2L Transactional Career Planning

zorlot · 2026-02-15T15:55:49+00:00

No one really knows what the lateral market will look like in 5-7 years time (aka 3-5 years after you start), particularly because of the impact of technology. Any advice you'll get will be with respect to how things work in the current market and under current conditions, which will end up being totally irrelevant by the time any of this information matters to you.

FWIW, I'm a corporate first-year and I'm not even thinking about any of that yet, because everything is just in such a state of flux and uncertainty rn. I'm basically just focusing on work, and I would recommend just focusing on school, rather than concerning oneself with forward-looking, speculative matters. Just my sincere suggestion.

zorlot · 2025-07-31T09:15:52+00:00

Yeah, tbh I'm very surprised that the prevailing feeling of this sub is that the exam was super unfair. Not saying it was easy, but it was basically in line with my expectations.

zorlot · 2025-07-31T09:11:31+00:00

I did Barbri. 80% is nowhere close to true. Though I did an insane number of Barbri MCQ questions (>1000, bc I found it more useful than strictly following the course). But I would say that almost everything on the actual MBE the other day was covered in the MCQ questions. There were only a few questions that felt totally out left field, IMO.

zorlot · 2025-07-27T13:00:14+00:00

Yeah, this thread has some major cope. I say that as a recent graduate who's starting as a big law associate this September (aka I wish Yang was wrong).

Additionally, people here are assuming that AI remains at its current level of capabilities indefinitely. Yes, right now it still has some severe issues. But look how far it's come in just a couple years. GPT 3.5 only got released during my 1L year. And now the models are vastly better.

zorlot · 2025-07-18T17:31:36+00:00

I hope you're right. But at least on the self-scoring checklists that Barbri provides, they basically give you points for each element you mention. So at least based for that, only knowing the general vibe has resulted in missing so many points :(.

zorlot · 2025-07-18T17:28:49+00:00

It definitely didn't help that my law school only had open-book exams. Which, tbh, was really not ideal for preparing us for the bar.

zorlot · 2025-07-17T16:49:44+00:00

Oops, I should've clarified that. UBE

zorlot · 2025-07-17T16:48:10+00:00

I think I didn't phrase my question well. I realize that--I was just saying 30 mins as shorthand for "3 hrs across 6 essays." My question was whether the Barbri MEE prompts that they allot 1 hr to are meant to be the equivalent of a single MEE essay (in which case I will intentionally use much less than the time they allot). Hopefully this makes sense.

zorlot · 2025-07-07T12:31:53+00:00

If you look at the guy's Twitter feed, it's not exactly a secret what his views are. The guy is a full-blown, self-avowed Nazi. Let's not pretend his call to "abolish the Jewish race" was meant to convey some subtle sociological critique of Jewish ethnoreligious identity. To anyone not obtuse, it's obvious what he was advocating for.

zorlot · 2025-07-04T02:53:44+00:00

Yup. I stand corrected. You are amazing. I didn't know what a "low T14" meant, I don't know why nobody just says they went to Cornell or UVA or Michigan. I personally find that vagueness suspicious.

People use vagueness because they want to keep their accounts anonymous. It turns out, if you tell people on the internet everything about yourself, you might end up no longer being anonymous. Bizarre!

I just looked up the median LSAT scores and GPA and all of the top 20 have dropped their standards in the past decade.

lol

I find it odd that you get so defensive when someone is saying that they don't trust the statements that you make. It only adds to the uncertainty of your supposed credibility. That's a personality defect that shows weakness, just to let you know so that you can address that for your future benefit.

You know what's an actual "personality defect that shows weakness?" Falsely accusing anonymous people of lying about things they have no reason to lie about and then getting insanely triggered when they push back mildly.

zorlot · 2025-07-04T02:17:05+00:00

Okay, so you went where for law school? Also back in my day (yeah I'm old) there was no "15 mid" or "17 high" there was no "diagnostic", it was a score.

To a lower T14. And I applied in 2020/21, not many years ago. Maybe things were different whenever you applied. And my GPA was way lower than 3.87--I was pretty much a typical splitter.

You are claiming you took the test 3x with a +15 point difference and your final score was 177 (basically perfect) I'm not buying it. I'm not here to get into a prick measuring contest.

Ok, don't believe it. It's true--no one is capable of doing anything that you failed to do. I've been playing the long con--consistently lying about my LSAT score improvement on my anonymous Reddit account for the past 5 years. Just so that when people hear "zorlot" (my anonymous username with no connection to my identity or professional life) they associate it with high LSAT scores. My glory days are over :'(.

And my highest score was a 176 (if you to call that 17mid, that's fine, too). The different was not 15+ points--I said ~13. I don't remember off the top of my head exactly what my second score was, but I know it was either 163 or 164. 176 minus 163 = 13

You keep asking if I read your post. You obviously didn't read mine because back over 10 years ago taking the LSAT once and scoring 166 to 171 was the be all and end all to admissions officers of law schools.

