Allright I got into Law School, now what do i do? Forum

[thecilent]

Just book exams, bro

[Cavalier]

Like others have said, if your goal is to "make a bunch of money right out of law school," you should withdraw, retake the LSAT in October, and aim for a better school. Emory is not a bad law school, but in this economy, it simply isn't going to be placing very many of its graduates in high paying jobs. And if you're not receiving a scholarship from Emory, graduating with six figures of debt and a job that pays even half of a big law salary if you're lucky is no way to "make a bunch of money." It's not 2007 anymore.

[JamMasterJ]

Emory student here.

Top 15-20% makes you competitive for NYC/ATL biglaw

Top 30% makes you competitive for regional biglaw/midlaw/boutiques

Plenty of stories of those below top third getting biglaw and regional biglaw. Plenty of stories of those above top third getting nothing paid 2L summer.

Realize its not 2005 anymore when Emory would place 30% of its graduating class in biglaw. Emory is a good institution with a great law school. Going there will give you a solid legal education and prepare you for a career that one day can yield a six figure salary. But dont go in expecting to finish median and have a $145k job waiting there for you. If you are biglaw or bust, take a year off, retake LSAT, and go to a t-14 school ( preferably top half of that). If you choose to go to Emory, change your expectations or work your ass off.

treeney, you are refreshingly unbiased for a current student repping his school. I'm looking at you Notre Dame trolls

[boalt2l]

If your goal is to make a bunch of money you should consider MBA programs. Law school is not a good decision (not even Yale) for anyone whose only goal is to make money. It's a service industry albeit high class, but please dont go if your motivation is cash.

[missinglink]

I will be starting at Emory Law in the fall. I am curious what the steps are in the next semester, year, and three years in order to make a bunch of money right out of law school. Basically I want to know what the absolute minimum requirements are for Biglaw or 145,000+ salary along the east coast, southeast (particularly New York, Washington, Boston, Atlanta, Miami). Will I need a 3.5+ and law review? Will I need a summer internship? Will I need family or friend connections? Basically I dont know the answers to any of these questions so would like some help.

0L as well, but here are some tips:

- Use the TLS forum search function

-Buy LEEWS
- Start reading supplemental materials for your upcoming classes
- For law review, schools have differing ways for getting on: grade on, writing competition, combination of both. You'll need to check with Emory to figure this out
- You should get a 1L summer law-related internship & start applying (I think) in December. If you are URM, try for diversity summer internships with biglaw firms.
- You don't need family or friend connections, but those can help for sure, especially for getting outlines/past exams & securing employment

LEEWS is overrated, as is reading supplemental materials before your classes. The latter can be detrimental.

[yngblkgifted]

I love how 0Ls try to give other 0Ls advice about something they have never experienced first hand. For instance, you have no idea how effective your 0L prep is because you haven't put it to the test. Sure you can just parrot what other people have said on TLS, but it really won't be based off of your personal experience and therefore you lack a certain amount of conviction in your answers. Though the OP didn't specify, I'm sure this question was directed towards people actually in law school.

[merc280]

If your goal is to make a bunch of money you should consider MBA programs. Law school is not a good decision (not even Yale) for anyone whose only goal is to make money. It's a service industry albeit high class, but please dont go if your motivation is cash.

Though getting into a MBA program that will get you a bunch of money is going to take years of working an already good job just to get in. Any MBA program that isn't prestigious is going to give you far less chances at getting a job making alot of money.

[Anonymous User]

drop out before you incur any debt

[Blessedassurance]

I will be starting at Emory Law in the fall. I am curious what the steps are in the next semester, year, and three years in order to make a bunch of money right out of law school. Basically I want to know what the absolute minimum requirements are for Biglaw or 145,000+ salary along the east coast, southeast (particularly New York, Washington, Boston, Atlanta, Miami). Will I need a 3.5+ and law review? Will I need a summer internship? Will I need family or friend connections? Basically I dont know the answers to any of these questions so would like some help.

