"Let me show you something"
Foot in Mouth over at the blog of same name, offers the following advice on the law school application process. His advice is excellent and I believe every aspiring law student should heed it closely. However, I think there is one critical component of going to law school that he misses.
Going to law school straight from undergrad is the biggest mistake I have ever made. As Phil Carter once said to me during office hours, "No one should be allowed to go to law school unless they've worked full time for a year or more unless they have so much to offer to the legal world that the entire community would suffer if they didn't enter it immediately." He said this with a tinge of sarcasm as I had told him that I've applied to law schools and am in the middle of considering offers of admissions, etc. HE WAS AND STILL IS RIGHT!!!! Work after you graduate...go out and do something productive. Working at a law firm as a paralegal is the cheap way out I might add. This realization fully hit me in the face last night as I was having a chat at a bar with one of the people in my module. For three years or so after graduating he worked as a political risk consultant in the Central Asian former Soviet Republics (the Stans). As someone born in the former USSR and someone whose dad served in Uzbekistan while in the Red Army, I must say I was captivated. This is just one example. The entire class is full of people like him...each bringing experiences that are even more unique than others. I f you want to go to law school, you should be one of these people...succeed at whatever you do after you graduate, then see if changing careers to law is what you want to do. About the worst thing you can do is to continue on the assumption that you've always wanted to be a lawyer and that undergrad is simply a means to that end. While I didn't have this particular mentality, I have seen plenty who do.
Oh yeah and we even have an editor from US News and World Report...I'm assuming this is the paper that Foot in Mouth is referring to when he mentions rankings, but he keeps saying USA Today.
Going to law school straight from undergrad is the biggest mistake I have ever made. As Phil Carter once said to me during office hours, "No one should be allowed to go to law school unless they've worked full time for a year or more unless they have so much to offer to the legal world that the entire community would suffer if they didn't enter it immediately." He said this with a tinge of sarcasm as I had told him that I've applied to law schools and am in the middle of considering offers of admissions, etc. HE WAS AND STILL IS RIGHT!!!! Work after you graduate...go out and do something productive. Working at a law firm as a paralegal is the cheap way out I might add. This realization fully hit me in the face last night as I was having a chat at a bar with one of the people in my module. For three years or so after graduating he worked as a political risk consultant in the Central Asian former Soviet Republics (the Stans). As someone born in the former USSR and someone whose dad served in Uzbekistan while in the Red Army, I must say I was captivated. This is just one example. The entire class is full of people like him...each bringing experiences that are even more unique than others. I f you want to go to law school, you should be one of these people...succeed at whatever you do after you graduate, then see if changing careers to law is what you want to do. About the worst thing you can do is to continue on the assumption that you've always wanted to be a lawyer and that undergrad is simply a means to that end. While I didn't have this particular mentality, I have seen plenty who do.
Oh yeah and we even have an editor from US News and World Report...I'm assuming this is the paper that Foot in Mouth is referring to when he mentions rankings, but he keeps saying USA Today.
posted by Armen Adzhemyan at 11:33 AM
2 Comments:
I originally assumed Foot in Mouth is a female...I have since corrected that in case anyone is wondering what HE's referring to.
interesting. i never thought about doing such a thing. thanks armen. will do, will do. cheryl
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