Law School -- Need some advice !

Sharjeel92
Fri, 30 Jul 2010 15:46:14 +0000

This thread is important and a bit early because I need to choose what I want to do in order to pick either Pre-Med or Pre-Law OR start preparing for the LSAT or MCAT.

My Information:
International [Non-US citizen, No green card] Student.
My parents will be sinking all the money in my Undergrad education.

Current Course- First year Mechanical Engineering
Top Public University

About Me- Public speaking, Hardworking, Soccer and preplanned.



My impression was that studying engineering taught you how to solve problems, and isn’t that a prerequisite for most careers? I also thought that MechE would train me to think analytically about systems – both how to design them and how to fix them when they “break.” Since the human body seemed to be a web of interconnected systems (circulatory, muscular, digestive, immune, etc.), I thought this training would make me a great doctor, as well. I actually care about people and would love to help people out



^^ So Medical School might/will be a good choice for me and which ever career path I take I will give it my 100%.



Patent and Intellectual property law are two fields which I am interested in and they actually seem to be a more reasonable option than med-school as I would be using my MechE degree put to a lot more use. I have been reading manuals on how to write patents and I am working on it and I like doing it



^^ Now I am torn between two choices both of which I like and I did try Shadowing or interning for a law firm. But I guess doing all three - Engineering (Hardcore, trust me!) + Shadowing + Law firm will be just too much for me to juggle and I don’t want to mess it up !.

My adviser tells me it is all up to me – and I don’t know which one to pick. So I am putting down a few parameter’s :-

1) No money, International – No federal aid. So basically scholarships (Which I will be working towards, by doing well in Engineering) and Loans. So Med/Law school which ever would provide me with the best support in higher education.

2) I know both these options seem to be SAFE career paths (in the sense that they pay well, but trust me I am happy just to touch the 100K mark and be happy at what I do and have no loans to repay). Because if I get motivated by money and go to law school and have no interest whatsoever in patents, then, trust me it gets very very boring.

Future plans for either careers:-

1) Work as an Engineer (get set with the prerequisite’ and Test scores), earn some money, get some experience and head to Grad(Med/Law) school.

2) Get Possible scholarships and head to Grad(Med/Law) School.
a) For med school – DO schools or Canadian MD schools. [Only with possible loan/scholarship options]

I need to hear both sides of the story and I would be grateful if someone else would give me their perspective.