Hi Jow Forums

im in mass communication if that helps
i used to really want to be a doctor till j spent a year in nursing and boi was that garbage
i see what you mean , my dad and brother talk about medicine alot in jargon i dont understand. but im sure its good conversation

One reason im looking at electronic engineering is ive been told its easier and less demanding then either law or med as its only a bachelors, especially considered ive already finished minors such as english giving me more time to focus on the major subjects

she a cute

>easier and less demanding then either law or med
That's a whole load of trash. If you have a good handle on the English language it's not hard to do law. The level of math bullshit you have to go through to properly do EE is insane. Especially if you do signal processing shit at any point. I remember my friends who did EE bitching about fourier transforms.

I was so fucking happy that I never had to see an integral again after sophomore year of college. That shit was so tedious, and it's not like I was uninterested; I'd wanted to do EE back then myself. Glad I got my head out of that game in time. I'd probably not have graduated.

Anyway man, you've already got one bachelors, so it's not a big difference in intensity to do (I assume) a JD versus going for a EE degree. The humanities coursework is honestly good prep for law as well, and I'm not even memeing. A lot of the research skills carry over easily, and that mass communications training ought to be beneficial in terms of writing persuasive shit and presenting shit.

One thing I'll advise if you do go law, take a trial advocacy skills course. It completely flipped me when it came to public speaking. It was hard as hell and required a lot of work when we were doing the class, but I really got a lot out of being yelled at and embarrassed repeatedly. Not even joking, I got really fucking good. It got me over a LOT of my reluctance.

quite honestly Law seems like a whole lot of tedious memorization, and a lot of worrying whether or not i pass the Bar

another one of my worries is actually getting into a good Law school
i know i can get into a top engineering school in my country but not quite sure about law

i see your point tho and ill take that into consideration

ive been told i can test my aptitude for this by checking out engineering on Khan academy and seeing if ill like it or not

thoughts?

So here's the thing about the bar: Unlike your law school exams, the bar is an exam designed such that anybody who puts in the work can just pass and be a lawyer; there's not a limited number of slots, for instance. It most places it's a fairly low standard. I used to seriously worry about it when I was in law school because of just how intimidating exams could be. The thing is, if you study for it, the bar itself is a fucking dawdle.

It's a fair amount of tedium, but once you know what you're doing it's just using your instincts plus doing a little legal research. Law school exams are really only annoying because of how they're curved; there's a limited number of each A, A-, B+, B, B- grade in the course, so they have to curve and fit everyone's exam into that curve... it's a bitch and it makes for some seemingly arbitrary grades.

But, seriously, I wouldn't give it up. I really love this profession.
I really don't know the answer to that.

Here's something else to consider.

In every western democracy, the ruling class is almost entirely made up of ONE profession: The lawyers. No matter how lowly or obscure your origins are, once you're a lawyer, and have become privy to all the secrets and skills of the profession, it is MUCH easier for you to become a member of the ruling elite in your community and of your nation. While doctors hold positions of privilege as well, and are often respected much more when it comes to emergencies, the lawyer is the man they call to govern.

In fact, in decades past, the lawyer was also the man who ran all the companies. That's changed in the last thirty or so years; they now get MBAs. But it is *without doubt* that the lawyer is the profession of the ruler.

Also, whichever road you take, know this: You will never get the kind of good women that you do when you're a doctor or a lawyer. Shouldn't be your primary concern, but goddamn is it a nice perk.

where are you from my friend?

While the Bar does worry me here where im from the passing rate has changed from last years 20% to 50%

so that much is a good sign

however the numbe rof freshman who go in and seniors who come out is fairly discouraging

>where are you from my friend?
USA

>however the numbe rof freshman who go in and seniors who come out is fairly discouraging
See if you can find what the actual attrition rate is, it might be lower than you think. The law schools over here, they have to tell us a lot of statistics like that. If it's really bad, it might just be that law school. Definitely do your research though. Know what you're getting into and figure out how hard it is to get into the good law programs.

not entirely sure if i can find that

but i do know in the law school of the college im in , theres a 100% BAR passing rate

Care to talk about going and renting a place far away somewhere to live by yourself for a while? I am considering doing that for the same reasons you mentioned.

bump

This is unrelated and I am not entirely sure if you are still lurking this thread, but I should add that I respect people like yourself.

