Law School???

[omgitswes]

So i've been thinking about law school a lot recently. Right now I'm working on an electrical engineering major and I have an intern for it, but thisis the last week for it cause of school. Anyway the more I actually work around engineers the more I realize that I don't think that's what I want tobe doing for the rest of my life, and this is where law school comes in. I told my mother and she said that I could still get my BS degree in EE and then tryto apply for law school, idk how that works out but oh well. So I'm just posting this to see if anyone of yall could help me out or anyone else out who isconsidering law school....my main question right now is what did you get your BS degree in?

 

[carlos tevez]

You have an advantage over other applicants with an Engineering degree since your degree probably stands out more than other applicant's degrees andengineering is generally more difficult.

Anyways, as you probably know, you can apply to law school with any degree...just take the LSAT and after that see which schools will likely accept you basedoff of their admissions from last year.

 

[antonlavey]

I wanna try out this law school thing for the LULZ

.

 

[ubuibeme]

I posted some law school info in a thread about jobs yesterday, but dont mind shedding some more light on law school. You can get into law school with a degreein EE. In fact, it will look very impressive. I got my B.S. in Marketing & Finance, got a 155 on the LSAT (only studied for one month, plus being aresident assistant while trying to study)

one of the worst decisions of my life. I got into Ohio State Law and Wake Forest Law. I'm black btw. Being aminority helps because I know some individuals who got into Ohio State law school with a 149, but went to a prominent undergrad and had a solid under gradmajor. I also know another minority who got into Carolina with a 149 on the LSAT, but had a decent major and some solid letters of recommendation.

Where are you getting your degree from? I know Houston, Texas recruits a lot of engineering students and their starting salary is

.

Oh, almost forgot. I'm not doing law school because of scholarship offers. I got some decent money, but not enough to make me consider it right now.I'm in Teach For America teaching high school Geometry for 2 years..

 

[dapper d]

Originally Posted by UbUiBeMe

I posted some law school info in a thread about jobs yesterday, but dont mind shedding some more light on law school. You can get into law school with a degree in EE. In fact, it will look very impressive. I got my B.S. in Marketing & Finance, got a 155 on the LSAT (only studied for one month, plus being a resident assistant while trying to study)

one of the worst decisions of my life. I got into Ohio State Law and Wake Forest Law. I'm black btw. Being a minority helps because I know some individuals who got into Ohio State law school with a 149, but went to a prominent undergrad and had a solid under grad major. I also know another minority who got into Carolina with a 149 on the LSAT, but had a decent major and some solid letters of recommendation.

Where are you getting your degree from? I know Houston, Texas recruits a lot of engineering students and their starting salary is

.

Oh, almost forgot. I'm not doing law school because of scholarship offers. I got some decent money, but not enough to make me consider it right now. I'm in Teach For America teaching high school Geometry for 2 years..

How was your gpa ?

 

[ravagebx]

Engineering Degree = Patent Law = $$$$

Do it.

 

[ubuibeme]

3.73

 

[omgitswes]

Originally Posted by RavageBX

Engineering Degree = Patent Law = $$$$

Do it.

that's exactly what my mother told me.
another question i'm fairly new to this subject. do you have to be partner at a major firm in order to make money?
and are there interns at law firms like there are for other careers

 

[omgitswes]

and when do I take the LSAT?
i'll check back in the morning thanks for the help so far

 

[ubuibeme]

Originally Posted by omgitswes

Originally Posted by RavageBX

Engineering Degree = Patent Law = $$$$

Do it.

that's exactly what my mother told me.
another question i'm fairly new to this subject. do you have to be partner at a major firm in order to make money?
and are there interns at law firms like there are for other careers

Best believe you will work 50+ hours a week for that nice salary..You dont have to be a partner at a major firm to make money. Associatestypically start at $120-160K, depending on their location/experience. Also, a female friend of mine graduated from Northwestern law, did an externship atJ&D in Chi-Town, and made 3K+ per week AFTER TAXES...

.. I dont wannagive too much info out, but she graduated like #3 or 4 in her class, and is living good in Chi-town. But once again, you make the nice salary, you will put inmad hours at the firm.

