If you’re thinking of attending law school you need to ask yourself why you want to go to law school. Once you determine why you want to go to law school you need to ask yourself if your reason for attending law school is a good one. I read this advice before I attended law school but didn’t really heed it. I just had a fuzzy idea of getting my law degree, making big money for a few years and then retiring. This could be a good reason for some but it wasn’t for me.
This led me to make mistakes on deciding which law school to attend. Since I wanted to make big money I felt I needed to go to the highest ranking school I could get into. I was accepted to a top 25 school with no scholarship money and decided to go there and forego the scholarship offers I received at other schools. After a year of attending law school it was obvious to me I wasn’t going to land a big money job and even if I did it would be something I’d hate.
This led me to transfer to my state school to save about $15,000 a year in tuition. This was probably another mistake. Once I had decided to attend the high ranking school I needed to just stick with it. Things were going well for me there and I should have remembered the old adage,” If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.” After switching schools I had a hard time adjusting and struggled academically. Even though I’m saving tuition money here there is a good chance I could have made up the extra tuition expense at the higher ranking school with better paying job offers. If I would have gone to the state school in the first place I would have received a good scholarship. As a transfer student no scholarship was available. It would have been much smarter to go to the state school in the first place or just stay at the high ranking school.
Now I’m not sure if I should have attended law school at all. So far I don’t like any of the work I’d likely be doing as a lawyer. I’m going to finish because I already have three years and many thousand of dolllars invested in it. If you’re thinking of attending law school be sure of your reason for doing so and what you hope to get from it.
I went through a similar dilemma. I went to an Ivy League grad school with no fellowship money my first year (I did score fellowships after that) and no real plan for my future. I ended up switching from my Ph.D program into a more practical Masters program and then falling ass-backwards into a completely unrelated career.
The big name school opened doors for me, and I got a great education. Hindsight being 20/20, however, I should have done things differently.
Same as you guys. My problem started when I just graduated with a law degree, and due to financial issues I decide to look for a job. After a couple of months , I had two offers from investment bank. Now it was a question of money or career? I chose career, and went ahead to do my LPC and eventually got a training contract. But the problem was the debt I owed while studying..being an international student made it much more difficult.So i’m in a dilemna now? Law school?Investment banking??
Help
Thanks
Emmy
Been there, done that. I went to an Ivy League social work school and came out with tons of student loans to weigh me down for the next 10-15 years. Now I feel lukewarm about my job and even less enthusiastic about my career as a whole. I didn’t take the time to see if this was really the path to take to my career interests and goals. It’s one way to get there, but not the only one, and I could easily be doing my current job with a bachelor’s degree.