I am a nobody - out of my own decisions - and I just enjoy that you are an accomplished person providing positive feedback for an OP in desperate need. Cringe all you want, but thanks, user. Appreciated.

i went law. no regrets. good luck.

the bar is nothing to worry about. even gunners at top schools freak out over the bar, for god knows what reason. if you can get good test scores, if you can survive law school the bar is a breeze. that shouldn't be a reason to do law or not.

but i'd only go law if that's what you're genuinely interested in. my impression is that the lawyers who hate their work are those who just kind of slept-walked into going to law school.

im lurking

Hey man, I’m back. Love to talk about this.

I had a girl I liked from undergrad living in San Francisco, and was gonna visit her, and for some reason the idea came up of me renting a place and spending the summer. I’d wanted to relocate out there after law school anyway because I loved the weather, and rationalized it as making contacts, etc. It was mostly BS to convince myself, and I was definitely chasing her. But in the end it wound up being worth it for my own mentality. (Also I wasn’t friends with her anymore after a couple weeks there. Kek. Knew her for six years at that point. Oh well.)

Getting a place was hard. Nobody wants to rent to you sight unseen. I got a guy to at least let me look at the place and was pretty much guaranteed to rent to me if I appeared personally. I got here, saw the place, loved it. Paid the two months in advance. It was pricey for me, like $1200 a month, but the location in the city was beautiful, central, quiet, and I had the place to myself.

I had no car, so I immediately bought a monthly transit pass. One of the first things I did was just ride the subway all over the place to sightsee, and because I love transit.

The last constructive thing that I did with the girl was to go to a meetup. I met a lady who became like my best friend while I was there. She was like 20 years older than me and took me under her wing. It was a dining out meetup group. She really liked to have me around because I had a high end camera, took pics, and posted them on the meetup group site. So I was doing her a solid. The camera actually became my “thing” both in SF and in law school. Really helped get me in with popular people. Anyway, my point is, it’s good to be memorable for something if your personality isn’t so memorable.

I walked everywhere in the city, went to events. I ate out a lot, but because of the walking I actually got in halfway okay shape by the end, at least compared to where I’d been before.

Continued?

Anyway, I made sure I got out virtually every day. I quickly learned to carry hand sanitizer (I got sick like THREE TIMES in those two months from riding transit and holding the grab bars/straps). I went to the public library all the time, checked out books that were on the law school’s recommended “before law school” reading list (kind of a gunner thing but I’d read them on the subway and relax).

I didn’t work at all when I was out there, and incidentally never really networked with lawyers out there. I mildly regretted this, but not so much now because I’m not living or practicing in that area, and not sure I’d want to (too damn expensive).

I socialized a lot. It was hard at first. I found it confusing. But I kept pushing myself. I went to a lot of meetup groups other than the dining out one to get practice. These were people I’d never meet again so it didn’t matter. I learned how to ask questions and learn about people. That was fun.

A couple times, I grabbed a beach towel and headed for the beaches out there. They weren’t very popular, and it was me alone most times. So I’d go to the grocery store by the beach and buy snacks and beer and just lay there myself and get drunk. That was fun.

Oh I also learned to just fucking add people on Facebook and not worry about being “that one guy who adds everyone.” As a consequence, I became very active in my law school class FB group and everyone knew me by the time I got there.

It was just very relaxing and I grew a lot in a very short period of time. The social skills I developed there really prepared me for interacting with my classmates, who were almost all Chads and the female equivalent of Chads.

Now before this I had been living with my parents in the suburbs and really never going anyplace. I hadn’t really been working, though I had some savings that I went through on the trip. I think I’d price the whole thing around $5k? Biggest expenses being housing and food. This was about five years ago, so SF specifically is probably way more expensive, but you could realistically do this in any major city.

Before this, I was fat and pale and quiet and miserable all the time. After two months in California, I was calm and sociable. Some of my more autistic traits came back and embarrassed me in law school, and I let that be a handicap, which was a huge mistake... I should’ve just pushed through and kept socializing in law school after those minor setbacks.

