It’s all doom and gloom when talking about the current state of the legal market. New hires are down. Law school graduates are up. Instead of law firms, people are working at Starbucks (maybe they can start a new “Coffee and legal Consultation” promo).
People always give advice on how to get that nice, cushy, Big Law job after graduation. Get straight A’s (which is hard with law school grading being so capricious). Go to a top school. Earn a spot on law review.
All good advice, even if significantly easier said than done.
But what if I told you there’s something you can do right now that would increase your chances of landing a job after graduation almost as much as anything else?
Well, there is! (I sound like Vince from the ShamWow! Commercials; imagine me screaming this last sentence at you.)
Get a job.
Seriously.
Take a year or two (or three) off before heading to law school. I guarantee you that it will still be there when you want to go back.
In the meantime, find a full-time position somewhere, and start building up that résumé.
First, work experience is becoming a huge plus in the law school admissions process. A few years of work experience can turn you from an average candidate to a great one. This is because having the work experience makes you more employable (see the reason No. 3, below), and law schools like their students to be employable. So work experience will help you get into a better law school, which itself will also increase employment prospects (see the positive feedback loop here?).
Second, you’ll hopefully be able to save up some money. Why is that important? Well, if you have some money saved up, two things will happen. You’ll have more freedom to select schools because you can maybe forego a little in scholarship money to go to a more prestigious law school. Also, if you save that money throughout law school, you’ll have a cushion in which to find employment after graduation. Needing a job immediately to start servicing law school loans puts pressure to find a job right after graduation. If you have some breathing room, however, you can wait until that perfect job comes along. Or, at least, that “perfect enough” job.
Third, law firms love people with actual work experience. A lot of their new hires have never held down a solid job before. They know what it’s like to be a full-time student (“full-time” should be in ironic quotes), but that’s not nearly the same as knowing what a 60+ hour work week is like. That’s why there’s so much burnout in Big Law. And the firms are sick of it. They spend a lot of money to train you during those first few years (they do, admittedly, make some good money off of you too), and they invest a lot of resources in the form of partner time mentoring you. If you have proven you can make it through the long hours with work experience before law school, you’re more attractive to employers while in law school.
Finally, it’ll give you time to grow up and make sure that law school is for you. You’re not as mature now as you will be after spending a few years out of school. You’re also not as sure of what you want to do with your life as you will be after a few years of working. Maturity and absolute knowledge that law school is for you will ensure that you put your all into getting into a great law school and earn top grades.
So for any seniors out there, take some time off after graduation. Earn some money. Enjoy having your own stuff. And make sure that law school is for you. If it’s not, I’ve just saved you $150K. If it is, you’ll now be more employable.
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Interesting post!
I have 8 years of military experience and training in the information technology sector, plenty of overseas travel, and earned my BS in Criminal Justice while deployed to Iraq and the South Pacific (3.22 GPA).
The catch is that, while I really enjoyed the Blueprint prep course, I had trouble committing to a steady study regimen due to my military commitments. My June LSAT score was disheartening 140. I am going to retake in October in hopes for a better score.
Would I have a chance at being admitted to an ABA law school with those numbers?
You have impressive work experience, and that will definitely go a long way. Firm and law schools both like people with military backgrounds.
However, a 3.22/140 will make it difficult to gain admission to most schools. It’s good that you’re planning to retake the exam in October, as that would be my advice.
Good luck!
Thanks Matt!
Hi!,
I have debated with this question so much that I’m starting to lose hair.
I have just graduated in May 2012 with a BS in Business Administration. I have always been set on the idea of taking a year off before law school, but all of the year programs I applied to abroad have rejected me.
The big problem here is probably: I have already applied and been accepted at UC Hastings. UC Hastings doesn’t have deferral on its policy at all(oh, shoot)
I have an offer for an entry level position at a law firm-lot of filing and phone calls to begin with at $10 an hour, but more things will be taught as it goes on and more pay might be had. They said $10 to start.
I am still very much inclined to a year off but I can’t see a way that it will work for me now. If i take the job offer I’d de facto have to reapply, and wouldn’t Hastings hold a grudge against me for not taking their offer the first time around? Wouldn’t I not gain much from a stupid $10 hour entry job, whereas David above had very impressive reasons to remain out of school?
Wouldn’t I only lose a reasonable financial aid package, a decent school, and my entire future?
All logic points to taking the offer at Hastings and going through, but the tiny spark of wildness in my heart points to working out some way, besides the job, to take a year off and go back the next fall to law school.
Please weigh in and offer what you think can be done in this situation.
Hey Grace,
While it seems like an impossible situation, take a step back for a second: You have two fantastic options for how to spend next year (a solid job offer, and admission to a solid law school). Many people would kill for those opportunities.
So yes, it’s hard to pick between the two of them. But it’s much better to have to pick between two great options than 2 horrible options (or lack options altogether, for that matter).
As far as the Hastings decision/holding a grudge against you, that’s not the case. Assuming you handle the situation in a mature manner.
Call up their admissions office and talk with someone there. Let them know that you’re very much interested in attending their school, but you have a great job offer at a law firm. Tell them that you want to get a year of experience before starting law school so that you’ll have a great focus, as well as some knowledge on how the career is in real life. Let them know that you understand that they don’t have a deferral policy, but you wanted to make sure that should you decide to withdraw and reapply next year, they wouldn’t ‘hold it against you.’
