Top Law Schools

Last week I got back my final few grades for Spring of 1L year and I fell short of my GPA requirement to keep my $12,000 a year scholarship. Unless I can successfully beg the administration to give me a semester of probation, I am out of $24,000 for the remaining two years. I go to a state school ranked in the 50s. With my new GPA, my rank will likely be dead middle of my class of 250+. Most employers who come to OCI at my law school won't even interview you if you're not top 20%.

The way I look at it, if I stay in school without my scholarship, I'm gonna rack up close to $70,000 in debt and might not get hired for up to half a year after I graduate. My only likely job prospects will be a state gov't position where I will make $35k starting, or a smaller private firm where I will be worked just as brutal as the Big Law firms but for half the salary.

What would you do if you drop out?

voice of reason wrote:What would you do if you drop out?

I don't know, I have a business degree from a good state school, but no work experience, so I probably wouldn't be able to get a job anywhere besides a bank or some shit like that.

My other options are to get paralegal certification or go to Officer Candidate School (2nd lieutenant if you have a four year degree, lol, but I wonder if I could make the cut physically)

niko1 wrote:Last week I got back my final few grades for Spring of 1L year and I fell short of my GPA requirement to keep my $12,000 a year scholarship. Unless I can successfully beg the administration to give me a semester of probation, I am out of $24,000 for the remaining two years. I go to a state school ranked in the 50s. With my new GPA, my rank will likely be dead middle of my class of 250+. Most employers who come to OCI at my law school won't even interview you if you're not top 20%.

The way I look at it, if I stay in school without my scholarship, I'm gonna rack up close to $70,000 in debt and might not get hired for up to half a year after I graduate. My only likely job prospects will be a state gov't position where I will make $35k starting, or a smaller private firm where I will be worked just as brutal as the Big Law firms but for half the salary.

Dropout, join the circus, and call yourself "Drama Queen".

SwollenMonkey wrote:

niko1 wrote:Last week I got back my final few grades for Spring of 1L year and I fell short of my GPA requirement to keep my $12,000 a year scholarship. Unless I can successfully beg the administration to give me a semester of probation, I am out of $24,000 for the remaining two years. I go to a state school ranked in the 50s. With my new GPA, my rank will likely be dead middle of my class of 250+. Most employers who come to OCI at my law school won't even interview you if you're not top 20%.

The way I look at it, if I stay in school without my scholarship, I'm gonna rack up close to $70,000 in debt and might not get hired for up to half a year after I graduate. My only likely job prospects will be a state gov't position where I will make $35k starting, or a smaller private firm where I will be worked just as brutal as the Big Law firms but for half the salary.

Dropout, join the circus, and call yourself "Drama Queen".

Look I have serious question. That scholarship was why I could even go to law school at all. My parents have no money, I'm the first person in my family to get any kind of degree beyond community college

So if you're not going to give any constructive comments, please go **** off and die

niko1 wrote:

voice of reason wrote:What would you do if you drop out?

I don't know, I have a business degree from a good state school, but no work experience, so I probably wouldn't be able to get a job anywhere besides a bank or some shit like that.

My other options are to get paralegal certification or go to Officer Candidate School (2nd lieutenant if you have a four year degree, lol, but I wonder if I could make the cut physically)

1.) drop out, use CoL money to join a gym
2.) join the army as an officer
3.) direct other people to blow shit up for a living

niko1 wrote:

voice of reason wrote:What would you do if you drop out?

I don't know, I have a business degree from a good state school, but no work experience, so I probably wouldn't be able to get a job anywhere besides a bank or some shit like that.

My other options are to get paralegal certification or go to Officer Candidate School (2nd lieutenant if you have a four year degree, lol, but I wonder if I could make the cut physically)

If you're willing to do this, would you be interested at all in JAG? Granted JAG is fairly difficult to get into, but it seems based off my research of it that their selectivity has less to do with prestige of school and top 10% grades and more to do with committment to service, physical fitness, desire for litigation, things of that nature.

How much debt are you in at this point? Honestly if I were you I would ride it out, a lot would probably greatly disagree with this advice, but you're already a third of the way done. Even though career prospects won't be great right out of the gate, I think your long term career will be more promising if you stay in law school. This is assuming that law is something you are fairly passionate about in the first place.

niko1 wrote:So if you're not going to give any constructive comments, please go **** off and die

Lol one of the greatest replies I've seen on here, but I would def beg them to give you a probation period. If they deny it I would prob drop out if I thought I was graduating with 70k debt and only landing a job for 35k. I know a couple people with LA degrees that have just graduated and have landed jobs starting at 35k no problem.

