Law School Questions and Answers - Part 1

So I get a lot of questions about law school... what it's like, how I decided where to go, if I'm glad I went, etc. etc. etc. Since it's almost April, that means it's time that a whole new batch of you are making your decisions about where to go, so I figured this is a good time to do a law school info post. 

I also get lots of questions from 1L's and 2L's, so I'll answer those too. 

I might do a couple more of these throughout this week and next, because I have a feeling that my answers are going to lead to more questions, and my other fellow law student/lawyer bloggers might have something to add, so shoot me an e-mail or comment and let me know if you agree/disagree/whatever. 

(some of these are from what people asked me on formspring, yay copy/paste for lazy bloggers!)

So here we go:

I. Going to Law School

When did you decide you wanted to go to law school?

Law school has always been my plan. I wanted to be a lawyer before I knew what a lawyer did - I thought getting paid to argue every day would be cool, and lady lawyers looked tough. Now I know better, but it's still what I want to do. :)

I'm in the process of choosing where I want to go to law school next fall. I know that you should pick a school in an area you would want to live in afterward, but do you have any other words of advice?

First off - YES, definitely go to a school in an area you want to practice. 

I suppose I would say to go wherever offers you the most scholarship money, because debt sucks and you're going to want to have as little of it as possible! And on that note - BE CAREFUL about scholarships because a lot of schools give out scholarships to students that require you keep a certain GPA to keep your scholarship - those suck because the vast majority of people do not keep them! 

Definitely go somewhere you will want to live for the next 5 years or so. If you hate the living in a small town, don't go to a law school in a college town. If you hate being in a big city, don't go to law school in a city! Law school sucks enough as it is, don't make it even worse for yourself than it's already going to be!

Also - consider where you know people. If you know NO ONE in a city, that might be a really hard place to go to school, especially if you're shy. I am SO THANKFUL that I have college and other friends here. You see law school people enough at school, it's nice to have other people to hang out with on the weekends and when you need to get away from law school! It would have been really hard for me to move somewhere where I knew no one. I like having my "law school friends" and my "college friends" and my roommate and all my gays. It's nice to be able to get away from one group of people and hang out with another (especially during high stress times at school!). 

How did you choose your law school? Did you have an "ah ha!" moment or pick based on practical factors?

I only applied to law schools in cities that I knew I would want to live in for three years as well as for after I graduated, since it's generally easiest to get a job near where you went to school. 

I pretty much didn't apply to any "safety" schools. I only applied to decently good schools that I figured I had a pretty good shot at getting into. 
My school waitlisted me first, then let me in pretty quickly thereafter (found out in March of senior year of college), and it was the only one in Chicago that I applied to and got into, so it was a pretty easy decision. 

I got waitlisted at a couple of other schools but didn't want to sit out a waitlist and end up moving the day before I started school or some nightmare like that, so when you only get in to 1 school, the decision of where to go is easy! 

(actually I should add in here that I did get accepted to a couple of other schools... after I realized I was mostly getting rejected/waitlisted, I panicked and applied to a couple "safety" schools. I got in there, but once I got in at the school I attend I pretty much forgot about them.). 

Do you like law school?

NO. Law school is stupid. The worst part about law school? Law students. They're idiots. You don't learn anything in law school. It's expensive, and it's dumb. HOWEVER, I still want to be a lawyer, and I'm glad I'm there. Not as glad as I am to be less than 90 days from being finished with it, but glad I did it.

Also - there are parts about law school that I have enjoyed. I am a member of an incredible clinic. My clinic is 2 semesters long, and I've learned more in these 2 semesters than I learned in the first 24 years of my academic life and in having 2 jobs at law firms (no, I'm not exaggerating). In my clinic I have learned what it's actually like to be a lawyer. Which leads me to the next question – 

Do you still WANT to be a lawyer?

YES, very much so! I'm currently in a death penalty clinic and we have a death penalty trial that we're preparing for and also a post-conviction appeal that we're working on. I find criminal law fascinating, and it's absolutely what I want to do. I have always wanted to prosecute, so I'm surprised I like working on the defense as much as I do, but I definitely still want to be a lawyer.

There are parts of being a lawyer that suck, and I realize that. There are parts of my clerking job that I hate (mostly when I have NO idea what I'm doing and feel like a total dumb dumb), but I know that I very much want to be a lawyer. 

More Q and A's coming tomorrow - mostly about what it's like to be a law student and how I've survived 3 years!