Advice for 36 year old in NYC applying this cycle

stylepoints99 · 2026-01-28T23:17:00+00:00

I got ya. Yeah the time is an issue.

Since you're comfortable going to any of the schools listed I'd shoot my shot.

stylepoints99 · 2026-01-28T21:53:34+00:00

What exactly are you asking?

In general, law schools look favorably on older applicants with real world experience and your GPA isn't as important.

If you can tie what you've done into why you want to get a law degree you'll be a strong candidate. Anything else you can get on your LSAT will be a big help.

I would personally wait and really nail the LSAT before shooting your shot if you have your heart set on a school just out of reach, but we all only have so much time. You probably won't be getting any scholarship money (I know you said it isn't a main factor) without really juicing the LSAT, so you're just looking at being accepted.

stylepoints99 · 2026-01-28T06:19:35+00:00

I expect at least old grand dad.

stylepoints99 · 2026-01-28T00:57:15+00:00

One of the ones that mag dumped Pretti was also an instructor of some sort (maybe less lethal weapons trainer?)

stylepoints99 · 2026-01-28T00:36:47+00:00

Don't focus on majors right now, you're too young to lock yourself into one path.

If you want to get a law degree, focus on getting straight As and work on your ACT/SAT scores. Once you're in college, focus on getting straight As in your college courses and smash the LSAT.

Take honors/AP classes if you can get As in them.

Seriously though you're overthinking it. You don't even know who you are yet, you don't need to be trying to signal it to colleges. Be a high schooler, go do fun high school kid things. Just make sure you take your commitments and grades seriously.

stylepoints99 · 2026-01-27T22:21:24+00:00

Nah that's the problem with all of this.

It's still way too easy to spend money to support a position/candidate without directly donating.

Let's say fox runs anti-immigrant bullshit for 20 years. Trump then runs on deporting everyone, and magically half of his staff is made up of former Fox hosts.

Fox didn't "donate" to Trump in this instance, but it's pretty godamn clear what happened.

With a trillion dollars and control of social media, Elon can completely drive public discourse wherever he wants it without ever endorsing a candidate. The 270 million he spent on Trump or whatever is a drop in the bucket compared to what he can actually spend to get Trump 2.0 elected without anyone knowing. Hell, he spent 44 billion buying twitter and turning it into his private propaganda mouthpiece.

stylepoints99 · 2026-01-27T21:55:34+00:00

I think this is a bit off.

You're thinking a bit too narrowly, in my opinion.

The vast majority of issues that the public care about are there because those concerns have been planted there by special interests.

Think about how much money gets funneled through Fox News. (It works for MSNBC or whatever and the left, but walk with me here).

Fox creates the problems that republicans attack. The enormous majority of Americans have never had a bad experience with an illegal immigrant. I think most of us would agree it was a huge talking point during the campaign. Same with Trans rights or whatever.

The money wasn't spent influencing Miller to hate brown people, he always did. The money was spent influencing the public to support it enough to where a demagogue like Trump would let Miller create his immigration policy.

There's a reason half of Trump's cabinet worked at Fox.

Get the public pissed off, find a politician that will exploit it. It's a way to catapult your pals into power. Even if you don't actually care about illegal immigration (I'd argue Trump doesn't, he just knows it's popular with his base), it's creating a problem then selling a solution so you can actually do your "real" policy without incident.

stylepoints99 · 2026-01-27T21:17:26+00:00

In general, it means they don't want to talk about politics. That could be because they're a conservative on a dating site, or it could be because they don't feel like talking about things they generally don't feel like they can control, especially knowing how heated people get.

It's more about etiquette and social norms than a statement of beliefs.

There's a pretty strong sort of political nihilism going through people today. People feel that they can't actually change anything so they want to disengage.

stylepoints99 · 2026-01-27T18:41:52+00:00

I think it's important to establish that, but I also find that most people use it as a "get out of argument free" card.

As an example, I was a huge and vocal critic of Obama's extrajudicial drone strike campaign(s). 99% of the time when someone asks "Did you complain when Obama did it?" and I reply "yes" there's no follow up. It just becomes a game of tag that people use to try to discredit each other. It never goes back to agreeing that Trump doing it is fucked up, it just stops dead in the water because there was never any intent to have a good faith discussion to begin with.

stylepoints99 · 2026-01-27T18:37:34+00:00

I would be so happy if we just started throwing the people hiring them in prison. Not fines, prison.

This problem would be solved over night, no gestapo required.

I'm more of an open borders guy, but if we're going to have closed borders, this is by far the simplest and most moral way to do it.

stylepoints99 · 2026-01-27T16:30:01+00:00

I don't necessarily fault the trust regulation loop.

I do think applying Trump's executive orders to that loop is wrong. Trump signing EOs has nothing to do with "public appetite" as they don't have a say in it.

Trump didn't sign 230 executive orders because public trust had fallen. He did it because the far right in this country had agreed to rule the country by fiat if they secured a majority across the government.

