1L Depressed Already? Forum

[CicerBRo]

You don't. Some people do sacrifice these things, for a variety of reasons, but except for brief periods around finals (maybe when legal writing assignments are due), you can live a totally normal life in law school.

Biglaw, not so much. But law school is fine.

(Not at the top of my class, but the people at the top of my class had lives, too.)

Agree w/ this.

[Creditisgood]

Hey femme I feel you. In the same boat. I will have to hustle even when I dont want to hustle and commute for hours to get a nickel but it is life and life stinks. I feel like the best of my life is behind me and now it s all pain and worries. I cant even trust my partner. So YOU are not alone. I am 22 and already tired to sail against the wind. But I keep going because there s nothing else to do.

[Br3v]

I didn't mind 1L, it's not that bad and you make friends with like minded people

[chicubs88]

Just relax. 1L isn't nearly as awful as a lot of people on here say it is. People get overly dramatic. The reality is that 1L will suck, but it won't crush your soul. The first few weeks are a blur. It's exciting at first because its a new and unique experience that you along with many other 1Ls are all going through together. You'll be going to social events and trying to settle into a routine while making new friends. After that, you will start to freak out because you haven't really learned how to read cases, how to spot the essentials, and you'll be trying to brief everything and use supplements. Essentially you'll be trying to do too much. Eventually you will learn what works for you and each subsequent semester will be less stressful because you've learned how to play the law school game. You will, and should, have a social life. Anyone who tries to tell you that you need to be studying 80 hours a week is full of shit. Treat law school like a job, stick to the study strategies that work for you, and be ready to crack down at the end of the semester. The key thing to remember is that at some point everyone gets a bit overwhelmed by law school. Thousands of people have been in your situation and they managed to survive. You'll survive too.

[Nucky]

Hey femme I feel you. In the same boat. I will have to hustle even when I dont want to hustle and commute for hours to get a nickel but it is life and life stinks. I feel like the best of my life is behind me and now it s all pain and worries. I cant even trust my partner. So YOU are not alone. I am 22 and already tired to sail against the wind. But I keep going because there s nothing else to do.

Whoa...

[femmefatale]

I can't justify the debt in my mind. Even with some help from my family I'm looking at being in significant debt and the thought of having such high payments each month makes me sick. There isn't any guarantee that I will land a high-paying job (or any job for that matter). I am going to a T30 school, which makes my employment situation even more difficult. Even if I do land a good job, the take home pay will be minimal once payments are made.

For me, it's a lose lose situation. My family will tear me apart for not going, and I will have to rely on them until I secure employment again. If I go, then the above scenario will play out.

[WokeUpInACar]

I can't justify the debt in my mind. Even with some help from my family I'm looking at being in significant debt and the thought of having such high payments each month makes me sick. There isn't any guarantee that I will land a high-paying job (or any job for that matter). I am going to a T30 school, which makes my employment situation even more difficult. Even if I do land a good job, the take home pay will be minimal once payments are made.

For me, it's a lose lose situation. My family will tear me apart for not going, and I will have to rely on them until I secure employment again. If I go, then the above scenario will play out.

So just retake the LSAT.

[fratstar1]

I'm actually going through the same thing right now and contemplating a retake, my only issue is that I just finished a job and dont really have any alternatives besides going back to school. I'm also taking on no debt and feel this way.

Today I'm redoing my resume and looking for decent alternatives, while I think about retaking.

[oblitigate]

I can't justify the debt in my mind. Even with some help from my family I'm looking at being in significant debt and the thought of having such high payments each month makes me sick. There isn't any guarantee that I will land a high-paying job (or any job for that matter). I am going to a T30 school, which makes my employment situation even more difficult. Even if I do land a good job, the take home pay will be minimal once payments are made.

For me, it's a lose lose situation. My family will tear me apart for not going, and I will have to rely on them until I secure employment again. If I go, then the above scenario will play out.

