YOU DECIDED, HUH?

So... you decided?

You really want to be a lawyer. You chose yourself a law related major in college and took all the classes that had anything to do with law or had the term "legal" or "law" mentioned in them. You spoke to your friends about your decision. They agreed! You have great people skills, communication skills, are loud and people listen to you. THEREFORE YOU SHOULD BE A LAWYER. IT'S YOUR CALLING.

Well...

You can forget all of that. While those dreams may suffice to get you some socialization in the first year of college, thats about as far as they will go. First and foremost, utilize the resources at hand. Get started by letting your academic college advisor that you plan on attaining a legal education. While that might not do much, other then the occasional "Good for you!", it may just open a small door to a bigger room. Most of the time schools have a pre-law club, or program or what have you. Do not get fooled! While often times these programs are a golden choice, one must be careful because they may just fill your day with pre-set schedules, and material that you often might not need. 

Keep in mind that law schools often look for people who are somewhat from a broad field of study. Therefore if you are thinking of going to law school, you might want to rethink that major in Bio-Molecular-Reactor-Building.  The pre-law programs often will have courses in English, Writing, Communications, Philosophy, Statistics, Accounting, Psychology, Sociology, Anthropology, Political and Government Studies. These courses of course could be chosen independently without needing to comfort to some "pre-law" defined schedules. This is where the idea of consulting the pre-law advisor and a general academic advisor comes in handy.

After speaking to advisors and devising a 4 year plan for success, start focusing on school work. One of the biggest mistakes I made in my college career was to have partied way TOO MUCH. Yes there is such thing! And the consequences are often fatal. No one is telling you to live in the library, but you should at least know where the library is. 

The first two years of college are the most important. Most schools have some sort of general requirements that want you to fulfill. These requirements are your general formation. They serve a very crucial purpose for those aspiring to be legal minds. They develop that broad field of study mentioned above that law schools look for. So indeed, pay attention in your Accounting 101 class, and your Philosophy 100 class because courses like those will come in handy.

The second half of your college career consists of your major and minor [if any] and electives. You take classes pertaining to what you want to deepen your study in. This is why taking your first two years seriously also is important - it develops your enjoyment to particular field of study through exposure to multitudes, and in turn helps you make a decision for a major. These two last years could be considered less worrisome but that would be a mistake. You need be on guard throughout your collegiate career, for this is an important skill in law school. 

My friends in law school when I was a freshman in college always gave the same advice:  "Cut the partying down, man, because this education is no joke". Of course I didn't listen. As a matter of fact I wanted to disprove them by showing that one can party hardcore and still do well in school and go to a decent law school. Well that didn't quite happen. [I'm going to leave my personal story for another post.]

So I would like to pass on that advice "CUT DOWN ON THE PARTYING, BECAUSE LEGAL EDUCATION IS NO JOKE". 

In future posts I will discuss steps that have been proven efficient for law school admission during your senior year in college.