Law School, LSAT....Opinions?

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This is not a particularly serious question…I just need some opinions, because I really want to make a good impression.

Okay. So the other day, I was at my college, registering for fall classes. My advisor informed me that after having spoken to my professors, and looked at my grades, she has decided to recommend me for a very prestigious internship in the Attorney General’s office. “We only send the best of the best. And you are the best of the best,” She said. I was astounded, and am still in shock. For the first time in my life, I actually feel accomplished and like things are looking up.

With that in mind, I have seriously been considering law school. I have musculoskeletal issues, and it would be foolish of me to go into a physically demanding profession like policing. I’ve come to terms with this, and realized that not only do I score extremely well in law, I also have a passion for it.

So I called a local law school and will be going for a tour next Thursday! My question is this: What is appropriate attire for this meeting? I don’t want to overdo it and look overdressed, but I also do not want to look frumpy. Any ideas? Please pray for me! I also will be taking the LSAT soon!!
 
lovedance4ever said:
This is not a particularly serious question…I just need some opinions, because I really want to make a good impression.

Okay. So the other day, I was at my college, registering for fall classes. My advisor informed me that after having spoken to my professors, and looked at my grades, she has decided to recommend me for a very prestigious internship in the Attorney General’s office. “We only send the best of the best. And you are the best of the best,” She said. I was astounded, and am still in shock. For the first time in my life, I actually feel accomplished and like things are looking up.

With that in mind, I have seriously been considering law school. I have musculoskeletal issues, and it would be foolish of me to go into a physically demanding profession like policing. I’ve come to terms with this, and realized that not only do I score extremely well in law, I also have a passion for it.

So I called a local law school and will be going for a tour next Thursday! My question is this: What is appropriate attire for this meeting? I don’t want to overdo it and look overdressed, but I also do not want to look frumpy. Any ideas? Please pray for me! I also will be taking the LSAT soon!!
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Congratulations to you! With regard to dressing, I would dress in a neat, tidy and professional manner, but not go overboard. A simple dress and jacket, nice pants with a jacket or cute cardigan set, skirt and top… you have plenty of choices.

One of my sons-in-law recently took the LSAT; we’d never heard him mention law for even a millisecond! (He has an undergrad degree in speech and communication disorders and has completed all the pre-reqs for the accelerated, one-year BSN program he has just applied to.) He scored a 165 with little or no prep (he’s been a stay-at-home dad this year while our daughter completes her audiology doctorate) and has had endless emails and phone calls from law schools all over the country, and offers of free rides from some lower-tiered schools who desperately want him and his LSAT to raise their median scores! I can only imagine what he’d have scored if he’d had time to seriously prep. As it is, I think God is pointing him towards the nursing program, as it is late in the application process for the good schools he would want.

Prep like crazy, as there is evidently good $$$ out there for scholarships, and law school is otherwise so expensive.

Good luck, and enjoy your visit to the school!
 
A well fitting pant suit in a neutral or navy blue is never either overdressed or frumpy.
 
lovedance4ever said:
This is not a particularly serious question…I just need some opinions, because I really want to make a good impression.

Okay. So the other day, I was at my college, registering for fall classes. My advisor informed me that after having spoken to my professors, and looked at my grades, she has decided to recommend me for a very prestigious internship in the Attorney General’s office. “We only send the best of the best. And you are the best of the best,” She said. I was astounded, and am still in shock. For the first time in my life, I actually feel accomplished and like things are looking up.

With that in mind, I have seriously been considering law school. I have musculoskeletal issues, and it would be foolish of me to go into a physically demanding profession like policing. I’ve come to terms with this, and realized that not only do I score extremely well in law, I also have a passion for it.