 

[al audi]

Originally Posted by omgitswes

So i've been thinking about law school a lot recently. Right now I'm working on an electrical engineering major and I have an intern for it, but this is the last week for it cause of school. Anyway the more I actually work around engineers the more I realize that I don't think that's what I want to be doing for the rest of my life, and this is where law school comes in. I told my mother and she said that I could still get my BS degree in EE and then try to apply for law school, idk how that works out but oh well. So I'm just posting this to see if anyone of yall could help me out or anyone else out who is considering law school....my main question right now is what did you get your BS degree in?

god bless em cuz we need them, but i swear most people do this for the money.

i dunno im just talkin from what i know cuz i know more than a handful of kids who switched out of an engineer major.

its hard work too

 

[carlos tevez]

Originally Posted by UbUiBeMe

Originally Posted by omgitswes

Originally Posted by RavageBX

Engineering Degree = Patent Law = $$$$

Do it.

that's exactly what my mother told me.
another question i'm fairly new to this subject. do you have to be partner at a major firm in order to make money?
and are there interns at law firms like there are for other careers

Best believe you will work 50+ hours a week for that nice salary..You dont have to be a partner at a major firm to make money. Associates typically start at $120-160K, depending on their location/experience. Also, a female friend of mine graduated from Northwestern law, did an externship at J&D in Chi-Town, and made 3K+ per week AFTER TAXES...

.. I dont wanna give too much info out, but she graduated like #3 or 4 in her class, and is living good in Chi-town. But once again, you make the nice salary, you will put in mad hours at the firm.

I think it's important to note that probably less than 5% of law students will end up like your friend. She went to a top 10 law school andgraduated really high out of her class and works in the country's 3rd biggest city. From what I've read, most law students do NOT have this kind ofsuccess right after graduation.

 

[russ tha g]

^ Is right. I'm interning at a big firm here in Houston and the interns are pretty much just leg work as undergrads. Then, once you're in law school,you can come in as a summer associate where they pay you on a starting associate's salary, but only for a month or two. I saw a document online spellingout the pay levels for associates and the start was $160k, 8 year associate was listed at $230k with ~$40k bonus. Partners would be doing even better. Keep inmind, this is a huge firm with branches across the globe. I hear most firms pay competitively with the big firms, but that as starting salaries continue toincrease, the smaller ones are beginning to have a bigger discrepancy in pay from the bigger ones.

Also, as an associate you're expected to meet the minimum of 2,000 billed hours per year. Also, if your client is big enough, you may have to work laterand longer than you'd expect. I was talking to an attorney on a Monday and she said she was at work until 10PM the night before... a Sunday. However, whenyou're an associate trying to make it to partner, you pretty much need to be willing to put the rest of your life on hold.

I'm glad I have a foot in the door, but if I don't do particularly well on my LSAT it will be a bit of a bust because a 150 won't look tooimpressive next to my ~3.3 GPA.

 

[carlos tevez]

I'm having SOOOOOOOOOO much trouble finding motivation to study for the LSAT...it's making me mad. I copped the bibles and old tests back in April,enrolled with LSAC in May and signed up for the September 26 LSAT. So far I've only read like 100 pages of the logical reasoning bible and haven't doneany practice tests. I think I'm gonna have to withdraw from the September LSAT and go for the December one. The problem is, I'm lacking the motivationto study and I'm worried I wont be prepared for the December one either.

 

[bijald0331]

^LSAT is so make or break. You get a 175+ on that and it could make up for 4 years of underachieving pronto.

 

[jcach]

Originally Posted by Carlos Tevez

Originally Posted by UbUiBeMe

Originally Posted by omgitswes

Originally Posted by RavageBX

Engineering Degree = Patent Law = $$$$

Do it.

that's exactly what my mother told me.
another question i'm fairly new to this subject. do you have to be partner at a major firm in order to make money?
and are there interns at law firms like there are for other careers

Best believe you will work 50+ hours a week for that nice salary..You dont have to be a partner at a major firm to make money. Associates typically start at $120-160K, depending on their location/experience. Also, a female friend of mine graduated from Northwestern law, did an externship at J&D in Chi-Town, and made 3K+ per week AFTER TAXES...

.. I dont wanna give too much info out, but she graduated like #3 or 4 in her class, and is living good in Chi-town. But once again, you make the nice salary, you will put in mad hours at the firm.

I think it's important to note that probably less than 5% of law students will end up like your friend. She went to a top 10 law school and graduated really high out of her class and works in the country's 3rd biggest city. From what I've read, most law students do NOT have this kind of success right after graduation.

QFT. If you're making $160K straight out of law school you most likely a) went to a T14 law school b) graduated atthe top of your class and c) set yourself up for success during your 1L and 2L summers. Granted, there are those exceptions to the rule who catch a good break,but with the economy the way it is don't look at $120-$160K with any kind of certainty.

OP, your EE degree will give you an incremental step up when it comes to admissions, especially with a good GPA. However, it's not going to turn a 151 LSATinto a 160+ or a 2.7 into a 3.3+ GPA. It does look good though, especially when compared to run-of-the-mill polisci/history/english degrees (like mine

). I took the LSAT in Sept of 09 after studying for most of the summer.If you're not planning on going for the 09-10 admissions cycle, I'd suggest taking the June test, and then the Sept if needed. Putting all my eggs inone basket was pretty stressful.

