Top Law Schools

Here's my situation. I was in a big law/transfer or bust mentality at a borderline T1/T2 in-state school. My grades came back, some good, some bad. One A, one A-, one B, and one C. 3.1 GPA, looking at just inside the top 50%. Needless to say, biglaw is pretty much out of the picture. I know I wouldn't be happy doing gov work and I know I would kill myself if I ended up bouncing back and forth from different temp doc review jobs.

I'm sitting 8k in the hole as of today as I had partially paid for my first semester. If I continue with the next semester I will be ~20k in debt at year's end. So big difference between stopping now and continuing one more semester. If I go all 3 years I'm looking at 75k of debt or so.

If I cut ties now, I'd go back home to my local university and begin summer 2013 and go into physical therapy in fall 2015. I feel like I should make the decision now as I don't have much commitment financially in law school.

I will say I do like law, but during today's class I was sitting in an unfocused daze. I'm not sure how motivated I really am to do this knowing how low my GPA is. I don't want to feel like a failure or a quitter though.

Considering biglaw would be a very uphill battle and is likely out of the picture and the next cushy job (gov) wouldn't interest you, unless you have a burning heart for some area of public interest legal work, I just don't see why you'd stay in school. I'm very sparing with encouraging people to drop out and this site has a well recognized overobssession with the biglaw-or-bust mentality, but given what you've described it sounds like your only reason to stay in law school is because you don't hate law (yet) and it's embarrassing to leave. For sure, it takes courage to drop out, but that's no reason to throw good money and time in after bad. Feel lucky you only sunk 8k into law school and go find something that actually makes you happy.

If you don't want to do doc review (biglaw) and you don't want government work, what do you want to do with the JD?

Doorkeeper wrote:If you don't want to do doc review (biglaw) and you don't want government work, what do you want to do with the JD?

By doc review I mean temp work

Also, if I did drop out, would I be able to work it out so that I could immediately begin working on prereqs for physical therapy at the same school's undergrad? It's currently add-drop for the whole university. If it's possible, might as well since I have a lease here.

Cut your losses and drop out now. You seem to have already reached this conclusion though.

maf70 wrote:Cut your losses and drop out now. You seem to have already reached this conclusion though.

I'm actually leaning towards staying... but its mostly out of fear.

Do you have softs? Ties? Potential to bring it up? Willingness to drag yourself through the fire with your resume mailing?

As much as the LSN advice is fatalistic, I would take a very good look at yourself, as well as the market you are in. If you enjoy the law, I don't think you should drop out PURELY because of one bad grade. Do you truly want to be a lawyer more than you want to be a physical therapist?

Id drop out but what would top third get if u are top ten percent

stuckinthemiddle wrote:Do you have softs? Ties? Potential to bring it up? Willingness to drag yourself through the fire with your resume mailing?

As much as the LSN advice is fatalistic, I would take a very good look at yourself, as well as the market you are in. If you enjoy the law, I don't think you should drop out PURELY because of one bad grade. Do you truly want to be a lawyer more than you want to be a physical therapist?

No good softs. Just missed hitting law review with my A- in LWR. I do have ties. I have a relative who is a partner at a NYC V30. They have a smaller office in the city I want to work in FL (so secondary legal market) but I'm not sure how much pull they'd actually have if I asked for help. I'd certainly be willing to mass mail, but I don't know how much it would help me find a decent firm job. I am in Florida so the legal market is completely saturated here.

You hardly sound dead in the water to me. I know it may not be as easy as if you were in the top 10%, but I'd examine how much I want to be a lawyer, and then go from there. Your situations is fixable, but you're going to have to want it enough. Still, I think that one semester shouldn't make or break your plans. You've adjusted now and were able to score some A's. I'm pretty sure that if you regroup and hit the books even harder, you'll do lightyears better.

On another note, have you tried to negotiate with the professor on that grade, or inquire about why it is so low. Did you feel like you bombed?

stuckinthemiddle wrote:You hardly sound dead in the water to me. I know it may not be as easy as if you were in the top 10%, but I'd examine how much I want to be a lawyer, and then go from there. Your situations is fixable, but you're going to have to want it enough. Still, I think that one semester shouldn't make or break your plans. You've adjusted now and were able to score some A's. I'm pretty sure that if you regroup and hit the books even harder, you'll do lightyears better.

On another note, have you tried to negotiate with the professor on that grade, or inquire about why it is so low. Did you feel like you bombed?

0L?

