Please help- bad grades!!! Forum

[ashebetz]

Hello- Please help me ASAP when you see this.
I am at a school ranked in the 40's. I just got 2 grades back, 2 C's. I know I could have studied better, but I'm still pretty shocked that I'm, so far, at the bottom of my class. I feel pretty confident about my other exams, but I'm freaked out. I basically need to get 3 A's or A- to cancel these out.

I don't want to be a big law lawyer. I in fact do not want to be an attorney, I want to work high up in government or something to that end. I enjoy law school and feel I'll most likely get much better grades my next semester.

PLLLEEAASSEE- Any advice? I desperately need some help here.

[thesealocust]

If at first you don't succeed, quit and don't admit to trying.

Law school is for (a) people who want to be lawyers and (b) people who do well enough at the artificial competition to never have a chance to realize they don't actually want to be lawyers before it's too late. Since you fall into neither category, it is time to cut your losses instead of throwing good money after bad.

[Anonymous Loser]

Why do you feel that you will likely get better grades next semester?

[Nicholas Nickleby]

Drop out.

This is the advice you're going to get on here if you are getting C's and "don't want to be an attorney."

[ResolutePear]

Somebody has to be bottom 25%.

I'd reevaluate my life.

[Kilpatrick]

Wait to see the rest of your grades, but seriously consider dropping out. Somebody should've told you before you started that you shouldn't go to law school if you don't want to be a lawyer.

[romothesavior]

How do you plan to use your law degree? Unless you have a tangible reason (like, "I want to be a lawyer," which you don't, or "I need a law degree for X job," which it doesn't appear you do), you should drop out. No reason to waste money and two and a half more years of your life in the law school rat race if you don't have any use for a JD.

[ashebetz]

I think i'm just afraid to admit failure.... what else should I do with my life? I honestly can't think of anything?

I guess here's the ultimate question:

1) Should I stay, tough it out, work on my GPA as hard as I can and graduate without being in the top of the class?
or
2) drop out, have no life plan, and admit failure?

I'm 23. I have no job to go back too. And I'm scared.

[TommyK]

I detect flame, because this post sounds too sincere and vulnerable to be real.

Do what everybody else does out of college - hustle and get a job. Network your ass off. Find somebody who needs a hard working, smart, undeveloped talent and trick them into thinking that's you.

[BenJ]

I think i'm just afraid to admit failure.... what else should I do with my life? I honestly can't think of anything?

I guess here's the ultimate question:

1) Should I stay, tough it out, work on my GPA as hard as I can and graduate without being in the top of the class?
or
2) drop out, have no life plan, and admit failure?

I'm 23. I have no job to go back too. And I'm scared.

If you want to work in government, consider a Master of Public Policy or some equivalent graduate degree. They're very different in some respects from a law degree, but they also prepare you for government work (as much as a law degree, anyway; the value of a JD over an MPP for government is the ability to be a lawyer).

[romothesavior]

What is your undergrad degree in? Any family connections that can help with a job? I can totally understand your feeling of frustration and fear. Things are really hard right now all over the place. My SO and many of my friend are currently undermployed or unemployed, even with good grades and useful degrees.

Does it suck to drop out and explain it to friends/family? Absolutely. Does it suck to have to go look for a job right now? Absolutely. But better to struggle through that than struggle through another 2 years in a field you have no interest in. A law degree's main function is to allow you to get a job practicing law (and ITE, it isn't even very good at that). If you have no interest in practicing law, you should get out of law school.

What you really ought to do right now is clear your mind, do some seriously soul searching as to what it is you think you can/want/ought to do, and do a pro-con analysis of staying in law school. Law school may have been a bad decision in the first place, and if it was a bad decision to come in the first place, then you should get out now rather than compound the situation by wasting more time and money on the degree.

Good luck OP.

[ashebetz]

My undergrad degree is policy sci. I agree with all of you, I most likely shouldn't be doing this. I think I knew from day one but just had the hardest time actually accepting it. Its mainly now the fear of admitting failure to everyone I know, having no way to get a job, etc. Plus I moved to a brand new city in which I had to get a rather expensive apartment whose lease ends in August and I have ZERO money of my own.

I'm just scared is all. And this isn't a forum for whiny grown ups. I apologize.

[BrownBears09]

I detect flame, because this post sounds too sincere and vulnerable to be real.

Do what everybody else does out of college - hustle and get a job. Network your ass off. Find somebody who needs a hard working, smart, undeveloped talent and trick them into thinking that's you.

[romothesavior]

My undergrad degree is policy sci. I agree with all of you, I most likely shouldn't be doing this. I think I knew from day one but just had the hardest time actually accepting it. Its mainly now the fear of admitting failure to everyone I know, having no way to get a job, etc. Plus I moved to a brand new city in which I had to get a rather expensive apartment whose lease ends in August and I have ZERO money of my own.

I'm just scared is all. And this isn't a forum for whiny grown ups. I apologize.

You aren't a failure, and don't tell yourself for a minute that you are. If embarrassment is an issue for you (which it is totally understandable if it is), think about it this way: it is better to throw in the towel now and simply say, "Law wasn't for me" than to try to explain three years down the road why you are unemployed. You don't even have to tell people about your grades. Just tell people that you realized quickly that law wasn't for you, and people will respect you for it. There is no shame in leaving law school, and many people should be making this decision but are too scared to do it.

I think you are showing a lot of maturity by admitting now that you made a mistake, and I think your best way to rectify it is to drop out, get a job to pay your rent/bills/food (even if it is just serving or something), and start hitting the ground running looking for a new opportunity.

Good luck to you OP.

[TommyK]

My undergrad degree is policy sci. I agree with all of you, I most likely shouldn't be doing this. I think I knew from day one but just had the hardest time actually accepting it. Its mainly now the fear of admitting failure to everyone I know, having no way to get a job, etc. Plus I moved to a brand new city in which I had to get a rather expensive apartment whose lease ends in August and I have ZERO money of my own.

I'm just scared is all. And this isn't a forum for whiny grown ups. I apologize.

You aren't a failure, and don't tell yourself for a minute that you are. If embarrassment is an issue for you (which it is totally understandable if it is), think about it this way: it is better to throw in the towel now and simply say, "Law wasn't for me" than to try to explain three years down the road why you are unemployed. You don't even have to tell people about your grades. Just tell people that you realized quickly that law wasn't for you, and people will respect you for it. There is no shame in leaving law school, and many people should be making this decision but are too scared to do it.

I think you are showing a lot of maturity by admitting now that you made a mistake, and I think your best way to rectify it is to drop out, get a job to pay your rent/bills/food (even if it is just serving or something), and start hitting the ground running looking for a new opportunity.

Good luck to you OP.

Compassionate response, Romo. I agree. It's easy to explain why you dropped out in a way that makes you look okay. You went to law school because you liked the challenge and after a semester of studying and meeting professionals, you realized it would just end with a job that would make you work 70 hours a week, doing boring discovery and document review, which would be exhausting and mind-numbing. You wanted to transition into a line of work that would be challenging and engaging.