Belmont Law School Forum

[bexarr826]

I have recently been accepted to Belmont with a 75% scholarship. I was feeling pretty excited about it until I read some of the posts about it. I know it is new and doesn't have a great reputation but I was wondering is it that bad to go there?

My goal is to move back to Atlanta and get a job there because that is where I am from, I am not looking for a big firm job.

My Lsat is a 155 and GPA is a 3.9. I am not trying to take the LSAT again because I have already taken it twice. I am still waiting to hear back from Georgia State and the University of Alabama (where I am in undergrad). What are your thoughts on Belmont for my circumstance and goals?

[Wubbles]

I have recently been accepted to Belmont with a 75% scholarship. I was feeling pretty excited about it until I read some of the posts about it. I know it is new and doesn't have a great reputation but I was wondering is it that bad to go there?

My goal is to move back to Atlanta and get a job there because that is where I am from, I am not looking for a big firm job.

My Lsat is a 155 and GPA is a 3.9. I am not trying to take the LSAT again because I have already taken it twice. I am still waiting to hear back from Georgia State and the University of Alabama (where I am in undergrad). What are your thoughts on Belmont for my circumstance and goals?

DO NOT GO TO BELMONT. You have a 3.9 at a very good school, you absolutely can do better than a 155 with the tiniest bit of effort and studying the proper way. I had the same GPA and LSAT as you, I studied using the LSAT trainer and LG Bible, took about 50 practice tests, and improved over 10 points (just between the summer and fall tests) and got to go to a t13 with only 5 figure debt. Please do not throw a golden opportunity away.

Also, if not biglaw, what do you want to do in Atlanta and how much money do you think you'll earn?

[objctnyrhnr]

“I’m going to go to a tttt. I have a great gpa and I don’t feel like taking the Lsat again because I’ve taken it twice.”

Seems like you put about as much effort into researching the situation as you did into the single most effectively financially valuable thing you can do in your law school career (ie actually try to do well on the Lsat).

Do you really expect to be successful at, well, anything if you continue to approach life with this kind of attitude?

Remember what you did to get the 3.9? Go back to doing that...because it seems that you aren’t at the moment.

[nealric]

Even with a full ride, I would consider Belmont a questionable choice.

[jsnow212]

“I’m going to go to a tttt. I have a great gpa and I don’t feel like taking the Lsat again because I’ve taken it twice.”

Seems like you put about as much effort into researching the situation as you did into the single most effectively financially valuable thing you can do in your law school career (ie actually try to do well on the Lsat).

Do you really expect to be successful at, well, anything if you continue to approach life with this kind of attitude?

Remember what you did to get the 3.9? Go back to doing that...because it seems that you aren’t at the moment.

In defense of OP, this could have been making pretty transitions on PowerPoint for the class presentations to satisfy the core requirements of a mass communications major. They might have put in exactly the effort into the LSAT as they did in their undergraduate work.

But yeah OP, if you want to throw years of your life away because you don't feel like studying for a learnable test, that's your prerogative. If you don't want to work to get a few more MC answer right on an exam in order to possibly change your life, that's your choice.

[LSATWiz.com]

If your goal is to get a job in Atlanta, Belmont can be a reasonable choice in that Krispy Kreme and Bojangles are hiring. While Belmont won't train you for this career, you will at least be in the general vicinity, which is necessary to success. If your goal is to get a legal job in Atlanta, then it is a terrible choice.

You have some chance of getting a legal job coming out of Belmont, but it is not a great chance and it's very likely that job will pay less than most bachelor degree jobs day and force you to work long hours with little to no upward mobility and poor exit options. The people who manage to make successful careers with these kinds of degrees are incredibly tenacious, charismatic and hardworking - they are the type of people who could work for 18 straight hours and charm the hell out of a room. Can you honestly say you are one of these people? It's highly improbable you aren't because the vast majority of people aren't. You will find some successful alumni from these schools, but most graduated at a time when there was a scarcity of lawyers and it didn't really matter where you went to law school. Today, these kinds of people know to avoid these schools like the plague and the lack of successful alumni is a contributing factor to these schools closing down.

2 times is not many to take the LSAT in an age when schools only look at the highest score. You have the ability to set yourself up for a >50% chance at a high six-figure salary with limited debt. It's not the case that going to Belmont or even Alabama at sticker and working hard for 2 or 3 extra years will ultimately cancel out retaking the LSAT and getting a scholarship to Duke. There is a chance you will be just as successful, but 9 out of 10 times that won't be the case. This is a decision you can't take back and you should go into it knowing that you're letting your desire to start now impact the quality of the next 40 years of your life.