So I called a local law school and will be going for a tour next Thursday! My question is this: What is appropriate attire for this meeting? I don’t want to overdo it and look overdressed, but I also do not want to look frumpy. Any ideas? Please pray for me! I also will be taking the LSAT soon!!
Click to expand...
I’m not trying to be a downer, but please do a lot of research on the current state of the legal profession and think VERY carefully about whether this is for you. Basically there is a glut of lawyers, comparatively few well paying legal jobs, and you’re all but guaranteed to graduate with six figures or close to it of debt (not including your undergraduate debt.)

thelawschoolscam.com/
insidethelawschoolscam.blogspot.com/
outsidethelawschoolscam.blogspot.com/
 
lovedance4ever said:
This is not a particularly serious question…I just need some opinions, because I really want to make a good impression.

Okay. So the other day, I was at my college, registering for fall classes. My advisor informed me that after having spoken to my professors, and looked at my grades, she has decided to recommend me for a very prestigious internship in the Attorney General’s office. “We only send the best of the best. And you are the best of the best,” She said. I was astounded, and am still in shock. For the first time in my life, I actually feel accomplished and like things are looking up.

With that in mind, I have seriously been considering law school. I have musculoskeletal issues, and it would be foolish of me to go into a physically demanding profession like policing. I’ve come to terms with this, and realized that not only do I score extremely well in law, I also have a passion for it.

So I called a local law school and will be going for a tour next Thursday! My question is this: What is appropriate attire for this meeting? I don’t want to overdo it and look overdressed, but I also do not want to look frumpy. Any ideas? Please pray for me! I also will be taking the LSAT soon!!
Click to expand...
Nothing wrong with showing up in a suit & tie. Remember, you are looking into a professional career. Praying for you to do well on the LSAT. I know you’ll do fine. God bless.
 
First of all, congratulations on being such a good student!! That is quite an honor. My daughter graduated from law school 3 years ago and was hired by a big law firm. She LOVES her job as a lawyer. She doesn’t go to court, but rather specializes in successions (?) and real estate. We had no attorneys in the family until my daughter became one, and I’m surprised by the variety of interesting jobs attorneys can have- and how much they can help people! As to the previous comment about student loan debt post law school, it isn’t exactly true. If you do well in undergrad and on your LSAT, you may receive full or partial scholarships. My daughter had two complete scholarship offers and one partial one. She chose the school with the partial one 🤷 I feel, because you are such an excellent student, that you might get some scholarships as well. Now…what to wear- do you have a black suit? It can be a skirt or pants with a black jacket and white blouse. This seems to be the “uniform” for medical school and law school interviews. If you don’t own black, a navy suit is fine. Since this isn’t really an interview (right?) then any neat, professional outfit will probably also be fine. Good luck and again, congratulations!!
 
As a catholic I will be praying for you and for your doing good in the LSAT.
But as a lawyer I have to tell you to be careful. If you want to go to a law school you have to go to a tier 1 school. Keep in mind law school is expensive and you will come out with a huge debt. Student loans are a real nightmare and truth is most recently graduated lawyers do not get High paying jobs. Unless you are coming out of Harvard, standard, NYU or similar schools your chances of getting a high paying job are close to 0. It is a difficult field and there are too many lawyers. So be very careful.

As to dressing, sincerely, the way you dress is the least important. Your LSAT score is what is going to determine everything. I personally would not go to any law school until you have your LSAT score. Again you want a school that is in the top tier 1 and those won’t do anything with you until you have a score.

And let me repay do not, please DO NOT go to a nonABA school or a tier 2 school.
 
If you want to be and be treated like a professional, dress like. Pants and jacket.
 
