Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Categories
- 32.1K All Categories
- 27.1K LSAT
- 16.5K General
- 5K Logical Reasoning
- 1.3K Reading Comprehension
- 1.7K Logic Games
- 72 Podcasts
- 193 Webinars
- 9 Scholarships
- 193 Test Center Reviews
- 2K Study Groups
- 108 Study Guides/Cheat Sheets
- 2.4K Specific LSAT Dates
- 2 June 2024 LSAT
- 1 April 2024 LSAT
- 11 February 2024 LSAT
- 23 January 2024 LSAT
- 37 November 2023 LSAT
- 41 October 2023 LSAT
- 12 September 2023 LSAT
- 38 August 2023 LSAT
- 27 June 2023 LSAT
- 1 August 2024 LSAT
- 30 Sage Advice
- 4.8K Not LSAT
- 3.9K Law School Admissions
- 11 Law School Explained
- 9 Forum Rules
- 574 Technical Problems
- 280 Off-topic
Related Discussions
8 Likes
Got accepted, yay! Now what?
mesokimy
Free Trial Member
Just got accepted and paid my seat deposit for my top choice school, yay! But what should I do between now and August when school starts?
Anyone have ant recommendations for what to do to help me mentally prepare for school?
Comments
go on vacation
Relax! Read a book. Travel. Exercise. Anything that you won’t be able to do come September
I’ve heard good things about the book Getting to Maybe (it’s about how to do well on law school exams)
Congratulations. I can imagine the feeling of relief and closure is pretty awesome. I really enjoyed the book "1L of a Ride."
Good luck!
Thanks guys! I was also considering reading Law School Confidential, but I get the sense that it's more related to traditional full time students whereas I'm nontraditional and part-time.
Congratulations friend. you did it yay!!!!
i would say just enjoy your time with family, go out on vacation, read a book.
This isn’t in the “relax” category but I’ve been listening to the podcast “Law School Toolbox” and get a lot out of it.
Thanks for the tip! Since class is still over 8 months away, a few non-relax mode ideas are appreciated.
First of all, congratulations! That must be such an amazing feeling. Are you still in college? I think you should spend this time doing whatever it is that you want to do because this could be the last time when you ever have this opportunity for a while.
I'm not in college, I'm working full time and will likely continue to do so since I'll be in the evening program. I promise to take a break and relax this summer, but I'd love to have some things to do until then.
"Planet Law School" is a really cool book that an attorney friend recommended to me.
One of the law schools I was accepted to has this list of suggested reading. I'm not stressing about getting through it but I've read a couple I thought would be interesting and so far I haven't been disappointed. Congratulations on your acceptance!
Preparing for Law School
Ruth Ann McKinney, Reading Like a Lawyer: Time-Saving Strategies for Reading Law like an Expert (Carolina Press 2012)
Many entering law students find this practical and exercise-based book good preparation for the way they will be required to read in law school.
Frederick Schauer, Thinking Like a Lawyer: A New Introduction to Legal Reasoning (Harvard University Press 2012)
An updated version of a classic from 1949 by Edward Hirsch Levi of University of Chicago, this primer is written for 1Ls. This book introduces important fundamental concepts including rules, precedent, authority, the common law, statutory interpretation, judicial opinions, facts, and burdens of proof and how they fit into the work that lawyers actually do.
Molly Bishop Shadel, Finding Your Voice in Law School: Mastering Classroom Cold Calls, Job Interviews and other Verbal Challenges (Carolina Academic Press 2013)
One of the skills that entering law students find most intimidating is being called on in class. This book offers concrete guidance on answering questions in class, mock trials and moot courts, what to say during a job interview, and how to interact with professors and legal professionals.
Legal Profession
Richard Susskind, The End of Lawyers?: Rethinking the Nature of Legal Services (Oxford University Press 2010)
In this book Susskind looks at the legal profession through the lens of technology and asks what the impact of technological innovations like AI and our ability to communicate over great distances is having and will have on the legal profession.
Jasper Kim, 24 Hours with 24 Lawyers (Aspatore Books 2011)
24 lawyers in all sorts of careers from JAG and Venture Capital to take you through a typical day in their lives. Read this and you’ll have a much better idea of what lawyers actually do for a living. It’s the ideal way to start thinking about what path you might wish to take in the law.
Legal Classics
Karl Llewellyn, The Bramble Bush (Oceana Publication, 1930).
