Top Law Schools

I'm curious how often it happens and how to patch up the resume.

This continues my line of "oh my god what am I doing with my life?" threads.

Look up attrition rates.

CordeliusX wrote:I'm curious how often it happens and how to patch up the resume.

This continues my line of "oh my god what am I doing with my life?" threads.

If you have to ask how many drop out, it's you.

Kidding, it depends.

hiromoto45 wrote:Look up attrition rates.

+1....not enough I guess. Have you seen the market for lawyers out there?

<--Dropping out of a HYS after 1L. The life of a lawyer simply is not for me. So, it does happen.

totalidiot wrote:<--Dropping out of a HYS after 1L. The life of a lawyer simply is not for me. So, it does happen.

HYS student not smart enough to realize this BEFORE law school? even with the internet?

pleasetryagain wrote:

totalidiot wrote:<--Dropping out of a HYS after 1L. The life of a lawyer simply is not for me. So, it does happen.

HYS student not smart enough to realize this BEFORE law school? even with the internet?

It's really hard to get an idea for what things will be like before trying. You can do all of the research in the world and still not know how your body and mind will respond until you give it a shot. The best you can do is an educated guess. There's no shame in being wrong about something like that.

OP: The nlj charts include a bar on academic attrition (Google nlj chart if you don't know what I'm talking about). While very low at most top schools and fairly low at others, keep in mind schools can and do artificially deflate that number by granting indefinite leaves of absence and such. There still aren't a lot of bodies, but it definitely happens every year at every school to at least a handful of people.

disco_barred wrote:

pleasetryagain wrote:

totalidiot wrote:<--Dropping out of a HYS after 1L. The life of a lawyer simply is not for me. So, it does happen.

HYS student not smart enough to realize this BEFORE law school? even with the internet?

It's really hard to get an idea for what things will be like before trying. You can do all of the research in the world and still not know how your body and mind will respond until you give it a shot. The best you can do is an educated guess. There's no shame in being wrong about something like that.

I was mostly being facetious. I fear I will discover the same thing. Im the kind of person that will stick it out no matter how much I hate it though. especially after approx -$40k goes on the books.

pleasetryagain wrote:I was mostly being facetious. I fear I will discover the same thing. Im the kind of person that will stick it out no matter how much I hate it though. especially after approx -$40k goes on the books.

Part of the fun is that 1L is designed to hurt. What comes beyond may or may not, and has pluses and minuses, but 1L is a stress test. Cruelty and suffering dressed up as education.

*mutter mutter mutter*

disco_barred wrote:

pleasetryagain wrote:

totalidiot wrote:<--Dropping out of a HYS after 1L. The life of a lawyer simply is not for me. So, it does happen.

HYS student not smart enough to realize this BEFORE law school? even with the internet?

It's really hard to get an idea for what things will be like before trying. You can do all of the research in the world and still not know how your body and mind will respond until you give it a shot. The best you can do is an educated guess. There's no shame in being wrong about something like that.

I know many lawyers who hated law school but enjoy practice. totalidiot may have had out-of-class experience that taught him/her about the life of a lawyer or other perfectly good reasons for dropping out. But 1L year is not "trying" the life of a lawyer.

Aeroplane wrote:

disco_barred wrote:

pleasetryagain wrote:

totalidiot wrote:<--Dropping out of a HYS after 1L. The life of a lawyer simply is not for me. So, it does happen.

HYS student not smart enough to realize this BEFORE law school? even with the internet?

It's really hard to get an idea for what things will be like before trying. You can do all of the research in the world and still not know how your body and mind will respond until you give it a shot. The best you can do is an educated guess. There's no shame in being wrong about something like that.

I know many lawyers who hated law school but enjoy practice. totalidiot may have had out-of-class experience that taught him/her about the life of a lawyer or other perfectly good reasons for dropping out. But 1L year is not "trying" the life of a lawyer.

TiTCR

Anyone know - if you drop out mid-year, do you have to repay ALL of the year's loan amount?

CordeliusX wrote:Anyone know - if you drop out mid-year, do you have to repay ALL of the year's loan amount?

There are very specific rules with respect to tuition payment, deposit deadlines, and refundability. On top of that there is tuition insurance that will cover certain possibilities.

