We asked several current law students to join us on our pre-law talk show, the 180 live, to discuss “how it really is” once students get to law school. For your advisees considering the law school route, this is great information– a counter to a lot of the rumors and myths surrounding the experience. Some answers may surprise your charges, some may be just what they expect. Our law students also gave us their two best pieces of advice they have for all of your pre-law advisees at the end of the episode. But first, they handled those law school myths.
LAW SCHOOL MYTHS:
Law school is hell: FALSE. But it is tough. Really tough. As you have no doubt stressed to your students, they are going to have more reading to do than they ever imagined, and they will be studying a lot of the time. While they should be prepared to work, they will also find that many law students think law school is the best time of their lives… but time management will be a crucial skill.
Law school is constantly competitive: SOMEWHAT TRUE. There is a lot of competition in law school, because that’s what happens when you put a lot of really smart, driven people together in a room; that environment is part of what breeds successful lawyers! But for advisees who are worried about a bloodthirsty experience should not fret. The sometimes high pressure environment will mean that their fellow students are going to become their new family; law school is undoubtedly a place where most students will meet lifelong friends, as well as colleagues. It isn’t a back-stabbing, anything-to-win environment, and classmates do look out and try and help each other.
Law school is non-stop Socratic method: SOMEWHAT TRUE. The Socratic Method is alive and well in American law schools, and cold-calling is going to happen to everybody at some point (one of our students got to experience it on her very first day). It’s actually the reason we conduct all of our LSAT classes using a version of the Socratic Method. Preparing for class is absolutely necessary! But not every class is conducted this way, and your advisees (while perhaps nervous now) will acclimatize themselves to it very quickly (even as it still keeps them on their toes!).
You should be satisfied by nothing less than a 4.0 GPA in law school: FALSE. This is a big source of adjustment for many, many brand new law students, because so many law students have been extremely successful academically for most of their lives. Many of your advisees considering law school are probably used to very high grades. But law school classes are graded on a curve, so the majority of a class just can’t get an A. Setting them up to focus more on being well-prepared than what letter grade comes out the other side will lessen the shock.
You’re going to lose your ability to think creatively: FALSE. Going to law school is not going to stifle a student’s ability to be creative. What it will do is make a student an extremely effective analytical thinker. Those new critical skills have many different applications– and can definitely be applied to rigorous creativity.
You should only look at a law school’s ranking: FALSE. There is so much more to the law school experience than rank, as we’ve noted since there are so many different versions of law school rankings out there. Encourage your advisees to consider everything that goes into where they will go to law school: location, specialization, admissions requirements, alumni employment experience, etc. Rankings can be one piece of the puzzle, but should not be the only consideration.
You have to know what kind of law you want to practice before you go to law school: FALSE. Most law students do not know what kind of law they will practice before they walk into their first class, and many more who do think they know when they start law school will change their minds as they go. 1L year will be the same for everyone, regardless of specialization, so students who feel unsure of what specific area they want to focus on should use that time to research areas of law they might be interested in. If an advisee is sure about what you want to do, have her check out the various clinics and experiential learning opportunities available through the schools she are considering.
The only way to go to law school is by incurring a ton of debt: FALSE. There are a lot of options out there for financing law school, particularly merit-based scholarships (usually based on LSAT scores), public sector loan payback, and others. Often you are the first person your advisee will look to for information!
You can’t work during law school: SOMEWHAT TRUE. This is more and more of an issue for students, but it is still true that as a full-time law student, the ABA has decreed that a student can work no more than 20 hours per week, which means a full time job is out of the question. There are a growing number of part-time or “night class” JD programs that cater to people with full time jobs, and are definitely worth looking into.
Half your class will fail out: FALSE. The attrition rate due to dropping out is not some massive percentage of a law school class. This is a source of a lot of panic for students, but they are more likely to know someone who drops out, and that is not all that common either. This stereotype feeds into the “INSANE COMPETITION AT LAW SCHOOL!” myth as well.
Finally, our illustrious guests each gave us their best possible piece of advice for prelaw students, so feel free to pass them on:
1. Whatever it takes, get all of your work done between 8:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m.; your nights are then free to do whatever you want, and you can keep the ideal balance between life and law school.
2. Before that first semester, take some time to enjoy yourself! Have a great summer, do some reading for pleasure, relax if you can, because the workload your 1L year is intense (in a good way).
For advisees just beginning the process, we have a lot of resources available, especially during the month of February as we offer free practice LSAT tests around the country and online! Our next 180 live episode will focus on all of those burning admissions questions students have this time of year; we would love to have you and your advisees join us for the opportunity to ask our experts in the studio some great questions!
