Panic Already?

As you know, I've been doing a ton of Internet research (much preferable to doing actual work at work, afterall) and have been trying to soak up the knowledge of those who have come before me. I've picked up countless tidbits which I am squirreling away, be it studying techniques, Lexis points, the forced curve, or which teachers offer an engaging classroom experience.

I've found the 1L blogs to be invaluable for this sort of stuff, and have gone back in the archives of a few, reading their insights from the very beginning. (Currently up to March, 2004 of Waddling Thunder :) and have been skipping around topics of interest on Jeremy, Three Years of Hell, Jodasm, Letters of Marque, and Involuntary Blogslaughter. Just found a new one that seems to similar to my career path Transmogriflaw and her archives.)

However, there are some resources out there that have been decidedly less helpful. I am referring of course to my compatriots--other prospective One Ls. These folks are also in the midst of studying for the LSAT and applying to schools, and from the behavior evident over on the Pre-Law boards at lawschooldiscussion.org, they have quite the tendency to FREAK OUT.

With a few sane exceptions, it seems to me that these people are doing a better job of badgering each other and requesting pointless speculation than gathering anything particularly substantive about the admissions process. Soliciting advice from other just as confused strangers as to the merits of taking a prep course, reading Contracts and Torts books over the summer, or whether a personal statement on being a contortionist (no joke!) is a good enough topic for admission is nothing more than spinning your wheels and wasting bandwidth if you ask me. The panic state of some of these people literally jumps off of the screen, and if they don’t get an immediate answer to their most urgent question of whether being a “legacy” helps them or not, then you can look forward to the dubious pleasure of A!L!L C!A!P!S in their next post.

Really, how does the uninformed speculation of someone as equally lost as you help to determine if your combo of GPA and LSAT gets you into HYS? Come on, the Internet is a great place for information and I love it, but are you really going to buy into the opinions of anonymous board posters in the same “outside looking in” spot as you? Unless you happen to be the lucky recipient of some sort of remote control admissions officer, at best this sort of questioning leads to a temporary reassurance based on the putative honesty of “BigDawg929”, and at worst it causes you to continually obsess over something you can only do so well with and once its done you can’t ultimately control. Is it really this necessary to get an early start on the 1L stress?

Moral of the story: I’ve learned to stay away from the pre law boards. At least it served as a good reminder to be wary because you really don't know who you are getting advice from. I prefer the sister boards aimed at current students and graduates who offer actual experiences to compare and contrast. While the “grain of salt” with an Internet bulletin board maxim still exists, at least I’ve gotten some descriptive examples to offer a view into the law school experience.

If you're with me in considering Law School, you've probably got a good brain in your head, so don't forget to use it. Keep your wits about you by not feeding into the public paranoia. Ask good questions, and do your own research and analysis to separate the wheat from the chaff. Or the sane from the wackos, as the case may be.