Become a Lawyer or a Businessman?

[TheApple]

Right now I still want to pursue a career in Business and I will guide my College studies in that direction. But there is still a part of me that wants to become a lawyer. I always wanted to be one when I was younger, but I grew out of it. I read that Economics majors (I'm considering it) do go to top law schools. So it may not be so much that my major prevents me from getting into law school, but will my business-focused internships/activities prevent me from doing so?

 

[Souper]

Major in finance or econ or whatever you want, take LSAT, get 4.0 and top 1% lsat, win!

 

[odoreater]

Economics majors go to top law schools, music majors go to top law schools, art majors go to top law schools, polisci majors go to mediocre law schools, math majors go to top law schools, psychology majors go to top law schools...

See what I did there?


EDIT: Oh yeah, some economics majors go to ****** law schools.

 

[TheApple]

Originally Posted by odoreater

Economics majors go to top law schools, music majors go to top law schools, art majors go to top law schools, polisci majors go to mediocre law schools, math majors go to top law schools, psychology majors go to top law schools...

See what I did there?


EDIT: Oh yeah, some economics majors go to ****** law schools.

Yeah, I saw what you did. Do people normally go to law school straight from college?

 

[odoreater]

Originally Posted by TheApple

Yeah, I saw what you did. Do people normally go to law school straight from college?

When I was a 1L, the average age in my 1L class was 26 or 27. That leads me to believe that many people do not go to law school right out of college.

 

[crazyquik]

Originally Posted by TheApple

Yeah, I saw what you did. Do people normally go to law school straight from college?

Depends on how baller their LSAT is

 

[TheApple]

Originally Posted by odoreater

When I was a 1L, the average age in my 1L class was 26 or 27. That leads me to believe that many people do not go to law school right out of college.

I know someone who went to Stanford law right out of undergrad.

 

[crazyquik]

Originally Posted by TheApple

I know someone who went to Stanford law right out of undergrad.

OMGZ me tooooooooo

edit - I was a Businessman. But I quit.

 

[Gus]

I like lawyers, really I do. But, guys I have met that went to law school and then went into business tend to look at solving all problems with legal solutions rather than pragmatic business concepts. For that reason I don't suggest going to law school unless you want to become an attorney and practice law.

If you want to go into business I would suggest an MBA. Or, find a position that trains you and puts you on track for running the business and not just becoming another "worker bee".

 

[Pelikan2]

Economics is a great background for law. I'm a 2L at a T14, and I majored in economics and philosophy, which has served me well. Just make sure you can write well; that's what'll count when you get here. I know some economics majors who struggle because they went to large universities and weren't forced to write constantly. That's not such a big deal during admissions, but it'll be a huge disadvantage in making grades at law school. Law school admissions is a very clear math game: LSAT Score + GPA = Admission. The undergrad you went to and any work experience you have will make a difference at the margin, but that's about it (unless you're dead-set on Northwestern Law, which is really starting to prefer work experience in their applicants). Just get above a 3.7 GPA and a 169 or better on your LSATs, and you'll be fine. Easy peasy.

Oh - And I went straight through. At 24, I'm a fairly young 2L for my class.

 

[TheApple]

So would you say it's easier to get into Harvard Law School when compared to Harvard Business School? Based off of the fact that Law School is mainly just stats.

 

[Pelikan2]

Originally Posted by TheApple

So would you say it's easier to get into Harvard Law School when compared to Harvard Business School? Based off of the fact that Law School is mainly just stats.

Honestly, I have no idea because I'm unfamiliar with HBS's admission stats. I'd guess they're similarly difficult. HBS might care more about work experience though.

Also, from a law school standpoint, Harvard, Yale and Stanford are definitely not the universe of top schools. I'd estimate that your opportunities leaving law school, assuming you want to do the big firm thing, are roughly equal at all of the top ten (maybe even top 14) law schools. In fact, HLS students had a particularly rough time this year because their interviews were so late.

 

[odoreater]

Originally Posted by TheApple

So would you say it's easier to get into Harvard Law School when compared to Harvard Business School? Based off of the fact that Law School is mainly just stats.

Well, to the extent that it's "easy" to get good stats, then maybe.

Scoring high on the LSAT is not as easy as it sounds.

 

[Milhouse]

I can't speak directly about HBS as I didn't go there, but in general, b-schools use a variant of the following formula:

work experience + GMAT + ability to sell a line of BS to the admissions committee + math abilities + to a lesser extent grades = admission

I think they generally filter by GMAT, and then start looking at the people that can maintain or expand a powerful network, hence experience is often crucial.

Lines of BS I used included "I notice that my industry is underrepresented in your class profiles, I could really expand the alumni network into a new area" and so forth.

This all may change a bit due to the crap happening in the economy.

 

[Connemara]

It seems to me that you don't want to practice law. You just want to make a lot of money; thus, the "businessman" thing (WTF is a businessman anyway? talk about vague).

If that's your attitude going into law school, you will probably be depressed and miserable for the rest of your life.