Seeking advices Forum

[gf4939]

I'm a law student from a top Asian university. I'm in my junior year now.
LSAT:174 GPA:3.73/4
Our grading system is somehow different from US's. I don't have detailed ranking information for my GPA, but I think it's top 5% among 170 students.
I exchanged in NYU law school (took courses with JD/LLM/MBA students); my GPA there is 4.09 (three A, one A+). Hope this experience will help.
I will possibly be an intern in some law firm this summer.
The exchange experience convinced me that JD is something I want to pursue. But the possible expense is huge for my family, so I'm still wondering whether I should apply.
I'd like to hear your comments before making the decision.

Any comments welcomed. Thank you!

[BlueDiamond]

you already made this same exact thread

[gf4939]

deleted

[gf4939]

you already made this same exact thread

Thank you for reminding
I'm wondering whether JD is a viable program for me, given the overall economy and my own situation.
If this is improper, I would delete it.
Thank you for the reply.

[3ThrowAway99]

I'm a law student from a top Asian university. I'm in my junior year now.
LSAT:174 GPA:3.73/4
Our grading system is somehow different from US's. I don't have detailed ranking information for my GPA, but I think it's top 5% among 170 students.
I exchanged in NYU law school (took courses with JD/LLM/MBA students); my GPA there is 4.09 (three A, one A+). Hope this experience will help.
I will possibly be an intern in some law firm this summer.
The exchange experience convinced me that JD is something I want to pursue. But the possible expense is huge for my family, so I'm still wondering whether I should apply.
I'd like to hear your comments before making the decision.

Any comments welcomed. Thank you!

First of all, I'm a bit confused.. You are looking to apply to law school now, but you are "a law student" and you "exchanged in NYU law school." But you also say you are in your "junior year now" and reference your LSAT score, which is really only applicable for admissions if you are not yet a law student. I think the most reasonable way to interpret this is that you are an undergrad student at an Asian university that happens to have a law major (unlike U.S. undergrad schools, although some do offer a 'pre-law' focus), and you are currently looking to apply to law school for the first time. This interpretation may be obvious, but it does seem like there is at least some ambiguity in what you said, so I wanted to indicate my confusion in order to be corrected if my understanding is wrong.

With your numbers I think you have a shot at any law school in the U.S. A 174 is an extremely strong score, and your GPA is also quite good (though unfortunately it sounds like it may be slightly deflated when compared to most U.S. schools). The GPA is a little low for Yale, Harvard, Stanford, but I still think you have a shot at any of those. Especially if you could bring up your GPA just a little bit over the remainder of your undergrad time then I think you will have an excellent shot at any U.S. law school. How LSAC converts your GPA is another matter- hopefully that will not work against you.

I think knowing more about your career goals could help people to give advice. Do you want to live and work in the U.S.? In Asia? I think everyone really needs to research their options before going to law school, but especially in your case I would research the markets and types of positions you are interested in carefully. I think there is no doubt that the quality of schools you can get into will be 'worth it' in a general sense, but whether it is worth it to you probably depends on what you want to do with your life and what your other options are. In terms of the expense part, I think probably at the very least T6 schools are worth it at sticker (I generally think that is true of T14 as well, but there may be more debate about that); in any case, I think there isn't debate that Y/H/S at sticker is a very worthwhile investment if you can get any of those (though I believe it still should be the right decision for personal reasons as well). If you are more debt averse you could likely take a large scholarship at a lower-ranked school (probably including a lower-T14 school) which could also serve you well in a number of ways. I would do research though, because I think there are certain markets in Asia that are extremely selective about what U.S. law schools people get hired from.

[gf4939]

First of all, I'm a bit confused.. You are looking to apply to law school now, but you are "a law student" and you "exchanged in NYU law school." But you also say you are in your "junior year now" and reference your LSAT score, which is really only applicable for admissions if you are not yet a law student. I think the most reasonable way to interpret this is that you are an undergrad student at an Asian university that happens to have a law major (unlike U.S. undergrad schools, although some do offer a 'pre-law' focus), and you are currently looking to apply to law school for the first time. This interpretation may be obvious, but it does seem like there is at least some ambiguity in what you said, so I wanted to indicate my confusion in order to be corrected if my understanding is wrong.

With your numbers I think you have a shot at any law school in the U.S. A 174 is an extremely strong score, and your GPA is also quite good (though unfortunately it sounds like it may be slightly deflated when compared to most U.S. schools). The GPA is a little low for Yale, Harvard, Stanford, but I still think you have a shot at any of those. Especially if you could bring up your GPA just a little bit over the remainder of your undergrad time then I think you will have an excellent shot at any U.S. law school. How LSAC converts your GPA is another matter- hopefully that will not work against you.

I think knowing more about your career goals could help people to give advice. Do you want to live and work in the U.S.? In Asia? I think everyone really needs to research their options before going to law school, but especially in your case I would research the markets and types of positions you are interested in carefully. I think there is no doubt that the quality of schools you can get into will be 'worth it' in a general sense, but whether it is worth it to you probably depends on what you want to do with your life and what your other options are. In terms of the expense part, I think probably at the very least T6 schools are worth it at sticker (I generally think that is true of T14 as well, but there may be more debate about that); in any case, I think there isn't debate that Y/H/S at sticker is a very worthwhile investment if you can get any of those (though I believe it still should be the right decision for personal reasons as well). If you are more debt averse you could likely take a large scholarship at a lower-ranked school (probably including a lower-T14 school) which could also serve you well in a number of ways. I would do research though, because I think there are certain markets in Asia that are extremely selective about what U.S. law schools people get hired from.

Thank you for your reply.
I'm an undergraduate law student (so called LLB. This degree is common in many countries).
I studied in NYU law school because my law school and NYU law have exchange programs. As you said, law schools in US are graduate school, therefore I took several graduate courses even I was still an undergraduate student.

I want to practice law in my country. But my prospects will be limited if I only get the LLB education. I think a JD degree will be very helpful in my career path (as a matter of fact, many partners of large law firms here are JD graduates).
I don't want to add burden to my family. Maybe the ideal path is trying to puesue the JD degree after 3 or 4 years of work (when I have accumulated some money to support myself). But I'm not sure whether I can get the same LSAT score then. (I took the LSAT in Dec, 2009. So it will be invalid in three years.) So I'm wondering whether I can get into a good program in which I can get loans(I don't have a co-signer in the US).