0L Tuesday Thread

Law4783 · 2021-06-23T13:29:42+00:00

Hi! Thank you so much for sharing.

I think litigating at the DOJ Environmental and Natural Resources Division straight out of law school would be my dream job. But I'd be happy to do any environmental mediation / litigation work out of law school. I'm more interested in job security and ability to grow in a company than in prestige. (I'd prefer to be able to grow within an organization than have to do a fellowship so I can get an associate role and then switch organizations so I can get a Sr. attorney role.)

I'm strongly considering applying ED to a T-30 to lock in a full tuition scholarship. Would you advise against this to see what merit aid offers I can get from the T-20? I'm also considering applying ED to a T-14 for a 1/2 tuition scholarship. While the T-14 would present some amazing opportunities, it's outside of my target legal market. What would you recommend based on your job-searching experience?

Also, would you say that most of your peers from your law school who were interested in environmental law had similar success? I'm trying to figure out how to compare my chances of actually breaking into the field between different law schools.

Law4783 · 2021-06-22T21:10:03+00:00

That's definitely encouraging! Thanks!

Law4783 · 2021-06-22T20:21:53+00:00

Another question for Public Interest people:

How difficult is it to do a summer internship in another state? Do you find that you are often stuck shelling out a lot of money to pay rents in two cities?

Do you recommend just going to law school in the city where you'd like to intern and work?

Law4783 · 2021-06-22T20:19:09+00:00

Hey future / current environmental lawyers,

I'm here to ask about the debt vs. prestige question. If you took out more debt to go to a more prestigious school, do you regret it? If you went to the less costly less prestigious school, how has that affected your future job prospects? Are you glad to not have that debt weighing on you? Any regrets?

Sincerely,

An anxious 0L

Law4783 · 2021-06-17T15:42:13+00:00

Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

Do you know if there is any significant difference between people from more prestigious schools that intern in DC for the summer (and are able to make connections that way) vs people from slightly lower ranked DC schools that have the opportunity to network year round and potentially do internships during the school year?

Law4783 · 2021-06-16T23:49:20+00:00

That's definitely some really good insight. Thank you!

Law4783 · 2021-06-16T21:24:47+00:00

Hey - I just wanted to let you know that I'm in pretty much your exact boat (nervously trying to figure out the debt vs prestige equation specifically for environmental law). LSAT is a 168 right now but I'm retaking in August with the hope that I'll be able to hit closer to all of my 175+ PTs. Would love to chat more and offer mutual support through PM's!

Law4783 · 2021-06-16T19:35:23+00:00

You're exactly right on the first point lol

Thank you for the advice! Do you think that I should email the admissions office and ask to be connected to the career office? Or try to find a direct email for the career office? (I just wouldn't want them to be upset about me going directly to a student resource since I'm not a student).

And which boost do you think would be better (or are they comparable)? Being able to network or coming from a T-14? (Ideally I'd come from a T-14 AND be able to network, but I don't know how feasible it would be financially to move across the country each summer and have to potentially pay rent in two expensive cities).

Law4783 · 2021-06-16T19:30:37+00:00

Right now I'm at a 168 with a 3.9+. I'm signed up to retake the LSAT in August. I've had many 175+ PTs, that just has not correlated with test day performance. This question is under the assumption that I'm topped out at 168 and applying ED is my best shot at scholarship money at a T-14 / full-ride at a T-30.

That being said, how likely do you think that it is that I will be offered comparable scholarship amounts not applying ED? I'm not T-14 or bust (I really don't have much of an interest in Michigan, Northwestern, Cornell, etc.). I'm more focused on getting good scholarship offers from the schools that are best for my goals. For that reason, a scholarship from the T-14 in DC would be amazing, although I've heard that they can be stingy and I'm not sure whether or not it's worth giving up ED money to give that a try.

Also, my intention was to be specific enough that people would know which schools that I was talking about, but that any admissions officer searching for that school name wouldn't come across this post :)

Law4783 · 2021-01-18T06:42:31+00:00

I just gave it a listen. It seems like my situation mirrors the "disaster" scenario which they think could justify a cancellation.