If you're worried about employment you should definitely retake. Graduating from a T30 is nowhere near a guarantee of high-paying job. It's not like undergrad where a top 30 school puts you at fuckin Carnegie Mellon or something

[Paul Campos]

It's pretty obvious you don't want to go to law school, at least not right now, but that you're going anyway because of family pressure.

That's a recipe for disaster under any circumstances, but especially if going will leave you with significant debt, which it sounds like it will.

If you can't stop your family from making this decision for you, then you're definitely not ready to make this decision yourself. Which is ironic. In a bad way.

[UnicornHunter]

Already depressed about law school.
It's so hard to find success stories about people who are happy.

Whenever I try to talk to my family/friends about how I fell they just write me off.

How do you stay positive?

Applying for non-law dream jobs that I would drop out of/not go to law school for

[femmefatale]

It's pretty obvious you don't want to go to law school, at least not right now, but that you're going anyway because of family pressure.

That's a recipe for disaster under any circumstances, but especially if going will leave you with significant debt, which it sounds like it will.

If you can't stop your family from making this decision for you, then you're definitely not ready to make this decision yourself. Which is ironic. In a bad way.

Another huge factor:
I also have already made the first tuition payment and have successfully requested federal loans. If I backed out now what would happen with that money?

[BigRob]

It's pretty obvious you don't want to go to law school, at least not right now, but that you're going anyway because of family pressure.

That's a recipe for disaster under any circumstances, but especially if going will leave you with significant debt, which it sounds like it will.

If you can't stop your family from making this decision for you, then you're definitely not ready to make this decision yourself. Which is ironic. In a bad way.

Another huge factor:
I also have already made the first tuition payment and have successfully requested federal loans. If I backed out now what would happen with that money?

Enroll as 1L -> get fed loan money (deferred until 6 mo. after you graduate) -> drop out -> enroll as 1L - > get fed loan money . . .

Infinite money.

[Paul Campos]

It's pretty obvious you don't want to go to law school, at least not right now, but that you're going anyway because of family pressure.

That's a recipe for disaster under any circumstances, but especially if going will leave you with significant debt, which it sounds like it will.

If you can't stop your family from making this decision for you, then you're definitely not ready to make this decision yourself. Which is ironic. In a bad way.

Another huge factor:
I also have already made the first tuition payment and have successfully requested federal loans. If I backed out now what would happen with that money?

Check your school's policy. You should be able to get a full tuition refund at this point.

[hellojd]

I can't justify the debt in my mind. Even with some help from my family I'm looking at being in significant debt and the thought of having such high payments each month makes me sick. There isn't any guarantee that I will land a high-paying job (or any job for that matter). I am going to a T30 school, which makes my employment situation even more difficult. Even if I do land a good job, the take home pay will be minimal once payments are made.

For me, it's a lose lose situation. My family will tear me apart for not going, and I will have to rely on them until I secure employment again. If I go, then the above scenario will play out.

You need to confront your family about your decision not to go if that's what you decide. You're old enough to have graduated college, so you are old enough to tell your parents that it's stupid to enroll in a 3 year, $100,000+ program that coming out of a T30 will AT BEST lock you into a grinding law firm life and AT WORST sees you at unemployed or taking a shitlaw $40k a year job. If they "tear you apart" (what does that even mean when you're 22-24 yrs old) tear them right back and say they're being stupid and shortsighted, and that just going to law school is no golden ticket.

As other posters have mentioned, top-law-schools.com is not as bad as everyone whines about. If you take away the ~1 month before / during finals, it's not bad at all. I went out at least one night every weekend, worked out 4-5 times a week, watched plenty of netflix, hung out with the gf each weekend, etc. and ended up doing pretty well. My school is higher ranked so employment isn't as big of a concern/stressor as it will be for your class, but you must have known that when you signed up for a T30. If that's the ONLY reason to not go, particularly given you have already submitted tuition, just go for a semester and try it out and possibly delay sending the second tuition payment until you see how your grades are. However, given your posts it seems like you're going for the worst reasonable imaginable, i.e. someone is forcing you to.