[deadpanic]

The top handful of students at Belmont will have a shot at bigger firm jobs in Nashville. There is less than a 5% chance of this happening.

Outside of that, it is going to be incredibly difficult to even get a legal job, much less in Atlanta.

Retaking the LSAT is your best option right now. Georgia State for cheap (<10k/year) is a reasonable option if you are realistic about the potential outcomes.

[objctnyrhnr]

Saw your report, OP. You can do better. It’s not about getting a private tutor or whatever. It’s about pedal to the metal hours spent grinding at it. This is life. Success takes focus, hours, and effort. A 5 point improvement is nothing. You can do better. I promise.

[bexarr826]

Saw your report, OP. You can do better. It’s not about getting a private tutor or whatever. It’s about pedal to the metal hours spent grinding at it. This is life. Success takes focus, hours, and effort. A 5 point improvement is nothing. You can do better. I promise.

Sorry, new to this website. I meant to hit reply not report. But thanks for the reply, I am looking further into my options now I just always had it in my mind I was going to go straight to law school from undergraduate.

[amynyan]

In my experience, someone who goes ahead and reports helpful advice is unlikely to go far in life either way. So go to Belmont, take on a hundred thousand in debt (what, do you think CoL is free?) and ruin your own life, but don't waste your time asking for advice when it's wasted on you.

[bexarr826]

In my experience, someone who goes ahead and reports helpful advice is unlikely to go far in life either way. So go to Belmont, take on a hundred thousand in debt (what, do you think CoL is free?) and ruin your own life, but don't waste your time asking for advice when it's wasted on you.

Like I said, I did not mean to report. I meant to press reply but was doing it on my phone.

[objctnyrhnr]

In my experience, someone who goes ahead and reports helpful advice is unlikely to go far in life either way. So go to Belmont, take on a hundred thousand in debt (what, do you think CoL is free?) and ruin your own life, but don't waste your time asking for advice when it's wasted on you.

Like I said, I did not mean to report. I meant to press reply but was doing it on my phone.

I hear you OP. Anyway, don’t go to a tttt. Do better on the Lsat. And if you are going to go to a tttt, might make more sense to go to New York law school or the one that sounds like Stanford (Samford??) and hope that people get confused.

[QContinuum]

If your goal is to get a job in Atlanta, Belmont can be a reasonable choice in that Krispy Kreme and Bojangles are hiring. While Belmont won't train you for this career, you will at least be in the general vicinity, which is necessary to success. If your goal is to get a legal job in Atlanta, then it is a terrible choice.

You have some chance of getting a legal job coming out of Belmont, but it is not a great chance and it's very likely that job will pay less than most bachelor degree jobs day and force you to work long hours with little to no upward mobility and poor exit options. The people who manage to make successful careers with these kinds of degrees are incredibly tenacious, charismatic and hardworking - they are the type of people who could work for 18 straight hours and charm the hell out of a room. Can you honestly say you are one of these people? It's highly improbable you aren't because the vast majority of people aren't. You will find some successful alumni from these schools, but most graduated at a time when there was a scarcity of lawyers and it didn't really matter where you went to law school. Today, these kinds of people know to avoid these schools like the plague and the lack of successful alumni is a contributing factor to these schools closing down.

All of the above is correct. Further, I'd venture to say that even the "incredibly tenacious, charismatic and hardworking ... people who could work for 18 straight hours and charm the hell out of a room" (and again, 99.9% of 0Ls aren't going to fall into this uber-charismatic category) would be far better-served by retaking the LSAT and attending a better law school. A T4 J.D. would be a lead weight dragging them down for the rest of their career. Imagine how much further these people could go - how much easier the rest of their professional lives would be - if they had a J.D. from Emory rather than a J.D. from Belmont.

[objctnyrhnr]

But even in a good economy, is that Emory degree really particularly good to more than 40% of its grads?

[amynyan]

In my experience, someone who goes ahead and reports helpful advice is unlikely to go far in life either way. So go to Belmont, take on a hundred thousand in debt (what, do you think CoL is free?) and ruin your own life, but don't waste your time asking for advice when it's wasted on you.

Like I said, I did not mean to report. I meant to press reply but was doing it on my phone.

I apologize for my outburst—I didn't see your follow up post.

