I'm currently studying for the LSAT—I just finished the Foundations section and I'm about to start Logical Reasoning. My goal is to take the LSAT in a few months so I have everything ready to apply for the upcoming cycle.
Right now, I'm home all day dedicating my time exclusively to the LSAT, but I'm looking to start working. I study about 3h a day so the time Im not studying isnt too productive aside from when I workout. I know I can study more but to be honest at around that 3 sometimes closer to 4hr mark I think Ive learned as much as I can for the day. I'm torn between two very different paths and would love to hear from anyone who has navigated a similar spot:
Option 1: A convenient, part-time job. It's close to home, very easy, and leaves me with plenty of time and mental energy to focus on studying. The downside is that it pays minimum wage and the experience won't really add anything to my resume. Its a gym front desk. Id do this for a few months and once I get a decent score on the LSAT I can then apply to the other job.
Option 2: An entry-level legal position. This would be full-time and offer much better pay and relevant legal experience. However, between the commute and the standard work hours, it would be a significantly heavier daily commitment alongside with the gym which I do 6x a week.
My main dilemma: Should I take the easy part-time job for now, lock in a good LSAT score over the next few months, and then pivot to applying for full-time legal jobs once the test is out of the way? Or is it genuinely manageable to work a full-time legal job while still making strong progress on the LSAT and maintaining a consistent workout routine? If anyone has any experience they can share, Id greatly appreciate it aswell!
7 comments
Im also just a fellow applicant so take this with a grain of salt, but I recomend the entry-level position. A lot of admissions advice i've heard recently is that there is a larger focus on work experience than in previous cycles because there is also a desire for professionalism, as a JD is a professional degree.
thank you! ill definitely look into that i appreciate it. have a good day
I am taking the LSAT for the first time on Thursday. I've been studying for eight months now. When I began studying, I was told by someone very successful whom I admire to treat the LSAT like it's a job. So I put off transitioning to a more serious job from what I'm currently doing so I could dedicate more time to studying, and do like he said. In hindsight that was a great decision. Now I'm confident I'll score somewhere that will open up scholarship opportunities, which are likely to save me more money than I could have made working a full-time job this year. Plus full-time jobs for people in their early twenties--which I'm assuming you are--with some notable exceptions, are horse: they're only sending emails and doing spreadsheets. Anyone can do those tasks without logical reasoning or reading comprehension skills, so, contrary to what most people think, they don't give admissions the impression you are professional or exceptionally smart.
All that being said, do like I did: talk to an impressive young lawyer and ask their opinion on the matter.
Thank you so much! I definitely will see if I can talk to someone on this but your advice was really great. And you were spot on with the full times just being the same all around. I tend to compare alot so I see my friend who arent really studying working full times making $18/hr+ and I feel bad for working at a gym for $14/hr although I know its much better to do that $14/hr while stuyding to have the best results. Thanks again and I wish you the best on your lsat! Ofcourse we dont know eachother but from what I can tell about you I'm sure you will do just fine.
was in almost your exact position! i took the entry level legal position and it has been working out so far. i've had to sacrifice gym a few times and my time management skills have been VERY tested but it's super possible
I'd go with option one, speaking from personal experience. When I started my new full-time job, I got really overwhelmed with all I had to do.
hey! i worked full-time for 3 years and studied for the LSAT for 2 of those while working. while i had a nice setup (remote job, lots of independent work so i could study during work), i struggled a lot to fully devote my mental energy to the lsat (my work had a lot of BS to put up with so i was exhausted)
from my experience, i'd recommend treating LSAT like your full time job for a few months while working part time, then get a full time job once you get the score you want. i think i would've been done with this journey much sooner if i devoted 6 months to it full time at the start. plus, if you enjoy the job, an extra year of work would help you in your apps as well i think.
i'm someone who struggles with multi-tasking when its between one thing i really care about (lsat) and one thing i cannot bring myself to care about (my old job lol) and they both demand all my attention