Top Law Schools

I will make this simple: I am an Accounting/Finance major and I do not like it. After I graduate I would prefer to stay away from it. If my interest was on a scale of 1-10, both Accounting and Finance are a 1. Thus I have begun looking at graduate school and I have some interest in law school.

I have a stellar LSAC GPA at about 3.85 and I can probably get it to a 3.9 by the time I graduate. I have all of this summer to study for an October LSAT.

I expect your response to be "stfu go do accounting its 10x better than LS." It's a bit more complicated, I go to school in Detroit and jobs are not a dime a dozen, even accounting. Furthermore, my career services department here is derelict and the last time I had an interview, my interviewing was shocked to hear my university had a business school. My brother also graduated with ACC/FIN with a similar GPA and left for Europe after a few months of job searching in Michigan.

I know it's an unpopular opinion, is it a mortal sin to go to law school just because I don't like my current status? After studying numbers of accepted/rejected applicants I feel as if I can be competitive for the top 5 law schools and a good scholarship from a few of the other T14's. Having such high potential, would it be a good idea to display more interest in LS? Offer me some opinions and help me establish a life direction, if you'd like.

Why not attempt to see how you really like finance/accounting by trying to get as good as a job of possible for one year work experience? Study your ass off and kill the LSAT, see how well you do, and how much you hate your job. Then come back in October with an LSAT score and you'll know if it's right for you or not.

Good luck with the job/studying!

Also, I applied for school because fuck being a journalist FWIW....

Do you want to be a lawyer?

That you *could* get into a T14 isn't really a good reason to go to law school.

Do more research and decide yourself if it will be worth it. Also, unless you are an URM, you will still want a 170+ for those top 5 law schools. If you are serious about this situation its time to start studying for the LSAT and aim for that 170+.

WisemanAEKDB wrote:Why not attempt to see how you really like finance/accounting by trying to get as good as a job of possible for one year work experience? Study your ass off and kill the LSAT, see how well you do, and how much you hate your job. Then come back in October with an LSAT score and you'll know if it's right for you or not.

Good luck with the job/studying!

Also, I applied for school because fuck being a journalist FWIW....

Thank you for the response. That is my current plan atm. I want to give this LSAT a shot, see if I can score above 170. But what if I get offered a decent job, and at the same time I get offered a spot at a top law school?

florida1949 wrote:Do you want to be a lawyer?

That you *could* get into a T14 isn't really a good reason to go to law school.

I have some interest in being a lawyer. Some interest is much more than the interest I have in being an Accountant.

albo23 wrote: But what if I get offered a decent job, and at the same time I get offered a spot at a top law school?
.

Then you have the luxury of a great choice!

albo23 wrote:I will make this simple: I am an Accounting/Finance major and I do not like it. After I graduate I would prefer to stay away from it. If my interest was on a scale of 1-10, both Accounting and Finance are a 1. Thus I have begun looking at graduate school and I have some interest in law school.

I have a stellar LSAC GPA at about 3.85 and I can probably get it to a 3.9 by the time I graduate. I have all of this summer to study for an October LSAT.

I expect your response to be "stfu go do accounting its 10x better than LS." It's a bit more complicated, I go to school in Detroit and jobs are not a dime a dozen, even accounting. Furthermore, my career services department here is derelict and the last time I had an interview, my interviewing was shocked to hear my university had a business school. My brother also graduated with ACC/FIN with a similar GPA and left for Europe after a few months of job searching in Michigan.

I know it's an unpopular opinion, is it a mortal sin to go to law school just because I don't like my current status? After studying numbers of accepted/rejected applicants I feel as if I can be competitive for the top 5 law schools and a good scholarship from a few of the other T14's. Having such high potential, would it be a good idea to display more interest in LS? Offer me some opinions and help me establish a life direction, if you'd like.

Did you intern with one of the Big 4s or a major investment bank your junior year? If not, it will be pretty hard to try to get a job at one of those places as a graduate.

silenttimer wrote: Did you intern with one of the Big 4s or a major investment bank your junior year? If not, it will be pretty hard to try to get a job at one of those places as a graduate.

Knowing what school he's at, I doubt it. I honestly didn't know they had a b-school either until reading some of his posts before, and I'm also from Detroit.

Just as an anecdote, there is an attorney at the law firm I work at who started off his career as an accountant, wanted to make more money and/or was bored, and went to law school. It doesn't help that he went to one of the worst regional schools here, but he found a job and now hates the work.

All that to say: take some time to think about the work you would be interested in doing as an attorney and also think about the grunt work that all of us will be subjected to for what could be a good long time. If that future still looks better to you than where you're currently heading, law school may be a better choice. You don't need a reason that everyone on TLS endorses, so long as you're not being naive about the whole thing.

Use your degrees to get a job. If after a year or two you don't like it then maybe think about Law School. Maybe you won't hate it as much as you think.

silenttimer wrote:Did you intern with one of the Big 4s or a major investment bank your junior year? If not, it will be pretty hard to try to get a job at one of those places as a graduate.

My brother got into Big 4 Accounting without having interned. Top of the class grades from a top 5 Accounting Program so I don't know how much that applies to everyone though.

I was in a somewhat similar situation as you. Same stats and major, probably same kind of school and area, and same reasons for law school. Currently a 2L at Penn. Shoot me a PM if you'd like and I'd be happy to give you some input.

If you don't know why you want law school, don't go.

if you don't like your major, switch majors

albo23 wrote:I will make this simple: I am an Accounting/Finance major and I do not like it. After I graduate I would prefer to stay away from it. If my interest was on a scale of 1-10, both Accounting and Finance are a 1. Thus I have begun looking at graduate school and I have some interest in law school.

I have a stellar LSAC GPA at about 3.85 and I can probably get it to a 3.9 by the time I graduate. I have all of this summer to study for an October LSAT.

I expect your response to be "stfu go do accounting its 10x better than LS." It's a bit more complicated, I go to school in Detroit and jobs are not a dime a dozen, even accounting. Furthermore, my career services department here is derelict and the last time I had an interview, my interviewing was shocked to hear my university had a business school. My brother also graduated with ACC/FIN with a similar GPA and left for Europe after a few months of job searching in Michigan.

I know it's an unpopular opinion, is it a mortal sin to go to law school just because I don't like my current status? After studying numbers of accepted/rejected applicants I feel as if I can be competitive for the top 5 law schools and a good scholarship from a few of the other T14's. Having such high potential, would it be a good idea to display more interest in LS? Offer me some opinions and help me establish a life direction, if you'd like.

I'd try and do some shadowing of what actual accountants do. It has two advantages: first of all, you determine whether you actually want to do accounting or not, and you get some contacts.

I know where you're coming from: I'm not a really big fan of law school or academia in general. It's too pendantic (I don't give a crud about dissents. Tell me how the damn rule of law works.) However, I enjoy actually going out and volunteering with real lawyer work. For me personally, it seems a lot funner to actually apply the law and hang out with adults than it is to go to a glorified middle school. I'm weird, though.

Shadow an accountant for a day or two, and shadow a lawyer for a day or two. See which job you like more, then decide your path.

Also, if you want a valid reason to go to law school, here is one: I want to practice law for a living. Money is not the endgame. Getting a job that fits you is, and compensation is a (very) nice bonus.