Perhaps it depends on what you mean by successful, but there are plenty of attorneys with rewarding practices, earning a good living, who did not go to a top 15 law school or even necessary what some people might consider a “good” school. I went to a state flagship, graduated debt free, and received an offer from a great, national firm before graduation. My husband went to a law school that is not prestigious at all, and he has had an outstanding career. Much depends on what you want to do with your law degree and what you make of your opportunities. Frequently, a law degree from a state flagship can open more doors in that state’s legal market than a degree from a “Top 15” school that is out of state. My S24 is considering law school after college, and my advice to him will be to go in state and graduate debt free.
I also completely agree that law school is a LOT of reading, writing, and analysis! Humanities majors are excellent preparation for law school. It is very different from how law is portrayed on TV. People should not go to law school because they “like to argue.” I’ve been an attorney for 22 years and have not once been in a courtroom (nor do I want to have that type of practice).
I would also advise anyone looking to go to law school to spend some time and understand what the life of a lawyer is really like… Especially if you want to work in a big law firm… I would not say there is a premium placed on work-life balance by these firms
This is very interesting. Do most students still go to top 20 law schools without work experience? That was the case when I went 30 years ago, and I assume I only got into the law schools I did because my fine but not spectacular GPA didn’t weight as heavily because – at least as someone told me – I had been working for 3 years and was thus considered as part of a separate “second career group”. This seemed crazy to me; nothing written to confirm that it was true then and no idea if it would still be true now…
This law school path discussion is pretty far afield of the UF topic. Can we get back on track please, and perhaps take the law school discussion offline / elsewhere?
Agree, 20 years ago when I went, work experience particularly in leadership was a big deal and I had plenty of that so I’m sure that helped with my admissions. GPA and LSAT mattered a lot, but the work experience was a big component back then as well.
Can someone guide me on housing steps? My OOS daughter submitted and paid $25 housing application last fall. She received an email for Next steps and all that did was ask her to confirm enrollment, which she did.
She sees something in her status portal to ‘review housing’ but that’s all it says and has no links or further instructions.
Does she need to do anything else to receive an on-campus housing contract? We are just waiting in limbo for the time being.
Thank you!
That is the difference in AP vs. DE, and all of the high schools moving toward DE in my opinion aren’t always considering the full implications to their students but at a minimum need to be more clear about this to their students. Dual Enrollment means you are enrolled in that course at that college, thus that grade is the course grade you have earned on a college transcript and will follow you anytime you are asked for a college transcript. I’m surprised the CC is going to ask for your grade to be changed, but I’m hopeful for you for a good outcome. Also please let me know if you do your own post about your results and choices, I’d like to read and follow it!
I actually just heard back from the CC this morning. They have a policy that allows dual enrollment people to remove up to 3 classes from their transcript. So I got all of the none A’s taken off. I’m super happy it worked out! I just going to CLEP Bio and get the same credit I lost. IMO, it’s just not fair for UF or any other college to be forcing DE students to add classes from high school onto their permanent transcript. It should always be a fresh start.
Well I don’t agree that its not fair, that is the intent of dual enrollment and you did benefit from taking those courses because they improved your course rigor which played a role in all of the college acceptances you received (CLEP credits do not add value to course rigor). It is also the risk of DE though as you’ve experienced, the fresh start you refer to would have come from the AP route, and that is why I said above that it frustrates me that a lot of high schools are moving toward all of these DE courses without fully explaining what that means in the long run, but I’m happy that its working out for you.
YAY! IT seems crazy, and probably something we should fix (we as in the royal “we”) that high school classes can follow you through your law school applications but I am so happy you got that taken care of so you do not even have to think about it. You really are a very smart, hard working young person and I have no doubt you will make an excellent lawyer.
I thought the way dual enrollment worked is you can choose to apply the credits and your grade counts too, or you can choose to not get college credit and then the grade doesn’t count?
I’ve been an attorney for 22 years and have not once been in a courtroom (nor do I want to have that type of practice).