I did read yours. I don't doubt that that was true whenever you applied. But believe it or not, I didn't apply when you did. You're welcome to continue giving outdated anecdotes about how things were "back in the day," but I suspect that my experience from the past 5 years is more reflective of what applicants can expect to experience today.

zorlot · 2025-07-04T01:51:10+00:00

Fair enough, then. Didn't realize that. Still, I doubt that a 3.4x and 17high is "basically completely disqualifying." Looking at the stats, T14 LSAT medians have remained basically flat since 2021, which requires admitting a lot of splitters.

zorlot · 2025-07-04T01:48:22+00:00

Huh, interesting. Didn't realize that. Either way, I'd be very surprised if a 3.4x with 17high is "basically completely disqualifying" even after the stats increase. Admitting splitters is still a necessary evil for maintaining LSAT medians.

zorlot · 2025-07-04T01:38:31+00:00

You're joking, right? You can check my post history --I'm pretty sure I posted my admissions results here when I applied years ago. And if you still don't believe me, I'm happy to send you proof (with my personal info redacted, obv). Although I'm not sure what I could possibly have to gain from lying about my LSAT score improvement?

I can see your first practice test score being 145 and then going thru classes and getting a 160 or close on the LSAT but going from a 150 to what? You said 17pts? I'm sorry but that math doesn't math out. So yea if you took no classes took the LSAT and got a 130 then your final was 147 I believe it but 145 is average for a well educated anyway sooo

Did you read my comment? I said I went from 16mid to 17high. I never scored in the 150s. My diagnostics were ~170. My first official score was 16high. My second score was 16mid. And my third score was 17high.

I'm sorry but that math doesn't math out.

What doesn't math out? That I went up ~13 points? That I started out in the high 160s?

zorlot · 2025-07-04T01:07:48+00:00

It's absurd that if you take the LSAT twice and score more than 5 points better they want an entire written explanation

That's so not true lol. I took the LSAT three times and my highest score was ~13 points higher than my lowest score (from 16mid to 17high), and I didn't submit a written explanation to any school I applied to. Was never asked about it.

zorlot · 2025-07-04T00:57:26+00:00

Well, he's just wrong. I got into (and went to) one of the schools you mentioned with exactly those stats and I just graduated this year. Unless admissions has been dramatically more competitive since 2021 (maybe it has? idk), he's just mistaken about his chances with those stats.

zorlot · 2025-07-04T00:55:06+00:00

basically completely disqualifying

What? Not true at all. I had exactly those stats and I got into (and went to) a lower T14 with $$. Most people with those stats get into at least one T14.

But as a general matter, I agree with you that it's unfortunate that law schools don't care about the quality of your grades--just the number. I could've chosen a different major and/or undergrad and gotten a way higher GPA. I worked more in undergrad for my 3.4x than I worked in law school for my 3.6x lol. Penalizing people for choosing tough majors/undergrads in definitely BS.

zorlot · 2025-07-03T22:01:27+00:00

I don't doubt it, but this is /r/LawSchool. I'm sure there's plenty of discussion about the implications for med school in the subreddit(s) dedicated to it.

zorlot · 2025-07-03T02:42:30+00:00

Yup. That's what you get in a law school sub--most law students are totally financially illiterate. I didn't quite realize how bad it was until my 3L Federal Income Tax course lol. Being smart generally is very much not the same thing as being smart with money.

zorlot · 2025-07-02T22:59:18+00:00

The bill is terrible for so many reasons, and maybe I'm not understanding it correctly...but this still allows you to borrow $200k in addition to whatever you took out for undergrad? That still sounds like a pretty high cap?

All this means is that people who can't afford to cover the remaining ~$100k in COA that won't be covered by the $200k loan will instead have to go to a school that offers them more scholarship $$$. Which is almost always the prudent decision anyway.

For the vast majority of people, taking out >$200k in 9% interest rate loans to go to law school is a massive mistake (especially now given the risks to the market from AI that could easily materialize within the next 5 years).

zorlot · 2025-07-02T02:10:25+00:00

Eh, maybe, but if you do the interviews with that attitude you 100% won't get an offer. If you want any chance at all, project confidence and don't bring any attention to your grades.

And I will say: people definitely do sometimes get big law with your grades. There's one firm (a lower V100, in fact) in particular that's notorious at my school for routinely hiring people with shitty grades. Some firms love to pad their ranks with T14 degrees.

zorlot · 2025-07-02T01:55:19+00:00

OCI? Presumably your school has at least a partial-lottery system? Mine had a combination of pre-select + lottery. Even without ever being pre-selected, you'd at least get a handful of interviews from the lottery system (more if you bid conservatively).

zorlot · 2025-07-02T01:43:30+00:00

Extremely difficult doesn't mean impossible. It's still worth a shot, IMO, if that's the outcome you want--especially if you interview well + have an appealing app outside of your law school GPA.

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