Keep in mind I'm not in law school and my advice essentially means nothing.

niko1 wrote:

SwollenMonkey wrote:

niko1 wrote:Last week I got back my final few grades for Spring of 1L year and I fell short of my GPA requirement to keep my $12,000 a year scholarship. Unless I can successfully beg the administration to give me a semester of probation, I am out of $24,000 for the remaining two years. I go to a state school ranked in the 50s. With my new GPA, my rank will likely be dead middle of my class of 250+. Most employers who come to OCI at my law school won't even interview you if you're not top 20%.

The way I look at it, if I stay in school without my scholarship, I'm gonna rack up close to $70,000 in debt and might not get hired for up to half a year after I graduate. My only likely job prospects will be a state gov't position where I will make $35k starting, or a smaller private firm where I will be worked just as brutal as the Big Law firms but for half the salary.

Dropout, join the circus, and call yourself "Drama Queen".

Look I have serious question. That scholarship was why I could even go to law school at all. My parents have no money, I'm the first person in my family to get any kind of degree beyond community college

So if you're not going to give any constructive comments, please go **** off and die

I see what you did here.

Not to brag, but I'm a URM.

Secondly, you want people to feel your pain and this is the wrong place to do it. Get a dog or go see a therapist, so that your problems can be sorted out for you.

My advice:
Dropout and become a nomad living off the fat-of-the-land. Find a cave and just make sure not a single soul knows about said cave. If someone knows about said cave, realize that you find yourself in a potential property dispute, and you may be reminded about the law school you left behind.

I don't recommend the circus because that would be a waste of your precious talent, and you wouldn't want to disappoint your family by becoming a drama queen that picks up elephant turds for a living.

Rowinguy2009 wrote:

niko1 wrote:

voice of reason wrote:What would you do if you drop out?

I don't know, I have a business degree from a good state school, but no work experience, so I probably wouldn't be able to get a job anywhere besides a bank or some shit like that.

My other options are to get paralegal certification or go to Officer Candidate School (2nd lieutenant if you have a four year degree, lol, but I wonder if I could make the cut physically)

If you're willing to do this, would you be interested at all in JAG? Granted JAG is fairly difficult to get into, but it seems based off my research of it that their selectivity has less to do with prestige of school and top 10% grades and more to do with committment to service, physical fitness, desire for litigation, things of that nature.

How much debt are you in at this point? Honestly if I were you I would ride it out, a lot would probably greatly disagree with this advice, but you're already a third of the way done. Even though career prospects won't be great right out of the gate, I think your long term career will be more promising if you stay in law school. This is assuming that law is something you are fairly passionate about in the first place.

Well I went to the Marine JAG info session at my school and they only want people in the top 20-25%, maybe less if you have law enforcement, criminal justice, or military experience. I have none.

I like the law, I find it very interesting. I volunteer at the local legal aid clinic and get to work with lawyers on a weekly basis, and it is definitely something I would like to do. However, I don't know if I'm cut out for it in the long run. I was always a good student in undergrad, but I just can't get my head around law school and time-pressured essay exams, and the curves are killing me.

Frankly, I don't know how the half of the class below me is handling it, or why they are still even here. Sometimes I think that the bottom 10% of the graduating class must be trust fund babies or have fathers with their own firms, otherwise I have no idea why they stayed in school with a <70 GPA

I hate to be a turd in the punchbowl, but you may want to make sure OCS is an option before you factor your decision based on it if you haven't already looked into it. Granted, this is only one person's account, but I was talking to a guy in Naval ROTC at a social gathering one night who said that the military is really backed up with incoming officers right now. He told me that his brother had enlisted, then finished college afterwards and wanted to return as an officer, but they wouldn't let him since they were backed up even though he was a prior enlist. His age was supposedly an issue (I guess he would have been like 28) and there obviously could have been more to it. I just thought it was worth mentioning.

SwollenMonkey wrote: Not to brag, but I'm a URM.

I don't get it, but does this mean all URMs are the first in their family to get a degree and their parents have no money???

SwollenMonkey wrote:

niko1 wrote:

SwollenMonkey wrote:

niko1 wrote:Last week I got back my final few grades for Spring of 1L year and I fell short of my GPA requirement to keep my $12,000 a year scholarship. Unless I can successfully beg the administration to give me a semester of probation, I am out of $24,000 for the remaining two years. I go to a state school ranked in the 50s. With my new GPA, my rank will likely be dead middle of my class of 250+. Most employers who come to OCI at my law school won't even interview you if you're not top 20%.

