That's a really idiotic plan. July 5th is a Sunday. Why would you want to start studying on the weekend? Plus, you should be mega hungover from 4th of July beverage-and-Lee-Greenwood goodness.

My bar studying summer went as follows:

May 21: graduation
May 23: pick up last year's BarBri and PMBR books from the dude I bought them from off Craigslist
May 23-June 15: Study/take practice tests like 8 hours/day
June 15-20: Go down to beach for conference for nonprofit I worked for during school year, bring books because I'm totally gonna study some
June 21: Decide to stay down at the beach for a while longer
July 10-ish: OMFG the bar exam is in like 2 weeks and I haven't cracked a book in 3
July 11-July 24: panicked cramming of areas of law I've realized I know nothing about
July 24-25: Bar exam
Nov. 2: GREAT SUCCESS

heyporter,

i just meant after 4th of July, didn't actually look at calendar.

I'm sure I'll do some studying in June, but Barbri materials say something like "class is 3-4 hours per day and you should spend an additional 5-7 hours per day including weekends" and that ain't happening.

I mean, my school has a 95% bar passage rate. So as long as I'm not in the bottom 5% of idiots, then I'll be ok, right? right????

Anyone work(ed)/know someone who works as an assistant DA? I'm curious how that is. I realize it doesn't pay ****, but I'm cool with that as long as I like the job and and I don't have to put in a ton of hours. Are those jobs more/less/about the same as competitive as, say, a small-firm insurance defense job?

Mia, only two days? You Marylanders are weak.

And yeah Noah, no chance I'm spending 10+ hours a day on this ****. I'm thinking 6ish including Barbri should suffice.

Claunchy,

I live with my gf who is a DA, about 2 years into her career in that office. The first year was intense working hours, most weeks > 50 and not uncommon for her to have 60+ hour weeks. Every weekend there was at least one 4+ hour trip to the office. As I understand it in her jurisdiction this is very standard for county court DA's just starting out. You've got to get a grasp on the whole flow of the job - there's a huge paper push aspect to it too.

These days she's still in County court (i.e. still prosecuting misdemeanors) but has a much better grasp on the job. She works probably 45-50 hours a week, and about once a week will bring a work project home i.e. typing notes or reviewing case files for docket the following day.

Depending on the juris. obviously these jobs are extremely competitive, both to get and within the office due to the nature of government work only opening up when someone leaves.

Afaik it's the kind of job, like PI plaintiffs work, that you really should be passionate about or you're going to burn out on it.

My bar study was, during barbri I would go to class, take a nap, do 50-100 MBE problems and quit for the day. After barbri was over I dicked off but the 3-4 weeks prior to the bar exam were all 8+ hour days of outlining state subjects and doing 150 or 200 MBE problems.

Note that "doing" MBE problems means doing them, going through and reviewing your answers, and reviewing the substantive law for any wrong answers you get.

I passed the bar exam by a huge margin so this may have been overkill but better safe than sorry.

I liked XxGodJrxX's responses to that dude in the 4th tier school thread. Pretty much straight from the Noah playbook.


How much time should I expect to budget for the MPRE, by the way? I bought the barbri materials for it and assume their presence in the trunk of my car will osmosis knowledge into me, but is it like a "cram the night before" or "2 solid weeks" kinda thing?

I studied for ~5 hrs the day before and got like a 110

What's the point of even going to the Barbri class other than forcing yourself to do the stuff? I mean most profs never really give a terse analysis anyway, they just explain concepts and offer weird hypos. I learn most black letter application by reading cases, outlines, etc. on my own. I'd assume that if you had up-to-date barbri books you could just study them and skip the class since their outlines/books already have everything broken down pretty good.

Thoughts?

I pretty much felt the same way, which is why I didn't bother taking a bar prep course. I'd have just ended up dicking around on my laptop throughout class every day anyway. Some people need/want the structure, though, which is pretty understandable.

Honestly, though, if you know you're disciplined enough to stick to a studying schedule, you'll be fine just buying the books and using those - as someone else mentioned, they are very well organized and do a good job of breaking stuff into bite-size chunks of information. Obviously I might feel a bit differently if I hadn't passed, but I mean, I took a 3-week break from studying in the middle and am pretty dumb and still managed to pass, so if you learned, like, ANYTHING in school and are the least bit disciplined, you should be fine.

Night before. I night-befored the thing and scored something like 135. I will say, though, I didn't exactly feel confident leaving the exam.

I took the course to force myself to study and stay on a schedule, but it ended up being pretty helpful for the state subjects. Usually those profs have/had some connection to the bar, have been doing it for years, and have a good idea what you need to know and what you can ignore. Still, to get that info all you really need is their outline, and you only have to go to the course since they dick you around and leave stuff blank. This is where you go to the person that spent weeks on their outline in school but had no problem giving it to you and ask if you can see their BarBri book.

