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The school I'm going to in Fall just sent me an email asking if I'd like to pair up with an upperclass mentor. It looks like a good idea, and I'm planning on sending an affirmative response back (with answers to the questions they sent me). I'm curious about how having a mentor has helped other law school students. Is it a good idea to be paired with an upperclass mentor? How does having a mentor improve one's experience upon entering law school?

It might be good, it might be terrible. The biggest problem is taking advice from someone who might suck at law school.

We had a similar program where upper class students each took a group of six or eight 1Ls under their wing to provide advice. My mentor gave me an outline that was really helpful in K's.

jkay wrote:It might be good, it might be terrible. The biggest problem is taking advice from someone who might suck at law school.

This.

A huge percentage of law students are know-it-alls. Even if they got destroyed on tests, they're still happy to tell everyone else exactly how to approach that particular class, etc. I saw a few of my friends underperform badly by following poor 2L and 3L advice (almost always involving shortcuts or laziness).

However, I am sure the right mentor could be very helpful. Mine was a sub-median chode who didn't get a SA for 2L summer, so I ignored his BS and never met with him again.

It depends on the mentor, of course. Take all advice with a grain of salt. I found my mentor most helpful about figuring out the quality of professors and I got a great outline for one class. If you're moving to a new town, it could help you figure out fun things to do. Also doesn't hurt to have a connection to the other classes. Could help expand your social network. But yeah, there's no requirement, at my school at least, that the mentors need to be good at law school.

Folks have already noted the obvious pitfall.

But I'd say do it, primarily just to expand your circle of acquaintances. Your mentor's likely to know a number of other 2L's and 3L's and may introduce you to them. That could come in handy for advice on classes (only to be trusted if they actually did well consistently), information about organizations and things you can get involved in @ your school, and any other possibly positive thing that could happen from simply knowing more people.

While at my school we don't have what it seems like you have with your mentor program, I am a relatively outgoing person and met a number of 2L's and 3L's as a 1L, and I can say with 100% certainty that I'm at an advantage with respect to classes, knowledge about prospective employers, and jobs period insofar as I know folks who can put in a word about my reliability and communication skills with their family members who are partners at a number of law firms in my area. Lord knows what other positive things will result for me, but I really see no downside to taking advantage of the opportunity to meet people, and I see a huge potential upside.

BeenDidThat wrote:Folks have already noted the obvious pitfall.

But I'd say do it, primarily just to expand your circle of acquaintances. Your mentor's likely to know a number of other 2L's and 3L's and may introduce you to them. That could come in handy for advice on classes (only to be trusted if they actually did well consistently), information about organizations and things you can get involved in @ your school, and any other possibly positive thing that could happen from simply knowing more people.

While at my school we don't have what it seems like you have with your mentor program, I am a relatively outgoing person and met a number of 2L's and 3L's as a 1L, and I can say with 100% certainty that I'm at an advantage with respect to classes, knowledge about prospective employers, and jobs period insofar as I know folks who can put in a word about my reliability and communication skills with their family members who are partners at a number of law firms in my area. Lord knows what other positive things will result for me, but I really see no downside to taking advantage of the opportunity to meet people, and I see a huge potential upside.

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