What you did today

[Gorth]

Start of old thread

End of old thread

 

Graduation practice from 8am-11am this morning. I'll be out of high school in 2 days.

Congrats Krookie... So, whats up next?

[Krookie]

Graduation practice from 8am-11am this morning. I'll be out of high school in 2 days.

Congrats Krookie... So, whats up next?

 

Rutgers University as an English major (probably), then law school (probably). Fall back plan or a second possibility is teaching English somewhere, or business. Time will tell!

Edited June 22, 2010 by Krookie

[Orogun01]

Graduation practice from 8am-11am this morning. I'll be out of high school in 2 days.

Congrats Krookie... So, whats up next?

 

Rutgers University as an English major (probably), then law school (probably). Fall back plan or a second possibility is teaching English somewhere, or business. Time will tell!

Wouldn't recommend teaching as a fall back plan since most it gets most people caught up. My second mom is a teacher, so if you have any question about getting your license I may be able to help. Best of luck.

[Krookie]

Graduation practice from 8am-11am this morning. I'll be out of high school in 2 days.

Congrats Krookie... So, whats up next?

 

Rutgers University as an English major (probably), then law school (probably). Fall back plan or a second possibility is teaching English somewhere, or business. Time will tell!

Wouldn't recommend teaching as a fall back plan since most it gets most people caught up. My second mom is a teacher, so if you have any question about getting your license I may be able to help. Best of luck.

 

When I say "fall back" I mean if that if I decide I don't want to pursue law, not so much switching after I've crossed that bridge. It's all up in the air right now but we'll see how I feel in a year or two.

[Hurlshort]

I know a little bit about teaching as well. As an aside, after you get your BA, you can get a substitute teaching credential easily enough. You can probably sub a day or two a week while going to law school, and you also get to see if you enjoy teaching and what levels you like.

 

But that's like 4 years away, and a lot can happen between now and then.

[Enoch]

then law school (probably)

Don't do it unless you really really love doing legal work. (Which generally means lots of rather dry reading, pondering, and writing.)

 

As a value proposition, law school is a terrible deal. There are just too many law schools churning out too many young lawyers. Yeah, you still see some of the headline graduates at the big schools move into day-one six-figure salaries, but unless you've got one of the better academic records in the country when you graduate, your chances of landing in that track are pretty damn small. And most universities treat their law schools as a cash cow-- tuition at the moment is way out of line with what a reasonable person should expect to be able to do with that degree, particularly at the sub-tier-one schools.

 

So be very very sure that you want to go this road before you start. Best case: do some volunteer, clerk, or paralegal work in the area of law you're interested in while you're still an undergrad. Actually even better: get an undergrad degree that involves learning some useful hard skills. Even if you still go on to law school afterwards, you'll be much more marketable if you have a working knowledge of, say, high-level statistics or supply-chain management.

 

 

(Personally, I went to law school for pretty much the wrong reasons-- not knowing what else to do. But I went to a lowish-tier-one school (ranked in the 25-35 range) that happened to be public, and I qualified for in-state tuition after a year living there. Through the on-campus interviewing process, I fell into a 2L summer job with a federal agency that was a perfect match for my personality and outlook. That turned into the job I have now. Looking back, I was ridiculously ignorant of the whole law business and fell ass-backwards into a great job based on the dumb luck of having the one interview I didn't bomb be with a senior agency attorney who enjoys visiting her alma mater to interview candidates. This is not a reliable course of decisionmaking to emulate.)

Edited June 22, 2010 by Enoch

[Orogun01]

I'm watching Futurama right now. The Seymour episode, been crying the whole time

[Walsingham]

Krookie/Enoch: Just a thought. What about the military police? Relatively easy to enlist, pick your specialisation, career prospects, direct experience, could lead onto some interesting places.

[Calax]

Krook, suggestion, while you're in college and have a few spare credit hours, just carpet bomb 101 classes (baselines) until something tweaks your interests. Probably try to dovetail it in with your English if you can, but run with whatever you like (trust me, going in saying "I randomly like this!" is not a good idea...)

[Kor Qel Droma]

Congrats on making it through high school, Krook.

 

I'm going golfing this morning, although it poured like a mofo last night.

[Krookie]

Thanks everyone (for helping/congratulating)

[Enoch]

Krookie/Enoch: Just a thought. What about the military police? Relatively easy to enlist, pick your specialisation, career prospects, direct experience, could lead onto some interesting places.

Oh, military can be a very good choice for people who don't quite know what to do with themselves coming out of HS or College. And the JAG Corps in the services provide some damn fine training and experience for new attorneys (criminal law, administrative law, and contract law, primarily). I work with lots of former-military (and some current reservist) attorneys, and they tend to be very sharp, hard-working folks.

 

Of course, it certainly is not for everyone. It requires a certain mindset (a reasonable level of deference to authority and an outlook that is not so jaded as to be wholly immune to the appeals of patriotism), as well as a tolerance for being ordered to various parts of the globe for months at a time. Including some places where nearby objects occasionally explode.

[Monte Carlo]

In the UK the Military Police isn't seen as the corps of choice and the military legal services are where you go if you can't get a pupillage in chambers. OTOH, the US military got with the programme about veteran career development, pastoral support and post-service opportunities after WW2 with the G.I. Bill, something this country is just starting to get it's collective head around.

 

Having worked with law grads in non-legal or para-legal roles I'd still say it's a useful degree.

