I’ve gotten a significant increase in the number of questions about law school, so I decided to switch things up a bit and dedicate this month’s Q&A to law school. I got a ton of good questions, some of which I answered in a YouTube video and the rest of which I’ve answered below. I’ll try to keep these responses brief, but if you have any follow up questions, feel free to DM me on Instagram!

What do you think made you stand out on your law school applications?

That’s a million-dollar question that I may never have the answer to, but my guess would be my personal statement. My academic and testing credentials were pretty average, but I think I was able to strongly convey my story and my “why law school” in a personal statement.

How is schooling in NYC?

Before the pandemic it was great. I’m a native New Yorker, so my perspective is skewed towards the city being great because it is home, but there was plenty to do and many opportunities professionally and socially within the city.

What has been the most surprising thing for you about being a law student?

Generally speaking, I’m not sure if much of law school surprised me. I expected it to be a lot of work, which it is. This sounds bad, but I expected there to be racially problematic situations, which there are. Law school has pretty much been what I expected it to be.

Things you wish you knew before you go there? Heard you have to have your law career basically planned out when you start school.

I can’t say there was anything I wish I knew before I got here. I did a lot of research, asked a lot of law students, and watched a decent amount of YouTube videos about the law school experience which I feel were pretty accurate in terms of what they had to say about the first year of law school. Do you have to have your law career planned? Yes and no. Yes to the extent that it helps to have a sense of what you want to explore while you are in law school and searching for a job, but no because the legal market changes and career plans change and it would be really unfortunate if you were forever beholden to a plan you made as a law student.

How did you stay calm while waiting for decisions? I submitted my apps and am so nervous.

This assumes that I did, and I certainly did not. The process is very anxiety-inducing, and I think the best thing I could do was to stay occupied with things that I loved to do like creating content. But long story short, I was really a nervous wreck while waiting for decisions to roll in.

Does the school I attend (ranking) affect entry into the law I want to practice?

Yes and no. I won’t lie to you, the legal profession gives off very elitist vibes at times. I get the sense that certain law schools or even certain judges if you’re looking to clerk, are particular about the students they recruit or hire. However, that is not a dealbreaker. I think what ends up being more consequential is the geographic region of the school you attend. If you’re planning on practicing in Texas, for example, it might be difficult to break into that market if you have no ties to Texas attend a state law school in New York. Higher ranking of law school makes it easier to break into a new geographic region after law school, but it’s no coincidence that a lot of people tend to practice within the same region or state that they attended law school.

I really want to reach out to BLSA chapters of schools I like, advice on the best way to?

This is a great idea and I highly encourage it, especially given the limitations on visiting campuses. I’d suggest contacting these chapters through email. If you can’t find their email through their website, the next best option would be to find them on Instagram and send a message asking for the best email contact.

How do you like using an iPad to take notes? I’ve been debating one for that purpose

I absolutely love it. Virtual learning made me pull the trigger on an iPad because I am someone who appreciated reading and taking notes on paper, and an iPad was the best way to replicate that without printing out readings since I wouldn’t be on campus. I use an app called Notability to take notes and I love it. I’ll probably be doing a short video on how I use that app to take notes.

I’ll be 20 entering law school, any advice on how to convey maturity in applications?

My best advice would be to be yourself. Your maturity (which in this case I’m conflating with preparedness?) will come across in your applications. If the concern is about the fact that (I’m assuming) you are going straight through from college to law school without work experience, law schools accept tons of students who come straight out of undergrad.

What were your best strategies for balancing the 1L stress?

It’s hard to answer this question because I don’t think I did a good job of balancing everything during my first semester, and by my second semester, the world was basically on fire so there was generally less focus on school as a priority because people were literally dying all around us. The world is still in a crazy place but my best strategy would be to try as much as possible to stick to a routine and especially prioritize the things that make me feel grounded. Working out is a non-negotiable because that’s my me time. Creating content was also important to me because it was a creative outlet, so I found time to do that on the weekends. A sleep schedule was also very important to me because I’m not about to fall prey to hustle culture in the form of a burnout—I truly believe there’s more to life than me pushing myself to a breaking point every so often. My whole entire life is proof that I am smart, hard-working, and capable, and really I rest on that as a way to guide my approach to managing law school stress.

Tips for reading? It takes me forever with notetaking!

I think once you get the hang of what a professor wants you to take away from a reading before you come to class, the best tip would be to not read everything. If you’re like me, that sounds crazy and it makes the overachiever in me scream, but really the biggest takeaway after my first semester of law school was to work smart and hard, but mainly smart. If you have access to outlines or class notes made by previous students, use them to guide what the professor found important and take notes around that, because it really is impossible to try to grasp every piece of information on every single page.

Advice for those applying this cycle in regards to preparing for law school?

Don’t stress about preparing for law school! This is the last time period where you won’t be doing some sort of legal-related work, so enjoy it. I can’t say that there is a particular way to prepare for law school. If anything it was helpful for me to live my best life while I could because I knew law school was going to be hard work.

That’s it for this Q&A! I really enjoyed answering these questions and hope to incorporate more of this in the future. Check out the rest of my answers to submitted questions in my Youtube video:

#EniGivenSunday