OP:

You had an uphill battle to begin with. The incline just got steeper. If biglaw is still the goal, it isn't looking good.

nouseforaname123 wrote:

stuckinthemiddle wrote:You hardly sound dead in the water to me. I know it may not be as easy as if you were in the top 10%, but I'd examine how much I want to be a lawyer, and then go from there. Your situations is fixable, but you're going to have to want it enough. Still, I think that one semester shouldn't make or break your plans. You've adjusted now and were able to score some A's. I'm pretty sure that if you regroup and hit the books even harder, you'll do lightyears better.

On another note, have you tried to negotiate with the professor on that grade, or inquire about why it is so low. Did you feel like you bombed?

0L?

OP:

You had an uphill battle to begin with. The incline just got steeper. If biglaw is still the goal, it isn't looking good.

Seriously. Stuckinthemiddle should not be giving advice as he or she clearly knows nothing about how law school and legal employment work.

It's actually not fixable. If you have a 3.1 now and are taking the same number of credits next semester, even if you got a 4.0 (which would be unlikely as you've only received 1 A before) you'd have around a 3.55. Okay, so maybe you can make top third but that's unlikely given your record and there's absolutely no reason to throw good money after bad.

Do not waste more time in law school because you're afraid of dropping out. If you think you'd like being a physical therapist, then go for it!

If you only want biglaw, drop out and enroll in the PT pre-reqs ASAP.

I have a cousin who makes solid money as a PT too. Frankly, if I could muster the science side of it all, I think PT is a field that is growing/has solid growth potential. You will make more as a PT than a JD.

I would say stay because your debt is so low. 75K is definitely manageable. At 8%, it will only grow about 7k per year. Under a 10 years program, the MOST you will have to pay per year will be 14.5K, and then the amount will get lower. Under a 25 year program, I guess the MOST you will have to pay will be 10K, and then amount will get lower.

Since however, you would not be happy with anything but biglaw, not only should you drop out, but you should also probably have never enrolled in the first place.

Just be aware with PT, the glass always looks greener on the other side.

Pokemon wrote:I would say stay because your debt is so low. 75K is definitely manageable. At 8%, it will only grow about 7k per year. Under a 10 years program, the MOST you will have to pay per year will be 14.5K, and then the amount will get lower. Under a 25 year program, I guess the MOST you will have to pay will be 10K, and then amount will get lower.

Since however, you would not be happy with anything but biglaw, not only should you drop out, but you should also probably have never enrolled in the first place.

Just be aware with PT, the glass always looks greener on the other side.

I agree. 75k is not a ton in comparison to other schools these days. I think it's worth at least another semester to see how your entire 1L year comes out. Since you've invested the time and energy, ride out the year. Even if you do decide to drop out later, at least you'll know how both semesters went and you'll have a better sample size to judge your employment prospects.

If you genuinely are really interested in PT, i think that's a solid option. If that's what you love then go for it. But sine your debt-load is so low, you can always stick with law school and go to physical therapy at a later point

If you are okay with hustling your ass off to work in a small firm then stay. If not then drop out.

BIGPT is burgeoning, or so i've heard.

Thanks for the opinions everyone. It's helped a lot. Any other opinions? I'm going into the career services office tomorrow afternoon and then making my final decision.

I think you should drop out, unless you would be happy at a small firm earning ~50k for several years. If you don't love this field enough to do that, you should find something else.

No shame in quitting while you are ahead.

I have a friend who dropped out after 1L year first semester because he was at a T30 and was only top quarter?. He seems somewhat happier but I think he had a SERIOUS case of the grass is greener syndrome and at time regrets his decision. I would do one more semester. What is another 7K and 5 more months of your young life to save yourself from a lifetime of what ifs?

You are going to let one grade determine your future? Why did you go to law school in the first place?

christ on a cracker, op! pokemon is ready and willing to spend your money!

fact is, you're almost assuredly not getting biglaw, which is the only career path that makes going 75k + 3 years' opportunity costs in the hole (likely much more with interest) a worthwhile thing.

drop out. go get a USEFUL bachelor's degree. heck, you can probably finish it in the same or less time as it would have taken to get the JD, and it will actually help you get a fulfilling job. the smart play is to drop out.

edited- grammar error.

ze2151 wrote:christ on a cracker, op! pokemon is ready and willing to spend your money!

fact is, you're almost assuredly not getting biglaw, which is the only career path that makes going 75k + 3 years' opportunity costs in the hole (likely much more with interest) a worthwhile thing.

drop out. go get a USEFUL bachelor's degree. heck, you can probably finish it in the same or less time as it would have taken to get the JD, and it will actually help you get a fulfilling job. the smart play is to drop out.

edited- grammar error.

I actually said he should drop out...