|
Is law school right for me? Most of you have asked yourself this question already . . . and most of you still don't know the answer. Don't worry about it! No one expects you to be absolutely certain about your career plans yet. In fact, we're more concerned if you are 100% certain about law school -- if you're completely certain you want to go, you might want to do some more research about what you're getting into!
The truth, of course, is that law school is like most other intense experiences -- it has both incredible benefits and undeniable drawbacks. The trick is to figure out whether the "pros" outweigh the "cons," given your own personal interests, strengths, weaknesses, ambitions, idiosyncrasies, etc.
Initial Advice. No matter how certain (or uncertain) your law school plans may be, our first two pieces of advice to you are the same:
(1) Use Your Pre-Law Tutor. Talk to your pre-law tutor about why you're considering law school -- and what you're considering doing instead of law school. The Dunster House pre-law tutors are not recruiters for law schools! Our job is not to push people into applying. If you've got questions or ideas about law school, no matter how critical, talk to your pre-law tutor. That's why we're here! (Don't have a pre-law tutor assigned to you yet? Then you must not have registered for the Dunster Pre-Law Program! Register here and a pre-law tutor will be assigned to you. Registration does not mean that you are obligated to apply to law school! It just means that you're considering applying, whether now or some time in the future, and would like to take advantage of the House pre-law advising program.).
(2) Pinch Yourself and Think for a Moment. Whether or not you raise the issue with your pre-law tutor, you should definitely stop now, before you become too invested in the application process, and be honest with yourself about your law school ambitions (or lack thereof). Law school is a vocational school. It teaches you to be a lawyer. If you don't want to make your living as a lawyer, or if your first choice would be to do something else, think hard about whether law school is the right plan for you. Many students apply to law school because they don't have a better plan. That's not a good plan! It probably won't come as a surprise to you to learn that students who were never really interested in law school tend not to enjoy law school. It's too intense (and expensive) an project to undertake half-heartedly. Try telling yourself that you're going to spend three years studying things like contracts, torts, evidence and administrative law. Not sure you like the idea? Don't worry -- your pre-law tutor can help you figure out how to proceed. The good news is that the actual practice of law, as any lawyer will tell you, is only marginally related to what you do at law school -- it's quite possible to hate law school and love being a lawyer. But at the end of the day, you're still a lawyer. If that doesn't sound like the right plan for you, think hard about whether law school is the right choice at this point in your life (you can always apply later!).
Some Highly Unscientific Data. Many students have trouble deciding whether law school is right for them because they simply have no data on which to base their decision. What do you actually study in law school? What is an average day like? What kind of work do you actually do?
Here are some random and unscientific data points that might help:
- 1L Class Schedules. To help you imagine what a week in your life might be like during your first year of law school, we asked some of your Dunster pre-law tutors to let us post their 1L class schedules (including class name, meeting times, etc). Check it out and ask yourself if this looks like something you'd be interested in doing.
- Sample Cases. Here you'll find a few of the cases that you may study during your 1L year, taken straight from Westlaw in PDF format. Take a look and see how the idea of studying these and lots more similar cases strikes you.
