Would you recommend going to law school to undergrads? Forum

[Flash]

I am walking into my undergrad right now to go talk to some students about law school. God help me.

How was it?

[Emma.]

Not even at a T5 with a full ride.

[NotMyRealName09]

I would say go ahead, but it is simply a gamble and you need to have luck on your side. I got into law school by the skin of my teeth (I screwed around in undergrad far too much and had the grades to prove it), and even then possibly only because I was an alum of the University. You'd look at my entrance stats and guess I'd be below median, but I killed it in the end.

My point is, though, is that I entered law school with the notion I would be content if I could hit median.

Don't enter law school if you are unable to be content with being median. If not, do something else.

[romothesavior]

I was a judge for an undergrad moot court competition back home this weekend. It was intensely frustrating at times. Because I'm a law student, a lot of the undergrads would come up and ask me about law school and tell me they were thinking about going. I tried to be blunt and tell them that the market was bad, their school choices weren't great, they should retake, etc., but most of them were just like, "Oh no way I can retake, no way I can take a year off. I have to go now."

One guy from my undergrad (seemed like a really nice, sharp guy) has like a 158/3.85 and was deciding between some schools up in Chicago (the usual T2 suspects) and waiting on schools like UIUC and WUSTL. Had to straight up tell him he had virtually no shot at WUSTL, and told him it was a numbers game. Urged him to retake because he has a great GPA and his schools weren't good options, but for some reason "he just can't."

I also heard a lot of people ripping on JMLS (understandably so) but then talking about going to terrible T2 and T3 schools with small scholarships. Heard a couple of people say things like, "I really like DePaul but I know Kent is a lot better ranked" and a whole host of other 0L nonsense. The worst is hearing your friends and people at your alma mater saying these things. Somebody told this girl that it's great she has so many options to choose from (basically the who's who of overpriced Midwestern T2s and T3s), and this girl replied with something like, "My parents are so proud and excited for me!" Ummm, yeah... that's the problem. So frustrating.

One of the judge panels I was on had a practicing attorney from Cooley on it. Really nice guy, seemed well-intentioned. Was talking to a few of the student attorneys and was asking about their cycles. Basically he encouraged them to consider Cooley and a few other expensive, horrible schools. I wanted to chime in and tell these kids that Cooley is arguably the worst school in the country. If one of those poor students goes there because of his advice, he should be disbarred.

I needed to vent about this somewhere, and this thread seemed like a good place to do it. TLS sometimes makes me forget how many naive, misinformed law students head off to law school every year. The overwhelming majority of law students have made horrible investments. I feel bad for them because so much of it is a result of bad advice and misplaced encouragement by their friends and family. I know I was in this boat before I found TLS, so it definitely makes me glad this place exists.

[beachbum]

I was a judge for an undergrad moot court competition back home this weekend. It was intensely frustrating at times. Because I'm a law student, a lot of the undergrads would come up and ask me about law school and tell me they were thinking about going. I tried to be blunt and tell them that the market was bad, their school choices weren't great, they should retake, etc., but most of them were just like, "Oh no way I can retake, no way I can take a year off. I have to go now."

One guy from my undergrad (seemed like a really nice, sharp guy) has like a 158/3.85 and was deciding between some schools up in Chicago (the usual T2 suspects) and waiting on schools like UIUC and WUSTL. Had to straight up tell him he had virtually no shot at WUSTL, and told him it was a numbers game. Urged him to retake because he has a great GPA and his schools weren't good options, but for some reason "he just can't."

I also heard a lot of people ripping on JMLS (understandably so) but then talking about going to terrible T2 and T3 schools with small scholarships. Heard a couple of people say things like, "I really like DePaul but I know Kent is a lot better ranked" and a whole host of other 0L nonsense. The worst is hearing your friends and people at your alma mater saying these things. Somebody told this girl that it's great she has so many options to choose from (basically the who's who of overpriced Midwestern T2s and T3s), and this girl replied with something like, "My parents are so proud and excited for me!" Ummm, yeah... that's the problem. So frustrating.

One of the judge panels I was on had a practicing attorney from Cooley on it. Really nice guy, seemed well-intentioned. Was talking to a few of the student attorneys and was asking about their cycles. Basically he encouraged them to consider Cooley and a few other expensive, horrible schools. I wanted to chime in and tell these kids that Cooley is arguably the worst school in the country. If one of those poor students goes there because of his advice, he should be disbarred.

I needed to vent about this somewhere, and this thread seemed like a good place to do it. TLS sometimes makes me forget how many naive, misinformed law students head off to law school every year. The overwhelming majority of law students have made horrible investments.

Yeah dude, I've been having a lot of these convos recently. Very frustrating. And these kids won't realize their horrible mistakes until it's too late. So, yeah, that sucks.

Seems to me that waiting a year/retaking the LSAT is much, much easier than scrounging for a job from some bottomfeeder school in a crowded market. But, hey, these kids all know that their school is great, and that they're going to do well and have their pick of jobs.

I was just talking to an 0L the other day who said that, if she could do it over again, she would have taken the LSAT earlier so that she would've been able to retake and still get her apps in on time. She had only taken the LSAT once, and hadn't even made a seat deposit yet.