# Law School



## utopian_grrl (Jun 26, 2008)

Anyone here thinking about going, are currently in, or have already graduated? If the latter two, how is/was the experience?

I'm taking a year off and will be enrolling in 2012. My law school destination is unknown until I take the LSAT and assess my chances with solid stats.


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## carefree (Nov 16, 2008)

*Super long post. sorry.*

I studied law for a year. I got in straight out of school and whilst I was interested in law it was something I did more for my parents and because I was surprised by my results rather than for myself.

As far as my experience, it was quite positive. There are definitely a lot of *incredibly* heated debates and there is a lot of academic competition but it makes you strive harder to succeed. Its a very talkative environment, lots of class discussions (which i luckily avoided) and a fair bit of showmanship. There were people there that were obviously proud to be studying law (which they should be) but i found it difficult to deal with the tendency for 20-30% of the people to have a incredibly heightened view of their own opinion. Being in a class with such vocal people, I was lucky to be able to shrink into the background. Although I got the sense that people thought I was lacking knowledge because I didn't express my opinion openly.

Having such a vocal class really helped when you were in a rut trying to understand different topics. It also gave you an alternate perspective which helped with essays because you could look at claims more critically and rebut challenges to your perspective/argument. *So please don't be put off by vocal nature of the class, its actually an asset. *

There are *a lot* of readings but they are really interesting. The subjects I studied were philosophical in nature - jurisprudence etc. and that of course affected the class environment/debates. We had to apply theoretical approaches about what law is/should be to different issues e.g. abortion, same sex marriage etc. Undoubtedly personal opinion trumped actual application of theoretical models on certain issues and it was interesting to see others perspectives but not always key to the course.

There was really only one negative event. It didn't happen to me but rather a member of my group in our group presentation. She went before me and was talking about the compatibility of Islam and democracy with a special focus on the status of women - obviously an incredibly controversial topic. However, she got 30 seconds into her speech and the class erupted, publicly ridiculed her and reduced her to tears. She didn't start her speech in the best way showing an obvious bias, still, to react the way that they did judging her whole speech off 30 seconds of content did scare me. For all they knew she could have said "_putting that aside I'll look at the issue impartially_" but instead they started to attack the way she presented and then ultimately her as a person. All the while our tutor sat powerless to intervene.

It does need to be said though that prior to this incident her opinion on certain issues (she was pro-abortion, same sex marriage etc.) was not taken well in previous debates. Her ridicule was mainly started by one of the more popular girls who was heavily associated with the Christian Group on campus who was very anti-abortion etc and had a grudge with her since those debates. She was the type of Christian *(luckily the very rare type)*who used the Bible as a platform to express her moral superiority, judge others and harshly treat those that didn't see things from her perspective. Once she started to ridicule her the rest of the group joined in, although their attacks were based on their perception of the impartiality of the speech rather than her as a person. Only she escalated it to that extreme.

*Please know that that situation was incredibly rare and not due to the nature of the course.* Yes, there are going to be debates over controversial topics and as human beings we are bound to have different opinions but the girl who was ridiculed asked the tutor if he had ever witnessed anything like that in all his years in teaching and he said no.

Otherwise I found the experience quite challenging, interesting and definitely led to personal development. I would recommend finding a small group of people to study with. I did this and as hard as it was with SA, having a group to deconstruct the readings and share ideas with was *really* helpful! I would definitely give law a go - even though i only studied it for a year I found the experience incredibly rewarding. It is possible to study law and have SA - the group presentations will allow you a platform to face your fears, challenge your perspective of yourself as being unable to cope and engage discussion with others. I would do CBT or some other therapy program with it to help you cope/challenge yourself.


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## BodedWell (Aug 3, 2010)

I'm in law school. I definitely agree with the post above mine regarding finding a group of people to study with. I haven't been able to meet anybody despite being half way through my second year already, and I am positive that this has made it more difficult for me. Damn SA...

A lot depends on the law school you go to. I really can't stress this enough. Do everything you can to go to a good law school. The content, of course, is the same -- but at good law schools, you tend to have higher calibre students and this can contribute a lot to your learning experience. I feel like my law school, although it is regarded as one of the best in Australia, really lacks the competitive nature of law schools like the University of Sydney law school. That has its up-sides, of course, in that we aren't constantly at each other's throats and tearing pages out of library books, but it also means people are less motivated. I guess it depends on your personal preferences. 

I've found the experience quite challenging. I would strongly recommend that you do some reading, not only about law school, but also about the legal profession. American lawyers - especially at large firms - have notoriously high rates of depression, suicide, and extremely difficult work hours. I'm not saying this to frighten you off, but just saying that you should look into all aspects of this so that you go into it with both eyes open, knowing fully that this is really what you want to do.


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## bitoqueen (Feb 18, 2011)

I'm in law school now, although I really don't like it.. in fact I loathe it. I'm scared everday when I get to class, and I'm a complete loner. Everybody has already paired up and made friends and I'm afraid that ppl won't want to get to know me now because of my introverted behavior, I want to leave but I can't.. 
ah well the good thing is, u can choose not to be a lawyer as a career.


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