The way I look at it, if I stay in school without my scholarship, I'm gonna rack up close to $70,000 in debt and might not get hired for up to half a year after I graduate. My only likely job prospects will be a state gov't position where I will make $35k starting, or a smaller private firm where I will be worked just as brutal as the Big Law firms but for half the salary.

Dropout, join the circus, and call yourself "Drama Queen".

Look I have serious question. That scholarship was why I could even go to law school at all. My parents have no money, I'm the first person in my family to get any kind of degree beyond community college

So if you're not going to give any constructive comments, please go **** off and die

I see what you did here.

Not to brag, but I'm a URM.

Secondly, you want people to feel your pain and this is the wrong place to do it. Get a dog or go see a therapist, so that your problems can be sorted out for you.

My advice:
Dropout and become a nomad living off the fat-of-the-land. Find a cave and just make sure not a single soul knows about said cave. If someone knows about said cave, realize that you find yourself in a potential property dispute, and you may be reminded about the law school you left behind.

I don't recommend the circus because that would be a waste of your precious talent, and you wouldn't want to disappoint your family by becoming a drama queen that picks up elephant turds for a living.

You think you are funny don't you. I'm not asking for sympathy - it's my own fault that I didn't keep it, no one else. I am asking for advice from people who know more than I do, to better put things into perspective.

Would you be eligible for the scholarship if next year you were able to pull up your grades.

At the end of the day you have to ask yourself how much you want to be an attorney?? If you REALLY want to be an attorney I would start networking like crazy a la Network Bible.

If not so much then quit.

Well I went to the Marine JAG info session at my school and they only want people in the top 20-25%, maybe less if you have law enforcement, criminal justice, or military experience. I have none.

I like the law, I find it very interesting. I volunteer at the local legal aid clinic and get to work with lawyers on a weekly basis, and it is definitely something I would like to do. However, I don't know if I'm cut out for it in the long run. I was always a good student in undergrad, but I just can't get my head around law school and time-pressured essay exams, and the curves are killing me.

Frankly, I don't know how the half of the class below me is handling it, or why they are still even here. Sometimes I think that the bottom 10% of the graduating class must be trust fund babies or have fathers with their own firms, otherwise I have no idea why they stayed in school with a <70 GPA

IMHO, Deciding the bolded for sure should be the deciding factor. If you think you would enjoy a legal career for the bulk of your life, then go ahead and go through with it. 70K is a lot of debt, but with IBR it isn't absolutely unmanageable. If you finally decide that you're not made for law, then cut your losses now.

.

.

niko1 wrote:You think you are funny don't you. I'm not asking for sympathy - it's my own fault that I didn't keep it, no one else. I am asking for advice from people who know more than I do, to better put things into perspective.

And what's more, I earned my scholarship through merit, involvement with my undergrad college, and a history of volunteer work. You got yours because some dean suffering from white guilt threw money at you.

In before the race war

Mike12188 wrote:

SwollenMonkey wrote: Not to brag, but I'm a URM.

I don't get it, but does this mean all URMs are the first in their family to get a degree and their parents have no money???

Where did you get the "all"?

--ImageRemoved--

SwollenMonkey wrote:

niko1 wrote:

SwollenMonkey wrote:

niko1 wrote:Last week I got back my final few grades for Spring of 1L year and I fell short of my GPA requirement to keep my $12,000 a year scholarship. Unless I can successfully beg the administration to give me a semester of probation, I am out of $24,000 for the remaining two years. I go to a state school ranked in the 50s. With my new GPA, my rank will likely be dead middle of my class of 250+. Most employers who come to OCI at my law school won't even interview you if you're not top 20%.

The way I look at it, if I stay in school without my scholarship, I'm gonna rack up close to $70,000 in debt and might not get hired for up to half a year after I graduate. My only likely job prospects will be a state gov't position where I will make $35k starting, or a smaller private firm where I will be worked just as brutal as the Big Law firms but for half the salary.

Dropout, join the circus, and call yourself "Drama Queen".

Look I have serious question. That scholarship was why I could even go to law school at all. My parents have no money, I'm the first person in my family to get any kind of degree beyond community college

So if you're not going to give any constructive comments, please go **** off and die

I see what you did here.

Not to brag, but I'm a URM.

Secondly, you want people to feel your pain and this is the wrong place to do it. Get a dog or go see a therapist, so that your problems can be sorted out for you.

My advice:
Dropout and become a nomad living off the fat-of-the-land. Find a cave and just make sure not a single soul knows about said cave. If someone knows about said cave, realize that you find yourself in a potential property dispute, and you may be reminded about the law school you left behind.