Go visit the law school and take the LSAT if you’re interested in becoming a lawyer. Don’t be discouraged by the potential student loans- see what kind of offers you receive when you apply. My daughter, as previously mentioned, received two full scholarships and one partial- ALL to tier 1 schools. She was in Law Review and Order of the Coif and graduated in the top ten in her class. She has a wonderful job that is personally satisfying to her and helpful to others. All of the members of Law Review at her school had multiple job offers, and only one of the graduates didn’t ultimately get a job until 6 months post graduation. There are a lot of lawyers out there, but you ought to pursue your dream and give it a try. I’ll be keeping you in my prayers.
 
marbleartist said:
Go visit the law school and take the LSAT if you’re interested in becoming a lawyer. Don’t be discouraged by the potential student loans- see what kind of offers you receive when you apply. My daughter, as previously mentioned, received two full scholarships and one partial- ALL to tier 1 schools. She was in Law Review and Order of the Coif and graduated in the top ten in her class. She has a wonderful job that is personally satisfying to her and helpful to others. All of the members of Law Review at her school had multiple job offers, and only one of the graduates didn’t ultimately get a job until 6 months post graduation. There are a lot of lawyers out there, but you ought to pursue your dream and give it a try. I’ll be keeping you in my prayers.
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This is all very well and good, but this supposes one does very well on the LSAT plus one has the things a law school is looking for when they hand out scholarships, you stay at the top of your class, get into (as well as have the time for) law review, you live in a big enough city to have large enough law firms where they can take on another attorney. What the other poster said is correct, the law market in general is overpopulated by attorneys, with relatively little demand. Not only that, but new graduates are competing against attorneys with 2-15 years of experience (those with more experience are also looking for jobs but aren’t really competing with new attorneys, because their age and previous salaries are making them unemployable). And yes, I think people should be put off, by the amount of loans, most people will not get these prestigious job offers, loan payments can climb to $2000 a month.

I would do some serious research into your market (state/metro area) to see what kind of jobs are open to people who aren’t going to be recruited into the 2 or 3 large law firms (who are going to have one or two openings for new associates a year. Also look into how many law schools are in your state and how many people they are graduating. The bar pass numbers on your state’s law examiners website, is also a good indication. Also look at the average salary for attorneys in your area, and remember, if you take the top 10% and so and give them really high salaries, how low are the rest of the attorneys salaries have to be to get that average. And if you don’t get a nice job after law school you will be not only saddled with loans, but with the cost of maintaining your license, which includes CLEs and your yearly license fee.

Just something to think about.
 
jilly4ski said:
This is all very well and good, but this supposes one does very well on the LSAT plus one has the things a law school is looking for when they hand out scholarships, you stay at the top of your class, get into (as well as have the time for) law review, you live in a big enough city to have large enough law firms where they can take on another attorney. What the other poster said is correct, the law market in general is overpopulated by attorneys, with relatively little demand. Not only that, but new graduates are competing against attorneys with 2-15 years of experience (those with more experience are also looking for jobs but aren’t really competing with new attorneys, because their age and previous salaries are making them unemployable). And yes, I think people should be put off, by the amount of loans, most people will not get these prestigious job offers, loan payments can climb to $2000 a month.

I would do some serious research into your market (state/metro area) to see what kind of jobs are open to people who aren’t going to be recruited into the 2 or 3 large law firms (who are going to have one or two openings for new associates a year. Also look into how many law schools are in your state and how many people they are graduating. The bar pass numbers on your state’s law examiners website, is also a good indication. Also look at the average salary for attorneys in your area, and remember, if you take the top 10% and so and give them really high salaries, how low are the rest of the attorneys salaries have to be to get that average. And if you don’t get a nice job after law school you will be not only saddled with loans, but with the cost of maintaining your license, which includes CLEs and your yearly license fee.

Just something to think about.
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I have to agree with this. The scenario of getting good scholarship offers is if you do very good on the LSAT and if you are contacted by top schools on the tier 1. Most of the lawyers I know had loan payments around $1000 just six months out of law school . In my area the starting salary for a lawyer that is not from Harvard, NESL, BC or BU is about 50k a year. If your loan payment is about a thousand a month plus as very well stated, the cost of the BBE, BBO, the bar itself can become a nightmare. That is why I say forget about visiting the law school (sincerely T1 are pretty well known so do you really need to visit it before the LSAT to see if? In my area the only schools that do pre visits to see if are the not good ones. You won’t see Harvard or BU or BC doing that because everyone wants to get into those) and focus on the LSAT and getting a high score (again Harvard won’t even look at you without an LSAT score). When you have the score then look at the offers and make a good judgment bases on what schoolsbyou can go and how is the market in your area.
 
lovedance4ever said:
This is not a particularly serious question…I just need some opinions, because I really want to make a good impression.