 

1. You develop an analytical skill-set

2. If you can master stated cases and torts, then most other vocational rules and processes are pretty easy

3. There's a bit of self-discipline involved in a law degree, the single most crucial virtue in any career

 

Lastly, law is something you can always return to. The career field you worked in will have a directly relevant legal equivalent, be it software development or entertainment or corporate law.

 

And I speak as one who isn't a fully paid-up member of the lawyer's fan club.

[Amentep]

And if all else fails, someone with a JD degree can also teach at many (if not all) colleges!

[Enoch]

In the UK the Military Police isn't seen as the corps of choice and the military legal services are where you go if you can't get a pupillage in chambers. OTOH, the US military got with the programme about veteran career development, pastoral support and post-service opportunities after WW2 with the G.I. Bill, something this country is just starting to get it's collective head around.

I was assuming that Wals was referring to the JAG Corps rather than to the Military Police. A law degree doesn't have much to do with MPs. They aren't all that different from regular military personnel, except in how hated they are by everyone else on the base.

 

Having worked with law grads in non-legal or para-legal roles I'd still say it's a useful degree.

 

1. You develop an analytical skill-set

2. If you can master stated cases and torts, then most other vocational rules and processes are pretty easy

3. There's a bit of self-discipline involved in a law degree, the single most crucial virtue in any career

All that is more of less true. My objections to law school were mostly based on how freakin' expensive it is in the States. It only works out as a good value for the student if either (1) they are one of the lucky few who get into top-paying big firms relatively early in their career, or (2) they love the work they can do with their legal degree enough that they're willing to endure some financial hardship to get it. And a lot of students who aren't falling into (1) end up discovering that (2) just isn't the case either.

 

(As someone with a good-paying-but-not-biglaw-scale federal job, I'm some combination of the two. I make more than I would with just my Bachelors' degree, but probably not enough more to justify the 3 extra years of schooling and signficant additional student loan debt on purely financial grounds.)

 

And if all else fails, someone with a JD degree can also teach at many (if not all) colleges!

A JD may meet the qualification of holding the terminal degree in the field. But I don't know many colleges that are falling over themselves to hire JDs who don't also have some teaching experience and/or publication history.

 

Lastly, law is something you can always return to. The career field you worked in will have a directly relevant legal equivalent, be it software development or entertainment or corporate law.

Well, you can always return to law, provided that you don't get disbarred for flagrantly unethical or illegal actions...

Edited June 22, 2010 by Enoch

[Walsingham]

Enoch: I think the MPs here often do wind up moving into the legal process. MPs here, even corporals are certainly involved in the interviews etc etc. But I guess with Big Army being so... big... there's no need to mix.

 

How does it work with cops? Deputy Krook has a certain ring to it.

[Amentep]

And if all else fails, someone with a JD degree can also teach at many (if not all) colleges!

A JD may meet the qualification of holding the terminal degree in the field. But I don't know many colleges that are falling over themselves to hire JDs who don't also have some teaching experience and/or publication history.

 

The schools here only require a masters (at least) and 18 hours of coursework taken in the area to be taught. Research institutions favor doctoral level degrees (for which JD and MD both qualify), though (but masters are fine for the gen ed courses even there). Most new hires at research institutions have a time frame in which to be published (some I know have been given 7 years, at which point the school is looking at whether to grant tenure to the faculty member...or fire them if they haven't published).

 

While they're not making big money, I've known a few JDs who got burned out on the law profession who started a second career teaching business law courses to business majors at local colleges & universities.

[Monte Carlo]

I think US Law Enforcement is too fragmented / balkanised to be able suggest one career route. For example, I think a lot of Federal LE personnel will have law degrees but OTOH you can do a basic policing qualification and spend the rest of the time pootering about as a deputy someplace rural.

 

I knew a top-notch lawyer once, he'd been a detective in a large UK police force - he took it as a post-retirement gig and his operational experience made him very sharp around the (criminal) law. He did his legal training in his spare time, a pretty good investment in himself. The question is that most coppers probably don't want to join the police to become a lawyer when, er, you can just become a lawyer!

 

My advice, having worked around lawyers during my career, is stick to non-criminal law if you want to make some half-decent money. Another aquaintance is an employment lawyer, she loves her job and is very, very good. She earns a commensurate sum of money.

[Hurlshort]

I don't know as much about this stuff as you guys, but I do watch a lot of Law & Order. If you want to work Major Case, you need to develop a personality tick of some sort.

[Serrano]

If you want to work Major Case, you need to develop a personality tick of some sort.

 

I suggest pretending to be Alan Shore for a year or two.

[Monte Carlo]

I don't know as much about this stuff as you guys, but I do watch a lot of Law & Order. If you want to work Major Case, you need to develop a personality tick of some sort.

 

This is sage advice indeed Hurlie. In fact I think it's on law school 101, 1st Semester.

[Shryke]

okay so i'm not so reserved about doing this filming next weekend

 

yes it's a film about vampires, but it's about vampires getting killed by the ministry of health

[Rosbjerg]

Celebrated my birthday and Sct. Hans (Midsummer's festival) - which means huge bon fires and parties all over Denmark..

 

 

Now I'm off to sleep on a beach while the fires slowly die out..

[Raithe]

Ignored as much about the World Cup as possible... Given the silliness of various schools and businesses arranging to finish early so people could go watch the match...

[I want teh kotor 3]

I'm at Brown, in Providence. Their internet blows monkey ****.