“The Bramble Bush” is one of the most popular introductions to the law and its study. It consists of a series of lectures by the author meant to introduce students to what the law is, how to read cases, how to prepare for classes, and how justice in the real world relates to the study of the law.
Richard A. Posner, Overcoming Law (Harvard University Press, 1995).
A collection of lively, well-written essays by a prominent judge and law professor on a wide range of topics related to the law and the legal profession.
Morton Horwitz, The Transformation of American Law, 1780–1860 (Harvard University Press, 1992).
If you are interested in legal history, this is the classic overview of how law developed in the post-revolutionary period through to the Civil War.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Common Law (Little, Brown & Co. 1881)
This is another classic of legal writing by a hugely influential jurist. This is on one of the features that is unique to the Anglo-American legal tradition and important to a complete understanding of U.S. law.
John Rawls, A Theory of Justice. (Harvard University Press, 1971).
One of the most influential work of political philosophy in the twentieth century—a work that has shaped many current legal debates.
Legal Non-Fiction
Bryan Stevenson, Just Mercy (Random House 2014)
A true story about the author’s client who was wrongfully convicted of murder and given a death sentence. An introduction to some of the moral and political (and legal) issues that often arise in discussions surrounding convictions and sentencing in criminal law classes.
Scott Turow, One L (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1988)
Although an account of the author’s first year at Harvard Law School, this description of the first year of law school rings true to many 1Ls. It gives a good overview of the progression of the first year and hopefully some insight into how challenging law school can be for almost everyone.
Jonathan Harr, A Civil Action (Random House, 1995)
The story of the litigation against two of the nation’s largest corporations accused of contaminating drinking water that caused the deaths of children in Woburn, Massachusetts. The account sheds light on the significance of some of the variables in civil litigation. Detailing a 1986 class action suit where the plaintiffs alleged that toxic waste on properties owned by corporations had contaminated town drinking water and caused an outbreak of leukemia. An introduction to tort and civil procedure concepts like negligence and class actions.
Richard Kluger, Simple Justice: The History of Brown v. Board of Education and Black America’s Struggle for Equality (Alfred A. Knopf, 1975)
The definitive description of the story of Brown v. Board of Education from the NAACP beginnings to the final decision. Based on interviews and research, this is the original edition, but there is also an updated edition from 2004.
Anthony Lewis, Gideon’s Trumpet (Random House, 1964)
Presents the dramatic story behind the Supreme Court case establishing an indigent criminal defendant’s right to appointed counsel in Gideon v. Wainwright.
Gerald Stern, The Buffalo Creek Disaster (Vintage Books, 1976)
“The Buffalo Creek Disaster” details the process by which the survivors of one of the deadliest coalmining and flooding disasters in history won their suit against the coal company responsible. It introduces first semester topics, especially those relevant to torts and civil procedure (e.g. negligence, class actions, suits involving corporations, etc.)
Steve Fiffer, Tyrannosaurus Sue: The Extraordinary Saga of the Largest, Most Fought Over T-Rex Ever Found (W.H. Freeman & Co. 2000)
Centered around the discover of a TRex fossil skeleton in 1990, this book chronicles the legal wrangling between commercial fossil hunters, law enforcement, tribal interests, political ambition, auction houses and museums. Short and reads like a spy novel – what more could you ask of summer reading pre-law school.
Rethinking the Law
Martha Fineman, Transcending the Boundaries of Law: Generations of Feminism and Legal Theory (Routledge 2011)
“Transcending the Boundaries of Law is a ground-breaking collection that will be central to future developments in feminist and related critical theories about law. In its pages three generations of feminist legal theorists engage with what have become key feminist themes, including equality, embodiment, identity, intimacy, and law and politics.” From the publisher’s website.
Richard Delgardo and Jean Stefancic, Critical Race Theory: The Cutting Edge (Temple University Press 2013)
“Critical race theory has become a dynamic, eclectic, and growing movement in the study of law. Here, editors Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic have created a reader for the 21st century – one that shakes up the legal academy, questions comfortable liberal premises, and leads the search for new ways of thinking about our nation’s most intractable, and insoluble, problem – race.” From the publisher’s website.
Robert Lecky and Kim Brooks, Queer Theory: Law, Culture and Empire (Routledge, 2010)
“The authors – from five continents – delve into examples drawn from Bollywood cinema to California’s 2008 marriage referendum. The chapters view a wide range of texts – from cultural productions to laws and judgments – as regulatory forces requiring scrutiny from outside Western, heterosexual privilege. This innovative collection goes beyond earlier queer legal work, engaging with recent developments, featuring case studies from India, South Africa, the US, Australasia, Eastern Europe, and embracing the frames offered by different disciplinary lenses.” From the publisher’s website.