Anyway, that’s my adventure before law school! There were some struggles, but it enabled me to make some lifelong friends among the popular and successful kids once I got to law school. Hope that was helpful.

Oh another thing I wished I’d done was learn more about sport. I hated sport before law school, thought it was a brainlet pursuit... but I still had some affinity for the things I’d done as a boy (so I could’ve totally gone to a baseball game while I was in SF, and should’ve gotten interested again). The uni my law school was attached to is a MAJOR football school, and while I wised up when I got there and made sure I got football tickets and went to games (and tailgate parties), I really would’ve fit in better if I’d been able to talk sport better. Like just fucking pulling my head out of my ass and not being so stuck up about sport... but yeah, minor issue, I’ve improved since then. It is important for your career honestly to be able to talk sport... I expect this is true in medicine as well, by the way.

>im fairly bad at people skills

i though humanities degree makes you to work with ppl and help ppl?

------------------------------------------
for your question.

you got to learn people skill user. start with "persuasion skill" that's all you need to learn.

and since you have a business to run, do you really have time to go for another college degree?

and it's always useful to learn about law since the country is going down shit drawn

>and since you have a business to run
This actually might be a good reason to study law as well. Depends on what it costs for your country and whether you care for business law, but learning various disciplines important to transactional and business work... contract law, employment law, corporate law, tax law, international business transactions, real estate transactions, securities law, secured transactions, etc. Plus, it’s possible in your country that only a licensed attorney can represent certain business organizations in court. And that’s just what I can think of off the top of my head.

So, while I’ll say you should only go if you want to practice as a lawyer, it’s also something that can really enhance your value to the family business.

Hey, just wondering -- how important is going to a T14 law school? Did you go to one and how did you think it affected your job salary prospects? My GPA is great (3.8+) so if I do decide to take and well on the LSAT I'm inclined to apply. But I don't get into a T14 I feel like the money won't be worth it.

I did not go T14 (actually didn’t apply in the T14), but I wasn’t far out. My GPA was terrible (about 3.1) but I got a respectable LSAT (167). I got into my top pick (ranked in the 20-25 region back then) with $18k/yr scholly. In retrospect I probably should’ve applied in the lower range of T14 schools, and I might’ve gotten in at sticker, but I don’t think it would have made a huge difference for me in the end in terms of job or salary prospects. I could get jobs anywhere in the country.

Seriously man, T14 or bust is a load of shit except MAYBE for biglaw, but even then I have literally no desire to go biglaw. It’s funny too, I went to look for state court clerkships back home. All the judges went to regional schools, a surprising number even to TTT/TTTT schools. Nobody from my alma mater, which is in the region (and at least half the student body from my home state). And the law partners are the same.

Obviously if you can do HYSCCN, do it. The rest of the T14, meh. But if you like law, if you wanna do law, don’t let “T14 or bust” stop you. It’s a meme. Yes, T14s have good job prospects but they’re neither guaranteed just because you went T14, nor are they actually that much stronger than the rest of the T1 schools (especially in the lower half of T14).

Also 3.8 is very good; aim for 165+, ideally 170+, and you’ll do T14s no sweat. Go take a free practice test at Kaplan or something. It’s given under realistic conditions.

>useless degree
the degree isn't supposed to make use of itself

>I'm considering medicine, law, or electronics engineering
>I'm bad with people and have a weak stomach
Rule out medicine. I don't think a humanities major will get into engineering. You can get into law if you increase your people skills. People seem to like working in law, but not if they put unrealistic expectations on themselves. Being a paralegal or some other kind of assistant is okay.

Also, know that LSAC (which handles all the app shit) calculates your GPA in a different way than you might expect. First, it only counts college-level courses taken before you get your first undergrad degree. Your masters does not count; it’s treated like a very strong extracurricular. Your second bachelors does not count either. Nor do any CC courses you took after graduation.

