Did anyone else hate law school?
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Anonymous
Give it up now before you even bother sitting for exams and paying for second semester. Once you're on the hook for a year's tuition fully, you might as well stick it out. I'll never understand the folks who dropped after completing 1L or 2L. I had a roommate who came back after first semester 1L, stayed in classes for 2 weeks, then told me she was leaving and was gone by the end of the weekend. With nothing to show but $50K in debt. For the OP, I detested law school. It was a means to an end that I tolerated, albeit not well at times, for 3 years so I could be a lawyer. I still don't much like other lawyers. Some of my coworkers are fine, others still have that pompous ass attitude about where they/I went to school. Which shouldn't at all matter given I'm a decade out and most of my coworkers are much farther out than that. |
Anonymous
| Is this Yale? |
Anonymous
OP, you sound like me and my DH, both ex-lawyers. I think law is a good career for some people, but it was never a fit for our personalities. We are both very sensitive and idealistic and dislike conflict. Eventually we both got out of law to do other things, but not before making some financial sacrifices and losing a lot of time. My advice is to give law school a bit more time but if you're still miserable by the end of the semester maybe do some soul searching and decide if this just isn't a fit for you. Not everyone is cut out to be a lawyer, and IMO that's a good thing. |
Anonymous
| I went to a wedding recently of a law school classmate and saw a ton of people I hadn't seen in almost a decade. Every single one if them was considerably nicer than I remembered in my head. I don't know if not being in a stressful environment changed them for the better , if they matured, or if I was putting an unreasonably bad spin on them back then. In any case, OP, get along with them as best you can and know that some day a few of these people will be close friends (or clients!) and the rest at least won't bother you anymore. |
Anonymous
| I hate it..I hate how hateful people are and he hate the way I am because of it, the way my thoughts are changing and how upset and unhappy I am all the time. The environment is absolutely hostile and I have the same thought... How am I supposed to practice surrounded by people like this.. I love my professors, but overall I'm just so unhappy.. |
Anonymous
| I loved every minute of law school and made amazing friends. I avoided the jerks. I didn't love my biglaw job after though even there most of the people were pretty decent. Agree with PPs who say that law school is entirely unlike practicing law. |
Anonymous
PP, I feel your agony. If you are at an upper-tier law school and are likely to obtain employment, please keep in the back of your mind that law practice is NOTHING WHATSOEVER like law school. |
Anonymous
Poor thing. Most everyone (the sane normal ones anyway) hate law school. Like pp said, law practice is NOTHING WHATSOEVER like law school. Work hard and it'll be over in a blink and just a bad memory. |
Anonymous
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Hi OP,
I haven't read the other replies yet, just your post so am responding to you. I graduated in the 90s, but seems like yesterday. I hated, hated, law school. Lots of argumentative people and lots of people who thought the sun rose and set over them and their brilliant minds. LOL I was at a top school and was very cowed by all the know-it-alls. I thought they were there because they were smart, and I was there because I was a very hard worker. Only later did I realize how many people were there because their father pulled a favor… I went into big law and used to wish I could cut a hole in the window of my skyscraper. Just to get some fresh air. I didn't date for two years; I was too busy with long hours and weekend hours. In an attempt to find a field that was more of a match with my personality, I applied for and was accepted into a post-baccalaureate pre-medical school program. However; I finally got a long sought-after job in consulting, so after testing that field for a few months, I stuck with the consulting job. Although the public speaking part was nerve-wracking for me, it was a better fit because I was out of my "cell," always traveling and meeting people. Law school and being a lawyer are two very different things, so I suggest you give it a try, OP, and get those loans, if any, paid off. Also, one thing to consider is government work--the pay is horrible in comparison to big law, but you will have a life. My friend works for the DOJ and has great hours and works from home one day a week…sweet, nothing like private practice! |
Anonymous
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NP here. I found this thread because I was searching to see if anyone else had the same experience I did. I'm so glad that 3L is over and I've graduated. I hated the social atmosphere of law school - the cliquey, snooty, almost fraternity-like vibe. People would get raging drunk with you at bars, laughing loudly and acting like you've sealed a new friendship, and then totally ignore you in the hallway the next morning, or else just give you a polite, small smile.
People will continually act like they don't know you no matter how many classes you take together or how much they see you at social events. And if you don't drink hard like the rest of them, what good are you? yeah, no thanks. I'm so glad this painful time of my life is over. |
Anonymous
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I was searching for a thread like this and reading this was therapeutic. I'm a 2L in New York and I've hated law school. I never had trouble making friends before I came here, and now I only have 2 people I can really call friends.
Maybe it's because I don't drink and party hard either. |
Anonymous
| If your school has a part-time/evening option you may want to try to meet some of those students--DH worked and went to law school "part-time" and met some really good, like-minded people there. Actual adults with real world experience. |
Anonymous
What? There's a prestigious law school in DC? What is it? 
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Anonymous
| Snob pp. G'town is ranked something like 13 or 14 and GW is ranked 20. So, unless you went to Harvard, you didn't go anywhere much better yourself. |
Anonymous
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Hated law school with an abiding passion. Never really clicked with anyone, probably because I went right out of college and most of my classmates had a few years of work experience under their belts.
I chose not to practice law. |