Law School Discussion

Good luck to everyone. 

Quote from: Lindbergh on July 27, 2008, 07:08:40 AM

Quote from: kenpostudent on July 27, 2008, 03:50:38 AM

Quote from: Contract2008 on July 26, 2008, 08:46:52 PM

Even with your curren score PLUS URM status, you have a good chance of getting into some lower Top 14 law schools, especially Cornell, Georgetown, Duke and particularly Boalt.  You should also apply to Vandy and others. With a degree from those schools, you're virtually guaranteed a six figure income.  With a degree from FSU, you have to be close to the top to get a six figure job.

As if a six figure income is all that matters in a legal education! I guess I missed that memo.

Most people want this out of law school, fwiw.

Quite frankly, they are probably picking the wrong profession. For the hours you have to work at a big law firm, you are a complete idiot to go to law school to make $160k per year and top out at around $2-5 million a year when you can find other professions that top in the hundreds of millions. Managers of small hedge funds work the hours of a big law associate but make $40 million per year. Managers of moderate to large hedge funds make $400-$800 million per year. Some make over a billion annually. CEOs of large companies make comparable money. If you're going to chase the almighty dollar, law school is a low rent way to do it (at least big law firm work). You can parlay a legal education into that kind of career, for sure. Big firm work is plantation labor in comparison.

And CEO positions and Hedge fund manager positions are just SOOOOOOOOOO easy to get.   

The state of Florida does not practice AA, so it doesn't matter. Your numbers are fine for any of the law schools in FL. People with lower numbers than yours get into UF and FSU. Good luck!

You're correct that the official policy of the State of Florida is to not practice AA. However.... I know several FSU law students who are African American and received substantial (if not full) scholarships when they did not have the typical numbers to receive these types of scholarships. (in fact, for several of them, their numbers were substantially below even the 25% ranges of LSAT and GPA) I'm not saying AA is a bad thing in most aspects, but even though its not the official policy of the State of Florida to practice AA, it doesn't mean its not done.

To the OP: Regardless of what you decide, you should be fine at FSU with your GPA and LSAT. You should also be good at UF. However.... I knew at least one girl at FSU Law who had basically your same numbers, (and a UF alumn). FSU accepted her right off the bat, but UF Law took forever to accept her. She actually purposely decided NOT to attend UF because of this. (took it as a slap in the face actually...she was a part of UF's hall of fame, and they still did this to her)

Good luck.

Quote from: Budlaw on July 23, 2008, 06:01:16 PM

Quote from: NoUsername on July 22, 2008, 09:58:43 AM

So you guys have done 1200 and reviewed explanations?  That is insane.


I just did 50, so now I am up to 400 or so.  I thought I did really horrible, I couldn't even keep my eyes open.  But I got 84%, which would come out to a 176 on the full test.  I know that is an anamoly, but it is still an ego boost.

I will have done 1200 when I take my last practice MBE tomorrow. But its still not anywhere near what PMBR recommended. (and by the way.... having taken PMBR's practice MBE, and a real previously released MBE, I've got to say that PMBR's is a lot harder than the actual MBEs)

To echo everyone else, everyone learns differently, so you don't have to do that many practice questions just so long as you can learn the material. Just doing practice questions does you no good unless you understand the material, and WHY you got it right, or WHY you got it wrong. This isn't like the LSAT.

Also, I've pretty much stopped being insane on my studying too. I'll do a simulated MBE tomorrow, but for the past week and a half,(and for the rest of this week) I've just been reading over materials, and looking at old Georgia essays and their answers. Because lets face it, if we don't know the law at this point, we're not going to learn it in 5 days.

For those of you taking the MPT: How are you approaching this? I have a "mpt trainer" course, but I've found that its basically for idiots who don't know how to write a closed memo (or client letter, or whatever it is they ask you to draft). So I basically scrapped it. I think the best thing to do with this is just know what the format of the MPT is, and then don't be freaked out when you only have 90 minutes to do it. It seems like a fairly straightforward task in that you are given the law, and then you have to do a task.

Any thoughts out there?

Bar/Bri gave us a book of old MPTs.  I ran through a "client letter" one the other day, reading the library and outlining an answer, just to get into the swing of the "normal" legal analysis again.  I'll probably just read through some of their example formats that are foreign to me (like the ones that ask you to draft a contract or a will) just so I've seen it.  But otherwise, I'm not going to do much.  I don't see how you can do much.

The only good advice Bar/Bri gave is to read the call of the question first in the memo/assignment (e.g. what issues you have to address), and then go right to the library and outline the "law" on the issue, and then, last, read the facts.  That's pretty much the only way I see to do it within 90 minutes, but the knee jerk reaction to go through in order and read the facts second (since they come before the law).

Yeah that pretty much how I planned on doing it.

BTW, if I hear "call of the question" ever again after the Bar Exam, I think I might punch someone. 

So you guys have done 1200 and reviewed explanations?  That is insane.


I just did 50, so now I am up to 400 or so.  I thought I did really horrible, I couldn't even keep my eyes open.  But I got 84%, which would come out to a 176 on the full test.  I know that is an anamoly, but it is still an ego boost.

I will have done 1200 when I take my last practice MBE tomorrow. But its still not anywhere near what PMBR recommended. (and by the way.... having taken PMBR's practice MBE, and a real previously released MBE, I've got to say that PMBR's is a lot harder than the actual MBEs)

To echo everyone else, everyone learns differently, so you don't have to do that many practice questions just so long as you can learn the material. Just doing practice questions does you no good unless you understand the material, and WHY you got it right, or WHY you got it wrong. This isn't like the LSAT.

Also, I've pretty much stopped being insane on my studying too. I'll do a simulated MBE tomorrow, but for the past week and a half,(and for the rest of this week) I've just been reading over materials, and looking at old Georgia essays and their answers. Because lets face it, if we don't know the law at this point, we're not going to learn it in 5 days.

For those of you taking the MPT: How are you approaching this? I have a "mpt trainer" course, but I've found that its basically for idiots who don't know how to write a closed memo (or client letter, or whatever it is they ask you to draft). So I basically scrapped it. I think the best thing to do with this is just know what the format of the MPT is, and then don't be freaked out when you only have 90 minutes to do it. It seems like a fairly straightforward task in that you are given the law, and then you have to do a task.

Any thoughts out there?