Also, they fully recompute your GPA. All retaken courses are counted, even if the college has a rule dropping the first course from your GPA. Transfer credits do not count; they are counted and computed from your GPA from the crediting institution, and you must submit ALL transcripts. So that one CC course you took while you were in HS and aced? Congrats, that counts for full credit on your LSAC GPA. That semester of college you took, bombed out, and then went to work for three years before you just applied to a different school as a freshman? That counts too.

A+ grades are also counted as 4.33, provided the credit-granting institution records A+ grades differently than other A grades.

Also foreign credits aren’t counted at all, and it’s possible to have no reportable GPA. Though I think if you got them through study abroad they just treat them as issued by the local institution where the study abroad program was based. Actually I think that’s preferable for the school because your GPA doesn’t impact their reported numbers, so their USNWR ranking is only affected by your LSAT. The GPA/LSAT pair, you’ll find, is the sole thing that the school cares about, unless you’re a URM (black, Mexican, Puerto Rican, or card-carrying Native American). Extracurriculars ONLY affect in comparisons between you and people with identical nos.

Most people who are impacted by this seem to be negatively impacted. I actually got a couple hundredths extra on my GPA from it. But most people who just went to one school for four years and never failed anything? Don’t worry about it.

Since this is a law school thread now, I was actually wondering if someone could run down the pros/cons of it. I'm out of the program I was in now and going to get a shitty degree in December (Liberal Arts), but I did take the LSAT because it was interesting to me in January, after studying about a month, and I got a 173, which apparently is pretty good. Do universities give scholarships out with an LSAT around that range, and with a mediocre GPA (3.2)? While I am researching the possibility now since the LSAT score was high and it seems like a fun way to utilize the Logical and Analytical skills that I have, I have also heard that it's a shit ton of work, and I'm not sure if I'm passionate about Law. I want to help and defend people, but I'm not sure.

>Do universities give scholarships out with an LSAT around that range, and with a mediocre GPA (3.2)?
YES. Holy shit dude. I got offered a 50% scholly at my alma mater, which was (at that time) ranked in the mid-20s (has slipped since then), and I had a 167. And the supply of law students has gone down in the years since, so it's a lock that they're offering better money now. Plus the difference between 167 and 172 is massive, way more than the diff between 162 and 167.

I could see you getting a full ride at some T1 schools with that GPA/LSAT, and definitely schollys in the T14s. Of course, you didn't graduate, and you'll probably have to go back for a full year of courses just to graduate (residency requirements, etc.).

>I have also heard that it's a shit ton of work
It's a lot of reading, and it helps to be prepared for it, but it's not as much as you might think. My first year, I did great mostly prepping for classes the same morning. I would've done better had I known better what the expectations were for law school exams, but I had my head wedged quite far up my ass back then and just thought I knew what I was doing.

>I'm not sure if I'm passionate about Law.
You don't have to be that passionate. I'm more in it for the intellectual stimulation.
>I want to help and defend people, but I'm not sure.
People who go into law for this reason alone burn out fast, in my opinion. While I feel bad for the little guy, and absolutely enjoy helping fight the good fight, I'm totally not in it for that. I'm in it because I'm good at arguing and because I find law challenging and stimulating.

I wish I could tell you how to figure out if you're into it. For me, it was just one day when I was helping a relative navigate some silly issue and wondered if I could make money at it. Well, I had to be a lawyer, I learned. "This is what lawyers do?" I wondered. Turned out it was kinda fun.

And just to be clear, I had a lower GPA than you and got a 50% scholly offer from my alma. The school I went to was around a 35% scholly, but they were ranked better (though still mid-upper 20s) and I wanted a change of scenery. I don't regret it. I love where I went to law school. I'm not doing biglaw, but I don't want to do biglaw, and really never wanted to.

Thanks! I'll do some more research, because it does seem interesting, I'm just worried about the lack of Type A traits I have, like competitiveness and assertiveness, plus I'm not sure where I would start for letters of references from actual legal professionals.