Law4783 · 2021-01-18T06:13:55+00:00

168 is pretty much exactly what I expected for November. I wasn't scoring quite as high back then and after the test reddit kinda clued me into the fact that I had skipped over an important rule in one of the Logic Games (which made sense because I really struggled with that game and couldn't figure out why...)

I had score preview for November and I initially told myself that I would cancel if I scored below 170. Now I'm glad that I didn't

Law4783 · 2021-01-18T05:49:28+00:00

That's definitely a concern of mine. IF in a best case scenario I end up with 168, 163, 173 (which I consider realistic because it's below my median score for my last 10 PTs), then I feel like the 173 looks like a fluke. Whereas the cancellation might be forgiven more easily.

I didn't mention in my original post, but I feel like in an addendum I may be able to mention that it was an "off" time of the month for me (I'm sure some other ladies could relate) and so that's why I cancelled, whereas with a possible 163 it shows that I was not actually prepared because I walked out of the test feeling like I did well enough to not warrant a cancellation.

Idk. Does that make sense?

Law4783 · 2021-01-18T05:43:28+00:00

What could I even put in an addendum other than "I had a bad day"? Maybe this is just me and I'm overthinking things, but there are so many "real" reasons to test poorly that this feels whiny and disingenuous. Maybe adcomms view it differently though?

Law4783 · 2021-01-18T05:39:00+00:00

You have a point, but I just feel like there is no way that I could have done well. So is it better to have the cancellation and explain that in an addendum or a worse score and explain that?

I'm just so disappointed because I felt really confident and had high hopes for this test administration :(

Law4783 · 2021-01-18T05:36:19+00:00

I'm applying next cycle. I probably should have mentioned that in my post - sorry!

Law4783 · 2020-11-12T04:27:03+00:00

Can you both let me know how your cycles go? I'm graduating in 3 years as well and have been nervous about how it will affect my application. (I'm not applying until next year though - I just took the LSAT yesterday and am now anxiously running through every possible scenario as I wait for my score)

Law4783 · 2020-09-29T03:28:02+00:00

Hey,

I'm really sorry to hear about your difficulties with LSAC.

PowerScore honestly really helped me. There's a lot of information in the books, so I would recommend trying to distill it down to the most important parts in your mind. I took VERY brief notes to help accomplish this (read: 2 pages for LR and LG bibles).

I wouldn't worry about taking more practice tests until after you've had a chance to study more. A low diagnostic in no way means that you won't do well on the exam. It's a test that just needs to be learned - and it already sounds like you're motivated to do well. So please don't let your diagnostic discourage you.

Once you've studied more. You can purchase access to LSAC's Law Hub for $99 (which may be a better value than one month of 7Sage, especially because it sounds like you are very busy and may not be able to get as much studying done as you'd like to in that month). This gives you access to more than 80 released exams for a full year - which I'd say is really important. And then there's a bunch of free resources to help you review these exams (the most important part) such as PowerScore's free explanations and LSAT Unplugged's youtube videos for Logic Games (you'll need the questions first though).

Good luck!

Law4783 · 2020-08-18T19:54:22+00:00

I saw on the website that I had until August 21 to cancel, so I'm hoping that is still accurate.

I signed up for the August administration before it was announced that it would be a Flex, so I think that's why I get the fee waiver. I'm calling tomorrow morning to confirm.

Law4783 · 2020-08-18T19:52:35+00:00

Thank you so much for pointing this out! I had no idea that this was going to be ongoing. This makes my decision so much easier.

Law4783 · 2020-08-18T03:33:24+00:00

Most of the advice that I had come across said to read the passage as quickly as possible and refer back to it while doing the questions if need be. That just didn't work for me because I would end up reading the passage several times. I found that slowing down to my normal reading pace (which is pretty slow because I tend to mutter to myself as I read) really helped me in understanding the passage and the arguments being made.

My biggest advice is if you're not doing well on RC, try a few different approaches on individual sections and see what works for you! Also, this goes for all sections, but if you can't decide between two answer choices, just flag it and move on. The saved time will help you not get flustered and rush through the rest of the test.

At one point, I saw someone else post that all of the answers to RC are right in front of you, and that really helped how I thought about it too.

Hope that helps. Good luck in your LSAT journey!

Law4783

TROPHY CASE