I don't recommend the circus because that would be a waste of your precious talent, and you wouldn't want to disappoint your family by becoming a drama queen that picks up elephant turds for a living.

I'm curious...what in his statement made you assume he was a URM?

niko1 wrote:

SwollenMonkey wrote:

niko1 wrote:

niko1 wrote:Last week I got back my final few grades for Spring of 1L year and I fell short of my GPA requirement to keep my $12,000 a year scholarship. Unless I can successfully beg the administration to give me a semester of probation, I am out of $24,000 for the remaining two years. I go to a state school ranked in the 50s. With my new GPA, my rank will likely be dead middle of my class of 250+. Most employers who come to OCI at my law school won't even interview you if you're not top 20%.

The way I look at it, if I stay in school without my scholarship, I'm gonna rack up close to $70,000 in debt and might not get hired for up to half a year after I graduate. My only likely job prospects will be a state gov't position where I will make $35k starting, or a smaller private firm where I will be worked just as brutal as the Big Law firms but for half the salary.

Look I have serious question. That scholarship was why I could even go to law school at all. My parents have no money, I'm the first person in my family to get any kind of degree beyond community college

So if you're not going to give any constructive comments, please go **** off and die

I see what you did here.

Not to brag, but I'm a URM.

Secondly, you want people to feel your pain and this is the wrong place to do it. Get a dog or go see a therapist, so that your problems can be sorted out for you.

My advice:
Dropout and become a nomad living off the fat-of-the-land. Find a cave and just make sure not a single soul knows about said cave. If someone knows about said cave, realize that you find yourself in a potential property dispute, and you may be reminded about the law school you left behind.

I don't recommend the circus because that would be a waste of your precious talent, and you wouldn't want to disappoint your family by becoming a drama queen that picks up elephant turds for a living.

You think you are funny don't you. I'm not asking for sympathy - it's my own fault that I didn't keep it, no one else. I am asking for advice from people who know more than I do, to better put things into perspective.

And what's more, I earned my scholarship through merit, involvement with my undergrad college, and a history of volunteer work. You got yours because some dean suffering from white guilt threw money at you.

Nice to see you ascribe color to the dean that throws money. Typical first-generation college grad thinking soft factors are relevant.

I got my money from white guilt and my numbers (URM). LOL, beeyotch!

SwollenMonkey wrote:

Mike12188 wrote:

SwollenMonkey wrote: Not to brag, but I'm a URM.

I don't get it, but does this mean all URMs are the first in their family to get a degree and their parents have no money???

Where did you get the "all"?

He said "I'm the first to get my degree in my family, they don't have money"

You said "I dont mean to brag but Im URM"

If "not all" URMs families' don't have money and "not all" of them are the first to get their degree than you probably should have said "I am the first in my family to get my degree, they don't have money, AND I don't mean to brag but Im URM"

trialjunky wrote:

SwollenMonkey wrote:

niko1 wrote:

SwollenMonkey wrote: Dropout, join the circus, and call yourself "Drama Queen".

Look I have serious question. That scholarship was why I could even go to law school at all. My parents have no money, I'm the first person in my family to get any kind of degree beyond community college

So if you're not going to give any constructive comments, please go **** off and die

I see what you did here.

Not to brag, but I'm a URM.

Secondly, you want people to feel your pain and this is the wrong place to do it. Get a dog or go see a therapist, so that your problems can be sorted out for you.

My advice:
Dropout and become a nomad living off the fat-of-the-land. Find a cave and just make sure not a single soul knows about said cave. If someone knows about said cave, realize that you find yourself in a potential property dispute, and you may be reminded about the law school you left behind.

I don't recommend the circus because that would be a waste of your precious talent, and you wouldn't want to disappoint your family by becoming a drama queen that picks up elephant turds for a living.

I'm curious...what in his statement made you assume he was a URM?

I didn't assume he was a URM. You did.

Finish Law School. Look at joining the service, I would advise against the Marines. Once you finish OCS and MOS school, look at moving over to the JAG Corps. The army has student loan repayment programs that will significantly reduce your debt load, in addition to doing a Public service job post graduate would qualify you for most LRAP programs. As far as the physical requirements in the military are concerned, its about will. They don't just throw you to the wolves even in the SEALs, they work you up to whatever the standard is. You just have to decide how bad you want it.

Oh yeah and to Stringers point. Fed Service is including the Military is a lot harder to get into with the recession. They are drawing down now, so junior officers in all branches are being offered early out packages. Good Luck. Even if you are accepted they would have to schedule you for training, you could wait a year or more to get your shot at OCS.