1L Questions About How Law School Really Works...

[yokyok]

Oh Wow!  What a response!  Just to stop everyone from worrying about me, I am actually not like this in real life.  I keep my thoughts to myself and my eyes open.  The point I am making is that the OP, like most law school students, don't know why they want to be a lawyer and what they are getting themselves into.  The OP is coming straight from undergrad, but as he admits, is clueless as to what to expect and how to approach it.  My question to him is why are you even going to law school?  Go get some work experience first and figure out if law is what you want to really do.  I mean it is a huge financial commitment that most 22 year olds, who have never had a full time job, even realize.  It is a huge time commitment, followed by hard work the likes of which most 22 year olds who "breezed through undergrad" don't know is about.  Hell, I am more than happy to surround myself in school with these "straight from undergrad" students who don't know what to expect and how to handle the pressures.  Law school is not a means to an end, but is rather a tool used to open up more doors than you can imagine.   Good luck to those who are going because there is nothing else to do, because they want to make good money, or because they want the prestige.  I hope when they finish and start practicing, they don't say to themselves "damn, law school was the biggest mistake of my life". 

I see self esteem is not a problem for you. Or maybe you're actually insecure and this is your way for compensating for it. You might learn by humbling yourself a little more - I'm afraid some of those straight-out-of-undergrad kids who "breezed by" in college might surprise you by ending up in the top 10% of the class (and NO, I am not going straight out of undergrad)... particularly people like the OP who obviously understands he will not be able to breeze by and is trying to prepare for the challenge.

[cyberrev]

Average LSAT Scores for 14 Majors with More than 400 Students Taking the Exam

Physics/math 157.6
Philosophy/religion 156.0
Economics 155.3
International relations 155.1
Chemistry 154.5
Government/service 154.4
Anthropology/geography 154.1
History 154.0
English 153.7
Biology 153.6
Other social science 153.2
Engineering 152.7
Foreign languages 152.5
Finance 152.2
Computer science 152.2
Psychology 151.9
Accounting 151.8
Political science 151.6
Communication/arts 150.7
Marketing/real estate 150.0

ha!  my graduate degree in religion therefore kicks the *&^% out of your engineering undegrad.  so neener neener.

[baytostay]

My fave is that "other social science" which likely includes many majors people consider easy (sociology, gender studies, etc.) STILL beats engineering.

[flydog]

I didn't even know there was such a thing as a real estate major. Wow.

Thats where cab drivers come from

[Barney]

Oh Wow!  What a response!  Just to stop everyone from worrying about me, I am actually not like this in real life.  I keep my thoughts to myself and my eyes open.  The point I am making is that the OP, like most law school students, don't know why they want to be a lawyer and what they are getting themselves into.  The OP is coming straight from undergrad, but as he admits, is clueless as to what to expect and how to approach it.  My question to him is why are you even going to law school?  Go get some work experience first and figure out if law is what you want to really do.  I mean it is a huge financial commitment that most 22 year olds, who have never had a full time job, even realize.  It is a huge time commitment, followed by hard work the likes of which most 22 year olds who "breezed through undergrad" don't know is about.  Hell, I am more than happy to surround myself in school with these "straight from undergrad" students who don't know what to expect and how to handle the pressures.  Law school is not a means to an end, but is rather a tool used to open up more doors than you can imagine.   Good luck to those who are going because there is nothing else to do, because they want to make good money, or because they want the prestige.  I hope when they finish and start practicing, they don't say to themselves "damn, law school was the biggest mistake of my life". 

 I think you make a fair (if obvious) point that a lot of folks, particularly those who enroll right after undergrad, are going to LS for wrong/naive reasons. 

I'm sure you, though, being one of the mere 120 million Americans who held a full time job last year, are above that.   

[PhiMuAmberkins]

Oh man, I love reading a post like this one.  Classic example of someone who breezed through undergrad with an easy major, and now finally realizes he needs to do some actual independent thinking in school.  You should have chosen engineering as a major, it forces you to think deeply and examine all the possible scenarios.  I did engineering, and I have no question about my capabilities of succeeding this fall.  I imagine for me LS will actually be easier than undergrad.  Good luck my man, you are in for a wake up call.  Who knows, hopefully before the end of your first year, you'll learn how to think on your own rather than regurgitating facts from a text book and getting that easy A. 

I dont like this post.

Not even his "You should have chosen engineering as a major" advice?  I mean, that's universally applicable to everyone, right?  People who want to go to law school shouldn't worry about whether they're actually interested in or suited for engineering, they should just get it so that they will be forced to "think deeply."  Had I done so, I would have "no question about my capabilities of succeeding" in law school.

Rico, where were you when I was a high school senior?  You could've prevented my life from becoming a complete and total failure.

I don't like it either.  I guess as a history major at a school with an exceptionally hard history program, and a poli. sci. minor with a professor who writes for the state newspaper and speaks/reads fluent russian just makes me a failure.  *sigh*  If only we had engineering as a major...my life would be complete.

[Einstein]

Average LSAT Scores for 14 Majors with More than 400 Students Taking the Exam

Physics/math 157.6
Philosophy/religion 156.0
Economics 155.3
International relations 155.1
Chemistry 154.5
Government/service 154.4
Anthropology/geography 154.1
History 154.0
English 153.7
Biology 153.6
Other social science 153.2
Engineering 152.7
Foreign languages 152.5
Finance 152.2
Computer science 152.2
Psychology 151.9
Accounting 151.8
Political science 151.6
Communication/arts 150.7
Marketing/real estate 150.0

Yea, my thoughts on why engineers do so bad on the LSAT is because we are not required to read our textbooks.  I made it through entire classes without even opening the text.  I know the hardest part of the LSAT for me was the part with the words.. if everything was an equation then it would be just like engineering.  Plus the majority of people that are in engineering have english for a second language.  I know that me and one other kid where the only person in most of my engineering classes that didn't have some sort of foriegn accent.  It was so funny, at my campus on one side was the engineering building and the other side there was the business building.  It was almost like a segregated campus lol...

This factor has to affect the engineering LSAT scores to some extent. 

[Einstein]

Also engineers are known for being horrible at reading comp.  If you were horrible at reading composition and still wanted to go to college and be successful, then computer science/engineering is perfect.  All you have to do is memorize all of the different programming languages or equations and learn how to apply them.  No dense reading involved.  Just application of principals.  Engineers are good at logic reasoning but only with the manipulation of numbers and equations.

[incognito]

A little off-topic, but I thought it was interesting that all those averages were above the supposed national average (150).  I'm curious as to what majors/concentrations average below that mark.

I've seen that list before and the bottom?  Pre-law and criminology.

http://www.ivc.edu/econ/lsatscores.aspx

[Einstein]

A little off-topic, but I thought it was interesting that all those averages were above the supposed national average (150).  I'm curious as to what majors/concentrations average below that mark.

HAHA that's great lol