Advice from the Greedy Law Students Board

Opinions on the Importance of the LSAT, the First Year, and Picking a Top 14 School

"#1: the LSAT is THE most important thing. i wish i had realized that before. everything else is details. your Ivy name should help (names always help), but forget about "science and engineering" being held in higher regard. "

1. True. True. True. A great LSAT can even overcome a not-so-stellar (but above 3.0) GPA, as it did for me. Schools talk about how they take the whole person into account when selecting from among candidates for admission, but the truth is, for the vast majority, it's LSAT, GPA and nothing else. There's just no time for them to carefully dissect every applicant, especially nowadays when everyone and their step-mom is applying to law school. I got into a better law school than several of my friends who went to Ivy-league schools (and who outperformed me GPA-wise) simply because my LSAT score blew theirs' away.

#2: Basically any of the top 14 (HYS down to Georgetown) can get you a job anywhere you want. Granted if you go to NYU, are from New York, and all of a sudden decide you want to live/work in Los Angeles you'll have to answer some questions about why you want to live there as firms want people who aren't coming for a summer/1-2 years of fun before bailing back home, but very few firms in any market will turn their noses up at any of these schools. The rule is if you can't go to a top 14 school go to a school near where you want to practice. If you get into a top 14 and aren't a complete social retard you will be able to get a job wherever you want. Period.

"#3: hit the ground running; the first semester in law school is the most important, and they decrease in importance from there. and yes, that is a bit twisted."

3. Unfortunately, this is very true. If you flub first semester, it's not pretty. It sucks, but so does law school. Of course, due to the intense competition, steep forced curve, and complete inigma that is law school teaching, most students will be sorely disappointed, and many who have spent their whole lives at the top of the class will suddenly find themselves merely average, or below average. I literally had to talk some friends off a ledge. If you dig yourself in too deep a hole after first year, no number of 3.6 semesters thereafter will save you, thus the sizeable attrition rates. To be honest, I don't understand why the whole bottom 1/3 of the class doesn't just drop out (not that I'm anywhere near the top 10% myself, but respectable). Case and point, my good friend from college, who just graduated cum laude from a top 20 law school. Sounds like a shoe-in for a big job, but he was in the bottom half of his class after first year and worked his ass off to recover the next two years. He's still jobless. Likewise, my friend, a 3rd year associate at NYC BIGLAW who made law review, but only graduated in the top 50% of his class from a 2nd tier school. In most professions, such a slacking-off after achieving top 10% after first year would be looked upon unfavorably, but such is the law. As grim as it sounds, the second two years of school don't matter to most recruiters. IF you do well first year, regardless of what comes after, you're golden. If you don't, forget it. Sounds like fun, doesn't it?