[objctnyrhnr]

law school is not bad, but you have to like it. it gets even better when you love it.

I knew that I needed to be a lawyer. I spent years on the LSAT (through college and then one year post grad), crushed it, and got a ton of money to go to a t30 in a region that I had lived in my whole life (thank you TLS for making me debt averse). I avoided the law school social scene because I did not want to be surrounded by stressed out people. my hobbies, family, and friends were a great escape. I just had to know that every moment not spent socializing or working out, I had to be doing HW, even though sometimes I would just want to sit. sitting/vegging is simply not an option and you have to be prepared for that.

I really enjoyed spotting issues, making outlines, participating in class, learning how to legally write, arguing both sides of issues. but I was very lucky in that i KNEW i would. I was not top of my class, but I did decently and landed a sweet job. I also had the networking thing pretty down, which is also important.

i can tell you for sure, though, that the people who didn't do well are the people who did not like it. I know that sounds silly, and maybe like a catch 22, but it's true. if you are doubting that you will like studying like you've never studied before, learning all sorts of facts about this crazy man-made construct we call law, maybe it is not for you...but if you end up liking it, you will succeed.

so of course this begs the question: how do you know before you start? unfortunately, I can't really answer that. in some ways, it's a gamble, and in some ways IF it seems like a gamble, then maybe you should think about not doing it. I can't quite articulate how I knew that I needed to do this, but I had known for a while. and I can tell you-- every internship-type position I had during LS further confirmed how much I enjoyed it...so maybe consider do something in the legal field before going to LS? also u get the added benefit of already having contacts in the industry.

the 2 major reasons not to do it are: (1) because other people tell you to, or (2) because you don't know what else to do. if one or both of those are the reasons you have for doing it/contemplating it, do not do it.

[NYSprague]

I can't justify the debt in my mind. Even with some help from my family I'm looking at being in significant debt and the thought of having such high payments each month makes me sick. There isn't any guarantee that I will land a high-paying job (or any job for that matter). I am going to a T30 school, which makes my employment situation even more difficult. Even if I do land a good job, the take home pay will be minimal once payments are made.

For me, it's a lose lose situation. My family will tear me apart for not going, and I will have to rely on them until I secure employment again. If I go, then the above scenario will play out.

You can't put yourself in a terrible situation because you have an unsupportive family. Just tell them you aren't going and find a job.

You are building this up in your head. Once you tell them, you can move forward.

[northwood]

talk to your parents and family. tell them about the job prospects, and your expected monthly repayment at this point. If you are unsure about doing it, then don't. inform your school that you are not going to be attending, retake the LSAT if you want, and apply for a new job. talk to your former employer to see if you can go back ( if they have nto filled your spot).

[FSK]

1) Drop out
2) Get full refund
3) Get job, figure out what makes you happy independent of your career, and what you want to do. Seek counseling if need be.
4) If being a lawyer, and only being a lawyer, is what you want retake
5) Once you gain admission to a school worth going to for a price worth paying, in hopefully a better economy, make a better choice
6) Be happy that you took the most responsible path you could.

[shock259]

Please don't go. If you do, you're only kicking the can down the road. Confront things now before you waste 3 years of your life and an ungodly amount of money doing something you aren't excited. Your parents will probably understand. If they don't, it doesn't matter: it's not their decision. It's yours.

Good luck OP!

[objctnyrhnr]

remember--law school is a bad decision for an absurdly high percentage of people...and that includes a decent amount (that you will see on this site) that have what most would consider to be objectively good outcomes.

how confident are you that you are one of that small percentage for whom it's a good decision? confident enough to gamble an obscene amount of money, large opportunity cost, and 3 years of your life (some time of which will be quite rough, work-wise)?

