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As I realize I'm already a senior in college its hitting me much harder I need to get my shit together, mostly regarding my plans for what I want to graduate with a major in and grad(law) school.
Some notes
-I have roughly a 3.4 GPA at michigan state uni (in the business school, which is pretty well ranked but not amazingly so)
-I currently have a part time summer unpaid internship shadowing and doing some light marketing work for a lawyer i know and a labor job that pays pretty well for what it is when i'm not interning. This will give me a decent amount of exposure to the legal system.
-Currently a general business admin and pre-law major, which is a dead major now at my school so it doesn't really have a lot going for it.
-My parents will probably be moving within the next year (if the house sells)
-I'm going to pull a bull shit # out of nowhere and say I think i can do reasonably well on the LSAT(160+) Based on having always been 90+ percentile on standardized tests and reading comprehension/verbal skills are my strong suit and am decently strong in logic.
What i'm considering as my options:
1.
-Sign up late for the LSAT (additional 70$ T_T) for june the 6th
-Pick up some 10 Real LSAT books and study my ass off for the next ~4weeks.
-Apply to law school in november, graduate in spring 2012
-Go to law school whee
Pros: Graduate in 4 years (save $), My parents will probably happier with this.
Cons: Less options, less prepared for the LSAT, Less fun
2.
-Work at my law internship over the summer and decide if i still want to take the LSAT in October and be able to properly prepare for it. Apply for law school the following year. Ample time to re-take it if need be. If i decide not to go into law i'm sure it will be a great reference and experience for me anyways.
-Switch my major to Supply Chain Management(I can switch pretty easily into any business major, pretty much all my credits should move over). Our program is ranked #2 in the country so a lot of companies look to MSU for interns/jobs.
-Take 3 more semesters (12/12/5 credits) and plan to graduate in Fall 2012 (as an added bonus i'd have a lot of fun during the extra semester after the, a lot of my good friends will still be in school and this would probably some of the best times of my life)
-Get my shit together during the school year, join whatever organizations I need to and apply for a bunch of internships.
-Hopefully have an internship in supply chain for summer 2012. See how that goes.
-Graduate in Fall. Work at labor job till either get hired by whoever i interned for(seems to happen pretty regularly) or land a job somewhere else. If i've chosen to go to law school then I'd work winter/summer at my labor job, make a decent amount of cash and go to law school in the fall.
Pros: Won't have to worry about as much stuff this summer, more time to get my shit together, More time to prepare for the LSAT and my law school application, Extra semester would be awesome, lighter class loads for the next 3 semesters, Explore more oppurtunities and open more options for me, it's probably better to be in a highly ranked program then a dead one. Extra semester with my rugby team (rugby is pretty much the one thing i know i truly love, and all my good friends are on the team). Potential to go abroad somewhere?
Cons: Extra semester ($$), Parents probably won't be too happy, Feels like i'm kind of falling behind in life.
In retrospect this is all shit I should have figured out exactly a year ago. Better late than never i suppose, it took a while for it to hit me.
After typing this all out it seems like Option 2 would be best for me. But thats why I'm posting this here, I want to know some of your opinions and advice, get some objective help, and i'm sure theres plenty people in the same boat as me or past it and can help me out.
This is something i'm going to have to figure out by the end of the week as may 13th is the last day to register for the LSAT. I'll be telling my dad pretty much everything here and see what he thinks of it and talk to him when i get the chance (he lives in a diff state for work)
Thanks in advance for any advice.
 
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As for taking longer, hell thats what our generation is doing all over as we are more dependent on our parents in our early 20s  Also im not sure how it is for law students but a lot of people who go to grad school either take a year off and do something between undergrad and grad school just to get away from school for a bit. I personally went straight to my masters program when I graduated from MSU and am planning on going straight to PhD when im done here (IF I can get in, stupid hyper competitive field). Extending your undergrad would be good to boost your credentials for Law school apps (not sure what level of law school your shooting for) but more prep time for the LSTAT (which I hear is a BIG factor in admissions) is always good. Undergrad is also a good time for exploration into what you really want to do before you commit to a course of study in graduate school.
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Who cares about the money. The money shouldn't be a concern to you. If you need the money all you have to do is decide your going to earn it. Money is not necessary until you have made the decision to do something. Once you make your decision, you will find the money necessary. Moreover, who cares what your parents think. If you subject yourself to what you think your parents think you are not free. You are not taking responsibility for your your thoughts, your feelings, and every result you get. In essence, you are not being a responsible person if you live as one withes you to live. When you do this you are putting yourself in an uncreative mental prison where a negative attitude and a deficiency in fulfillment is inevitable. I am sure if you hooked your parents up to a polygraph they would want nothing more for you to be happy. Your parents might just have a different opinion on how you will attain that happiness. But I will assure you, you're parents can't possibly know what will make you happy better than you know what will make you happy. Just think about the probability of two people thinking the exact same thoughts at any given period of time. Through proper evaluation you will come to the conclusion that people are unique. Therefore, you have different values, needs, and desires than your parents and you know what is necessary for you to be happy better than your parents. Here is my last point, if you are going to be doing what makes you fulfilled and happy how can you possibly be falling behind in life? Education comes from the latin 'educo' meaning "To develop or draw out from within." An educated individual isn't one with an abundance of general or specialized knowledge, an educated individual is one who has so developed the faculties of the mind to where they can attain anything they want or its equivalence without violating the rights of others.
