So a couple weeks ago I wrote about the benefits of taking some time off before attending law school. This week I am going to list a few reasons why it may be good to go straight from undergraduate to law school. Here we go…
- You’re are still in the school mode - This is a pretty obvious reason and I think it’s one of the top reasons people don’t take time off. They worry that if they leave school for any amount of time they won’t want to come back. While I don’t think this is the best reason to go straight to law school, it’s still a fairly valid reason because the student will still be in that ‘school mode.’ What I mean by this is the student will still be accustomed to going to classes and then doing some amount of work afterwards. This way one that big memo is due during the semester you will be more familiar with spacing your time and not putting the work off.
- You’re young - This is probably the second most obvious reason. By the time you graduate you will be 24 or 25 with a JD and many, many years ahead of you to figure out what you want to do with it. If you find out you don’t want to do anything with it, you’ll have plenty of time to pick a new career or even earn a new degree.
- Put off the real world - The ‘real world’ is a scary place. There are no credit/no credit classes, no make-up exams, no tutors and for most no scheduled extended vacations. So by going to school straight out of undergraduate you can put off the real world for a bit while earning a versatile and valuable degree. Sounds like a good deal to me…
- You’re still in a social mode - This may seem very strange but I think it applies. The younger you are the more social you are going to be because you’re coming straight from school. You’re going to still be in the party mode so you won’t want to miss those weekly bar reviews or all the other social events if you don’t have too much work. By doing this you will meet a lot more people. This isn’t to say older people won’t make friends in law school, all I’m saying is the younger students are more likely than the older students to take part in the social activities.
Well that’s my list, I hope it helps! I look forward to seeing many of you at the panel/mock class tomorrow!
Cheers,
Imran
Imran Haque is a 3L at USC Gould School of Law and part of the USC Pre-Law Team at the Office of College Advising.
