*Deep breath* Any lawyers here?

[Awesomeness!!]

That's good to hear. If you already know about some of those resources and are keeping up with them you'll be better prepared to deal with all of the things that will come between now and when you matriculate.

I only applied to 6. Chicago, UVA, UT, Duke, UNC, Wake

The way I did it is not a way I would recommend for anybody else. For me, if I couldn't get into a top school, I didn't want to go. Wake and UNC were as low on the rankings as I wanted to go. I think Wake was ~30 and Carolina ~20 and everywhere else was a T14, though I admit I don't know where they are on the lists now. The other barrier for me was lack of fee waivers and as you know (or will soon enough) those applications get expensive, especially if you have to pay for them yourself. The LSAT itself is like $160 (and I took it twice) I think you can send scores to 4 schools for free but then it's $25 a pop for each school after that and then $50-100 application fee for the school itself. Most people will tell you (and you should listen to them) that you should apply to a healthy range. Have a few schools maybe 2-4 that are "reach" schools...schools that you're at least close to the median LSAT and GPA, a few that you're really competitive at and then another couple that are safety schools--places you know you'll get into. I was working part-time at a grocery store at that time and paying for all of it myself and I didn't have the funds to follow that strategy. It could easily cost a grand to apply to 8-10 schools.

There are all sorts of other strategies about which school you should use as your early decision school--you can only apply to one because it's binding if they accept you.

Once you register with the LSAC, get your transcripts submitted and your first LSAT scores are released, you'll be drowning in recruiting material sent to you via post and e-mail by law schools. Some of them will include application fee waivers. Take advantage of those. I don't want you to go into detail about your financial situation on here, but the other thing to consider is applying for need-based waivers which you can do through LSAC if you qualify. You can also contact law schools directly and flat out ask for one. Results with this method vary but it's worked for people.

Again, if you want me to send you any of the study material I have, just shoot me a PM and I'll get it worked out for you. But it seems like you're doing a lot of the right things.

Expect PMs in the near future. Thank you and god bless :)

[Awesomeness!!]

Just out of curiosity, what made you want to be a lawyer?

I've always had a weird obsession with the judical system, and mainly the criminal side of that. I've been a political junkie since I was 5. I would wake up on Sundays and watch Meet the Press (we didn't have cable). Its just something I never actually thought I could do until a few months ago. Now I realize ifs a relatively easy process.

[Awesomeness!!]

Take the word of the dude that actually went to law school, but my friends that went to law school (and are now on the job market) have ALL said not to go to law school if you aren't getting into a t1 or have a VERY good reason to go to that school.

The job market is terrible for everybody in every field. Like I said, I know people that have completed Med School but are having problems getting their residency or however that works. My backup-backup plan is to join the Air Force Jag corp. I pretty much despise the Military as it is now but people I've talked to have said Jag was a good deal. Better than being homeless I suppose.

[neverlosethefeeling]

Expect PMs in the near future. Thank you and god bless :)

 

No problem man. I'll be waiting for it.

 

Getting into law school is not an easy thing to do. I'm a firm believe that at the end of the day, we're all here to help each other. At least, life seems easier to me that way and I tend to ignore anecdotal evidence to the contrary.

[cdandi1]

Having just taken the LSAT and in the midst of applications....I can vouch for everything said thus far.  Take prepping for LSAT very seriously and do it sooner rather than later to ease the burden of the application deadlines of you need to take it a second time. 

[thefuzz]

My sister is a L2 this year, and I don't think that I have ever seen anyone study as much as she does.

 

Wakes up at 5 every day, and is either studying, or in class until 10pm.  All day, every day.

[mav1234]

The job market is terrible for everybody in every field. Like I said, I know people that have completed Med School but are having problems getting their residency or however that works. My backup-backup plan is to join the Air Force Jag corp. I pretty much despise the Military as it is now but people I've talked to have said Jag was a good deal. Better than being homeless I suppose.

 

I understand why you say that, but, most of my friends went to graduate school on some level.  The lawyers - especially those from a couple t2 schools in the Boston area - are having more trouble finding applicable work than some of the people that went into some area of medicine or science.

 

I'm not trying to tell you "don't go to law school," I'm just sayin'.

 

edit: actually my vet friends are also having trouble, heh

[TruthVsComfort]

To echo what others have already said:

 

I encourage anyone considering law school to seriously weigh all other professional options. At least here in the Triangle, the industries with plenty of jobs are medical, IT, engineering, accounting, etc. Even from a top law school people struggle to find employment because there are simply far far too many law students relative to the very few law jobs out there. It is not unusual for only about 50% of a class to have a job at graduation (and that is at top schools). The legal market is uniquely horrible in a generally poor job market and it is not going to get better any time soon, if ever.

