<p>I’m currently a junior at highschool. My GPA isn’t that great, I’m a 3.44 student, and to be honest with you, I’m not exactly “hard-working.”</p>
<p>But my passion is in political science and my dream is to become a successful lawyer. I know that most people that study political science aim to end up in law school.</p>
<p>So here’s my question: is it hard to get into law school? Is it EXTREMELY difficult? </p>
<p>My worries is that I’d still be studying to pass the test to get into law school when I’m like 40 years old or something.</p>
<p>First – don’t be so fast to equate political science with a career in law.</p>
<p>Second – it depends on whether you want to just go to a law school or go to a “good” law school. admission to the top law schools is very competitive and you need high gpa and high lsat score. </p>
<p>Third – if you are now just a junior in high school, the greatest advise you can get about going to law school is to give yourself time to learn whether you will really want to do that or not – other than just the fact that you like political science and seem to think that leads necessarily to law school. Politcs, government, social policy are the stuff of political science. While many lawyers end up being involved in government and politics, the every day practice of law doesn’t necessarily have that much to do with government (unless of course you are in certain specific fields of law).</p>
<p>there is no required undergraduate program for law school - you can study ANYTHING and go to law school. so use your college years to explore what it is you really want to do – if you love political science, allow yourself to explore what other career opportunities this may allow for. but also try some other things – there are all sorts of things out there you probably haven’t even thought about – college is the time for such exploration. you have PLENTY of time to decide whether law school is right for you. you can even work for years, or do graduate study and still decide at a later time to law school.</p>
<p>And Finally – you describe yourself as not that hard working. Well, law students AND lawyers work hard. So really stop and think about whether that career path is suited for you.</p>
Could not agree more. Even if you don’t do the big-firm route, you’ll have to work hard. Law school is a LOT of work, and there are no shortcuts. There’s a lot of reading, all of which is important. </p>
<p>Also, if you are a junior in high school, you should be more worried about where you are going to college and what you are doing there than be worried about law school. The best thing you can do for yourself is to maintain a high GPA in college, then consider law school when the time comes.</p>
<p>I’m a senior in high school and headed to Washington and Lee next year, and I also have law school as a future path for me in the back of my mind. What I want to know is if what you study in college dictates what kind of law you can later get into. For example, if I ever have an interest in Patent law, will I be shut out of that if I have relatively little backround in math or sciences? I may very well major in journalism and maybe double major or minor in something like philosophy/econ/poly sci. Would a journalism major be looked favorably on by law schools, and in all honesty, how hard do you have to work as a undergrad to achieve a GPA that would give you a shot at a a truely top notch law school? Is it a social life sacrificing effort, or can I still go out on weekends and party on a regular basis?</p>
<p>1) You probably want a B.S. if you are interested in patent law.
2) The difficulty of achieving a good GPA varries greatly from school to school, and from major to major. You will need somewhere north of a 3.5 GPA to be competitive for top-tier law schools, so you will likely have to work pretty hard. The word on the street is that law schools do not care what your major is, as long as it is not “pre-law” or something laughable. </p>
<p>A poly-sci major, though? I think you should just stick to a single science, trying to study multiple sciences at once could have an adverse effect on your GPA. =)</p>
<p>Micklerobe, I’m currently at W&L. You’ll be joining a large group of folks who are aiming for law schools. I know of a few seniors who got in at Yale and Harvard Law, so don’t worry about W&L hurting you-just do exceptionally well here (like you would have to do at any other great university) and you have a shot.</p>
<p>Also, don’t party too hard your first fall term here, or your GPA will defiantely be in the crapper. Be sure to take easy classes your first Winter term if you plan on pledging-at W&L it’s old school and it dominates your life for 8 out of the 12 weeks.</p>
<p>For patent law, it would definitely be helpful to have a strong science background. For all fields of law, it is helpful to be able to have great reading comprehension & the ability to write well & concisely. Being able to “think on your feet” and argue persuasively is another good tool–debating can be helpful.</p>
<p>Most folks take a broad range of courses in law school before settling into the field they end up in. If they really want to go further, they can get a LLM, but most just get their JD, pass the bar & start working to earn some money.</p>
<p>The FSU law school is currently rated 53rd in the US and jumped about 14 schools in the last two years. I’d say it’s trajectory is climbing upward.</p>
<p>It’s Environmental Law section is rated 14th in the US.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>I’m unsure of why you would want to go into patent law if you don’t like science enough to take a few courses in it during your undergrad.</p></li>
<li><p>FSU and Brooklyn are certainly good schools. I would not look to a rapid climb, however, as a sign of a school improving; such a climb is usually attributable to a school that changes itself to improve rankings. It might stop admitting talented students who lack the stats, for example.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Also, there is no reason why you should look at both Brooklyn and FSU seriously. Both are very strong in their region, but you’ll have a hard time taking that degree elsewhere.</p>
<p>Clearly my interest in patent law stems from a bottomless pit of materialism that exists within me. It’s one of the top paying fields of law and a great path towards meeting my goals in life of buying an island of all my own and sharing it with my trophy wife who likes me only because I drive a Ferrari. How you couldn’t deduce this is beyond me. Just kidding, sort of. I was just throwing it out there as an example. Although I think that field of law would be more interesting than a lot of other fields, but perhaps it’s not up my alley. You’re right on that front.</p>
<p>Well, I’m planning just to major in Economics now because I heard majoring in poli sci without going into law isn’t that great for a career path. </p>
<p>But I still want to know, is it hard to get into a law school? A decent law school or any law school that will help me become a successful lawyer?</p>
<p>My worry is that I’m like 30 and still haven’t passed the BAR test or something.</p>
<p>it is hard to get into law school if you are going to continue to be “not exactly ‘hard-working.’” it is impossible to become s “successful lawyer” if you are not willing to work hard and apply yourself</p>
