What do I do when I get back from China?

College Life
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<p>I spent last year as a freshman at the University of Chicago. The school was not my first choice. I was never passionate about it, and I didn’t get money to go there – I had to pay the sticker price. I did well, but for the most part felt purposeless, and essentially I felt my time was being wasted on filler classes that I learned nothing from. Pointless (but expensive!) crendentialism.</p>

<p>Now I’m in China, having received a full scholarship from the Chinese government to spend a year at a university here. I’m having one hell of a time, I’m loving it, and most importantly, I’m learning a tremendous amount of stuff. But when I tell people that I spend over $50,000 every year on school in the United States, they look at me with such a look of shock that I don’t say that anymore. It’s just embarrassing, really, because prices like that simply don’t exist elsewhere.</p>

<p>It’s gotten me thinking that there may not be a point in returning to the University of Chicago. I don’t have a major, and there’s nothing I want to learn in particular (besides Chinese, which you can learn anywhere) – my only goal in going to college is to get a diploma that I don’t need but without which I can’t do anything (which in this case is probably going to be law school). It really doesn’t matter to me whether I go to community college or Harvard. (The real problem is that 4-year colleges are forced on you whether they are of use to you or not, but let’s leave that for another day.)</p>

<p>So my question is this: Should I transfer to a cheaper state school? Would it greatly affect the odds of my getting into an elite law school, assuming my GPA stays at 3.9 or so and my LSAT scores are very high?</p>

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<p>if you have a 3.9 and a high LSAT, you will be in excellent shape for law school</p>

3

<p>So does it matter, then? I should screw UChicago and transfer?</p>

4

<p>if you have a 3.9 and a high LSAT, you will have your choice of law schools. If you transfer, make sure you transfer somewhere with a Chinese program (does Chicago have Chinese?). It’s not one of the standard languages.</p>

<p>now, when your GPA is lower, a high LSAT can make up for it. Check the law school forum for more advice.</p>