re: How tough is law school?

You can't lose.

I went to law school and loved every minute of it because I had worked for a couple of years after college and knew even as bad as LSU Law sucked, being a part of that place and being a student beat the hell out of working.

And I haven't 'worked' a day since I graduated.

Joined the JAG Corps after law school, because I wasn't interested in billing hours like all my friends. I got to travel the world while making a Captain's salary plus innumerable benefits. When my 4 year service obligation was up, I looked back and realized I was a paratrooper, I had lived in 3 foreign countries, traveled around the entire globe for 120 days of paid vacation, and got to have irreplaceable experiences through two deployments, which gave me an inside view of how our country really works that 99% of Americans will never see.

I left the Army with more civilian job opportunities than I could decide on, it just came down to where did I want to live. Took the job that was a great balance of pleasure and money, and moved to uptown NOLA, where it's hard for me to have a bad day doing what I do.

If I had stayed in aviation, I'd probably be at a major airline now, but would have endured years of making dick and would have never experienced half of what I've seen. And I definitely would not have been able to break into my current life.

Bottom line, a law degree is one of the best investments you can make; it applies to any field, and shows you how the modern world we live and operate works.

If you can find a night program, I'd say do that; a law degree part time over 5 years beats the hell out of a law degree full-time in 3 years, especially if you have a job and family.

Who cares where you went. A law degree is just a ticket to take the bar exam, the real equalizer. I've served and worked with competent lawyers from schools of every tier from across the country. Literally from Harvard to Cooley, and we all had the same job making the same money.

I encourage you to go. Good luck

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Joined the JAG Corps after law school

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Basically impossible to join JAG if you're a white male now.

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Don't go to law school to pad your resume in the job you're already in. That's what cheap MBAs and the like are for.

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I think people are missing that he wants to get into regulatory work. If that's the case, an MBA won't do anything for him. A law degree, in itself, won't either,but if your job is willing to send you and train you after you graduate (and that job interests you) yeah, do it. It's not hard and with a guaranteed position afterward, it is not as stressful.

That said, if you just think this may be something you want to do, but aren't sure, I'd talk to your current compliance/regulatory lawyer about what he does. Then determine if that's what you want to do and discuss it with your company.

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Every. Single. Person. going into law school thinks they can finish within the top 20-30%. Grades are extremely subjective and getting stuck in tougher sections your first year can really get you off to a rough start. Law school is a game. Learn how to play it.

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True.

Most schools will stick all of their scholarship recipients (i.e., the people most likely to do well) in the same section. Of course most scholarships are contingent on maintaining a certain class ranking (e.g., top 20%). Therefore, the schools know that 80% of the scholarship money they used to entice students can be take away after the first year and be used to entice the next year's incoming students.

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Is this true? It makes sense, but I'm not aware of anyone getting a scholarship taken away. For reference, I had about 6 other people in my core study group throughout law school, and about 5/7 were from the same section. Pretty sure all 7 of us had scholarships.

We ranged from #1 overall to about top 35%, so I guess that could be part of it, but I just feel like I would have heard more if there were a lot of people losing $$$.

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It may not be true for all schools, but it is for many. I knew of quite a few people that lost scholarships that way.

What happens to people who go to shitty law schools and are at the top of their classes there?

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What happens to people who go to shitty law schools and are at the top of their classes there?

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It depends on what you consider "shitty."

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It depends on what you consider "shitty."

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Yep.

In Georgia, if "shitty" is Mercer, then you still get pretty good offers. If "shitty" is John Marshall, you get mediocre to bad offers.

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It depends on what you consider "shitty."

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Median LSAT 150 or below, low bar pass rate, high acceptance rate

Are metrics like that reliable for judging a law school?