2L Slump Forum

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cam1992

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2L Slump

Post by cam1992 » Wed Apr 03, 2019 8:16 am

Any advice/thoughts/commiseration for a 2L who has reached the conclusion that law isn't for him/her. I am decently placed at a great school with minimal debt and a good 2L SA lined up, so going to stick with it, but after 3.5 semesters I am sick of the people, sick of the professors, sick of the law. Even though I am not, most of my close friends at school are law review types who love school and are dead set on clerking, so I am feeling really isolated. For the past 2.5 semesters my entire life has revolved around law school and I am just now coming to terms with the fact that the reason I have been fairly miserable is that I just don't enjoy what I am doing or who I am doing it with. Any tips on how to get through the rest of 2L/3L year would be much appreciated, but more so than that, just wondering if other people feel this way. FWIW I am not really worried about my grades slumping, I randomly find that long intense study sessions are the only thing that takes my mind off of how much I hate it here (I've always been a super intense student).

objctnyrhnr

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Re: 2L Slump

Post by objctnyrhnr » Wed Apr 03, 2019 11:10 am

Get the offer after your SA then go abroad or some sort of “visiting student” program or something during all or part of 3L

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BansheeScream

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Re: 2L Slump

Post by BansheeScream » Wed Apr 03, 2019 11:57 am

Does your school have a study abroad program or an extern away program? Study abroad seems to be basically no work and extern away (if you get a good placement) allows you to actually practice which is way better than school in my opinion. I left to extern in the market I'm going to practice in after graduation and my life feels way more meaningful because I'm 1. doing legal work that matters and 2. making social and professional connections that will actually matter when I move here. Just a thought.

BasilHallward

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Re: 2L Slump

Post by BasilHallward » Wed Apr 03, 2019 5:33 pm

objctnyrhnr wrote:Get the offer after your SA then go abroad or some sort of “visiting student” program or something during all or part of 3L
TCR. This is what I did and savored every minute of it.

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Megfsc

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Re: 2L Slump

Post by Megfsc » Wed Apr 03, 2019 5:40 pm

My situation is very similar to yours, OP. At my (pretty large) school, there are lots of people who feel the same way. You said your friends were super-into law school, so that may make you feel more isolated than you really are. Those of us who are slogging through until we can rejoin/join the working world tend to keep our heads down, in my experience, so it's not easy to see that you aren't alone and haven't made a colossal mistake at first glance, but just know that you aren't and you haven't. By a long shot.

I think law school promotes this tunnel-vision that makes it feel way more important and life-encompassing than it has to be. It's awesome for those people who love it, but if you don't, there's nothing wrong with shifting your perspective so that law school is just a thing you do alongside all the other (way cooler) things you do in your life. Especially since grades are not a huge issue, you can probably afford to take time to enjoy those non-law school things a little more than you're doing now/have been doing. Take advantage of breaks and get as far away mentally and physically as you reasonably can. (Or unreasonably. I went to the Arctic Circle last Fall. It was fabulous.)

For the law school part of life, it has helped me to throw myself at any class or opportunity that is hands-on/practical/real-world. So externships, clinics, or study-abroad like others have mentioned. Do that. Do anything to earn those credits outside of the classroom (and campus for that matter) and away from casebooks. Ultimately, a redeeming quality of having a law degree (and my personal carrot) is that you can get a job that is nothing like law school and one that will never require you to read anything written by Oliver Wendell Holmes again if you don't want to. You'll leave law school and find your people. Until then, hang in there. We're all quietly hanging with you.

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