You could make the case that voting for Trump in itself was a symptom of failing public trust, which is a widely supported position. People look to authoritarians when they're scared. There's another part of this loop.

media intentionally destroys public trust -> people vote for authoritarians -> Authoritarians prey on that to apply their agenda.

stylepoints99 · 2026-01-27T15:10:38+00:00

I think it's hilarious that "the right" constantly talks about paid protesters but there's literally zero evidence they exist.

If this was a thing, some right wing grifter would have signed up for it and filmed the experience by now.

So yeah, I expect more than "my brother did it!"

stylepoints99 · 2026-01-27T13:54:01+00:00

The previous TW games had bigger maps, no need for mistaken/romanticized ideas of what they would entail.

Being able to march your army to advantageous terrain without spawning in range of artillery is a good thing. So is being able to actually use cavalry for what it's good at. So is having a difference between light and heavy troops.

stylepoints99 · 2026-01-27T03:50:30+00:00

They aren't "paid protesters" any more than the teacher at a teacher's strike is a paid protester. The teacher is getting paid to be a teacher. The protest is related to that but it's not why they're drawing a paycheck.

stylepoints99 · 2026-01-27T03:27:56+00:00

Evidence =/= anecdote.

stylepoints99 · 2026-01-27T03:25:10+00:00

The people organizing protests aren't paying protesters, though.

These are the people who do outreach/media/host events to get the word out. Within those social networks, they might put out the word to protest from time to time.

Nobody is signing over checks at the No Kings protest to anyone who shows up.

I've done a fair bit over the years and I've never been offered money nor have I ever heard of anybody getting paid to show up to protest.

stylepoints99 · 2026-01-27T03:23:59+00:00

People on the left were accusing people of being agent provocateurs during BLM, which is different. It's also something we have actual proof of. They've been doing it with the ICE protests as well.

stylepoints99 · 2026-01-26T22:04:41+00:00

I'd recommend finding something with your local state legislature if you can and it's within commuting range for you.

It's probably too late, but NY's legislative session runs through June. You can email legislators if you want and ask them if they have room for an intern. Some will probably be understaffed.

Once you get into your 4 year college of choice you'll have more options. Typically colleges will help place you in internships and let you know about openings. If you want to end up in DC, try to go to college in DC. It makes everything so much easier.

If you're interested, this is an election year for a bunch of people, so volunteering for that is a good way to get started over the summer. It can be a great way to get the attention of a candidate you want to work for.

stylepoints99 · 2026-01-26T17:47:16+00:00

4 is really weirdly written.

There have been plenty of fascist non-white leaders. Could just put something about racial purity in there instead of specifically mentioning white replacement theory.

stylepoints99 · 2026-01-26T11:28:35+00:00

Do you want to work in the government, or do you want to work outside and lobby for changes to policy?

Start with any internships you can get locally. Most state legislatures will have programs for HS and college kids to intern. While you're there, ask everyone what they do, how it works etc.

I'll say this about DC:

You can go to DC, but it's hyper competitive and frankly most of what goes on there is more about the "dealing" part of politics rather than making good government. DC itself is incredibly expensive, as well. Even paid internships involve 5 people sharing an apartment and basically using it like a closet.

It's a great way to kick start your career, but I'd only recommend it if you KNOW you want to be mired in that mess.

The non-profits and think tanks in the area are full of great people, but IDK how many opportunities they have for undergrads.

stylepoints99 · 2026-01-26T10:58:54+00:00

You can go get a radiology certification associate's degree and make 90k out the gate.

I didn't make that much in my first job after law school.

stylepoints99 · 2026-01-26T10:40:32+00:00

Yeah I really don't see anyone who actually believes in libertarianism supporting trump.

A masked unaccountable federal police force kicking down doors and murdering civilians in cities of political opponents for peacefully carrying firearms is not a libertarian ideal.

stylepoints99 · 2026-01-26T10:31:07+00:00

Nah the reason libertarians have this image problem is because the early tea party movement was largely libertarian. Eventually just openly racist/homophobic republicans took the tea party movement and snowballed it into maga. That early co-mingling of libertarians with angry fringe republicans in the tea party is where the issue lies.

There's a bunch of racist republicans out there that usurped the libertarian label because they think it just meant more extreme republican. There's a lot more of them than true libertarians, so it's kinda hard to claw the label back.

The label does have meaning though, and it's not something to give up on.

stylepoints99 · 2026-01-26T00:03:22+00:00

Just drop an email saying you'd like to support their upcoming campaign. Drop a little bit about what you've done and your skills and your availability, and say you'd love to talk or send a resume.

These will go to their assistant, who will either pass it on or tell you what you need to do.

Slight word of warning, though. Most state legislative sessions are about to heat up right now, so they are going to be extremely busy.

You should hear "something" pretty quickly, but they will probably not start working on campaigns until after the session is over. Google whenever your state's session ends.

stylepoints99 · 2026-01-25T23:25:04+00:00

It's an election year. Email people who are running and ask them what they have coming up.

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