<p>LaBarrister: if you could stomach engineering while going to law school at night, why not do that? You could pay for most of it as you went, then take your five figures of student loan debt and get almost any decently-paying lawyer job and be able to make ends meet. </p>
<p>ksannyu: “Why do employers only look at 1/3 of a student’s overall law school perofrmance?”</p>
<p>Usually, students who get BigLaw jobs upon graduation had those jobs during their 2L summer (which functions like a two-month interview process for the firm); they interviewed for those 2L summer jobs during the first semester of 2L year. At that time, only 1L grades are available.</p>
<p>Also, Law Review and law journals select students at the end of 1L year or the beginning of 2L year; if a law firm wants a student who is on Law Review, then that again depends on 1L grades. (My journal had a write-on competition that did not factor in grades at all, but many journals use 1L grades, at least in part, for admission.)</p>