Plagiarism and feeling hopeless Forum

[IAmLawSchool]

I get that you want to do good to attend "top law" and by the way you feel "hopeless" I can assume that when you plagiarized you did so to do better. But if you would've went without it, it would be better than it is now right? Oh well, It is what it is, the way I see it is you will do anything to get into law school, although don't confuse that with not caring about integrity. It is like cheating on a test, your teacher will say its not fair to your classmates, then you can say "Well, my classmates don't want to go to law school, therefore, I need a 4.0, and I will get it " But plagiarism and being cited for it, I can't say how it would affect your admissions. As long as you show how you learned from it and have time to improve on it the rest of your undegrad. If you absolutely feel you have to, file an addendum with every app. And"law school isnt worth it unless you get into T14 thing" is bogus. I mean yes a T14 degree is nice. What would you say for a situation of a person that for whatever reason doesn't get into T14 but wants to become a lawyer(btw, that person is not me)Or a doctor that still wants to practice whatever he wants to practice that doesn't get into T14 Med? Law school is always worth it. No matter what. Your family just wants you to attend a T14 school, and that's great. But it is always worth it. Don't feel hopeless, again, it is what it is, just try to have the highest GPA. Yes, Integrity is huge, but it is what it is.

This is generally bad advice. Law school is not always worth it - it can cost a lot of money, and it can be very difficult to find legal work, particularly high paying legal work, upon graduation from a lot of schools. Even if you "really, really" want to be a lawyer, you should not just risk everything and go to top-law-schools.com is not just about your work; you may also "really, really" want to be debt free, make over 100k, have a family, or own a home. Some of these options might not be available if you go to a lower tier law school, and option #2 will be very unlikely indeed. I am not saying it might not be worth it at times to go to a school outside of the t14, but you need to weigh all the factors when making that decision, not just whether you want to be a lawyer or not.

Med school and law school are not at all analogous. Regardless of what med school you go to, if you graduate, you are pretty much guaranteed to get a job in the medical field. The same cannot be said about law school - outside of the top 30 or so schools, you have, at best, a 70% chance of finding a job as a lawyer, and a less than 10% chance of finding a job where you make over 100k a year.

If you are going to spew uninformed BS (which the rest of your posts made particularly clear that you are), you should probably not be offering advice.

So people who haven't deciding on law school but want to play with it like some matchs a kid finds and expecting me not to baby every single one is BS? Funny, I am assuming they have already considered the factors of attending law school. I know what it takes to make how much money it would cost to go to law school, and I insist anyone have an idea of other things you can potentially do with that much money before taking out loans for what you guys say about law school, right?. I'm not saying at the end of UG(or later) it is worth it, just because you want to go to law school. I mean in a case like mine, where I graduated high school at 17 while since 15 I have been helping my father run a construction company. For five years since graduation, I have helped run a construction company, a collection's agency, and a music production/mixing/mastering/recording/consulting LLC. I finally got myself back into school only because I have decided on law school. So, right now I have a 4.0, and three years to prep for the LSAT. I want to be a lawyer, and if I don't get into T14, I will go to another law school, and it sure as hell will be worth it (for me, atleast). And also, yes I may take jobs from the market, but who says I want a job handed to me? Perhaps I already have one? So before you say someone is spewing uninformed BS, it depends what you think of as informed. Knowing the risks of law school is informed? (lol!) ... Like any other time you take out loans, you should weigh out if it is a good investment. Good investments are based on specific scenarios, respectively. I agree'd with the other half of your post, but then you just bashing my positivity without knowing me is pure quackery. Some of you say the same thing everytime, it reminds me of the bald guy on Shark Tank that tells every single potential investor the same negative shit. I get they all need to understand, and there's new people that come to TLS post then don't come again, so of course you give them the advice you have, and I understand. That doesn't mean I gave anyone bad advice, you don't know how he will take it, he can read what I write on top of what you all write, then make a decision. You haven't screened OP and know for a fact he will be set up for failure.

[IAmLawSchool]

If he can explain the situation and how much damage it will potentially do,

do you really think that they are unaware? Academic dishonesty is the absolute worst thing that you can do on college, save for a sexual misconduct. (Being a card-carrying member of ISIS is more forgiving by academics.)

I see, (what you and mouse said) I guess I didn't think of it this way, the professors sure know the damage it will cause. But people that deserve it for actually being dishonest, can't he talk to someone and show that he wasn't trying to be dishonest? Didn't he just forget a cite? Or is that code for him blatantly plagiarizing something to the fullest extent in order to get a better score, and made it seem like one cite for one thing?

[A. Nony Mouse]

I don't think any of us knows exactly what the OP actually did/how extensive it was, but it sounds like they're taking responsibility for it and that side of things has been resolved by now. I can tell you that "forgetting to put quotation marks" could mean a lot of things on the dishonesty scale.

Also, I think a lot of people who post here about going to law school aren't situated like you.

[Big Dog]

But people that deserve it for actually being dishonest, can't he talk to someone and show that he wasn't trying to be dishonest? Didn't he just forget a cite? Or is that code for him blatantly plagiarizing something to the fullest extent in order to get a better score, and made it seem like one cite for one thing?

But see, that's the point; it doesn't matter. Grade school teachers have heard the excuse, "I forgot." (It's right up there with, "the dog ate my homework.") A 20-something should have learned that fact of life sometime ago.

Now, if the OP said that he was in his/her final proofing and cite checking for a paper that had to be submitted by midnight, when his/her mom called with a diagnosis of 4 stage metastatic breast cancer, the Prof might have some sympathy.

[star fox]

Turned out ok for Joe Biden

[03152016]

didn't turn out so good for john walsh

[Ajren Robben]

IALS has a point with the whole if you want to be a lawyer, law school is always worth it. It is a noble attitude. Unfortunately it is also one that TTT schools exploit to scam their students out of hundreds of thousands.

It should be more like if you want to be a lawyer, you will do proper research and preparation to make law school worth it. Otherwise, you don't really want to be a lawyer.

[Big Dog]

Turned out ok for Joe Biden

Actually, it torpedoed his earlier run for the Presidency (and will come up again, should he decide to get back in).

[totesTheGoat]

It should be more like if you want to be a lawyer, you will do proper research and preparation to make law school worth it. Otherwise, you don't really want to be a lawyer.