>I'm just worried about the lack of Type A traits I have, like competitiveness and assertiveness
If you're Type A you oughta do fine, it's just that you are kind of at risk of burning out. But you won't be alone, not by a long shot. Just be careful of substance abuse, particularly alcohol. Keep a constructive and relaxing hobby. If it's really bad, there'll be free counseling, and you don't have to report that shit on your bar applications (the only thing that you might have to report is being involuntarily hospitalized for psych reasons). That's something I worried about a lot during law school for no good reason. I could have and probably should have seen someone at some point.
>plus I'm not sure where I would start for letters of references from actual legal professionals.
You don't need those. You just need LoRs. I was out of undergrad for five years. I went back and got two professors from my major and my old boss from when I used to be a tech during undergrad.

Law school admissions is purely a numbers game. While there's some room to get dinged for submitting shit that's obviously bad, you will not get any bonus points for getting LoRs from actual lawyers or judges or whatever. GPA plus LSAT. Everything else is to distinguish between you and someone with similar numbers.

I mean, shit, I'd gotten busted for cheating in undergrad and had to report it on my law school app. I *still* got in with schollys.

Bumping for other law school questions.

So if one isn't too naturally argumentative, but is great in the other areas of law, such as logical thinking, public speaking, and analytical skills, will Law School help with this? With the career, do you have enough free time to actually enjoy yourself? And how are the job prospects once one graduates? I have seen that the market isn't going to be expanding too much in the near future.

Contrary to what TV has taught you, lawyers that do well aren't the ones who yell the loudest. They're the ones who can put together a good argument and communicate it effectively.

>So if one isn't too naturally argumentative, but is great in the other areas of law...
You don't have to be a great arguer. That's one of the big mistakes people make about lawyers, they think we're all litigators. Transactional law is a HUGE area of the market. Do bear in mind that most law schools are litigation-focused... mine certainly was. I've heard great things about Cornell for transactional though. But don't go to a shit school just because they claim to be ranked #1 in some subspecialty area... nobody cares about that. Just go to the best school you can.
And like says, you don't need to be forceful to be great at litigation. And you definitely don't need to be loud. In fact, most litigation is long done before it ever sees the inside of a courtroom, and you're more doing negotiations via e-mail.
>With the career, do you have enough free time to actually enjoy yourself?
There's a lot of talk about "work-life balance" in recent years. Yes, I have enough time for my own life, but that may mostly be because I'm not in biglaw.
>And how are the job prospects once one graduates?
They're alright actually, if you look beyond biglaw. Biglaw is hard because it's biglaw. Look at state government, look at federal agencies, look at midsize law, look at small law. There are jobs out there, you just need to keep your eyes open and not panic when you don't make it at OCI.
>I have seen that the market isn't going to be expanding too much in the near future.
It's doing better than it was six, seven years ago. Again, it's not gonna go back to how it was in the early 2000s. It's just different and as such it's hard for people who learned the old marketplace to adapt. There's room for new people.

Big law doesn't interest me whatsoever, so that's good to hear. I will do more research, but what can you recommend for the LSAT? Just take practice tests months prior? How long should one spend studying? I'm really interested in the pathway now, and I believe that my English skills are relatively advanced, so transactional law sounds like an area that I would enjoy working in.

Man. It's been awhile for LSAT shit for me. The Powerscore books, as I recall, were really popular when I took the LSAT. I suppose you could take a prep course too. I do suggest finding where Kaplan has a prep course near you and taking a free simulated LSAT to at least get what your starting point is.

I think four months is a good lead time, but I can't really remember. Several years ago top-law-schools.com had a lot of helpful info. They might still be good. Avoid xoxohth. They're like the Jow Forums of law school admissions, and as such give a lot of bad info.

Thanks; I'll start studying and look at taking it in November. I signed up for a practice test next weekend to see how I'll end up doing. Last question, I spose: how stressful is the career? Does it just depend on where you land up? I'm more of a Type B personality like someone earlier, and am more laid back than anything. Transactional law sounds like it's a way to get involved without getting grey hair by 30.

>how stressful is the career?
Litigation can be pretty stressful. Transactional work is a lot less stressful. Especially if you're like, in house at a corporation doing contracts work. That can actually be awesome.