I stand corrected, but I'm pretty sure Boston is not in the southeast. Mind where and what you put in parenthesis. I think attention to detail is important, but I could be wrong.

[flcath]

Emory student here.

Top 15-20% makes you competitive for NYC/ATL biglaw

Top 30% makes you competitive for regional biglaw/midlaw/boutiques

Plenty of stories of those below top third getting biglaw and regional biglaw. Plenty of stories of those above top third getting nothing paid 2L summer.

Realize its not 2005 anymore when Emory would place 30% of its graduating class in biglaw. Emory is a good institution with a great law school. Going there will give you a solid legal education and prepare you for a career that one day can yield a six figure salary. But dont go in expecting to finish median and have a $145k job waiting there for you. If you are biglaw or bust, take a year off, retake LSAT, and go to a t-14 school ( preferably top half of that). If you choose to go to Emory, change your expectations or work your ass off.

"Make you competitive" means that you'll actually get the job?

Furthermore, the fact that x% of the students got a job at biglaw doesn't meant that those correspond to the top x% of the class. As a corrolary, just because someone at y% got a biglaw job doesn't mean that everyone from 1 to y% can get a big law job.

That's exactly what he said. treeey86 just gave the one useful post in this thread.


Except for this one, of course, which is the TRUE credited response:

Go to Med School bro. Law is TTT as fuck. You are going to spend 180K to have a 10% or less chance at getting a 145K job for three or so years? That's dumber than half of Emory's admitted students.

[DrVictorFreeze]

Guess the only recourse is to nail my first year exams, and transfer to Harvard. Would transfer to Yale, but TLS seems certain that none of them are getting jobs either.

[gwuorbust]

Guess the only recourse is to nail my first year exams, and transfer to Harvard. Would transfer to Yale, but TLS seems certain that none of them are getting jobs either.

dude, you think this is a joke? that the people on here are just trolling you?

News Flash. They're not.

The legal market is fucked and going to Emory is a poor decision. TCR is to retake and reapply if you are serious about law school. if you just want to make money, a better response would be to move to Silicon valley and start a business or go to a Caribbean medical school.

[shepdawg]

TTT here. Was told by top 5 firm partner that at top 2% I'm in the maybe pile and have to do major networking just to get the interview. They don't even do OCI at most TTT's. You really need to be #1. Everyone wants to be #1, so your odds of being #1 are very slim. Seriously, if you want big law, you have to be 10x smarter than the guys at t14. If your not, just settle for getting any job in the legal field.

[DrVictorFreeze]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68XHaz98CeU

Law school according to TLS

[flcath]

Here you go: 21% placement.

Bear in mind that (1) those figures don't include federal clerkships, so add another (I'd imagine) 5-10%, (2) those figures are for the c/o 2010; they'll probably drop a little more next year (this class that just graduated) and the year after (c/o 2012), and then rise to about the linked rates for c/o 2013.

The data will not match what your class (2014) will experience, but it's the only data we've got, so it beats all the TLS poli sci major speculation in the world.

if you just want to make money, a better response would be to move to Silicon valley and start a business or go to a Caribbean medical school.

Entrepreneurship requires risk-taking, which we want to avoid.

Lol at someone in law school being able to get into med school. It reminds me of the kid from the Mercer thread who claimed he got into Duke and Northwestern, only less believable.

[gwuorbust]

if you just want to make money, a better response would be to move to Silicon valley and start a business or go to a Caribbean medical school.

Entrepreneurship requires risk-taking, which we want to avoid.

Lol at someone in law school being able to get into med school. It reminds me of the kid from the Mercer thread who claimed he got into Duke and Northwestern, only less believable.

IMO taking on 150k of nondischargeable debt is a much larger risk than 150k in debt you can walk away from. but I understand that potential law students would not be inclined to do that.

as for Med school, that is why I said Caribbean medical school. my understanding is that the admission standards are not the same. but I could be wrong.

