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Should a student arrange interviews or visit the law schools to which he or she is applying?
During the fall semester a number of law schools send representatives to Duke. Their primary purpose is to give the students information about their school and to answer individual questions. Students should, during the senior year, see the representatives from any of the schools that interest them. "Is There Life After Law School?" The most recent employment survey released by the National Association for Law Placement (NALP) reports that 89% of 35,787 (out of a total 38,894) 2003 graduates responding were employed. This figure includes both employment in legal positions and those not directly involved in the practice of law. This figure does not include those continuing their education and those not seeking employment. To place this 89% employed figure in perspective, at the same reporting point for the class of 2002, 89% were employed; for the class of 2001, 90% were employed; for the Class of 1997 90.3% were employed; and for the Class of 1996 the figure was 87.4%. All of this contrasts favorably with the 1993 figure when the overall employment rate bottomed out at 83.4%. Additional findings of the NALP employment summary for the Class of 2003 include a breakdown of the type of positions graduates selected: Academic 1.6% 77% of graduates found jobs in the same region as their law school How Much is a Good Attorney Worth?
The bottom line is that those who are interested in obtaining jobs where the law degree is of value should, at this point, be optimistic about employment prospects in the near future. Source: National Association for Law Placement (NALP) Class of 2002 National Summary Report. Ten Rules for Succeeding in Law School and as a Lawyer: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Learn to think analytically and clearly and to express yourself well in written form; i.e. learn to think and learn to write. The following was written by Steven Lawrence, Jr., a Duke graduate who received his law degree from the University of Chicago. The law student must be ready and willing to meet one of the biggest challenges that he will ever face. Law school is a full-time business. By full-time, I mean a minimum of 10 hours a day, every day of the week. It is quite exhaustive, particularly during the first year. There is a new vocabulary to learn, and a new way of thinking. As the faculty is fond of saying, law students also have to learn to read for the first time in their lives. In law, every word is of crucial importance; you don't read just to get the gist of the material. This point came across to me the first day of law school. I had spent four years in college contemplating such issues as truth, goodness, government, religion. In the first case we had to read in Contracts, the issue which Judge Henry Friendly, one of the most distinguished judges in the country, had to face is: "What is chicken?" The case turned on whether the parties to the contract meant "stewing chicken" or "fowl." The movement from considering "what is truth" to "what is chicken" symbolizes perfectly for me the movement from college to law school. Dean Gerald L. Wilson, Ph.D.
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Questions Pre-Law Students Ask Most Often |
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Basic information for junior pre-law students Dean Wilson sponsors programs and distributes information to all students considering careers in law. All pre-law students are invited and encouraged to join the undergraduate pre-law society, Bench and Bar, which offers a variety of programs and activities for those considering law as a profession. Below are answers to a number of questions often asked by pre-law students. Juniors (third year students) should note especially these three things:
With these three things in mind, read on. What factors are considered in admission to law school? There are basically two factors involved in the law school admissions decision; a student's Grade Point Average and a student's score on the LSAT (Law School Admission Test). Extracurricular activities should be a part of the student's experiences at Duke, but only in marginal cases have they any bearing upon law school admissions. When should a student take the LSAT? The LSAT should be taken either in June after the junior year or the fall of your senior year. In general, students seem to perform better after their junior year, and since there is no reason to take them before this time, a student should not plan to take them earlier. Should a student take the LSAT once for practice? No, definitely not. Whenever any LSAT scores for a person are reported, all scores are reported. Since Law Services averages the scores, and some schools deduct points from the second score if it is higher, an individual should plan to take the test only once. If the student does not perform well, he or she should consult the Pre-Law Advisor before registering to retake the test. Should a student take one of the commercial LSAT preparation courses? Neither Law Services nor this office sponsors or recommends any particular commercial prep course. Students who have taken such courses point out that these courses do familiarize the test taker with the format of the test and that taking full advantage of these courses may reduce the anxiety factor. Law Services does provide old tests and other preparation materials which may be equally helpful if they are dealt with seriously. If a student chooses to take one of these courses, he or she should take it as near to the time of the actual test as possible. Though some law schools do not require letters of recommendation, most do require one to three letters, usually two from professors and one from a Dean/Pre-Law Advisor. In general, recommendations carry little weight unless a student is already a highly qualified candidate for admission, or the student is a marginal candidate and the letter points out some unusual or outstanding fact that is not apparent from examining the student's objective record. A student does not need to prepare a file of letters of recommendation until shortly before applying to law school. These letters should be sent to the LSDAS Letter of Recommendation Service. A final word: Letters from Duke faculty members who know the student are basically the only ones which count. Letters from Congressmen, judges, ministers, and family do not carry any weight and can "turn off" admission committees. When does a student apply to law school? In August a year before a student plans to enter law school, the student should do four things:
Applications should be completed and sent to the schools to which the student is applying as early as possible in the fall.
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In general law schools do not encourage interviews and in some cases will not grant them. If, however, a student is traveling during the summer or any time and plans to be near a law school of interest, it could be helpful to visit that school. The visit will have no impact on admissions but may help the student decide whether or not to apply.