (and was generally a year older than all my classmates) and while I have no regrets about doing so, I can definitely see how taking a year or two would have been valuable (but of course I didn't listen to anyone on this at the time I was applying ) and I think this is even more true if you're graduating early.

[Wubbles]

I would go ahead and graduate early if you have a high GPA, that's what I did because I was over a 3.9 anyways. Work on your LSAT score in the year or so off if it's not up to snuff, otherwise you have all of junior year to track down a worthwhile job for the next year so you should be able to find something decent. Best of luck!

[Bingo_Bongo]

It's not a bad problem to have. Consider taking the year to improve your LSAT score, if need be, or get some work/life experience doing something. Or just go straight to law school if you don't want to mess around with that.

I do agree that being slightly older than your classmates comes with a very slight advantage. In my law school class, the top performers all seemed to be mid-to late 20s to very early 30s (so a few years older than the average age). I think there's probably a drop off for people older than that, since they've been out of school for a while and are rusty with the whole studying thing (plus, they tend to have extra baggage and responsibilities at home). The younger (and coddled) K-JD students who haven't had as much life experience tend to sometimes have a little harder time relating to certain legal concepts, just because they can't draw connections to real world experiences they have with them.

But, I definitely don't think it's THAT big of an advantage to deliberately put off going to law school for a year over.

[acr]

Hi all,
I am currently going into my third year of undergrad and will be graduating this spring. When I started college, it was never my initial plan to graduate from undergrad a full year early, however with high school credits and taking a certain number of hours throughout college, I'm currently on track to graduate in spring of 2020 rather than spring of 2021. With that being said, I am unsure whether I should apply to law school this fall - and only have two years of grades on my transcripts - or wait until next fall after I have graduated to apply and essentially take a gap year to work or find an internship. I have spoken to my advisor and pre-law advisor at my university and they have not given me much insight on this situation and I have scoured the Internet for answers and come up with nothing. I would still be ready to apply this fall (LSAT, rec letters, personal statements, etc) but I'm not sure if it would be best to wait a year and apply. I've read through this forum of people in the past saying they've planned on taking 20-25 credits a semester to graduate in 3 years and apply and read the advice of everyone saying to stay all four years, however in my case I've taken every possible extra class I can for my major and minor as well as any random gen ed you could think of and still cornered myself and I'm needing some help. Thanks so much in advance!

I graduated from undergrad a year early (in 3 years) and immediately went to law school. Ultimately, like so many career and school decisions, the choice comes down to your personal circumstances and finances. I'll just give you some of my thoughts since I've faced this before.

I personally regret rushing into law school, even though it "saved" me one year of college expenses.

While law school wasn't academically too much of a challenge for me, looking back I feel like I wasn't fully ready to immerse in the legal profession quite yet at such a young age (21). Obviously, this is very personal, and some people are more "ready" than others at a younger age, but I would have personally benefited immensely from a fourth year working in my college town or back home.

Having a gap year allows for personal and professional development, and also allows you to cultivate useful and enjoyable skills and hobbies. Having some time in the "real world" also helps you view law school and the legal profession within the context of the bigger picture, and gives you time to truly reflect on whether being a lawyer is what you want for your life. Maybe you've already come to that conclusion--personally, I'd never fully honestly thought about that question, and maybe I would have during a gap year.

If you've taken the time to think about these questions--whether you're truly ready to immerse and why deep down you want to be a lawyer--then I understand saving yourself the year and applying this fall. But if you feel yourself wavering (like I was) or only going to law school because it's been your "path", then I'm in favor of a gap year.

My mentor always told me that we have a culture that "rushes" everything. He told me to slow down, and I ignored him, but he was right. Law school will always be waiting for you and there's no harm in slowing down and living life for a year.

That's my two cents, but again, all of that's personal. Message me if you want to discuss it more.

[nealric]

I graduated a year early and spent a year working and studying for the LSAT. For social reasons, I lived with college friends near campus. It felt more like a 4th year of college than anything else. Only thing I missed out on was some of the senior slacking. I think it was good to get a bit of work experience, and certainly didn't hurt me in the admissions process.

[vviento]

Hello，i'm facing the same problem and I have some questions. Since there are only academic grades for 2 years reported on my transcript now (2017-2018), I wonder whether I need to provide an additional explanation to LSAC, or whether I have to provide a certificate from my school to prove that I was allowed to graduate a year early and will get the bachelor's degree on 2020? Is there anyone can help me? Thanks!