What % of students at t-14 are crappy students (like me)? Forum

[rinkrat19]

OP, did you come from a rich family? No concerns about loans and jobs?

No, just good luck with scholarship money and savings from previous jobs means my debt load won't be terrible no matter what. I am concerned about jobs, but know that in the worst case I can go back to my old career, which was viable, just sub-optimal.

What happened to the motivation that got you into a T14?

I've never had a highly motivated type A personality. I did fine in college, but law school is harder; LSAT was perfectly suited to me, so it probably overstated my law school ability.

What about law school seems harder or not as suited to you? Workload or the content of stuff you study? Always good to have a back-up career I imagine. Less potential psychologicla stress of a sort of all one's eggs in a single basket.

Answering for myself: Tons of reading, and classes that you can't just tune out in and wake up every once in a while to copy the formula off the board.

[jwinaz]

Speaking as another crappy student by natural inclination...either overcome it or you will have issues. There aren't many of us and it does hurt.

For reference, I floated through UG and ended up with an engineering degree and latin honors. What worked fine back then does not work here.

Going for patent law, rink?

Don't know yet. Not opposed to it, but not set on it.

Yeah, I'm sometimes surprised by statements of people who say that got through UG so easily. It was a struggle for me personally, but I'd say mostly due to personal issues.

But with an engineering degree, that's impressive you got through easily. Had two close friends who really struggled hard. Both almost either dropped out or changed majors.

[piccolittle]

I'm a "crappy" student and I'm far from the bottom of the class. I firmly believe that most of what you learn in lectures is useless, especially in 1L. I napped and skipped classes all semester, but studied efficiently close to exams by reading and memorizing old outlines, using others' flow charts, and reading hornbooks. Most of my friends were burnt out by then, and only knew the same amount everyone else did, which they all learned by going to class.

[jwinaz]

I'm a "crappy" student and I'm far from the bottom of the class. I firmly believe that most of what you learn in lectures is useless, especially in 1L. I napped and skipped classes all semester, but studied efficiently close to exams by reading and memorizing old outlines, using others' flow charts, and reading hornbooks. Most of my friends were burnt out by then, and only knew the same amount everyone else did, which they all learned by going to class.

Here's a different question. For those who do end up not doing well (bottom of class), what do you think, find, or know they struggle with?

Do they just not have a mind for the material? Any particulars like being unable to think abstractly..or being unable to make logical deductions very well, etc.?

[anon sequitur]

What about law school seems harder or not as suited to you? Workload or the content of stuff you study?

Content is fine, law is not rocket science. It's just the workload and the curve. To get a median grade, you have to do better than someone else; and there aren't that many people who you can easily out-perform, although there do seem to be some.

Congrats to piccolittle, getting good grades feels great; getting good grades without studying like crazy must feel awesome.

As for the students at the bottom 10% or so, I'm not sure. I only know for sure of one person in this situation, and he/she had some non-law school problems that prevented full effort. I'm guessing anxiety, depression, etc. probably account for some people in that area.

[jwinaz]

What do you hope to do with your law degree? Are you still open to and interestd in biglaw?