Top Law Schools

2 B+ and an A- at William and Mary. around top 30-35%.

I am a bit disturbed by this post. Do you mean to tell us that you only went to law school because you assumed you would do better than top 30%?

No, that's assuming a bit much. I just want to know if it is going to continue to be a worthwhile investment. I enjoy law school a good deal.

Why'd you go to law school in the first place. What kind of debt will graduate with. How much will finishing the semester cost?

If you were focused on biglaw you might start thinking about it but I wouldn't yet.

Anonymous User wrote:No, that's assuming a bit much.

Explain.

Desert Fox wrote:Why'd you go to law school in the first place. What kind of debt will graduate with. How much will finishing the semester cost?

$60k debt upon graduation.

ben4847 wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:No, that's assuming a bit much.

Explain.

see the part that you didn't quote.

Also, not necessarily focused on big law. If MidLaw exists, I would gladly do that.

Well if you like law school and still want to practice law, why would you drop out? 60K isn't a whole lot. I'd gun because if you can get top 20% you've got a shot at biglawl. Otherwise, you'll be doing shit law, but that's what you signed up for when you attended a TTT. But you were smart enough to do it at low debt.

Just do nYU LLM.

Desert Fox wrote:Well if you like law school and still want to practice law, why would you drop out? 60K isn't a whole lot. I'd gun because if you can get top 20% you've got a shot at biglawl. Otherwise, you'll be doing shit law, but that's what you signed up for when you attended a TTT. But you were smart enough to do it at low debt.

define shit law.

Anonymous User wrote:

Desert Fox wrote:Well if you like law school and still want to practice law, why would you drop out? 60K isn't a whole lot. I'd gun because if you can get top 20% you've got a shot at biglawl. Otherwise, you'll be doing shit law, but that's what you signed up for when you attended a TTT. But you were smart enough to do it at low debt.

define shit law.

~40-60K a year at a smaller firm.

is the placement that bad at your school?
as someone who did not do that well in her first year (but did manage to swing honors in the end), I would cry for joy if I had made the top 1/3 in the first year

Because you like it and have only 60k in debt I would say its worth sticking it out at least until the end of the year and then rethink.

cantabaout wrote:is the placement that bad at your school?
as someone who did not do that well in her first year (but did manage to swing honors in the end), I would cry for joy if I had made the top 1/3 in the first year

Given at W&M places ~15% of its graduates in NLJ250 firms (http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNL ... slreturn=1), being top third probably makes it a decent long-shot to get biglaw or midlaw. I imagine if OP is a good interviewer, hustles, and has some geographic diversity/WE, he might have a reasonable long-shot if he is not picky.

i had the exact same grades at a different t30 after the first semester, got straight As second semester, and finished at the top of my section (at least top 5%). SA this summer at v10 firm and had a v5, 1 other v10, and 4 v25 offers. Dropping out after the first semester with those grades is absurd.

Anonymous User wrote:2 B+ and an A- at William and Mary. around top 30-35%.

uhhhh....

Anonymous User wrote:No, that's assuming a bit much. I just want to know if it is going to continue to be a worthwhile investment. I enjoy law school a good deal.

OK, I quoted the whole statement.
Why don't you tell us why you thought it was a good investment when you started, and why you now are doubting that.
The answer may be that you thought it was a good idea to bet one semester's tuition on the possibility of finishing top 10%. Is that the answer?

paulinaporizkova wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:2 B+ and an A- at William and Mary. around top 30-35%.

uhhhh....

Exactly. WTF kinda grade inflation is this?

patrickd139 wrote:

paulinaporizkova wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:2 B+ and an A- at William and Mary. around top 30-35%.

uhhhh....

Exactly. WTF kinda grade inflation is this?

A 3.44 seems like a pretty reasonable top-third GPA to me.

OP, maybe you should talk a little more about what it is you're afraid of. You won't be a shoo-in to get a job, biglaw or otherwise, but your debt is relatively low and you'll have opportunities. Whether that's good enough is a personal choice, but it's about as good as you could have expected going in at William and Mary, so, kind of confused what you think has changed.

patrickd139 wrote:Exactly. WTF kinda grade inflation is this?

What? At most schools a 3.4 GPA puts you in the top 1/3? Actually doesn't it do that at UT?

BruceWayne wrote:

patrickd139 wrote:Exactly. WTF kinda grade inflation is this?

What? At most schools a 3.4 GPA puts you in the top 1/3? Actually doesn't it do that at UT?

Not at UT Law ( ), but the curve is a little harsher than that at OU.

Huh. I think 60,000 is a lot to owe if you can't get any job. I would give it another semester and see where you are at the end of the year. I would go to career services and press them hard for job information. You should also check out the law school transparency report that came out today.

Do you have any job prospects? What have you done about getting a summer job? What geographic region are you looking to live in.

FWiw- I don't think that going to a low ranked school for a semester or a year to see how you will do is a terrible idea. If you had killed it, you could be looking at transferring. The key is to drop out as soon as you know you aren't going to get a job.

As a student at W&M this post does not surprise me - must be one of the uber nerds

sunynp wrote:Huh. I think 60,000 is a lot to owe if you can't get any job. I would give it another semester and see where you are at the end of the year. I would go to career services and press them hard for job information. You should also check out the law school transparency report that came out today.

Do you have any job prospects? What have you done about getting a summer job? What geographic region are you looking to live in.

FWiw- I don't think that going to a low ranked school for a semester or a year to see how you will do is a terrible idea. If you had killed it, you could be looking at transferring. The key is to drop out as soon as you know you aren't going to get a job.

It's not that he can't get any job; he can't get a biglaw job. 60K in debt works out to roughly $700 a month, which is doable even on a shitlaw 40K job outside a major city.

As a student at W&M, I feel like this is an over reaction. You can still improve next semester, and even if you stay even, I feel like you could find something decent from top 1/3.

Anonymous User wrote:As a student at W&M this post does not surprise me - must be one of the uber nerds

I guess I feel the opposite of this poster.