[romanticegotist]

With all of the work that you have to do in law school, how much time is there to form real, lasting relationships and still be at the top of your class?

I can not think of how doing so much work that you lose the ability to make friends is worth it at all.

Also, if you have to work that hard you are missing the forest for the trees.

[Mal Reynolds]

law school is not bad, but you have to like it. it gets even better when you love it.

I knew that I needed to be a lawyer. I spent years on the LSAT (through college and then one year post grad), crushed it, and got a ton of money to go to a t30 in a region that I had lived in my whole life (thank you TLS for making me debt averse). I avoided the law school social scene because I did not want to be surrounded by stressed out people. my hobbies, family, and friends were a great escape. I just had to know that every moment not spent socializing or working out, I had to be doing HW, even though sometimes I would just want to sit. sitting/vegging is simply not an option and you have to be prepared for that.

I really enjoyed spotting issues, making outlines, participating in class, learning how to legally write, arguing both sides of issues. but I was very lucky in that i KNEW i would. I was not top of my class, but I did decently and landed a sweet job. I also had the networking thing pretty down, which is also important.

i can tell you for sure, though, that the people who didn't do well are the people who did not like it. I know that sounds silly, and maybe like a catch 22, but it's true. if you are doubting that you will like studying like you've never studied before, learning all sorts of facts about this crazy man-made construct we call law, maybe it is not for you...but if you end up liking it, you will succeed.

so of course this begs the question: how do you know before you start? unfortunately, I can't really answer that. in some ways, it's a gamble, and in some ways IF it seems like a gamble, then maybe you should think about not doing it. I can't quite articulate how I knew that I needed to do this, but I had known for a while. and I can tell you-- every internship-type position I had during LS further confirmed how much I enjoyed it...so maybe consider do something in the legal field before going to LS? also u get the added benefit of already having contacts in the industry.

the 2 major reasons not to do it are: (1) because other people tell you to, or (2) because you don't know what else to do. if one or both of those are the reasons you have for doing it/contemplating it, do not do it.

This person is a major reason not to do law school.

[rivermaker]

This person is a major reason not to do law school.

lol

[jbagelboy]

If your family is paying, there really shouldn't be any worrying. The depression in law comes from being shackled to doing something you hate in order to pay off your debt or from not having a job to pay back your debt. Both sources of stress are alleviated by not having debt.

lol. 100% false. If you hate getting up every day to go to your meaningless comma-jockey job, you will hate your life regardless of your debt situation.

The idea that all the unhappiness in this profession stems from debt is just delusional.

I completely disagree wrt school, I would be quite happy in law school if someone else was footing the bill. Leaving my analyst job to go back to school and having all my free time would be a blessing in many ways if I wasn't burdening my future & liquidating my assets to pay for it. I didn't find the intrinsic elements of 1L to be all bad - most of it you can shake off - but the worst parts would have been a lot easier to handle without the compounding negative effect of the growing interest on my loans and general hopelessness combatting it. I had to sell my beautiful car I'd proudly spent so much time paying off (I know first world problem) and several possessions I cared about to pay for rent in the high COL city my law school is in.

I actually went to see the school counselor, not about my classes or peers or job pressure, but because I was having mental anxiety breakdowns over money which was affecting my relationship and actualizing the stress of law school. And I'm not even loaning close to sticker. I also noticed the uber wealthy students who didn't take out loans and didn't have to constrict their QoL to avoid added debt were generally happier students, dealt with the workload better, socialized more. Life is easier when you have money, period.

Can't speak to FT practice yet but I see from working a little already that it would be far less miserable without debt. The younger attorneys in my office who have family money take a different stride from the one's paying down six figures. It's surprisingly noticeable.

FWIW OP I had a relatively active and normal social life, except for the last 6 wks of the semester, with college friends and new law school friends, lived with and stayed with my SO, and did well academically as a 1L. It will be a strain but it's possible. Just don't let shit get to you.