[amynyan]

In my experience, someone who goes ahead and reports helpful advice is unlikely to go far in life either way. So go to Belmont, take on a hundred thousand in debt (what, do you think CoL is free?) and ruin your own life, but don't waste your time asking for advice when it's wasted on you.

Like I said, I did not mean to report. I meant to press reply but was doing it on my phone.

Oh, I see, my post was approved after you had mentioned that but I had submitted my post before yours was approved. Sorry.

[QContinuum]

But even in a good economy, is that Emory degree really particularly good to more than 40% of its grads?

For non-BigLaw legal employment in Georgia, which is what OP wants? Sure, an Emory degree at a reasonable cost is pretty solid (unlike a Belmont J.D. at any cost - Belmont isn't even in Georgia). 72% of Emory's 2017 grads secured full-time, J.D.-required employment, indicating that a median Emory grad (and we always assume median performance here at TLS) should be able to land such employment.

To be clear, I'm not talking about Emory being a good bet for BigLaw. Only 32% of Emory's 2017 grads landed BigLaw or a federal clerkship, so I wouldn't recommend that any BigLaw-or-buster attend Emory. But again, OP has stated that he's not interested in BigLaw.

[LSATWiz.com]

If your goal is to get a job in Atlanta, Belmont can be a reasonable choice in that Krispy Kreme and Bojangles are hiring. While Belmont won't train you for this career, you will at least be in the general vicinity, which is necessary to success. If your goal is to get a legal job in Atlanta, then it is a terrible choice.

You have some chance of getting a legal job coming out of Belmont, but it is not a great chance and it's very likely that job will pay less than most bachelor degree jobs day and force you to work long hours with little to no upward mobility and poor exit options. The people who manage to make successful careers with these kinds of degrees are incredibly tenacious, charismatic and hardworking - they are the type of people who could work for 18 straight hours and charm the hell out of a room. Can you honestly say you are one of these people? It's highly improbable you aren't because the vast majority of people aren't. You will find some successful alumni from these schools, but most graduated at a time when there was a scarcity of lawyers and it didn't really matter where you went to law school. Today, these kinds of people know to avoid these schools like the plague and the lack of successful alumni is a contributing factor to these schools closing down.

All of the above is correct. Further, I'd venture to say that even the "incredibly tenacious, charismatic and hardworking ... people who could work for 18 straight hours and charm the hell out of a room" (and again, 99.9% of 0Ls aren't going to fall into this uber-charismatic category) would be far better-served by retaking the LSAT and attending a better law school. A T4 J.D. would be a lead weight dragging them down for the rest of their career. Imagine how much further these people could go - how much easier the rest of their professional lives would be - if they had a J.D. from Emory rather than a J.D. from Belmont.

Yeah, I thought that was implied. Obviously, these people would be better served retaking the LSAT, but the test was not as big a factor in admissions 30 years ago and law school was significantly less expensive. Even so, they'd still have been better served getting into better schools, but it was not necessarily a devastating decision. The reality is that even those who succeed coming out of Belmont today (and these are few and far between), will always have that stain on their resume. In every situation, there will be a "yeah, but" attached to their name. It is a red flag that will never fully leave, and is the kind of thing you can actively avoid.

[Right2BearArms]

Just skimmed the thread, so I am likely repeating some of the points already made, but here goes:

Go to Belmont if:

1. You can go for free;
2. You are from Nashville and want to stay there; and
3. You already have a job lead/offer that will lead to employment after graduation.

If those three things are not true, you are better served going to any number of law schools in Tennessee and the southeast.

Noticed the 3.9 GPA, and not to be a broken record, but re-take the LSAT.

[LSATWiz.com]

Just skimmed the thread, so I am likely repeating some of the points already made, but here goes:

Go to Belmont if:

1. You can go for free;
2. You are from Nashville and want to stay there; and
3. You already have a job lead/offer that will lead to employment after graduation.

If those three things are not true, you are better served going to any number of law schools in Tennessee and the southeast.

Noticed the 3.9 GPA, and not to be a broken record, but re-take the LSAT.

The issue with (1) is there's really no such thing as going for free because you still need to pay to support yourself for 3 years, which inevitably requires loans. I may be in the minority, but in the grand scheme of things $50 or $60k is unlikely to destroy anyone's life. When we speak about what a 3.9 can earn coming from a respected school vs. a school like Belmont, we're speaking about lifetime earnings in the hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars.