15 Questions To Decide If You Should Go To Law School
Deciding to attend law school is a difficult decision. It can be hard to know how to approach something so life-changing; you're spending more than three years working hard, at considerable cost, toward the all-important goal of a law degree.
It’s helpful to think through questions that will help you narrow your interests, define your goals, and confirm that law school is right for you.
1. Why Do You Want to Go to Law School?
You should have a specific and thoughtful reason why you want to attend law school.
There can be many different reasons—to increase your earning potential, gain professional recognition, help people who are wrongly accused, or facilitate international deals.
While motivations will vary, you should be clear about what your own reasons and how they are unique to you. Unlike college, where students often attend for enrichment purposes, law school is a purpose-driven, professional endeavor. You should have some concrete reason why you want to attend.
2. Can You Afford to Go to Law School?
There are several costs that you should consider regarding law school. There's the cost of applying to law school, which could well exceed $1,000. Once you’re admitted, you’re responsible for the cost of tuition. Following graduation, you’re often paying for bar exam preparation courses and materials. Put simply, a law degree comes with a mountain of costs.
Some of these costs can be offset. There are need-based and merit-based financial assistance, including scholarships to help you pay the cost of law school. Free or low-cost options are also available for the admissions and bar preparation processes.
While law school may come with substantial pay-offs, it might not be worth the cost for everyone. Understand the cost, in all its manifestations, before you start down this path.
[Next Read: Law School Financial Aid and How It Works]
3. What Are the Costs and Benefits of Going to Law School?
We mentioned some of the costs above, but there are still more to consider. Not all costs are monetary, after all. Consider the mental cost of attending law school. While not as intense a time commitment as medical school, law school requires time and great attention to detail, which can be overwhelming for some students.
These is also the opportunity cost of dedicating three years of your life to school. Depending on your age, you may be using the time when most people build careers or expand their social networks studying.
Finally, for those who choose to attend law school in-person, you’ll be living in one place for three years, perhaps requiring you to move locations. Any existing professional and social networks you may have built may be disrupted.
But let’s not overlook the benefits. Like any great challenge, there are real benefits in the journey to a law degree. Successfully completing law school is a huge life accomplishment. It changes who you are.
A law degree can also help you think more clearly. You are able to more clearly understand how legal systems function. While many aspects of society can seem (and be) unfair, a sound ability to understand the legal environment lends a perspective on why certain aspects may be resistant to change, and how they can realistically be improved.
There are also strong benefits to your career prospects. Law school, compared to other graduate schools, leads to higher average salaries and better career outcomes. Many (but not all) law jobs are professional and well-paid. There is a certain prestige to having a law degree.
4. What Else Would You Be Doing With Your Time?
It's hard to evaluate law school in a vacuum, especially given the time commitment and expenses. It’s important to consider what you would be doing if you weren’t in law school. By pursuing a legal career, you may indirectly be closing the door to another career that’s more authentic and aligned with your true passions.
Is there something else that you want to put your time into? Do you already have a job that you love, and want to return to? For example, those who aspire to be an actor, dancer, or athlete, spend crucial time early in their career building foundation skills and relationships. Attending law school may cost you the time needed to invest in your success in those fields. Think about whether the opportunity cost of a law degree detracts from other passions.
It could go the other way. If you skip law school, you could end up bouncing around between different things—wishing you had chosen the harder path of going to law school. Ask yourself, “Which decision would help me avoid regret from not taking action?”
5. What Are Your Specific Career Goals Following Law School?
Law school, as noted, is purpose-driven. Some people attend for specific purposes like wanting to become a criminal defense lawyer or international negotiator, or even run for office. Others have a more general-purpose, such as aspiring to help people or create more just institutions.
Both specific and general purposes are valuable in a law school community. It is, however, important to have a career purpose. Law school should be a means to an end, rather than an end in itself.
6. Is Law School the Best Way to Achieve Your Goals?
One you understand your career goals, think about the best way to achieve those goals. While your specific goals may benefit from a law degree, attending law school may not be the best means to achieve them. It may be better, easier, or cheaper to pursue your goals a different way.
For example, many prospective law students describe wanting to attend law school in order to work in business, because there are many business executives with law degrees. While true, committing valuable time to law school may not make sense with your goals, unless you’re absolutely certain you’ll only be working on the regulatory side of business.
7. What Career Prospects Await You After Graduating From Law School?
Research what career prospects are awaiting after graduating from law school. Will you be making enough money to pay back the debt you accrued to attend school? Or, can you take advantage of loan forgiveness programs? It’s also important to think about whether there are any entry-level positions for law graduates in your field.