Good luck on the practice test. Don't panic if you suck. I got a 162 on my first practice test, which is actually considered quite high for a first-timer. With prep I got up to a 167. Don't let yourself get suckered into prepping with Kaplan just because you took their simulated test. They're no better than anyone else, it's just that they're more widespread.

some other user here, how did you find out that being a lawyer was right for you? i'm not sure how to explore the option.

Basically, I had a relative dealing with this licensing problem with a government agency, it looked like he was stuck, might not be eligible for the license and withdrawing his application might be problematic as well. I spent a couple days just reading the statutes and regulations governing that agency and found that they were supposed to have come up with a special type of license to govern his specific situation years before and just never fucking did it.

He then wrote a letter arguing that he'd have been entitled to this alternative type of license if they'd just done their jobs, and making a few other points. I forget exactly how it worked cause it was like... god... 10 years ago at least.

Anyway, after he got the license, I half-jokingly said, "Jeez, I wonder if I could make money doing that for other guys in the same bind." The response, of course, was "You'd have to be a lawyer, duh."

So I started looking into it from there.

it's always good to have your feets in different income source.

this thread grew

OP here
did i also mention i have a speaking deficiency? and that in my country we speak english and tagalog and i barely speak tagalog

also id like to actually move to THEUS someday , im not sure how law will help me with that

>im not sure how law will help me with that
You'd take a one-year LLM over here and get admitted to the bar of whatever state you moved to, and you'd represent other people from the Philippines, maybe do maritime law (lots of your folks working on ships over here), immigration law.

In my law school, we had so many different people in the LLM program. People from subsaharan African nations, had a guy from Myanmar who I'm still sorta friends with, one girl from Tuvalu who promptly went home after graduating and got pregnant, had a few Chinese, a Russian, an Indian... all sorts.

>speaking deficiency
We had a blind girl in my law school who I graduated with. I still have no clue how the fuck she was able to "read" all the insane amount of material we had to learn. Even with a thermal display, I can't imagine reading that much braille material.

huh, i never new that

sorta thought id be locked in the philippines forever

I can't comment on what to do in the Philippines. I don't understand your economy or culture. I will say, however, that if you wish to immigrate to the US like a billion other people, then you need to be a hard STEM kinda guy. If you're not good at math, then that kinda leaves you out of the running. I skimmed the thread, and you want to be a lawyer? The US definitely doesn't need more lawyers (blunt, but it's a reality check).

I don't know what to tell you. Your lack of people skills and lack of math skills prevent you from doing many careers. The people who are not good with people are generally the math people. So it's a double handicap...

Whatever industry is in demand in your country, that is what you should do.

accountancy is the hot shit right now

its not so much im bad at math as much as it is im not good at it

Well, it's a same difference. If you're not good at math then you won't be a good accountant or financial type (banker) whatever.

well shit then

she a cute

The only one on that list that seems to fit is law. You can't do medicine with a weak stomach and you can't do engineering or medicine with poor math.
Unless you go into taxation, law typically requires only basic math skills like for example, determining a list of damages or expenses.

my math skills arent that poor

If you have a LLB from a school in the Philippines, you can go to an American law school for one year and get an LLM, and be eligible to take any state bar exam. Finding a job is another matter entirely, but once you're here, that's a HUGE chunk of the battle. There are massive Filipino communities in every major city, especially on the coasts, and in these immigrant communities they all like to have lawyers from their own culture.

>then you need to be a hard STEM kinda guy
Law is fine for getting into the US. OP could easily get on the visa-to-permanent residency track. It would cost a little money because you'd want a lawyer, but it's a legitimate and effective route into the country.

I won't say that employment opps are easy here, but being part of an immigrant community and potentially being able to handle legal shit back home is a pretty major selling point. There are tons of small practices all over the country that would hire OP if he's proficient.

Thanks, I appreciate the detailed reply. I am really hoping I can find some sort of clarity from such a trip as well. Probably the biggest obstacle would be to push myself now to actually do it because it sounds like a lot of what I am looking for.

You've just gotta find the right city. Really, I could've done it in the city near my family and it would've been plenty effective (40 mins away, and going home to visit would've been inconvenient).

But being without a car and a flight away from family forced me to get out more. There were some moments when I wanted to run back home, but I didn't, and I was glad for it.

