Should I stay???

[New to Forum]

Dropped from the top 25% to bottom 10% in a single semester. Should I stay? Will I really be able to find "real employment" with these horrific #'s on my transcript?

[ReasonablePerson]

Wow!  That sucks!  What happened??

If you think you can get back to where you once were, you can still walk with a decent GPA.  I heard a saying recently, which you may find comforting...

"A" Students are law school professors
"B" Students are judges
"C" Students are millionaires

As long as you pass the bar, you'll most likely find a job (it might not be the highest paid position, but after a year or two your experience will be more important then your grades (so I hear...).

Best of luck!

RP

[jeffjoe]

How badly do you want to be a lawyer?

One semester is only one semester.  I suggest you figure out what went wrong and fix it.  Tough it out.

[te loren]

hang in there. it happens to a lot of law students.

[buggirl92002]

I had one bad semester and managed to lose my entire full-tuition scholarship. I'm still in law school. The best advice I have is if you want to be a lawyer, relax and don't fight the process. If you're past the first year, you're already 1/3 of the way there. What's another couple of years?

[ajlynnette]

stick it out, forum, especially if it's your first sememster. if it's your second? maybe you can make it up over the summer and at least get back into the top 40-50%! that way you'd be ready to take on the fall and get back up into that upper 15-25% by the time the summer associate positions start poppin' up.

good luck to you!!

[vw515]

dont give up. Try networking There are plenty of organizations you can join outside of school. Get to know the right people and you can still get in a good firm. You can always bring your grades back up.

[Penge]

I've been in the bottom 15% of my class since my 1L year. I just finished my 3L year (I have one more to go since I am a part-time student), but I'm not worried about my prospects at all.

Why? Because I work hard to compensate for my low grades. I haven't bothered with the career services office, or on campus interviewing. I sent my resume and a cover letter to agencies I was interested in working for. As a result, I've had some amazing clerkships with private firms and the DA's office. I've done Directed Research projects for professors, which has bolstered my writing sample portfolio and given me awesome new contacts. To top it off, my self-marketing managed to score me a summer internship on Capitol Hill (which as far as I know, I am the first person from my school to do).

Grades are important, sure...to the extent that you don't flunk out. But if you market yourself appropriately, you can make up for your academic shortcomings.