8. Are You Eligible to Apply for Law School?
To go to law school, one of the most common requirements is a bachelor's degree. In some other states within the U.S., an associate's degree is enough. There are a few states where you don't even have to go to law school, you can go through a special apprenticeship program.
Generally, in order to be eligible to sit for the bar exam, you must pass character and fitness requirements.
If you have any issues in your past that might cast doubt on your character and fitness for a career in law, you should assess their impact before going to law school. Simply having a criminal record, however, is not a barrier to attending law school or being admitted to the bar. I work with many students who have some criminal record for marijuana usage or a related, low-level crime.
In those cases, it’s best to look up the rules in your jurisdiction and perhaps to ask a lawyer who focuses on disciplinary issues for their perspective. You can also reach out to admissions officers at the schools you’re interested in.
9. Where Do You Want to Attend School (and Build Your Career)?
To practice law, you will need to be admitted to the bar in a particular state. The law school you attend will have an impact on where you are set up to practice.
When you’re conducting your search, it’s helpful to consider the competitiveness of the law market in the city or state where your school is located. There are certain legal markets like San Francisco, Boston, and Washington DC that are highly competitive, while other legal markets will have fewer competing graduates.
You should consider what it means to move. How would it affect your personal life?
10. Do You Enjoy Reading, Writing, and Discussing?
Law school isn’t all mock trials and solving cases. The bread and butter is in the reading—tremendous homework assignments consisting of numerous legal cases—and writing memos and analytical papers.
Classroom discussions in law school follow a semi-Socratic style, where students are called on and asked specific questions about that’s days assigned cases. It’s crucial to be prepared and understand your readings. Consider whether that learning environment will be interesting and fulfilling—it's certainly not everyone’s cup of tea.
[Next Read: Reading and Writing Skills That Will Help You Succeed in Law School]
11. Are You an Analytical Thinker?
Lawyers take hard problems, break them down into their constituent parts, and approach them rationally using different frameworks of analysis.
That might sound very abstract. But being able to rationally analyze complex and often emotional issues is a key part of a lawyer’s job. For example, if ask whether we should have the death penalty, or tax the purchase of groceries, someone’s first reaction may be reflective of personal beliefs or experiences. A lawyer, however, would try to first approach these questions rationally. They suspend their emotional reactions and analyze the problem, dissecting it from many different angles.
Some people find this infuriating, others love it. The ability to consider problems analytically, even when they have tremendous emotional power, is crucial to being an effective lawyer.
12. Are You Comfortable Engaging with Those Different Than Yourself?
Relatedly, law school involves many classroom discussion on controversial topics such as sexual assault, racial discrimination, and a broad array of social issues. You will certainly encounter many people in law school who don't see eye to eye with you.
This is considered a healthy part of a law school environment. Professors will teach you how to consider arguments from multiple perspective, which will, in turn, improve your own arguments in favor or against an issue.
Not everyone is comfortable in this environment. Law school admission officers will try to identify students who will contribute to safe, inclusive, and productive classroom discussions.
13. Do You Know What the Average Day in a Lawyer’s Life is Like?
It’s very easy to imagine the emotional high points of being a lawyer. It may feel great to win a case or close an important deal. But those moments aren’t day-to-day for most lawyers. Those who practice law describe most of their daily work as people management, legal research, or courtroom arguing.
What you do as a lawyer will mostly depend on your career goals. You should think about the day-to-day work of someone who has achieved career milestones that mirror your own goals, and consider whether that daily work appeals to you. Make sure that it’s something that you find interesting and fulfilling.
14. How Do You Perform Under Stress?
Law school is stressful. Classes are rigorous, discussions can be taxing, and exams can be brutal. The bar examination is stressful, and so is the LSAT.
And indeed, the vast majority of law-related jobs are pretty stressful. Often, when someone hires a lawyer, they may be dealing with a difficult or sensitive situation. It could be a billion-dollar transaction, or that someone's livelihood is at stake.
An everyday case for a lawyer may well represent the worst moment in a client’s life. It can be very stressful to deal with clients and to take on that responsibility. And while some people thrive under that pressure, others find it too overwhelming to engage with on a daily basis.
15. Can You Imagine Your Life Ten Years After Law School?
Lastly, think about whether you can imagine your life 10 years after law school.
What does your life look like? What's your work-life balance? How does your career fit with your other personal goals? What does your job look like? What does your day-to-day look like? If you can clearly visualize answers to these questions, you’ll be in a relatively better spot for making the decision to attend law school.
[Next Read: The Best Extracurricular Activities For Your Law School Application]
