| Topic Name: |
Top 10 Mistakes Prospective Law Students Make |
| Message Name: |
Pre-Law Errors |
| Date Posted: |
05/12/2001 |
| In Reply To: |
1. He/she wants to go to law school, but does not want to be a lawyer. A subset is that he or she really wants an MBA, an MPA or even a Ph.D., but think that using a JD to do the "same thing" would be easier.
2. He/she fails to research what lawyers really do, and worries more about money than
making a difference for clients.
3. He/she fails to realize that law school admissions are driven by GPA and LSAT, and does not strive to make high grades in undergrad courses
and the best LSAT possible
4. He/she fails to take an undergraduate degree which is vocational in itself, in order to insulate him or herself against the possibility of getting into or just out of law school, and finding that he or she does not want to do law.
5. He/she uses the USNWR rankings as an ending point, rather than as one of many tools to calculate the cost/benefit of a particular law school, or of attending law school at all. In particular, he/she has never
done basic research into what kinds of jobs a grad from xyz school may actually get, and what grades are necessary from xyz school to get the best jobs in the area in which he or she wants to ultimately live. He or she can only tell you he or she went to the number 13 school instead of number 17.
6. He/she pays too much attention to anecdotal information, including especially
"fun" but not definitive internet positive or negative spins on law school (whether on vault.com, review.com, in this message, or elsewhere), when
such anecdotes are merely one tool in assessing schools, and far from holy writ.
7. He/she makes schools choices by which he or she takes on big debt to attend a school with high tuition but low placement and median income for its graduates
8. If he or she is only able to get into law schools with lesser hiring chances, he or she does not assess whether
he or she might be better either going to a night law school to avoid the debt issue, or even reconsider going to law school at all.
With low grades and low LSAT, he/she looks at expensive schools rather than state schools with reasonable placement.
9. He or she sees law school as a "guaranteed fortune", rather than a background which, even at the top tier schools, leads to graduates having widely disparate career success to a greater extent than some other fields.
10. He or she does all law school assessment by entry level salary figures, and not by doing a comprehensive cost/income projection for law as compared to other career paths.
As noted in number 6 above, this list is worth no more than anyone else's, but
one seems to see this list
pop up over and over again. |
| Message: |
1. That your chances of become wealthy are greatest by becoming a lawyer.
If you want to become truly wealthy and make more money than lawyers start a business and be an entrepreneur. I have a friend who has a commercial painting business and his income would put any BIGLAW partners income to shame.
2. That you'll get lots of respect being a lawyer and be "on top".
Lets face it. Lawyers do the grunt work. The business people put the deals together and the lawyers do the grueling minute of hashing it all out. Who makes more money: The business people of course. The lawyers just get their hourly rate.
3. I'll be happy at BIGLAW because they will pay me $100k+ per year.
I know more than a few lawyers who hate their lives and are making a lot of money at BIGLAW. They hate what they are doing. They hate the grueling work and grueling hours.
4. SmallLaw lawyers are losers and don't make much money. If I can't get into BIGLAW its not worth being a lawyer.
I know plenty of smallLaw lawyers who make lots of money. There are also a lot that make less than BIGLAW lawyers. It all depends on your resoursfullness and the initiative you take. I personally know more SmallLaw lawyers that are much happier than BIGLAW lawyers. A lot of SmallLaw Lawyers get a lot of satisfaction helping average joe who has been wronged. Its more personal and you can have more of a feeling of purpose. (and with contigency fees the sky is the limit). There are plenty of SmallLaw practice areas where you can actually help people. Examples, elder law (T&E, Health, nursing home, medicare/medicaid issues, guardianship), Personal Injury, medical malpractice and product liability (yes, these people need help and deserve compensation regardless of the massive brain washing propaganda espoused by the insurance companies to make lawyers look bad.) Employment law (discrimination, sexual harrassment, Commission disputes, ERISA etc.). Consumer litigation (average joe getting screwed by big corporation).
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