 

I am not saying do not do it - I am just saying thoroughly research this and consider other more practical options; and do not fool yourself into thinking the legal job market is merely as bad as all other professions. My friend just graduated from UNC-Wilmington with a bachelors in information systems and now has a job in IT in the Triangle making 64k a year starting out with no experience. I would recommend considering those sort of options.

[TylerDurden]

I posted a similar thread shortly before or after I graduated from UNC in December '11.  I even spoke with a law school advisor at school before I graduated and as long as I did my part on the LSAT, things were looking good for me to get into law school there as well.  But, in my preparation for the LSAT, I started considering the cost, in regards to both money AND time.  Soon after, I coincidentally kept finding articles about how bad job prospects were for lawyers upon completing law school.  I read about a guy who had attended law school in Cali somewhere, came back home to NY, and ended up waiting tables and had debt collectors all over him for defaulting on the loans.  The market is flooded man.  Not discouraging you Awesomeness, just explaining why I decided against it.  

 

On the other hand , one of my classmates from UNC went to George Washington for law, and she already has some internship with Verizon's legal dept. and I believe she is an L2.  BUT, I'm sure being a dime piece doesn't hurt her either, lol.  I just decided that if I'm going to take on more debt with student loans, I'm going to go for something that guarantees me employment in a specific field making good money, or I'm just going to go for something for my own person enrichment/interests.

[DirtyMagic97]

Do the smart thing and get a JD/MBA if you can. The legal information you gain with a JD is a great help in every aspect of business. I, like essentially anyone else, will strongly discourage you from going to law school unless you just can't picture yourself doing anything else.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using CarolinaHuddle mobile app

[rg3and10]

I've always had a weird obsession with the judical system, and mainly the criminal side of that. I've been a political junkie since I was 5. I would wake up on Sundays and watch Meet the Press (we didn't have cable). Its just something I never actually thought I could do until a few months ago. Now I realize ifs a relatively easy process.

That makes sense, seeing as how you have the political knowledge of a 5-year old.

[TheRed]

That makes sense, seeing as how you have the political knowledge of a 5-year old.

It's painfully obvious this cliche sarcastic douche bag shtick that we've seen countless times before has again run it's course.

I'd honestly rather read a post by Dat Alice.

[neverlosethefeeling]

I posted a similar thread shortly before or after I graduated from UNC in December '11.  I even spoke with a law school advisor at school before I graduated and as long as I did my part on the LSAT, things were looking good for me to get into law school there as well.  But, in my preparation for the LSAT, I started considering the cost, in regards to both money AND time.  Soon after, I coincidentally kept finding articles about how bad job prospects were for lawyers upon completing law school.  I read about a guy who had attended law school in Cali somewhere, came back home to NY, and ended up waiting tables and had debt collectors all over him for defaulting on the loans.  The market is flooded man.  Not discouraging you Awesomeness, just explaining why I decided against it.  

 

On the other hand , one of my classmates from UNC went to George Washington for law, and she already has some internship with Verizon's legal dept. and I believe she is an L2.  BUT, I'm sure being a dime piece doesn't hurt her either, lol.  I just decided that if I'm going to take on more debt with student loans, I'm going to go for something that guarantees me employment in a specific field making good money, or I'm just going to go for something for my own person enrichment/interests.

 

The first story speaks to another thing that Awesomeness should consider if he does, in fact, decide to go to law school. In addition to the job market woes, law schools in particular are very regionally biased, especially outside the top 14, and the 1st tier more generally. So, for example, if that guy went to a California school like Pepperdine or UC-Irvine, the degree just isn't as well respected by employers on the east coast. UCLA, USC, Stanford and Berkeley? Yeah, sure, but those are all in the top 18 in the nation. I mean NY state has NYU, Cardozo, Cornell, Fordham, Harvard, Yale all within a reasonable distance. Those are the schools they're recruiting from, not obscure west coast universities they don't know much about. Unless, of course, a principal at any given firm is an alumni, but you can't count on that. And in North Carolina, a degree from Campbell might get you a job in either Charlotte or Raleigh, but it doesn't have much reach outside of the state. No one should go to Campbell and expect to get a job in Dallas or Chicago.

 

Of course the exceptions to the rule are the top 14 schools in the country; they're more widely recruited and graduates have more geographic flexibility. But outside of those, overwhelming percentages of grads find themselves practicing in the region in which they studied simply because that's where the degree carries weight. But as they say, where you went to school only matters for your first job. The rest is up to you after that.

[rayzor]

sorry the thread got hijacked by a couple guys who couldn't help but turn it into a pissing match. please continue your thread. they won't be bothering it for at least a day.

 

have a good weekend.