You’d be surprised how most law schools will respond. There’s a small chance they’d even talk to you about a deferral, or put a note in your file about your acceptance this year and your enthusiasm for attending their school.
I would expect them to be very accommodating, as they’re in the business of getting people into their school, whether it’s this year or next year.
If they’re not, it becomes a harder decision. I’d probably still counsel you to take the job for the year (or maybe even 2) to get the experience and regain focus before law school. However, it’s hard to turn down a school that you’d be happy at and a scholarship package that sounds solid.
That being said, if you were accepted this year, you must have solid numbers. Next year, there should be a smaller applicant pool, so I would place your chances higher than this year at being accepted (another reason Hastings might want to ‘lock you down’ instead of risking you getting into another school).
So, in short, I wouldn’t worry about it. You have two solid options, and either one will work out fine for you. The first step is to call Hastings to see if something can be worked out. If not, the decision becomes more difficult, but I’d still err on the side of time off and work experience – those two things will only help you.
Matt
Thank you!
I will call Hastings and ask.
Good post,
I am applying this Fall (my senior year) to go straight to law school. However, I have had 2 great internships, one with the general counsel of a very large corporation and my current internship at a Biglaw firm. Should I write my personal statement on my work experience to differentiate myself from the typical student going straight to grad school with little experience? I can’t think of what else I could possibly write about.
Hey CR,
Internships generally aren’t regarded as work experience by law schools. Work experience is mostly full-time work that you did for a salary; internships are not a part of that.
Not to say that those two internships weren’t great experiences – they were. And if you were involved in interesting work there, you can definitely turn that into a Personal Statement. I would stop looking it as something that differentiates you from other students and worry more about whether you can write an interesting essay on your experiences. There are a few pitfalls to avoid:
1) Don’t tell me stuff in the PS I can get from your resume. Your resume will list your job title, along with a few bullet points of what you did there. If you just elaborate those in your PS, it will fail as a PS because I already know everything in it.
2) Don’t make the PS more about the work than yourself. It’s great if you did a bunch of stuff at the internship, but that doesn’t let me know who you are as a person. If you go this route, definitely focus on your reaction to the work, your thoughts on the areas in which you worked, and how you grew as a person because of the work. If you just tell me about the projects on which you worked, I won’t know who you are.
So, in short, stop looking at these internships as something that will inherently impress people and differentiate you from other students. Most law school applicants have interesting credentials. Instead, think about whether what you learned at the internship can make for a compelling essay that tells me something about you as a person. Don’t just write about it because you think it’s impressive – write about it because it had a profound impact on your life and your view of the world. If it didn’t, leave it on the resume, but write a PS about something else. Something that did have a profound impact on your life and your view of the world.
Matt
So, my family wants me to jump right into law school “while the fires hot,” but I ask, why not wait, and make the fire hotter?
Final deadlines are beginning to close over these next few weeks/months for Fall 2013 Law School applications. My December LSAT scores came in at an amazing 155! And to think things couldn’t look any better, my cumulative GPA now stands at an impressive 3.34! (Graduating from Rutgers-New Brunswick, majors: English/Political Science).
I’m kidding, of course. These numbers aren’t very good. They’re a bit above average, but nowhere near the ideal numbers for prospective students. My hope is that these numbers will at least allow me to gain acceptance into one or several of the following: New York Law School (no, not NYU, I wish), Rutgers-Newark, Hofstra, Seton Hall, and a couple others around the same median.
These aren’t my dream schools. They’re far from them, but it’s currently the reality I’m faced with. I didn’t study for the LSAT for as long and as consistent as I would have liked. My practice tests ranged from 151 – 159. I thought it was a realistic goal to shoot for a 165-175 come test day. Several hindering factors, school being the greatest, simply would not allow me to invest the time I wanted to for the LSAT. I scored a 155 and now I have to deal with it, yet I am certain that if I take the test again, I will do better. So my dilemma, quite simply, is this: I’m pretty sure the best thing for me to do is to take a year off (God-forbid I wanted to take two years off!) from school, but my entire, entire, entire family is against this.
I know that attending law school will be one of the biggest, if not the biggest, investments I will ever make. I want to make sure I get the most out of this investment later down the road. With the “real” unemployment numbers for lawyers looking so grim, I think that attending a lower-ranked law school with my numbers might be one of the worst decisions I could ever make.
I’ve explained many of the general arguments supporting time off, but it just doesn’t seem to click. Am I missing something? I don’t think so… In my eyes, even if I get only 5 points higher the next time I take the LSAT, it will still increase my options by a great amount. Not only will waiting a year allow me to score better on the LSAT, but I can also read books, lots of books. I can read everything I want. I can study ahead for things that will help me in law school, like learning legal-writing, which I hear is a very difficult class. If I spent my year educating myself, it will be easier for me to keep up/get ahead, and make it to the top 10-20% of my class. Some may disagree, but I don’t see how an extra year of reading, researching, writing, etc., wouldn’t have a beneficial impact on one’s ability to succeed in law school.
And I need not mention (because you have many times already) the job-experience advantage I would benefit from if I take this year off.
I’m not exactly asking for help. I know the best thing would be to take the year off (I’m 22), but it’s just frustrating when I make all these legitimate points, and my family still insists that I should go right away.
Over, and, Out =)