The Good and Bad of Law School Rankings

Students around the country are celebrating their first week of law school.

Message to 1Ls

 
College towns across the nation are resurrecting from the dormant summer. Traffic jams are growing, it is an increasingly intricate voyage to purchase a beer from the local watering hole and there is a distinct liveliness and sense of Alpha. And just as sure as forthcoming mind-numbing syllabus reviews, pundits are providing their instruction and direction for success of 1L’s.
This year is no different. While Shawn O’Conner of U.S. News provides seven (six?) fluffy tips such as “make friends” and “don’t fear the teacher,” Michael Krauss of George Mason Law School and contributor to Forbes gets very real and borderline frightening in his pep rally of an article.
Krauss begins by painting the bleak picture most aspiring law students have been given. There are no jobs, you will have debt coming out of your ears, you are subject to disappointing GPAs because of “mandatory GPA means” are some examples. Krauss even uses the term “soul-destroying.” Yeah. Bleak.
But all is not lost for entering 1L’s, according to Krauss—at least for those who really want to be there. Krauss puts incoming 1L’s into two categories: the ones who are “interested in soberly attempting to understand and solve the incredibly difficult, and incredibly interesting, intellectual problems that underlie so many of today’s legal disputes” and those who are there because they have nothing better to do and want to attempt to make a lot of money. Of course one belongs and the other doesn’t.
Krauss encourages those in the first group to pursue the profession. And pursue it well. As Krauss points out, there are a lot of injustices going on around us. From the debacle in Ferguson, Missouri to the gruesome attacks across the world, now seems just as dire of a time as any to have idealistic, driven and passionate attorneys seeking justice.
For those finding themselves in the latter group, Krauss advises to get out while still being able to recover some portion of tuition. Harsh but possibly true.
Source: Forbes
Source: U.S. News