Our discussion last class about expectations got me thinking about my expectations for law school and how they compared to my actual experience. When I started telling people I was taking the LSAT and applying to law school it felt like everyone I knew had a comment or story about the difficulty of the coursework and the horrors of taking the bar. I heard millions of comments from people about how much reading would be required and how difficult and time-consuming it would be. At the time I found these comments extremely discouraging and unnecessary as I was set on becoming an attorney. Although these comments were frustrating at the time they definitely prepared me in some regard for what was to come. When I began law school I was ready to study hard and do the reading and overall felt mentally prepared for the amount of time I was going to need to put into class, reading, studying etc. Although the classes and exams we much harder than anything I had ever experienced I feel like I was prepared as I expected this.
What I did not expect was how difficult it would be to juggle coursework with everything else that comes with law school. Juggling coursework while interning, being on a journal, in a concentration, completing pro bono hours, and being in an Inn of Court proved to be so much more difficult than I expected. I quickly found that for me the hardest part of law school was not the course work it was juggling all my obligations on top of the course work. Although it obviously was my choice to get involved in the extracurriculars I did in law school and I do not regret these choices I just feel I never expected certain things to take up the amount of time that they did. I think many law students struggle with this as we are constantly told to do as much as possible to pad a resume, differentiate ourselves, and gain experience. However, we are often encouraged and pushed into obligations we are not fully prepared for or do not know how much of a commitment they will be.
I feel like by the time I really "cracked the code" on law school it was my second semester of 2L and by then I had already made most of my decisions on classes to take and extracurriculars to become involved in. I do not regret my choices and I am very thankful for the knowledge and experience I was able to gain from these opportunities, however, I do wish I went in with a better idea of what law school life was really going to be like. Overall I would say law school was a great mix of expected and unexpected and some of the things I did not expect ended up being some of the most rewarding things of my law school experience.
Ariel,
ReplyDeleteI had a very similar experience before starting law school. On my last day of work, I told a few of my coworkers that I was quitting to attend law school, and they all responded by saying it was going to be very difficult and I was going to spend a lot of time studying. Like you, I also think comments like that prepared me for my studies.
I also think that balancing school, extracurricular activities, and personal relationships has been the most challenging part of law school. I think law schools should give us a break sometimes so we can enjoy our personal lives. Of course, law school is not supposed to be easy, but we should have the time to not worry about a reading assignment or paper we have to write.
Ariel,
ReplyDeleteI am totally with you. A huge part of the law school learning curve has been learning to cut myself some slack. We aren't expected to be legal geniuses overnight. We just have to embrace the journey, learn from our mistakes, and remember that Rome wasn't built in a day.
Ariel,
ReplyDeleteThat is a great point you make about all the different tasks we have to balance as law students. A big part of law school that makes it difficult to me is just the amount of things we are expected to do in a short time in addition to academics.
We are under a lot of pressure to distinguish ourselves with a variety of different extracurriculars. For me, the hardest semester by far was 2L Spring when I worked during the Semester because I felt like I needed to get more work experience on top of school. Time management is so critical to success as a law student.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteAriel,
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree that my expectations for law school were definitely a bit lacking when it came to the experience. I had so many people trying to talk me out of law school that I’m pretty sure spite was one of the things keeping me going in the beginning.
I’ve always known that I need to work on my time management, and that was especially proven by my time here. I am one of the insane people that worked all throughout this process (admittedly my first year was at my retail job) but still. I thought I had this time thing down decently; I’ve been working and going to school since I was 16, how hard could it be?
I was definitely wrong. I was humbled very quickly and learned that I needed to get this time management thing down a lot better than I had it. I agree that I don’t regret my choices, but also agree that I wish I had a bit of a better idea of what I was getting in to. Not that I think I would have made a different choice, but at least I would have known.
Ariel,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that it wasn't really until the end of my second year until I "cracked the code" of law school. It's interesting as this wasnt a problem I have had with really any of my other schooling, it felt a lot easier to catch on. I wonder if other professions (doctors, dentists, etc.) who have to pursue higher eduction have similar experiences?
Since you asked, I struggled during my first year of law school at Michigan. So much so that I applied for and was accepted into the graduate school of urban planning at Wayne State (where I attended undergrad).
DeleteI was concerned that I might have flunked out of law school. Our first year grades were delayed by two months because one of our professors became seriously ill right after the second semester ended and before he was able to complete grading the final exams.
So on the day before I was supposed to start at Wayne State (Michigan was scheduled to start a week later), I called the Michigan law school assistant dean and explained my dilemma and asked if they could give me my grades over the phone so I would know if I flunked out or not. Turns out the one elective we were allowed to take was my best class. I got an A+. I figured if I could do that well, or close, on electives the next two years, I just might survive law school. I stayed in law school and graduated just above the middle of my class (it took a lot of A's and B's the last two years to make up for the C's first year).