[flcath]

IMO taking on 150k of nondischargeable debt is a much larger risk than 150k in debt you can walk away from. but I understand that potential law students would not be inclined to do that.

as for Med school, that is why I said Caribbean medical school. my understanding is that the admission standards are not the same. but I could be wrong.

Good point on the first, but the idea still seems like it would require some sort of talent. Law students tend to be talentless, albeit intelligent.

Yeah they're less, but it's the same 2 years of pre-req courses, and the leniency is usually more in favor of a low MCAT than a low science GPA. I guess the point is: there's NO QUESTION WHATSOEVER that med school's a better future than law school, but that's like telling the garbage man that he'd really be happier pursuing a career as a US Senator.

[merc280]

if you just want to make money, a better response would be to move to Silicon valley and start a business or go to a Caribbean medical school.

Entrepreneurship requires risk-taking, which we want to avoid.

Lol at someone in law school being able to get into med school. It reminds me of the kid from the Mercer thread who claimed he got into Duke and Northwestern, only less believable.

IMO taking on 150k of nondischargeable debt is a much larger risk than 150k in debt you can walk away from. but I understand that potential law students would not be inclined to do that.

as for Med school, that is why I said Caribbean medical school. my understanding is that the admission standards are not the same. but I could be wrong.

Well for the good caribbean schools, you knwo the ones where there is a good chance of passing the USMLE have high requirements, and are getting more difficult to get into. On the other hand there are a handful of diploma mills down there that charge $40K a year and will get you a diploma.

[flcath]

if you just want to make money, a better response would be to move to Silicon valley and start a business or go to a Caribbean medical school.

Entrepreneurship requires risk-taking, which we want to avoid.

Lol at someone in law school being able to get into med school. It reminds me of the kid from the Mercer thread who claimed he got into Duke and Northwestern, only less believable.

IMO taking on 150k of nondischargeable debt is a much larger risk than 150k in debt you can walk away from. but I understand that potential law students would not be inclined to do that.

as for Med school, that is why I said Caribbean medical school. my understanding is that the admission standards are not the same. but I could be wrong.

Well for the good caribbean schools, you knwo the ones where there is a good chance of passing the USMLE have high requirements, and are getting more difficult to get into. On the other hand there are a handful of diploma mills down there that charge $40K a year and will get you a diploma.

Yeah, I looked seriously at the Carib option, and--in addition to not being covered by federal loans--the schools are either (a) not much more forgiving of a low science GPA than US schools or (b) not gonna get you back into the US w/ any reliability.

It's a goddamn shame the AMA has figured out a way to keep droves of idiot unqualified doctors from flooding the market and driving down wages for everyone. Thank god at least the ABA still understands DEMOCRACY and EQUAL ACCESS FOR ALL.

[gwuorbust]

Yeah, I looked seriously at the Carib option, and--in addition to not being covered by federal loans--the schools are either (a) not much more forgiving of a low science GPA than US schools or (b) not gonna get you back into the US w/ any reliability.

It's a goddamn shame the AMA has figured out a way to keep droves of idiot unqualified doctors from flooding the market and driving down wages for everyone. Thank god at least the ABA still understands DEMOCRACY and EQUAL ACCESS FOR ALL.

do you know if you can get loans for Carib schools from private providers and if they are nondischargable?

[flcath]

Yeah, I looked seriously at the Carib option, and--in addition to not being covered by federal loans--the schools are either (a) not much more forgiving of a low science GPA than US schools or (b) not gonna get you back into the US w/ any reliability.

It's a goddamn shame the AMA has figured out a way to keep droves of idiot unqualified doctors from flooding the market and driving down wages for everyone. Thank god at least the ABA still understands DEMOCRACY and EQUAL ACCESS FOR ALL.

do you know if you can get loans for Carib schools from private providers and if they are nondischargable?

Yes, but they require a co-signer upon whom they can fully collect when you default.

I've heard varying accounts of how high a bar that is: some say that solidly middle class parents ($200K/yr-ish) can swing it, whilst others claim that it takes some parental wealth. I really dunno.

[vanwinkle]

What is this 0L stuff doing in the Forum For Law Students?