That decision ruined my life.

See, I am in the top 5%. I did beat the odds and did just as well as I thought I would do…and it doesn’t matter. The name on your degree DOES define your employability. Sure, I get to put in the first line of my cover letters “I am a rising third year student at <> School of Law ranked in the top 5%” but the reality is that nobody cares. And why should they? I, too, would rather hire a crop of HYS lawyers to put on my website. I know of those ranked 1 and 2 at my school who have been similarly dinged.

There is a profound hopelessness to my job application strategy. When you can be the absolute best at your (ranked in the 50-70 range, not even close to complete shit) law school and STILL get dinged at not only firms but criminal/public interest jobs too, you feel like a failure. I have done everything right, and my school’s name is holding me back.

So why am I writing this? I’m writing this because where I am now completely sucks. Here are some specific things I want to advise everybody who is applying to law school:

1. Don’t go to a regional law school assuming that you will want to stay where your law school is located. Things change, people outperform themselves, people fall in love with people who want to get out of town. Just because you believe, “I want to stay in the <> region forever,” when you’re filling out your law school application doesn’t mean it will still be true come application time. And trying to leave after three years to a city where you have no connections is damn near impossible. I would know.

2. Don’t just take the full-ride because it’s free. First, the full-ride comes with an opportunity cost of what you could have been making in the workforce, so it isn’t truly free, anyway. But that aside, your options coming out of a T14 will make the debt manageable unless you are a complete dumdum. You are either going to hit big-law, in which case you’ll be able to pay back that monstrous loan, or you are going to get into public interest/government and take advantage of PAYE/IBR.

3. Don’t go to the TT/TTT/TTTT because you want to do public interest. This is particularly true for me. “Gee whiz,” I thought to myself, “Won’t it be great to go accept my low paying job without $180K in debt?” Well, yes, except that I want to change the world. If I become a public defender, I want to be a public defender at a top office. I want to go work for Southern Poverty Law Center, PDS, OPD. Go take a look at the law schools that the attorneys staffing those offices attended.

4. Time off between undergrad and law school can only help you. God I wish I had worked someplace for a couple years before starting law school. For one thing, I would have a fuller resume that could occupy one page without including undergrad community service. For another, I would have real-world challenges and experiences to talk about at an interview. And yes, you have more time to study for and retake the LSAT.

5. Remember you only get one bite at the apple. You only go to law school once. Choosing where you go is like accepting your first job. Like it or not, it is going to determine your career trajectory. I would give everything I had to be able to go back in time and fight harder to get into a T14. Literally, everything. I know now that was clearly capable of success at a top law school, a few points away and I had the GPA. But I doubted myself. I doubted my ability to compete there, my ability to succeed there, and, frankly, my ability to be a good attorney. That in and of itself should have been enough to stop me from going to law school at all.

So I ask all of you out there to PLEASE not end up like me. I am 24, and on paper to those outside the legal industry it looks like I have everything going for me but my choice of school has seriously hampered both my career choices and my life. Every. Single. Day. I wake up and regret my decision, especially when I was faced with such unambiguous advice not to do what I did. I can say with complete certainty that my life would be radically different if I had attended a better school.

And if this is how it is for someone in the top 5%...how bad must it be for the other 95%?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2920815&forum_id=2#28210194)

so much stupid in one place

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2920815&forum_id=2#28210790)