By the way, if you are like me, using BarBri to force you to stay on schedule is a dumb idea. It just doesn't work. I played more golf during May and June of my bar exam year than I ever have.

Jack,

Thanks for the info.

Hi all,

I just have some questions about the process of getting INTO a law school from a somewhat unique situation. I graduated Binghamton University exactly one year ago and have been working a part-time job since. I've been strongly considering law school lately but have some concerns:

First, I haven't started studying for the LSAT. From what I've read elsewhere, the next test I should take would be February 2010. This probably varies from school to school, but is February early enough to be admitted that same Fall?

Second, I've been removed from college for a now. By the time I take the LSAT, even longer. I don't really have professors from Binghamton to give me recommendations but I do have a job. Would a recommendation from an employer be a problem?

Advice from anyone who went through or is going through a similar situation would be greatly appreciated. This thread as already been a great resource.

Professional recommendations are fine if you've been out for a while. I just did this last application cycle with only professional recommendations (I'm out of undergrad five years now), and things went well.

For the record, I don't think you need to wait until all the way in February to take the LSAT...though it depends on how much time you can devote to studying, I guess. Around this time last year, I started studying pretty intensely and did the October test. If you're not pleased with that score, you can retake in December. Most schools will accept the higher score rather than averaging them...at least that seems to be the common standard they set forth. Getting your application in before the end of the calendar year is pretty huge; if you're only getting your LSAT score in late February and your apps don't go complete until then, your cycle will suffer for it. Don't take the test any later than December, unless you're going to wait all the way until the following application cycle to apply. Those few months will cost you, while seats fill up and scholarship money dries up.

I applied for this fall after a real late start. Last summer I had decided I was going to go back to school, but I was aiming for 2010. Then I lost my job in October 08 and figured I'd just up it for 2009. I studied for the LSAT for one month; worked through the Kaplan book then took a bunch of practice tests.

I took the LSAT December 08 and scored a couple of points higher than my first practice test.

I have been out of school since 2007, and was only able to find one professor who I thought would write me a really good rec, so I also got a couple from professional people. By the time all my recs were submitted, it was the end of January, so I got my apps in WAY last minute. (All of the schools I applied to claimed to require at least one academic ref)

I applied to these six schools:

NYU
Columbia
Penn
Northwester
UVA
Georgetown

All six of them waitlisted me. Georgetown pulled me off the list less than a week after waitlisting me, and I'm still sitting on the other 5.

I probably would have had a chance at the other ones if I had applied earlier.

If you're ready to start not I'd recommend taking the test in the fall, and you'll easily be able to go back to school fall of 2010. If you **** up the LSAT in Oct. you can retake in Dec. Definitely get your recs together early, that's what hurt me.

So I'm not really sure why I hate myself.

I'm writing a law review case note atm
I am taking a summer class that starts tomorrow (trademarks)
Starting Monday I'm working 35 hours/week as a law clerk at a mid-sized firm

bye bye summer, vegas aspirations, my golf stroke, etc.

I was going to thank you for your advice, etc. but then I realized you were post number 666 and are indeed the devil trying to steer me in the wrong direction. Nice try, devil, nice try.

I'd gladly sell my soul to the devil in exchange for 225k to pay for this degree

If you have the numbers (using Law School Numbers) to get into better schools than GULC if you wait an extra year, it might be best to wait and attend a better school. GULC is a great school, but the job prospects at the top of its class can be much different than at the bottom. If, by waiting, you'd have a good shot at Columbia/NYU/Penn, you end up with a lot better job prospects if you end up below median.

You might be also able to get a better scholarship. And who knows when the legal market will recover from this economy.

And here I am happily attending my Tier 2 with a partial scholarship...

Hopefully you will still be "happily" attending when you actually get to law school.

Whatever, don't let this thread crush your hopes and dreams. Lots of people here are full of themselves.

I'm at a T3 on a full ride and I found an awesome summer clerking job and am not worried one bit about the economy. I'll graduate with no debt, do well in school, law review, etc.

Enjoy yourself, big law in NYC isn't for everyone (or most).

I just graduated a couple weeks ago from undergrad with a bs in business admin... and I'm now really considering law school. I want to take the lsats in october and get my apps in real early mainly because my gpa is god awful, sub 2.5. As far as recommendations, I've had a couple internships a a couple good professors. What I want to end up doing is not biglaw but to work for the EEOC or some other government affiliate/public service. I live in NJ and would like to get instate tuition as my undergrad loans are up to 100k. So I figure if I go through law school, my loans would be through the roof even though they already are.

Any recommendations? other than study my a** off.

Please be honest...I wouldn't mind the "Don't even try" recommendation.

With a GPA that low, your ceiling is probably a Tier 3 (someone correct me if I'm mistaken). I would work really hard at the LSAT and consider yourself lucky if you are able to get any money at all. You're going to have to break 160 just to get in anywhere I'd imagine.

Another possible course of action would be to work for a couple years before going into law school. When you're further removed from undergrad your GPA will matter less.