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What to do with a Gap Year
For those planning to attend law school, you may hear about the importance of a gap year. A gap year, generally speaking, is a year+ long break between undergrad and law school. I like to encourage them even though I went straight through. What is the goal of a gap year? It can be anything you want it to be, really. You can spend the time getting your money right so you can afford to apply for law school; you can spend the time getting more information about the legal profession/meeting lawyers so you can be sure the law is for you; and/or you can spend the time strengthening your…
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Law Student Don’ts: Mistakes to Avoid as a Law Student
I’ve spoken often about how weird law school is and how common culture shock can be—and that’s because not only is the Law a foreign concept but the process of law school itself is also really weird. And it can be easy to stumble, especially when you’re new or when you’re not event sure of what are the expectations. In fact, that’s how I feel I went through law school—one stumble after the next and thankfully I never fell flat on face enough to not get back up, but it doesn’t and shouldn’t have to be that difficult. You shouldn’t feel like you’re fumbling in the dark to figure out…
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When Misunderstandings Feel Like Accusations
I remember the first time I was accused of wrong-doing in law school and how enraged I felt. When I was weeks away from ending my first year of law school, one of the editors for one of the journals emailed me and unceremoniously told me they were rejecting my application and then offered me the “advice” to be honest in my resume going forward. It was a complete shock to my system. I was incredulous and shocked, how could they accuse me of lying on my resume of all things?! So, as a true aries, I pushed back, hard. Demanding meetings and clarifications and probably made enough of a…
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Bounce Back: Saving your GPA after 1L Year
So, I love this community because I posted this on Insta and how excited I was to have other low-ranked law graduates represented in the White House. That’s my type! Mostly joking (I have no clue if MY PRESIDENT graduated in the bottom half of his class, but if he did, then I’m in good company). The reality is that I STRUGGLED my 1L year and when grades came out, I was disappointed but not surprised that I didn’t do so hot. More Bs and Cs than I had expected. I really didn’t know what to do, I was to embarrassed to go to the TAs and didn’t even know…
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Mastering the Interview
Soon, it will be interview season for folks looking for summer positions. I’ve been thinking about my first interview for my 1L summer job and how grateful I am that the organization was so Latino-centered that they gave me a lot of grace that I wouldn’t have received in other spaces. It’s not that I didn’t take the interview seriously, it’s just that having only ever worked retail or service jobs, I didn’t get that there is an added polish that is expected in the legal industry. So if you’re about to interview what are the things you should focus on for this extra polish? Looks. Ugh, I hate offering…
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Make or Break: Summer Job Search
On top of finals, and memos, and the holidays, and next semester (anything else? A pandemic?), it’s also time to start your job search for next summer. I want to emphasize here, especially for those that didn’t grow up with parents in professional jobs, just how normal it is in this industry to apply for jobs that start six months from now. When I started law school, my only work experience was hourly work in retail/restaurants. The kind that hired you on the spot or a few weeks after you submitted an application. It was completely new to me that anyone would hire anyone for a job that started months…
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Tough Choices: How to Know Which Law School is Right for You
Like everything else in life, picking a law school is complicated. If it was a science, then you would just go to the highest ranked school, but that is not always the best choice. And what if you got into schools all similarly ranked? How can you really know which one is the better option? Thankfully, with just a little extra research you can make a decision that best fits your goals and plans. One. What’s the vibe? It’s important to visit your schools if you can. Visiting will let you get a feel of the school, the lectures, the students, and the nearby businesses. Of course, it may not…
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Where to Even Start: Law School Applications
One of the big barriers to starting the law school process is that there seems like there’s so much to do, so many steps to take, that it’s hard to know where you should even start. And frankly, this profession loves its exclusivity so it doesn’t make its process super accessible or knowable or affordable. If you’re going to go through the application process alone, it’s daunting enough to make you procrastinate or talk yourself out of it. But, nah! you can do this. Let’s what it through! When I applied for law school I just “knew” it was time because I didn’t take a gap year, but even though…
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Responding to Racist Comments in the Classroom
I wrote a post years ago about responding to racist comments and when that was written the discourse and awareness of racism in law school was not as out in the open as it was now. When I was in school (yikes that makes me sound old!), if someone complained about racist comments by other students, the students of color were told to grow thicker skin. There were few recourses for things that weren’t over the top overt so the idea was that you just grit and bear it, for the most part. And even though there is more self-awareness within some schools about implicit bias and space for students…
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Don’t Go to Law School If It’s Not Free? Ignore This Bad Advice
If you’re starting to look into law school there is one thing you’ll see that’s highlighted over and over again and that is how expensive law school can be–it’s like, ridiculous. Grad school and other professional degrees are really pricy and can be enough to scare you from applying. The other thing you may notice as you’re doing your research are well-meaning (maybe) folks that say if you’re not going to a T14 law school, you should only go if it’s free. And do that I say, “yikes, your classism is showing.” To the first point, a T14 school is the top tier law schools that are highly ranked…