Around 100,000 people throughout the country apply to law schools every single year. However, most of them either don’t know exactly why they want to go to law school or expect it to have a completely different outcome career-wise.
For example, many divorce attorneys say they had no clue they would be practicing in this particular law field when they enrolled. After all, one doesn’t decide on a specific area unless someone or something influences him.
At the same time, the things they experience during law school may also change their beliefs. This is why every student should know the following things before they apply to law school!
Aim for Academic Diversity
As mentioned above, not every law student will become the attorney they want to be. With this in mind, it’s also imperative to pay attention to academic diversity. This means that if your plans of becoming a corporate attorney don’t succeed, you will have other options.
Moreover, keep in mind that law school is not just about becoming an attorney. The practice of law spreads across multiple fields/services – legal jobs can be found in business, technology, management, and so on.
Work on Your Other Skills
As an attorney, you’ll need to know more than just how to practice law to become a successful attorney or paralegal. For example, writing and analytical thinking are essential to any legal professional out there – and you’ll probably be unable to finish your studies if you don’t work on these skills.
If you’re in high school and want to apply to law school, take an interest in the study of literature or language, as such skills could help you throughout law school.
Extra-Curricular Activities
Most law students think that engaging in as many extra-curricular activities as possible will improve their status/standing among their teachers, peers, and so on. Even though that might be the case for other universities, most law schools value substance over number.
In short, instead of having a list of ten to twenty activities that you do outside of the classroom, have one in which you really invest your time. Long-term investment in activities that you feel passionate about or that could help you in your career is regarded as essential to law students.
Forget (Almost) Everything You Know about TV Attorneys
The attorneys you see in movies, and TV shows provide you with a narrow view of the opportunities you have as a law student.
Despite being quite good, shows like Suits could make some people think that only corporate law is fascinating. In fact, it is the attorney who makes a particular field interesting via their passion for it.
Some may think that human rights law is boring while you, a real human rights advocate, could make more than just a career out of it!
The Bottom Line
Overall, if you didn’t interact with real-world law education, there are a lot of things that you may get wrong about how law school works and what you should expect from it.
An attorney is only one of the jobs that you could have after completing your studies. Simultaneously, the most common place you could work in is not a law firm – but that depends on how well you do your research before you apply to law school!