<p>in the span of a day, you have decided to major in economics rather than political science even though it is supposedly your passion because you’ve heard there isn’t a good path for it without law school when you haven’t even given yourself a chance to explore either option in college.</p>
<p>if you really want to be a “successful lawyer,” stop looking for fast easy answers and be willing to work for what you want.</p>
<p>go to college - find what you want to study - work hard - and then in a couple of years think about whether you want law school. you will never get a clear answer now as to how hard or easy it will be for you until you see how you are going to do in college.</p>
<p>Gotta say, for me, HS & college were MUCH easier than law school. The workload & competition is much keener & everyone at law school used to being the best (or very close to it). I’ve not met too many folks who are able to slack much at all & get into a good law school. Even after law school, to be a good attorney (or even an employed one), you need to work hard–in the early years, VERY HARD & long hours. If that doesn’t appeal to you, this may not be a good career path, but the hard work leading to success what I’ve seen in all careers–even food service & other “less glamorous” fields.</p>
<p>As a practicing lawyer, I agree completely with ariesathena and HImom. Law school and practicing law take a lot of dedication and hard work. That said, in the hypercompetitive business world today, so do most careers. Brooklyn Law and FSU are good regional law schools, but you will have a more difficult journey making a degree from those schools work for you outside of the geographic region where these schools are located. It’s not impossible, just tougher. Don’t fool yourself into thinking that a school that is not a top 20 school will be easy, because it won’t. Law school is tough, law professors are demanding, the socratic method is a killer if you are unprepared and the volumes of reading and writing that you are expected to do are enormous at every law school.</p>
<p>I agree with this and I would add that in many cases, a lower-ranked law school may actually be HARDER than a higher-ranked one. That’s because the lower-ranked law schools tend to grade extremely hard and have very high expulsion/attrition rates. Their attitude is that only a fraction of the people that matriculate there will actually be good enough to earn law degrees. Contrast that at the top schools like Harvard where although the workload is brutal, you have the assurance that everybody is going to graduate. You might graduate last in your class, but you’re still going to graduate. At the low ranked law schools, there is a strong chance that you may not even graduate at all. </p>
<p>And then of course there are schools like Yale Law where class rankings are not computed and it is made intentionally difficult to distinguish between different students in any grading sense. Hence, I would surmise that it’s significantly easier to be a student at Yale Law than to be a student at one of those low-ranked law schools that flunk out a lot of their students.</p>
<p>Well, the reason why I want to decide so early is because I’m applying for college soon, and I have to pick my major. I heard that picking “undecided” will lower your chances (I want to get into UC Davis) I don’t have much knowledge about majors and careers, but I do want to become a lawyer. Right now, I’m not exactly an extremely hard-working person… but I definately can switch gears and become one when motivated. </p>
<p>But I’m still extremely worried that I’d be like 30 years old and still trying to pass the BAR test. Does this ever happen to people?</p>
<p>I’m not sure there is a clear or good answer to your question. I went to law school 30 years ago but my guess is that you can get into lower ranked law schools even with mediocre grades and an average LSAT. While the top 50 (maybe more) law schools have rigid entrance requirements and you must be a very good student to gain admission, there are night law schools and lower ranked law schools that have less stringent admission standards. </p>
<p>On the other hand, graduates of these programs typically don’t fare that well on the bar exam. Here’s a link to an article on “success stories” for law schools that have improved the pass rate on their state bar exam:</p>
<p>Some of these law schools are highly ranked and some aren’t, but remember that these are the success stories for bar exam rates. I find that sobering because some of these schools are below 50% pass rate for graduates taking the bar exam. A few are well below 50%. </p>
<p>Overall, I think it’s much harder to get into medical school than law school. Percentage-wise, most medical school students become doctors but fewer law school students become lawyers, let alone good or successful lawyers.</p>
<p>do the colleges you are thinking of applying to really make you decide on your major when you apply? while i know that some schools require you to apply to a specific “school” or “program”, i can’t say i’ve heard of any schools that make you commit to a major when you are first applying – many ask what you intend to major in, but MANY applicants indicate “undecided” – and usually even if you put down a major, there is nothing binding about that. most colleges give you until end of sophmore year or beginning of junior year to decide – most college want their students to have a chance to try out different courses before they have to select a major. before you assume you have to have your major decided before you apply, look into what the schools you are interested in actually require in this regard.</p>
<p>as for your fear about being “30” and still not having passed the bar – right now, being 30 may sound really old to you – but there are MANY people who first graduate law school when they are 30 or over – so first of, get a little perspective here – being 30 is not that old to begin a career in law. But if your question is really about people failing the bar exam multiple times – yes it happens. I think some states may even have limitations on how many times you can take the exam and fail – or at least how often you can take the exam after failing multiple times (i think at some point you might need to get permission to take it again - but i’m not sure - would certainly depend on the state). Worst case scenario – you can’t pass the bar. Not the end of the world, just time then to rethink career paths - something A LOT of people do for a variety of reasons. </p>
<p>But quite honestly, for you to be basing what you want to do NOW on the possibility of IF in 4 years you still want to go to law school, and IF you then get into law school and IF you graduate, and IF you repeatedly fail the bar, you don’t know what you would then do, is really getting way ahead of yourself. There is no way now, as a 17 year old you can have any clue as to how likely it will be that you will pass the bar exam in 8 years. You are better served worrying about what classes to take next year (and working hard in them), when to take your SAT’s, what colleges you want to apply to, etc. All this stuff about law school and passing the bar exam is simply not something you need to be dwelling on now – you are not solving anything for yourself by trying to make decisions NOW about where you will be 8 years from now based on the likelihood of passing an exam that currenlty you know nothing about.</p>