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Did you always know you wanted to study law? If so how come?

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Minda’s Answer

As a child, I wanted to be queen, not a realistic option ;). When I started college, I thought I wanted to follow in my dad’s footsteps and become a management psychologist. Unfortunately I did not enjoy being a psychology major and it didn’t feel like the right path for me.

I took some time to reconsider what I enjoy. I love reading, especially legal mysteries. I wasn’t going to base my future career off what genre of books I enjoyed so I sought out opportunities to confirm I was truly interested in the law. I spent 2 summers in college working with a labor arbitrator who was a great mentor. I confidentially applied to law school knowing this was the right career for me.

That being said, I do not like the litigation process. But there are so many different types of legal work as well as legally related jobs where your law school background is helpful.

If I could do it over, I probably would be a business major and then gotten a combined JD/MBA. No matter what field you choose, knowing how to run a business is an important asset and they don’t teach you how to network or manage in law school.

Wishing you lots of luck.
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Andy’s Answer

I didn't even think about being a lawyer until I was 26 years old. There were no lawyers in my family growing up and I only knew of one or two lawyers. After graduating from college, I spent several years living and working in different parts of the country and world, in the hopes that I would have different experiences or learn different lessons than in school. Although I had no clear plan or career destination in mind after graduating college, I believed that if I had the right mindset and opened myself up to enough experiences, a career path would emerge. And that is exactly what happened.

After working in various capacities for several years (volunteer, mission worker, short-order cook, sales associate, substitute teacher), I stumbled upon the idea of a career in law. I promptly took the law school entrance exam (LSAT) without much preparation (not recommended -- I scored poorly), and applied to law schools in my area. I was admitted and became a student again that fall. Many law students struggle with law school and lawyers often speak of it with dread. But my experience was the opposite. I found law school to be challenging, engaging, stimulating, and rewarding. Perhaps because of this, I excelled in law school and was able to get a good job as a new lawyer.

I like being a lawyer and enjoy helping people solve their problems. And I believe it all came to pass because I never knew I wanted to be a lawyer in the first place.
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Jordan’s Answer

I had no clue that I was interested in law until I took a sports law course during my time as an undergraduate at the University of Michigan (second semester of my sophomore year). I started researching different law paths and careers and talked to people I knew in the industry in order to gain a better understanding of law as a whole. I am now a senior in college applying to law schools with the hope of going into Sport and Entertainment Law someday. Definitely never too late to start - best of luck!
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Oratile’s Answer

No
Thank you comment icon Hi Oratile, could you add to your answer a bit to provide some information/explanation for why you said no? Alexandra Carpenter, Admin
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Mariana’s Answer

Hello!
I have always known I wanted to go to Law School, yes. But I had a lot of emotional crisis when I actually got to college!
What helped me to keep on this path was thinking of what motivates me to wake up in the morning and what I want to do, what kind of impact I want to have on the world. I decided that I wanted to lower poverty, social injustice and use my voice for the voiceless.
I also focused on what careers I would follow in this field, and I came to the conclusion that there's a wide range of options which is really exciting, you can help people in so many ways.
But to sum it up: I knew I wanted to help the voiceless and that was my motivation to keep on going.
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Mariana’s Answer

Hi Lydia,

In my experience, I could say that I wanted to be a lawyer since I was in secondary school and what motivated me to study law was that in my first year of secondary I was bullied, so I realized that I wanted to dedicate my life defending what is fair, so I started to take extra curricular classes or things related to law just to confirm I was choosing correct degree.

You could also try to do a Vocational Orientation Test, in México before entering to college students make this test. It consists of two phases: one for skills and the other for interests. The first is made up of three areas (verbal, numerical and abstract), while the second provides results that help students decide on a university career and gives you a list of careers that are related to you.

Hope this could help you.

Mariana.
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Edward’s Answer

Many relatives asked me what I wanted to do; by age 15 I had an answer
I knew I wanted to help people, and I knew I loved to read, write and speak
I knew I wanted to avoid travel (my Dad was away 28 days a month for many years)
I thought lawyers read, wrote, spoke and didn't travel.
I was right about all but the last (even travel is decreasing now, with the internet so heavily used)

Edward recommends the following next steps:

think hard about what you like to do
if you get a job doing what you like to do anyway, you won't "work" and will stick with it long enough (10,000 hours minimum) to become good at it
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Jorie’s Answer

Yes! As a child, I loved legal dramas (particularly Law & Order SVU). Now, I'll say this with the caveat that real law practice is not like it is portrayed on TV or in the movies; however, it was always something that interested me even at a very young age. When I went to college, I wanted to make sure I really liked the legal field and not that I just enjoyed watching legal shows, so I took a class my sophomore year called Law, Lawyers, & the Legal System and I was SOLD. I declared my major shortly thereafter and started on the path to law school. This career hasn't always been fun and I've had some hardships along the way, but I can't imagine doing anything else!
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