If you've got the cash though, I mean, summer's coming soon. I think I started planning my thing around this time of year. I flew out June 1 and came back August 1. If you have a city in mind, get on Craigslist and start looking for housing, though don't expect anyone to offer to rent to you without being present. You've just gotta do like I did; arrange to meet them on the day you arrive, try to get on the lease and moved in that very day. Worst case, find an AirBnB for a week.

Don't count on being able to do the whole thing through AirBnB though. I tried that, and was "successful"... until the people backed out claiming they'd let some other tenant extend his stay after I'd mailed them a check. $20 check cancelation fee pissed me off. They sent the check back but I didn't fucking trust them. Really it was kind of a dumb risk in the first place.

Just know what your budget is, have the money available. Also know what you're gonna do with your days. My trip would've been a disaster if I hadn't found Meetup, or had Meetup in SF been as bad as it is in my home city. Thank god though, Meetup, like all tech things, is pretty awesome in SF.

Don't do this expecting to date or find a gf. Literally go into it wanting to discover yourself, do some research on your own time, meet people you'll never meet again, etc.

And of course, stay safe. Look at crime maps of the city, find an apartment either in a higher-end or quieter area. If you can't get this info for your target city, consider a different city.

i was never aware of such oppertunities to go to the states using law

would i not have difficulty transisting from.philippine to law fo US law however?

>would i not have difficulty transisting from.philippine to law fo US law however?
In terms of learning it? I doubt it. The one-year LLM program would cover all the basics and differences between most other nations and the US legal system, then you'd probably take a bar exam prep class for 2-3 months, which would get you past the bar and get you all the basics you'd need to practice in your chosen state. You'd probably work for another lawyer or a law office for something like 3 years, who would handle a lot of the marketing stuff, and would give you the opportunity to learn the ropes of a particular practice area. And anything you didn't know or couldn't handle? You'd refer the client to another lawyer, who would split the fee he ultimately collected with you.

I mean, yes, it being a foreign legal system is going to be a challenge, but you have to understand that most *americans* don't understand their own legal system, despite having grown up in it. After the LLM you would in no way be behind other new law graduates, who would be equally without enough skill to go out into the world and handle every possible case on their own.

Really, it's all a matter of making connections and networking when you're here, and working under a good lawyer for your first several years out of law school.

I mean, yes, to a significant extent, it does depend on your competence... but if you can do legal studies in your home country—and I mean legitimately do legal studies and perform well in them, not just pay your tuition and go sit on a beach—there's really no reason you shouldn't be able to do the same with US law.

Don't rush into it though. Definitely look into the experiences of others, see if you or your family know anyone from your community who ultimately went on to practice law in the US and ask questions. See what your options are.

Yeah I am thinking of doing a 'trail run' of spending a month at a closer metro area before I do a full blown trip somewhere much further away. Honestly at this point the only thing left for me is to somehow overcome the anxiety of uncertainty and get it over with. Thanks again.

Do you have any relatives or friends stateside? I don't want to be the cynical guy in the thread, but law is extremely competitive. You'll have an advantage of not having 200k USD debt like native lawyers here. But at a cost: you'll be disadvantaged in not knowing the law system here, and you'll have to play catch up.

Presuming you do get into the master's program track, and catch up, then what? Do you know what field of law you might want to break into? They're very saturated, the easy ones. And some user mentioned about finding a community of Pinoys in order to get some clientele. I live in San Diego, CA and we have a huge Pinoy community here. But I also know that we have many lawyers here. So presuming you tried to move over here, could you make it? That's the big question.

Well, if you want to try do the American Dream thing, then go ahead. I don't blame you for wanting to leave the Philippines. I'd do the same thing in your position, most likely. If you're really going to do the law route, then start researching right now. Youtube all the US law lectures you can find. Look at trials to familiarize yourself with the system. Major trials are on the internet: like the Casey Anthony murder trial and George Zimmerman murder trial. And finally, get yourself US law textbooks, maybe "law for dummies" or law books aimed for foreigners. Also, familiarize yourself with the principles of argumentation, and inductive/deductive reasoning. Plenty of videos on how to make arguments and avoid fallacies, and cross-examine etc. Again user, do your homework. The US Bar exam is very tough, and since you won't be a native law graduate, you'll be at a disadvantage. Alright, I've repeated myself.