Okay. So the other day, I was at my college, registering for fall classes. My advisor informed me that after having spoken to my professors, and looked at my grades, she has decided to recommend me for a very prestigious internship in the Attorney General’s office. “We only send the best of the best. And you are the best of the best,” She said. I was astounded, and am still in shock. For the first time in my life, I actually feel accomplished and like things are looking up.

With that in mind, I have seriously been considering law school. I have musculoskeletal issues, and it would be foolish of me to go into a physically demanding profession like policing. I’ve come to terms with this, and realized that not only do I score extremely well in law, I also have a passion for it.

So I called a local law school and will be going for a tour next Thursday! My question is this: What is appropriate attire for this meeting? I don’t want to overdo it and look overdressed, but I also do not want to look frumpy. Any ideas? Please pray for me! I also will be taking the LSAT soon!!
Click to expand...
Wow congrats! All that law stuff is spanish to me though 🙂
 
Also, love dancer I have a feeling from previous post of yours that you are also in the Northeast which means your market may be quite similar to mine. With more reason then if you are in a big city make sure you are taking one of the bests.
 
marymary1975 said:
Also, love dancer I have a feeling from previous post of yours that you are also in the Northeast which means your market may be quite similar to mine. With more reason then if you are in a big city make sure you are taking one of the bests.
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Thank you so much for the time you have taken to respond to me! You have really given me a lot of useful information to work with. I am looking at some of the top law schools in the US; my goal at this point is to keep my grades up (I currently have a cumulative GPA of 3.95), and to also begin studying for the LSAT.
 
If you want some help with getting into the top law schools in the country, I’d suggest www.top-law-schools.com

It’s an incredibly helpful resource that will teach you how to ace the LSAT, write personal statements, network appropriately, etc.

However, I have to repeat the warnings posted on here by others. If you are unable to get into one of the top ~20 schools in the country, I would not even bother with law school. If you have a specific geographical area you want to practice in (other than NY, Chicago, DC) then you will run into even more difficulty, as the only law firms that will pay you a reasonable salary (considering debt) only hire 1-2 attorneys a year. It is an incredibly competitive career and keep in mind that every single person who gets into Harvard every year has a 3.8+ GPA and scored 175+ on the LSAT. There is NO guarantee you will outperform your peers in law school once you get in, and grading is unfortunately done on a curve against your peers.

Feel free to message me if you’d like to discuss this more.
 
marymary1975 said:
I have to agree with this. The scenario of getting good scholarship offers is if you do very good on the LSAT and if you are contacted by top schools on the tier 1. Most of the lawyers I know had loan payments around $1000 just six months out of law school . In my area the starting salary for a lawyer that is not from Harvard, NESL, BC or BU is about 50k a year. If your loan payment is about a thousand a month plus as very well stated, the cost of the BBE, BBO, the bar itself can become a nightmare. That is why I say forget about visiting the law school (sincerely T1 are pretty well known so do you really need to visit it before the LSAT to see if? In my area the only schools that do pre visits to see if are the not good ones. You won’t see Harvard or BU or BC doing that because everyone wants to get into those) and focus on the LSAT and getting a high score (again Harvard won’t even look at you without an LSAT score). When you have the score then look at the offers and make a good judgment bases on what schoolsbyou can go and how is the market in your area.
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rusty20 said:
If you want some help with getting into the top law schools in the country, I’d suggest www.top-law-schools.com

It’s an incredibly helpful resource that will teach you how to ace the LSAT, write personal statements, network appropriately, etc.

