rpres8198 wrote:
During my time at the firm I did have my doubts, especially since all of the attorneys were telling me not to go. The biggest thing might just be that I'm having an Occam's Razor moment. I've always wanted to do business, and my eventual goal was to get into b school. But I figured it wouldn't be possible coming from a state school with a lib arts major, so the only route to a top school was to go through law school and become an attorney so I could have some decent experience.
Of course I'm simplifying things somewhat, I had more reasons for law school that weren't all as bad, but looking back and being honest with myself I think that was the biggest one.
Also, I'm starting to realize I'm much more of a quant and I love working with numbers or data. That's pretty much non-existent in law.
The other option I've been contemplating is just transferring to a T6 and trying to go into consulting after graduation
This all sounds so familiar. I also had lawyers telling me not to go, but I went anyway. What makes that especially dumb is that, like you, I didn't have a very good reason for doing it. But hey, it's only hundreds of thousands of dollars and three years, right?
I can't comment on how b-schools would view the 'drop out' thing down the road, but I have a good idea of what I'd do in your shoes. I would transfer up to one of the t10 schools and continue with business as usual on the law school front (maybe that school would have MACC classes that you could cross-register for?). BUT, I would also network as much as possible (check out "Never Eat Alone" by Keith Ferrazzi for great networking advice) and would look for appropriate non-law jobs. If a nice offer came up then I could jet without regret. If not then I'd still be on my way to a law degree from a top school, and would still have the opportunity to squeeze into on-campus recruiting for a consulting job (or, at worst, a traditional law job). I would also prep for the GMAT while doing my 1L internship.
This, of course, is the safe way to go, and I don't always handle things in the 'ultra super safest' way since I'm not a particularly risk averse guy, but I would be very concerned with the very real possibility that tracking down a decent pre-MACC job would take a very long time. Occam's Razor would counsel similarly, I think, since leaving and essentially starting from scratch would introduce more assumptions into your calculations. That is: 1) stay in law school and remain on track to get work experience that absolutely can take you to b-school (albeit work experience that might be miserable) vs. 2) leave law school, hope to find a job, and hope to get admitted to a good MACC program.
All of that said, my single best bit of advice would be to get out and talk to people. When I look back on the decisions I made in law school, the one thing that I 100% would change is the amount of networking that I did.
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20 Feb 2012, 10:56