Good luck.

>Youtube all the US law lectures you can find. Look at trials to familiarize yourself with the system. Major trials are on the internet: like the Casey Anthony murder trial and George Zimmerman murder trial. And finally, get yourself US law textbooks, maybe "law for dummies" or law books aimed for foreigners.
Please don't do any of this stuff. There's good ways of learning basic US civics—which is the ONLY place you'll be lacking compared to other law students once you finish a LLM program—and none of these is how to do it. Watching trials, reading "for dummies" guides, reading NOLO guides, any of that shit... if you don't have structure you're going to be wasting a lot of time for a very uncertain understanding.

Literally just learn US civics like they do in high school here. For myself, and for LOT of other people, this was the extent of my education in the American legal system when I got to law school. Most Americans have no fucking idea what their legal system is like, most can't name all 10 amendments in the bill of rights, etc. This is the shit you ought to know about the US before American law school.
>Also, familiarize yourself with the principles of argumentation, and inductive/deductive reasoning. Plenty of videos on how to make arguments and avoid fallacies
This is good advice.
>The US Bar exam is very tough
This is not true at all. Some states are harder than others (California being by far the worst, which is why I don't advise people to work in California), but bar exams are fundamentally designed as exams that any person who puts in the work, who preps sufficiently, can pass. It's not a test of aptitude or ability, but a test of knowledge. At some level, it's comparable to how a written test for a driver's license is designed.

Yes, the market is hard. There's no denying that, and you need to do your research before embarking on this. But it's very possible to find work.

You're probably thinking I'm someone else in this thread. I was the one that originally asked for you to elaborate on your trip, I think another guy (or maybe OP) piggybacked off that.

That guy isn't even me (the before law school trip guy).
Seriously good luck with this dude. I know it's kinda crazy, wish I could say exactly how I got over the initial anxiety. I think that it started out as me chasing a girl made it easier, though that would be exactly the WRONG reason for anyone to do it. Better might be that you have some guy friend in the general area that you could call on if something bad happens.

Cause, I mean, the idea isn't exactly to strand yourself in enemy territory, it's more to put yourself in an environment where you're going to want to go out just to explore the city on your own, and could push yourself to do shit like go to meetup groups and meet new people, and there's no serious consequences for making an ass of yourself because you'll never see those people again.

Bumping for more law school questions!

>Watching trials
I want to come back to why this is a particularly horrible way to learn how the US legal system works.
First and foremost, trials are one of the LAST steps of any form of litigation, and is the form that the vast majority of litigation strategy is bound up in avoiding.
Secondly, it's next to impossible to learn trial procedure (let alone substantive law) by watching without any significant guidance. It could take you years to figure it out, you'd have huge holes in your understanding (because a lot of procedure rarely gets invoked), and these things are hugely jurisdictionally dependent.
I took a trial advocacy workshop in law school, and while it was a great learning experience and helped really cement a lot of what I'd learned in law school by turning it into practice, it would've been an absolute and utter shitshow had I not already had a decent grounding in substantive and procedural law. Fuck, I didn't know any evidence law at the start of that workshop, and consequently my ability to raise objections was seriously blunted through the whole thing.
Also, more of a practical objection, the types of trials you're gonna find video of online are gonna be major trials... like this guy said, Casey Anthony and George Zimmerman. You don't WANT to watch those ones, not only because they're not representative of what happens in normal trials, but because they're so fucking sensationalized by the media that, should you need to go online and look for an explanation of any particular ruling, unless you know what you're doing you're gonna find a bunch of redditors, etc., who insert their uninformed opinion as the gospel truth (i.e., arguing there's judicial corruption involved, arguing that a simple evidentiary ruling is the judge calling certain evidence fake or tainted, etc.).
I once saw a criminal felony jury trial. It took fifteen minutes. The guy was convicted on drug and gun charges. That is normal. If you'd blinked you'd have missed it.