Better to drop out? Forum

[Anonymous User]

Kind of feeling discouraged. I went to a regional T30 school (think Minnesota) thinking I might be able to still get a relatively lucrative job and do well. I was pretty close to the median numbers but a little above both so I thought maybe I'd have a shot at being top third, but I'm around median after 1L and 2L OCI isn't looking too promising so far. The school is outside of the area where I grew up so I have no connections or anything like that to help me out either. I did not think I'd be an exception to the advice often given on here to go to a T14 if you want Big Law since law school grades are unpredictable, but I was wanting to go to law school and get things going career-wise and my desire to do that may have, it appears, shut me out of opportunities I would have liked to have had. Is there any way to do well in 2L/3L and salvage my career? Or am I going to be stuck handling traffic tickets and divorces if I stick out law school? It is saddening that people who maybe did 1-2 points better than me on the LSAT are getting opportunities I won't be getting.

Mods, if you don't think this should be anonymous just delete it please.

[Anonymous User]

Kind of feeling discouraged. I went to a regional T30 school (think Minnesota) thinking I might be able to still get a relatively lucrative job and do well. I was pretty close to the median numbers but a little above both so I thought maybe I'd have a shot at being top third, but I'm around median after 1L and 2L OCI isn't looking too promising so far. The school is outside of the area where I grew up so I have no connections or anything like that to help me out either. I did not think I'd be an exception to the advice often given on here to go to a T14 if you want Big Law since law school grades are unpredictable, but I was wanting to go to law school and get things going career-wise and my desire to do that may have, it appears, shut me out of opportunities I would have liked to have had. Is there any way to do well in 2L/3L and salvage my career? Or am I going to be stuck handling traffic tickets and divorces if I stick out law school? It is saddening that people who maybe did 1-2 points better than me on the LSAT are getting opportunities I won't be getting.

Mods, if you don't think this should be anonymous just delete it please.

The big question (and really the only question) is do you want to be a lawyer? If the answer is yes, then stay. You can grind your way up the ladder.

But if it’s no, yeah it might be time to reconsider

[Anonymous User]

Yes, although I've become somewhat disillusioned with the legal field. Hopefully I will have a shot at decent medium-sized firms at least, even with average grades.

[Dcc617]

If you want biglaw (which most people actually hate) and you don't get biglaw then it seems like you should not be in law school.

[lavarman84]

If you don't want to be a lawyer, drop out. You're wasting your time. If you do want to be a lawyer, stick it out. You're not going to Cooley Law. You're above median at a respectable law school. Not getting biglaw doesn't mean that your career options are divorces or traffic tickets.

You still have a lot of paths available to you even if that particular one appears blocked. As you can see from this forum, a lot of people end up hating biglaw. I think most people choose that option either because they have to pay down debt or because it's the path of least resistance for people who don't know what they want to do.

Try to figure out what you want to do, network, and then pursue that path. But again, if you don't want to be a lawyer, don't waste more time in law school.