Advise a recent (desperate) Ivy graduate (LAWYERS ESPECIALLY)

[Anonymous]

don't become a lawyer. the profession will literally kill you if you let it.

[Anonymous]

Government work for you

[Anonymous]

I went to a safety school am white and had a bad gpa. Just apply to jobs and leave off your gpa. Really you'll be fine. Take the real lsat and see your score. If you are an urm with a 175 lsat you'll go to a tt law school for free. Now while there you have to be able to get good grades at least the first year because those matter for getting a summer job. Don't go to law school if you don't want to be a lawyer

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went to a safety school am white and had a bad gpa. Just apply to jobs and leave off your gpa. Really you'll be fine. Take the real lsat and see your score. If you are an urm with a 175 lsat you'll go to a tt law school for free. Now while there you have to be able to get good grades at least the first year because those matter for getting a summer job. Don't go to law school if you don't want to be a lawyer

+1 I'm hiring for an entry level position right now and only about half the resumes list a GPA. When screening resumes I focus on the candidates' experience -- both paid experience and academic projects.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:don't become a lawyer. the profession will literally kill you if you let it.

Agree with this. And I'm a lawyer.

If you can do well on the LSAT, you can probably do well on the GRE or whatever other test you want to take. Work hard on the campaign, see what opportunities exist for advancement or leadership roles. Is this candidate likely to win? If so, they tend to reward good campaign staffers with great jobs, so stick it out if you can. Think of grad school as a 5 year plan. And don't go into debt for an art/creative degree. Best option is to find a job that will pay for you to go to school, if that's what you want to do.

[Anonymous]

Peace corps sounds perfect for you. But if you don't like that idea, take the LSAT and apply to a range of schools. Go to one that gives you a free ride. Given where you are at right now with career ambitions, there is no indication that law school will pay off financially if you have take on debt. So my advice is not to take on more debt.

[Anonymous]

If you really want to be a lawyer, then I agree with others to find an interesting job and work for a few years so your GPA is less important to your application. I had a high GPA but a more mediocre LSAT and still got into a top five law school. But I worked for five years before I applied and had an interesting resume by the time I went. If you like the thrill of the campaign, maybe try to find a job on the Hill. You can also volunteer on the side (tutoring, etc.) to diversify your resume even more. Or look at an industry like IT where nobody cares at all about your undergrad grades. My brother was a total mess in college, but he liked computers and is now making a ton of money doing cybersecurity without ever going to grad school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most grad school is a debt ridden scam. Try working hard exactly where you are. Sounds like you are lazy - which will be problematic in any situation. Work on small steps to improve your work ethic.

Well, let's see here--

mid-20s? Check
Female? Check
Shitty GPA? Check
LOTS of excuses for shitty GPA? Check
Ridiculous CA relocation plan? Check
Ridiculously expensive law school plan? Check

The only way you're going to get out of this rut is to BUST YOUR ASS and network your ass off. Or you can keep making excuses for yourself. Whiny Ivy grads are so unbecoming.

[Anonymous]

How do you get a low gpa at an ivy? They are notorious for grade inflation. C's are very rare.

[Anonymous]

You posted all this at 4pm on a Monday? With time to respond to all questions. All while your candidate is behind in the polls? Think about that. The fault is not in the stars.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don't go to law school unless you can get into a T14 school. In your case, you could maybe get into T10-14 with a 177+ LSAT and compelling personal statement. What kind of URM?

Have you thought of business school?

Asian?

[Anonymous]

^Oh I'd say that's pretty well represented.

[Anonymous]

work your ass off on the campaign, hope your candidate wins, and network like crazy to get a political appointee position.

[Anonymous]

Pick a winning campaign next time.

[Anonymous]

Just remember that law jobs for people with middling grades, even URMs with middling grades, are difficult to come by and are likely to be so for many years to come. Law school can be a bit of a pressure cooker that is not particularly forgiving to people who are going through issues or can't get organized or aren't bothered to do the reading. Unless you are a bit of a genius, law school is a lot of work and quite a slog. It is not something I would particularly recommend to someone who had a difficult time maintaining grades in college who is looking for an escape from the doldrums of their current plodding day job.

I realize your LSAT score is one of the few "outs" to your current situation that you can see right now, but please realize that it could just be another dead end. Hey, even if you did well in law school, then you would have to be a lawyer, and there is really nothing in your question that makes me think you either have any conception of what that's like or would enjoy the work involved in it.

Twenty years ago, people could escape from their bad decisionmaking in college by going to law school. The market allowed it. Today's market does not.