However, I have to repeat the warnings posted on here by others. If you are unable to get into one of the top ~20 schools in the country, I would not even bother with law school. If you have a specific geographical area you want to practice in (other than NY, Chicago, DC) then you will run into even more difficulty, as the only law firms that will pay you a reasonable salary (considering debt) only hire 1-2 attorneys a year. It is an incredibly competitive career and keep in mind that every single person who gets into Harvard every year has a 3.8+ GPA and scored 175+ on the LSAT. There is NO guarantee you will outperform your peers in law school once you get in, and grading is unfortunately done on a curve against your peers.

Feel free to message me if you’d like to discuss this more.
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Unfortunately, I have to agree with a lot of this.

I’m not one to dissuade anyone from following their dreams, but it’s only fair to point out that not everybody gets these high-paying jobs you hear so much about. And don’t believe the hype. Law schools will quote statistics saying that 99% or so of their grads get jobs, but is that based on just those who responded, and does it include people who had to take jobs that weren’t law-related? Be sure to ask the tough questions and make a reasoned decision.

Good luck.
 
I’ve never had too much of an interest in law school but I will give you a tidbit of professional advice. You will never go wrong with a basic black pantsuit. If you cannot afford a suit, good fitting black slacks and a black jacket work well. You can have a bit of leeway with the shirt (within reason). Sometimes depending on where I am interviewing or what the occasion I will do a pop of color with my shirt, I STRESS within reason. When in doubt about dress go more conservative, small earrings are always appropriate, understated shoes. A black flat dress shoe (which you can get a good one pretty inexpensively if you don’t have). Do a watch or small bracelet if you want an accessory.
 
lovedance4ever said:
This is not a particularly serious question…I just need some opinions, because I really want to make a good impression.

Okay. So the other day, I was at my college, registering for fall classes. My advisor informed me that after having spoken to my professors, and looked at my grades, she has decided to recommend me for a very prestigious internship in the Attorney General’s office. “We only send the best of the best. And you are the best of the best,” She said. I was astounded, and am still in shock. For the first time in my life, I actually feel accomplished and like things are looking up.

With that in mind, I have seriously been considering law school. I have musculoskeletal issues, and it would be foolish of me to go into a physically demanding profession like policing. I’ve come to terms with this, and realized that not only do I score extremely well in law, I also have a passion for it.

So I called a local law school and will be going for a tour next Thursday! My question is this: What is appropriate attire for this meeting? I don’t want to overdo it and look overdressed, but I also do not want to look frumpy. Any ideas? Please pray for me! I also will be taking the LSAT soon!!
Click to expand...
I haven’t read all of this thread yet (just read this entry, in fact) but I’ll note that there’s a thread down in the Spirituality section on Unhappy Catholic Lawyers (I’m one of the “Unhappy”). There’s at least three lawyers participating in the thread.

Anyhow, while not responding to your post directly, you probably owe it to yourself to read that thread. It is here:

forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=869021
 
Archaeopteryx said:
I’m not trying to be a downer, but please do a lot of research on the current state of the legal profession and think VERY carefully about whether this is for you. Basically there is a glut of lawyers, comparatively few well paying legal jobs, and you’re all but guaranteed to graduate with six figures or close to it of debt (not including your undergraduate debt.)

]
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Excellent advice.
 
FWIW, just because someone has a law degree doesn’t mean they must work at a law firm. There are plenty of people that I know with law degrees that do other things. For example, one can work in real estate, such as part of an investment group. The group can make the attorney part of the investment group, rather than paying for separate legal services. Some attorneys might be put in charge of the real estate office of a large national firm. Attorneys may be hired to head various departments at local universities, municipal entities, etc.

With a law degree, on should not necessarily focus on being an employee. There are far, far more opportunities out there, but one has to have the initiative to find or create those opportunities.
 
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