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October 2009
Interview with Author
Ursula Furi-Perry (cont'd)
Q: What
factors are important to consider when choosing a law
school?
A:
In my book, I pinpoint the following factors as the most
important to consider when choosing a law school:
The school's reputation with legal employers and the
general legal community. A law degree will do you
no good if you can't find a job after graduation; so before
you pick a school, consider the school's reputation among
lawyers, law firms, and other legal employers.
Alumni employment rates, bar pass rates, and career
satisfaction. How well the school's graduates do
and how happy they report to be in their careers can be good
indicators for what may await you if you graduate from the
school. You can find some employment data through the
National Association for Legal Professionals, to which many
law schools report their statistics.
Rankings. Several sources rate U.S. law
schools annually: the U.S. News & World Report's Top 100
Law Schools and Ultimate Guide to Law Schools,
the ABA-LSAC Official Guide to ABA-Approved Law Schools,
and Peterson's Best 170 Law Schools, just to name a
few. Focusing solely on the rankings may mean that you fail
to consider other factors and end up at the school that may
be the right ranking, but the wrong fit. Still, to some
extent, a law school's ranking, reputation, and job
placement rates are all connected.
Location. Even if you think you couldn't
care less about where you spend the next three years as a
law student, you should give your law school's location some
serious thought.
Faculty accessibility. Many law schools
have a great reputation and are ranked high on the lists,
yet their faculty may not be as accessible to students as
faculty at other schools—simply because the faculty may be
pulled in many different directions.
Cost. Most people can't afford to pay the
(often six-figure) price tag for law school in cash. So, at
some point, you have to consider what law school will cost
you, how you plan to finance your legal education, and how
and when you can expect to see a return on your investment.
Admission requirements. You may have your
sights set on a particular school, but if you can't get in,
you won't go there.
Q: Is there
anything I can do academically to prepare for law school?
A: I
recommend that you learn how to properly read and brief a
case (I devote a large part of an entire chapter to this
skill in my book) as well as put together a law school
course outline (likewise.) Along with three other law
professor and law dean colleagues, I just finished
a comprehensive yet concise book called 1L BootCamp,
which provides a unique set of study materials for
first-year law students. You can also consult our blogs at
http://1lbootcamp.blogspot.com and http://barexambootcamp.blogspot.com
for tips and advice on academic success in law school and on
the bar exam.
Q: What was
the best part of your law school experience?
A: Law school for me was an
extremely rewarding experience. Though law school often gets
a bad reputation as a stressful, competitive experience
where you'll barely survive, you can thrive and succeed as a
law student. Be sure you approach law school for the right
reason: because you've done your research and determined
that the law degree is the right path for you, not because
you're lured by money or someone else is pushing you to go
to law school. Also be sure to make the most of your law
school experience: participate in activities, explore
clinical and practical programs, consider internships and
externships, look into academic concentrations, and check
out opportunities for international legal study. Law schools
today offer an incredible variety of exciting programs. Make
your legal education your own!
Author's bio:
Ursula Furi-Perry, Esq. is the author of more than 300
published articles and six books on legal topics, including
Law School Revealed (Jist Publishing, 2009) and
Your First Year as a Lawyer Revealed (Jist Publishing,
forthcoming in 2010.) She is the Director of Academic
Support and an adjunct legal writing professor at the
Massachusetts School of Law at Andover. She can be reached
at
www.furiperry.com.
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