Dude... what kind of pun of a book is this....
Seconded on this - I plan on reading it as law school gets closer. It also was recommended by UCLA when I visited their admitted student's day last year. I've heard it's very helpful for knowing how to approach exams.
Learn some skills! Maybe learn to program or use photoshop. You could spend time learning a language you've always wanted to be fluent in. The opportunities are endless. Congrats btw
I've always heard that improving your typing skills and speed certainly doesn't hurt, especially when it comes to timed finals...
Seriously consider creating a sustainable and easy way to have passive income. Given enough success and time over three years, this could lead toward you having enough passive income to cover your rent and beyond while in law school with minimal work. That is my goal at least.
Just Mercy - - AWESOME book.
I also posted the comment below on a different thread. It's a few things I wish I did before school started. Hope it helps and good luck with everything. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions. This is by no means an exhaustive list but it's some of the things I've struggled to make time for in the last several months.
I am in my second term of law school and there are quite a few things I wish I did before law school. Some of this is probably really obvious for some reason, no one told me to do these things before starting law school. It's possible my friends thought it was too obvious to mention :P In any case, here are some other things worth considering:
Prepare for a workload that is physically impossible to stay on top of. By that, I mean prepare yourself physically AND mentally for what that will feel like. I took a few months off before starting law school and let sleep schedule shift to ungodly hours. Don't start the year "jet lagged" like I did.
Start networking like crazy. Try to establish contacts with as many lawyers as possible and schedule coffee/lunch/job shadowing. I don't know why this caught me by surprise but I didn't realize how much of a schmooze fest law school is. I partially expected this to be a post-law school endeavor. I was wrong! Prepare for networking events to start within the first couple weeks of school starting (even during the summer). SERIOUSLY INTENSE job searching will begin by December. You will not want to make time for additional meetings while also trying to stay on top of your course work. It's also helpful to start getting used to how awkward networking is. Btw, it's not unusual to read out to a local bar association section or call a law office and ask if someone is willing to chat with you. My classmates and I do this regularly to my chagrin.
Buy a suit...or two, or three. I find it hard to make time for the dry cleaners when there's so many other things I'd rather be doing. I needed a suit by week 3 of law school for a networking event + professional head shot photo op. Don't forget that tailoring also takes time and many stores don't stock as many sizes, offering instead to order everything for you.
Revise the crap out of your resume and change it to conform to the law student template. Yep, there's a separate format that the legal industry expects. It's mostly the same as a one-page business resume. However, my career advisers wanted revisions for each experience/skill to emphasize skills and accomplishments that will be more transferable to a law firm setting.
Draft a cover letter template that emphasizes transferable skills. At least brainstorm skills or characteristics that are unique to you that all your other law school classmates won't have. This will make it easier for you to draft applicable materials when the time comes. E.g., self-sufficient, detail oriented, etc. If you end up applying for a diversity scholarship or diversity fellowship (definitely look up what that is if you don't know already), you may also need to write a personal statement or diversity statement which will have much stricter parameters than the ones used for law school. All of my friends had to draft new ones over break.
Do some interesting things over the summer so you have interesting things to talk about when you go to networking events. Particularly if you're K-JD and have little work experience, it may be a challenge to connect with professionals and compete against classmates who have a lot more work experiences than you.
Read a couple things. I recommend some leisure reading but also Legal Writing in Plain English (which I didn't read until law school) by Bryan Garner, which was helpful for understanding the types of nuances to legal writing and to get an idea of the types of assignments expected in 1L curriculum. One L by Scott Turow is also great and unfortunately a rather accurate illustration of what it feels like to be in law school. I also just like reading Elements of Style by Strunk & White every one in awhile to get a refresher. If you haven't read it, you're missing out. I know a lot of people recommend Getting to Maybe, which I read, but I actually didn't find that helpful. It sort of contextualizes the law school exam but most of the advice didn't make as much sense until I had contracts, torts, civ pro, etc. They weave the law into some examples and it's explained well but I don't think it actually helped in terms of practical application. I read it again during winter break and it was more impactful on the second read. However, I personally don't think it will really make or break your success on a law school exam. It's better to ask your professors for old copies of their exams, practice drafting short answers, and having them review them. They will give you much more constructive feedback. Most casebooks come with hypos that you can use to draft answers. All my professors recommend doing this and I think it's more insightful than the book.