For the most part, once classes are well under way you're screwed for the semester, and the deposit is usually do fairly well before classes start. Sometimes even before grades from the prior semester are released (a common source of dark humor I assure you)

CordeliusX wrote:Anyone know - if you drop out mid-year, do you have to repay ALL of the year's loan amount?

You have to pay back all that was given to you of course, and I believe that they hand out the full years loan up front, so yes

underachiever wrote:

CordeliusX wrote:Anyone know - if you drop out mid-year, do you have to repay ALL of the year's loan amount?

You have to pay back all that was given to you of course, and I believe that they hand out the full years loan up front, so yes

some schools have two disbursement dates.

Totalidiot: do you have any backup plans? I mean, this could be a decision that you think about everyday for the rest of your life. HYS is only a once in a lifetime shot. Is it homesickness still?

.

Humanities leaves you pretty much two options: (1) settle into life as a cashier at your local grocery store/bank branch/Subway; or (2) get a PhD and join a faculty somewhere and help churn out more humanities majors so the cycle can continue

TobiasFunke wrote:Seconding that question. I'm a humanities major... if I don't do law school, there's NO backup plan. What are we even qualified to do?

Define 'humanities'. If it is generic, then yeah, you're kind of screwed.

With the exception of a few areas, it seems like you're pretty much stuck churning out academics and shooting people if you don't get tenure.

TobiasFunke wrote:Seconding that question. I'm a humanities major... if I don't do law school, there's NO backup plan. What are we even qualified to do?

http://www.mcsweeneys.net/2010/4/22lacher.html

TobiasFunke wrote:Seconding that question. I'm a humanities major... if I don't do law school, there's NO backup plan. What are we even qualified to do?

you can always blue yourself.

Your post made me curious and so I did a cursory check of the attrition rate for 1Ls at some benchmark schools:

T14
Yale: 0 (...naturally.)
Harvard: 4 (0.7%)
Stanford: 1 (0.6%)
Columbia: 1 (0.3%)
NYU: 5 (1.1%)
U Chicago: 1 (.5%)
Penn: 0
Berkeley: 6 (2.2%)
Michicgan: 0
UVA: 0
Duke: 1 (.5%)
Northwestern: 0
Cornell: 14 (7.1%) WOW!
Georgetown: 3 (0.5%)

Tier 1
UCLA: 15 (4.6%)
BU: 14 (5.1%)
Notre Dame: 9 (5.1%)

Tier 2
Florida State: 8 (4.2%)
Georgia State: 23 (10.85)
Brooklyn: 36 (7.3%)

Unranked
Cooley: 576 (31.8%)

pany1985 wrote:Humanities leaves you pretty much two options: (1) settle into life as a cashier at your local grocery store/bank branch/Subway; or (2) get a PhD and join a faculty somewhere and help churn out more humanities majors so the cycle can continue

This is a stretch. Admittedly Humanities majors are having a difficult time ITE, but there are plenty of office jobs that accept humanities majors. And the lack of jobs currently is NOT a good reason to go to Law school! Not to say you were implying that, just an important point.

PoorOrpheus wrote:Your post made me curious and so I did a cursory check of the attrition rate for 1Ls at some benchmark schools:

T14
Yale: 0 (...naturally.)
Harvard: 4 (0.7%)
Stanford: 1 (0.6%)
Columbia: 1 (0.3%)
NYU: 5 (1.1%)
U Chicago: 1 (.5%)
Penn: 0
Berkeley: 6 (2.2%)
Michicgan: 0
UVA: 0
Duke: 1 (.5%)
Northwestern: 0
Cornell: 14 (7.1%) WOW!
Georgetown: 3 (0.5%)

Tier 1
UCLA: 15 (4.6%)
BU: 14 (5.1%)
Notre Dame: 9 (5.1%)

Tier 2
Florida State: 8 (4.2%)
Georgia State: 23 (10.85)
Brooklyn: 36 (7.3%)

Unranked
Cooley: 576 (31.8%)

Brooklyn's 7.3% was probably all of the people who lost their full schollies. Cooley cuts 1/3 of their class automatically. I don't have a point, just wanted to mention those two things.

Attrition rates do not equal drop out rate. I would imagine that most of the Cornell people ended up transferring higher up in the T-14. No stats to back this up, just a hunch.