Should I do TFA? Forum

[bullman23]

I am 23 and got accepted into Teach For America and I have until tomorrow to accept the offer. I graduated last year from a school down south in May 2012 and live in the south. I planned on only taking a year off and not look for a job and only study for t test. But I did not study properly and ended up canceling my Dec 2012 lsat score. I, however, was volunteering in a tutoring b in my community to keep myself active and help many young people.

I then thought I should apply for TFA and got in and they are sending me to NYC. So my situation is this: this is my first professional job; I have only done volunteer work, so I think this would be valuable experience before I go to law school. I also can help young people,which I have been doing with my volunteer service. I also would be going to law school at 24 at the earliest since I canceled my Dec 2012 lsat, so I will be at least two years out of undergrad.

My only reservations are that it will be difficult to study for my LSAT while going to grad school and working full time. My other thought is that I will be 25 when I am done and will be 28 when I am done with law school. So should I not do TFA since my main plan is to go to law school and not be a teacher long term? Will TFA help me in the long run? I also will be moving away far away from my family; however, I did plan on moving for law school. I should also add that I am a black male who graduated with a 3.63 and was raised in a tough school in the south so I am familiar with the school I will be teaching.

[Bronck]

Only do TFA if you truly want to teach kids. I didn't do it, but based on what others have said [here], it's very draining.

It may be a decent soft for law school admissions, but it's not like it will really help you down the road.

[alwayssunnyinfl]

Since you made two threads, can't you do both?

[polareagle]

Please keep in mind that the experience in a tough school in the south is going to be very different from the experience you'll have in NY (and especially different if they put you down for SPED, which many NY corps members seem to get).
Quoting myself from another thread earlier this year:

As a current 2nd year corps member, I would say that you really need to want to teach (at least for two years) in order to have a positive TFA experience. Note, I did not say you need to be committed to ending educational inequality, though that helps too, you need to want to teach. It is very hard to figure out how you'll respond to teaching until you've done it, and it will be a huge psychic burden either way.

Put it this way, I know a not insignificant number of other corps members who've faced severe depression issues and dropped out. These were people who had never before failed at anything in life, some of whom had overcome significant other challenges. I can nearly guarantee you that joining TFA and dropping out will put you in a much worse position when applying for law school.

I also can't fathom studying for the LSAT during my commitment. Power to those of you who managed it, my first year I was at school from 7am to 9pm and bringing work home pretty much every day until March.

If you want to teach and help kids, there is no more positive experience than TFA, and it will have a great impact on the rest of your life, but if you are not 100% into it, you will end up spending two of the potentially most fun years of your life utterly miserable (not my experience--I've been happy overall--but not an uncommon experience either).

[shayd]

Please keep in mind that the experience in a tough school in the south is going to be very different from the experience you'll have in NY (and especially different if they put you down for SPED, which many NY corps members seem to get).
Quoting myself from another thread earlier this year:

Would you mind expanding on this? What do you mean by the experience you'll have in NY (esp. with SPED) as opposed to the experience you'd have in the South? I'm also facing a decision about TFA--in my case, whether or not I should do it or just work for a year and go to law school. I'm also slated to be a part of NYC 2013.

Thanks so much.

[Ti Malice]

I can nearly guarantee you that joining TFA and dropping out will put you in a much worse position when applying for law school.

I would tend to think so too, but one of my YLS classmates dropped out after one year. I guess dropping out is not the guaranteed disaster I had previously imagined. Dropping out mid-year, however, would likely be a very different story.

[throw-away-soon]

AmeriCorps is a joke.

[SFSpartan]

My friends have had differing experiences with TFA, which seem to be primarily based upon whether they are in a large Northern city or not.

That being said, many of them have said that TFA has led them to develop new skills which they think will be useful for LS. Based on that, I'd say do it. You should benefit from the diverse array of experiences TFA gives you, and law school will always be there.

[cinephile]

Finishing law school at 28 is no big deal.