Hope this helps man.

 

[ubuibeme]

Sorry I may have mislead him, but point taken.

 

[icup]

Yo it all depends on what school you go to. 160k is the normal starting salary at big firms in Washington, DC and New York. I go to Howard and many of ourgraduates in the top 30% of our class get those jobs when they graduate. Moreover, you will be working 50+ hours a week and there is no way around it, but whatother profession allows a person to make a starting salary of 160k without putting in 50+ hours a week? I'm in law school now, 159 LSAT and 3.6 gpa andhave a 25k scholarship at Howard. I could have went to Georgetown, GW, UMD or other top 40 schools but when you are doing your school search make sure you seehow many employers go to that school for recruiting. We have 306 employers coming to our school during this recession, and theoretically if everyone of thoseemployers gave out a job, everyone in the class of 2011 would have a close to 2 jobs.

With an engineering degree you will be way ahead of your classmates. To get into Intellectual Property (IP) most firms now want someone with a technicalbackground, so therefore you will be able to get jobs that I am not qualified for. I have a BS in Political Science and Economics. An IP firm would hire youbefore they hire me any day because you can prosecute patents. Also if you do not do well on September, you can take the December LSAT. I actually used myscores from the February LSAT to apply for schools. If you need more advice or have more questions let me know.

 

[andrew630]

I'm signed up for the LSAT at the end of Sept., but I got wait-listed because all the spots are filled. I gotta get cracking with those LSAT bibles, thereasoning and comprehension sections are pretty tough.

 

[andrew630]

Originally Posted by Carlos Tevez

I'm having SOOOOOOOOOO much trouble finding motivation to study for the LSAT...it's making me mad. I copped the bibles and old tests back in April, enrolled with LSAC in May and signed up for the September 26 LSAT. So far I've only read like 100 pages of the logical reasoning bible and haven't done any practice tests. I think I'm gonna have to withdraw from the September LSAT and go for the December one. The problem is, I'm lacking the motivation to study and I'm worried I wont be prepared for the December one either.

i'm on the same boat, except I think i'll just tough it out for both the sept and dec lsat

 

[carlos tevez]

What did you guys ask your references to write in your letters of recommendation?

I just graduated in June and near the end of my last semester I asked 3 professors for LORs in the future. One of them who I NEVER talked to in the entiresemester said he'd do it since I got a pretty good mark in his class. The 2nd one said that since he's so "busy", I'd have to write theletter and then he'd print it on school paper and mail it out. I got a B+ in the 3rd class so the proff was like "You should ask a Professor in whichyou got a better mark in"...I think that he rejected me

BTW, how big of a difference does being a minority make? I am a visible minority who's lived in Canada for all but 3 years of my life. Will it"help" my application? I plan on only applying to American schools. Ofcourse I'd rather get in based on my credentials but if being a minorityhelps, I might as well take advantage of it.

 

[carlos tevez]

bump

 

[mht214]

Law School FTW.

 

[baalnood]

go 4 it dude.

 

[jdashr]

guys first and foremost dont apply if you are merely thinbking about lschool. take the lsat and apply if u truly wish to go. take these considerations into urmind:
1) law is unlike engineering where there are formulas. Law is about research, precedent, persuasion, and writing ability.
2) law school is unlike any type of schooling you have ever experienced. it combines massive amounts of reading to understand and deduce what can be summed upin two sentences.
3) law school final exams (which your entire grade will consist of) is usually one long or a couple of hypothetical situations where u have to apply what youlearned in class. While you may know everything and spot every issue, the exams are usually so similar that it will come down to sheer organizing and writingability (clear and succint)
4) law school is filled with those kids in your college class that were always on point (aka the nerds who sat in the fron answering every question)
5) they will also usually consist of people who have been out of school for a few years who have probably taken law preview courses to help them ace the"curve" in law school, not to mention recieve assitance form their siblings/mother/father who are lawyers judges etc.
6) the concept of a large starting salary coming out of lawschool is very difficult to attain as only a small amount of lawyers coming out of lawschool amkethat. taking into account the effect the market has on hiring and salaries, biglaw will probably be changed forever (aka dont expect some big fancy salaryunless ur at a t10 scool- and to get in there with the level of increased competition will be a very hard feat with anyone wit a sub 3.5 and a sub 168-9)
7) since kids nowadays dont know what to do with their worthless undergrad degree in english or polisci or soc, they choose law school to try and make bank,maybe pay off their loans. wrong idea, you will hate it.

op imo, stick with engineering. doesnt make sense to take out 180 k to go to lschool for a miniscule chance to make a salary you can be near if u put those 3years advancing ur career in engineering.