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You obviously missed the memo on law school exams. That said, if you get it fixed and start making B's next semester, you can absolutely find a job in public interest/gov. You may have to apply to 500 positions, start out unpaid, and then get on after the bar at like 35/45k a year, but this is still an option. Maybe you can even focus on trial stuff and get hired at a DA/PDs office. If you start networking in the area now, who knows. The advantage you have (hah) is that most of your classmates probably didn't go to a T/14 to work at the PDs office. Many of them will realize during 3L that the PDs office would be nice, but if you have been interning there from 1L summer on then its your job to lose.

Basically it depends on what you want to do.

If you are really apathetic about law, you should absolutely drop out.

Telling us your GPA alone doesn't tell us anything. What's your rank?

I mean employment prospects aren't good but you know this. if you want to look at public interest you need to start tailoring your resume toward that as of yesterday. 1L summer your going to need an internship no quesitons. You should be looking toward volunteering, CLE's basically anything that you can throw on your resume to show your down with the cause. You really need to start trying to meet someone. Assuming your T14 is in a major city CLE's could be a good place to start.

I'm only a 1L so a 2L would be better to chime in on whether right now OP should concentrate on grades or stacking that resume. I'm inclined to think the latter. If being a lawyer is something you really want you might be able to get something where grades won't matter as much. Best of luck.

O and you have to project positivity. Just life advice staying positive always helps IMO.

Stevoman wrote:Telling us your GPA alone doesn't tell us anything. What's your rank?

I have no idea yet. My GPA is below median so my rank is probably pretty low as well. What kind of information would the rank tell that GPA wouldn't?

You could just try to get better grades this semester and go to your school's OCI to see what happens. If you don't get anything out of that, then consider dropping.

CattyPake wrote:

Stevoman wrote:Telling us your GPA alone doesn't tell us anything. What's your rank?

I have no idea yet. My GPA is below median so my rank is probably pretty low as well. What kind of information would the rank tell that GPA wouldn't?

CattyPake the dude/dude-lady goes to a T-14. They at least curve to a 3.3. My school (non-T-14) curves to a 3.3 and I've never heard of anyone having a 2.566. Bottom quarter is like 3.1 and down.

The rank is either last or second to last.

CattyPake wrote:Hey guys,
So got my first semester grades back and basically I'm wondering if my grades lock me out of any kind of meaningful legal employment. I'm straight through with a liberal arts degree, don't have any special connections in the legal field or anything.

I know that big law jobs won't happen but is there any way that public interest/government organizations would look past or hire me in spite of my grades? Obviously if I stayed in law school I would go over my tests and try and do better next semester but right now I'm feeling really bad and just wondering if there's any point in staying in law school at all.
(I don't know what I would do if I dropped out; money is a factor but my parents are helping pay for school- I just don't want to stay around solely for the purpose of paying tuition and rounding out the bottom of the class).

I went to Boalt. I know people with straight P's with decent jobs. There are other avenues to succeeding other than grades. If you can extern, impress the fuck out of the people you work with, and network, you can succeed in PI or at small to medium firms. If you suck at networking and have a shitty work product, drop out.

BullShitWithBravado wrote:You could just try to get better grades this semester and go to your school's OCI to see what happens. If you don't get anything out of that, then consider dropping.

Are you going to pay 30-40k to go to school next semester (living, tuition, opportunity..). You would have to make a 4.0 and then you would still be below median. I don't think you are going to go from a 2.5 to a 4.0. More realistically you are going to get between a 3.0-3.4. You will still be at the bottom of the class next semester.

Thus, it is PI/Gov or drop out.

Without knowing what your school is, I couldn't say, but at my school Cs are discretionary. For us, a 3.0 puts you in the bottom third and a 2.5 is probably at the very bottom of the class (but not even, as most professors don't give Cs, a 2.67 is probably the very very bottom of the class).

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it's bad.

How much debt would you have if you finished?

I mean, if this is what you consider your highest level of performance... you might want to re-consider. Or maybe it was just that the wide-breadth of 1L classes didn't do it for you, in which case 2L and 3L's specificity will bump your GPA and employers will care about that.

Honestly, I would s/w your career services people. Someone has to round out the bottom of the class, so see what these people did last year employment wise.

rad lulz wrote:How much debt would you have if you finished?

Not crippling debt. I have a small scholarship, parents are contributing, my SO is working and willing to cover food, apt., things like that, and my school has a loan repayment program.

I'd stay, at least for another semester.

ManOfTheMinute wrote:I mean, if this is what you consider your highest level of performance... you might want to re-consider. Or maybe it was just that the wide-breadth of 1L classes didn't do it for you, in which case 2L and 3L's specificity will bump your GPA and employers will care about that.

Honestly, I would s/w your career services people. Someone has to round out the bottom of the class, so see what these people did last year employment wise.

Sorry, what is s/w? See/write?

Sorry, what is s/w? See/write?

I assume it's "speak with," because that's the best advice here.

You will get far better advice from your school's career services and your academic dean than you will from this community.

Assess how much debt you'd have if you graduated, your desire to do small law/gov/PI and network/hustle your way into it, your other options outside of law school, what drew you to law school in the first place, etc. Then talk to your SO and your family about it, and see what the school's admin has to say.

CattyPake wrote:

rad lulz wrote:How much debt would you have if you finished?

Not crippling debt. I have a small scholarship, parents are contributing, my SO is working and willing to cover food, apt., things like that, and my school has a loan repayment program.

Given this, I agree with rad lulz. Stay another semester and see what happens. It'll obviously take some hard work, but hopefully you can make. Big increase in your GPA.

I would drop out, if for no other reason than to not waste your parents money. A 2.5 at Michigan won't do anyone any favors.

CattyPake wrote:Keep the honest feedback coming everyone. It's hard to get a sense of how bad my situation is since I don't want to air all this out to my classmates.

More information: The mean GPA of my school is lower than a 3. 3 and my lowest grade was a C+.

Isn't a C+ a 2.33? Did you get more than one? I don't see how else you end up at 2.5.

At the very least speak with your professors to see where you went wrong. At that point you'll have a better idea of whether or not you'll be able to do better next semester.

I am sorry to say this, but with this GPA, you should only stay if you could not imagine doing anything else in your life other than law. It really does not seem you are clicking the right way with law classes, and since you are at a T-14, you must have also gotten some discretionary grades. That is a problem: it is not just the professor being they are all good, but someone must get the crappy grade, it is the professor thinking that you are doing considerably below par work.

Things might work out for you, I am sure there are people at top places and they started with crappy grades, the person who is the head of a department I dream of working it is from a TTTTT (this school is bad so it needs the fifth one), but they are exceptions. Most likely you will not be in a good position.
Financially law school will not make sense for you, so if you decide to stay, make sure you love it.

Btw, what was your undergrad major?

I would stick out another semester and try to do PI over the summer. Study your ass off. After exams are over, do the law school job hunt and such, but also apply to non-legal jobs, intending to start immediately. If you get one, drop out and take it.

In the alternative, if you don't get a law job at OCI, drop out.

I am a 3L and I had horrible grades 1L year. I think I had 2.8. After I figured out how to take a law school exam my grades improved. I am graduating with 3.4. Don't give up. Grades are not everything. Start networking and try to get as much practical experience as possible.