Korean Job Discussion Forums

[asams]

Has anyone taken the LSAT in Korea?

I'm thinking of maybe taking it in October.

I can get most of the information online from lsac.org but I'm wondering what you're experience was if you've taken it here

Also, does anyone that's taken it or wanted to take it but backed out have any LSAT study books they would be willing to lend/sell/give me?

[buck236]

I've taken the LSAT and just finished my 1L year this past May. I must applaud your decision to become a law student (and hopefully a lawyer) because there is always a need of good lawyers (most were great students but can not cut it in a court room). That being said, some advice is in order.

First, wait until you get back to America to start preparing for the LSAT, I say this because you should seriously consider taking a prep course. I did mine through the Princeton review and it brought my score up by a full 5 points (which was the difference between getting my half scholarship and not). I had done some self prep previously and it did not compare to the course. The course only cost me $1,000 and was worth every penny. Most of my class did a prep course and those that did not scored poorly compared to those that did. I am not saying that it is impossible to score well on your own, it is just that the strategy is actually more important than the content (except for the games section(s), that was a bitch).

Second, I do not know how old you are or what your financial situation is like but if you are a recent college grad then I would recommend taking more time to work. Your average law student has about 3-5 years of professional experience under his belt and has the requisite funds saved up with professional contacts. This is important because law school is damn expensive and you may find yourself forced to find a way to earn money while going through it. I myself went into law school straight out of college and even though I had a half scholarship and scored one of the best internships in the country (25 1L students nation wide were accepted for a Federal internship this summer) I find myself forced to work for a couple years to wait for the economy to get a little better. Also, the job market for young attorneys is not really great right now so the average law school grad is making about $60,000 per year. You can expect your debt to be around $150,000-$160,000 for law school alone. So just keep that in mind.

I know that I made the situation sound pretty bleak but I just wanted you to know exactly what it is that you are going to be getting into. It is a great career choice and I do not regret my decision one bit, as a matter of fact I can not wait to get back to it. Just know that you are looking at a minimum of 80 hours a week studying and later working for the next 7-10 years. Hard work but it pays off big time in the long run.

[asams]

thanks for the advice. BTW, what school do you go to?

I'm not even thinking about entering law until fall 2011 at the earliest. I have 11 months to go here and then I want to work somewhere else for a while - either back home or teaching overseas.

I've definitely took into account the debt thing, as I have quite a bit from undergrad but I figure, like you said, a law degree will pay dividends in the long run.

Do you know if you can find a good LSAT prep course online? I think UNC may offer one but I'm not sure.

[ChinaBoy]

strangely, I scored in the 96th percentile on that damn LSAT and got no scholarships.. what's up with that?

[buck236]

About the prep course, like I said, check out the Princeton Review. Also, there may be a couple courses listed on lsac.org.

As for your job while preparing for law school I recommend that you find something other than ESL. ESL is a great way of making a couple of bucks while traveling and basically just dicking around but it won't cut it in the eyes of an admissions officer. Look for something in the corporate world, think something to do with business or maybe a paralegal job. The law schools want to see you exert yourself because making it through law school will be one of the toughest things you will have experienced (the Bar is even tougher though). To give you an example. I was a varsity football player for my college on partial scholarship and worked 4 jobs my senior year while taking on a full course load. I literally had no time to myself and definitely didn't have any time for all the normal hijinks that go along with senior year in college. Now, you may be able to continue to do the ESL thing if you can combine it with another, more professional job. So you would be working 9-5 and then 7-10 teaching if you like. I can't stress enough how important it is that you show the admissions people that you are a hard worker that is dedicated and focused. 1 year of ESL can be chalked up to life experience and a little fun but 2 years and it looks like you haven't matured at all since graduation and you haven't "kept your eyes on the prize". I don't mean to sound like an ass but that is just the way that admissions people see things. You will encounter a fair amount of elitism in the legal community, hell, you'll encounter a lot of it.

As for my school, I would rather not give out any of my personal information for just anyone to see but if you send me a private message we can communicate that way. Which brings me to my next piece of advice. If you have any accounts on social networking sites like facebook, etc. get rid of them. I know a couple of kids that got kicked out of law school and 1 that was denied admission to the Bar (after paying for law school) because of either their own indescretions or their friends' being documented on the web for all to see. Not that what they did was illegal or anything it just showed poor judgment and while I have made worse mistakes I make sure that there is never any evidence of said mistakes.

Also, get yourself a subscription to the WSJ or the Economist or something like that. Their style of writing very closely resembles the preferred style of writing by most judges and will help you immensely when it comes to all the reading (and it will prepare you for the case law that you are going to read from 1100's England, gotta love Property class).

Can't really think of anything else right now.

[definitely maybe]

i took kaplan's prep course years ago. my initial sample test was a 164. with the kaplan method i scored a 151! i put off the lsat for six months, forgot everything i learned at kaplan, then pulled off a 171. i strongly recommend against kaplan.

best of luck with the law, guys! hope you enjoy it more than i did. i know a handful of guys at universities and colleges here in korea who finished law school and practiced law. all of us share the same disatisfaction for the field, and are not even slightly interested in returning to it. i knew i didn't like it by the end of 1l, finished anyway, and then worked in san fransisco for 3 years before i pulled out. make sure you don't turn out like me, because $150-180,000 in expenses/loans is more than realistic these days.

also, remember that mba apps generally drop and law apps generally rise during times of economic trouble. those of you planning to apply in the us for 2009-2010 should expect a great deal more competition in an already over-saturated field.

[buck236]

Asams, PM me your email because apparently I don't have enough posts to respond to a PM.

China boy, it all depends upon your law school.

Definitely Maybe, just a quick question. What didn't you like about practicing law? I personally can't stand how rigid the legal world can be, for instance you have to work pay your dues by working 80-100 hours a week if your an associate at a decent size firm, the billable hour (just a rip off), how repetitive legal memorandums, complaints, replies, etc. are when it seems that most judges just want to read as little as possible, especially in Federal court.

[jsk]

I took the Kaplan course but it didn't improve my score either. Actually, what helped was taking the sample tests they had. Just take a bunch of practice tests and you should be fine, since IMO the test is more about understanding its particular logic rather than having crystallized knowledge.

Right now the market is pretty saturated with unemployed new lawyers, so I would recommend against going to law school if you don't really want to be a lawyer.

[definitely maybe]

[asams]

my email is [email protected] - I would appreciate any advice or experiences anyone can offer - I'll take the good and the bad

I've wanted to be a lawyer my whole life, and while I've thought about other career options, got sidetracked a time or two because I thought I wanted to get married, and pretty much slacked off through college with the whole LSAT prep and stuff, I've always come back to law

Pretty much every other career I've thought off makes me realize that I would be settling for something less then where I set my goals before I started college, and that was to be a lawyer

It's not about money for me, although everyone thinks about money, it's about finally making my goals happen and not sitting around for stuff to fall in my lap anymore. I've tired of not taking charge and putting in the effort

If only I could go back to high school I might would try just a little harder to get scholarships so I wouldn't have so much debt which is the only reason I see that might stop me from going to law school