Unless you really love the line of work, its probably not a good idea to go to college with the intention on getting a job in that line of work. There is absolutely no sense in working at a job that you don't like just to make money. You would probably be better off spending 4 years studying people who have attained financial independence and meeting with people who truly understand money. This way you can set up passive sources of income that don't require your physical presence in the long run and spend your days doing what you enjoy to do, rather than sitting in a cubicle doing something you hate.
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@Slaughter: Thanks for the advice
@tryummm: No offense but you sound like you're quoting a self help book :-/ Thanks for the input though.
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You should ask Hot_Bid I think he went to Michigan and went to Law school and got the BAR from what I heard.
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do some research about law school before you go sinking the time into studying for the LSAT and applying to places. It's hardly the lock people think it is for a good job... or a job at all these days. Unemployment numbers in law are staggering.
And your grades, unless you bust out like a 170+, will not be good enough to get into a top notch law school (pretty much the biggest factor in determining your career) and you will probably not get scholarships to any worthwhile schools, which is important because anything worth your money is gonna set you back at least $100k. Probably closer to $150k. And if you don't get a job after a year or so when you use all your deferments, you're gonna be screwed because you'll be too qualified to work at most other non-law jobs.
I'd def go with option 2 and try to latch on at your internship. If you graduate with no debt or whatever modest sized debt you've got from loans, you'll be way better off in the long run. Perhaps it's worth applying, but a 3.4 leaves you middle of the pack at best in most schools that are worth considering
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1) You can still apply for the 2012 admissions cycle with an October LSAT (it won't be late or anything). Given how little time is left to prepare for June, and how important the test is, taking it then seems like a better choice.
2) http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/index.php
TL is nice, but at the end of the day you'll probably find more information there.
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17010 Posts
You should come be a hippie with me and move to Vancouver. I'm opening a sandwich shop with one of my really good friends.
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You will probably do yourself a disservice by taking the LSAT with so little preparation. Anyone who naturally scores sub 170 can always improve the score, most often in the areas of logic games. Logic games is the easiest area of the test to train for.
Another advantage about option 2 is that it will give you a chance to see if being a lawyer is what you really want to do. Better to spend the extra money now than waste 3 years and 150K learning how to do something you hate.
One last general word of advice. If you do end up deciding you want to go to law school, try to raise your GPA. It sucks, but the difficultly of your major really doesn't matter that much for admissions. The simple fact is, students that will lower a school's numbers are looked on less favorably than those with higher numbers.
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On May 10 2011 14:54 SiZ.FaNtAsY wrote:
You should ask Hot_Bid I think he went to Michigan and went to Law school and got the BAR from what I heard.
Hot_Bid went to Michigan? GO BLUE!
On-topic: I'm sorry that I don't have much advice that helps as I have never been in a situation like yours, but I wish the best of luck!
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I think one hard thing to understand is that Law School is totally unlike a standard undergraduate program.
A recent NYTimes article that points towards colleges giving students scholarships and expecting to have them taken away due to grade requirements.
Law School is graded on a curve. For one student to receive an A another must receive a D. Grades in Law School are nearly solely based on how you do verse how everyone else. Also, nearly all Law class grades are based entirely on one final exam. There's no assignments nor tests partway through the class to gage how you are doing. The final exam doesn't have "correct" answers the way nearly all undergraduate tests do. Generally, you are given a scenario. Then you write about what pertinent law applies and how you would apply it. Your reasoning and explanations are key. Generally, there's no definitive "this law used in this manner" answer. The questions are designed to be answer-less so professors can see a student's thought process and understanding. Then the grades are curved.
I think it would be fantastic to try and sit in on some law classes and talk to some 2L (second year) students about what law school is like and what grades are like. 1L students would only have one semesters grades or no grades at all.
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On May 13 2011 03:04 Smurphy wrote:
A recent NYTimes article that points towards colleges giving students scholarships and expecting to have them taken away due to grade requirements.
Yeah, that's not new unfortunately. I entered law school 6 years ago, and it seemed like half the 1L class all had the same scholarship contingent on remaining in the top 10%. When you've always been at the top of the class in high school and undergrad, you just figure you'll be at the top in law school too, but everyone in law school is like that. So you lose your scholarship for your second year, but you've already spent one year in law school out of three and wouldn't want that to go to waste...
Anyway, there are two types of people in law school: people that really want to be lawyers, and people that don't want to be whatever their undergrad education qualifies them to be. The first group is enthusiastic and typically loves law school; the second group hates life for three years or drops out. You sound like you're in the second group, just like I was. Law school is a major commitment, not something you do just because you can't think of anything better. Don't go unless you're damn sure that's what you want to do with your life.
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EPT
