Law School Myths and Misunderstandings | #MentorMePlease

hello beautiful people and welcome back to my channel I am any also known as Any Given Sunday and I am so excited to be back with another video um and this video I'm hoping to kick off or I'm kicking off what I hope will be a series um and probably just a permanent series on my channel called Mentor me please um and this really stems from the number of requests that I receive on a daily basis to serve as a mentor and besides the fact that I quite literally feel like I do not know what I'm doing enough to Mentor someone I also just do not have the capacity right now to provide that the attention that I know a mentee mentor relationship requires so instead I'm still coming on here and giving some insight and probably answering a lot of the questions that I would receive on calls or in DMS right here on my YouTube channel so do not be surprised if I directed you to this video because that is the entire goal of this series um I there are a lot of things that people can receive mentorship for and it is not strictly professional so if you have some things that you want me to chat about on this channel and in this series like feel free to leave a comment down below or a DM me I'll probably put some question boxes on Instagram speaking of which you should follow me on Instagram check out my blog anygivingsunday.com At Any Given Sunday I'm there I'm doing things we love to see it um and so even though uh most of the time when people think of mentor and mentee um they think professional and career I'm really hoping to cover a wide array of topics whether it is you know friendships whether it is relationships romantic relationships whether it is travel whether it is you know being a black woman in your 20s in New York City where I'm from all those things so uh feel free to just leave anything in the comments that you have ever wanted to receive some sort of mentorship or guidance or advice for and I would be happy to chat about it because that's why I'm here for even though mentorships are not mentors mentoring relationships are not all about career I am going to start there um with today's video because that is what I'm known for but before I even get into that subscribe to my channel I know I'm a little you know wizzy Wuzzy here and there but like look we brought out the big guns the camera the nice fancy camera is out we're doing we have a whole nice setup here you know we moved on up or whatever so feel free to subscribe so that you know when my next video drops because they will be coming they will be coming they will be coming that being said let's get into it today's video is on the biggest myths misunderstandings and misconceptions that people have about law school um whether you are pre-law pre-law which is a misconception that I will talk about um or whether you are just somebody who just does not have accurate information or proper perception about law school maybe your friend is in law school or is a lawyer things like that so you know hopefully this video provides a little bit more knowledge and demystifies and and contributes to your understanding of what really happens when people go to law school or when people come out of law school all of those things so let's get into it number one the hand down biggest misconception that I am like almost every single day telling people or answering questions about is the misconception or the myth that you need to major in something Law related um in order to go to law school more specifically that you need to major in poli-sci political science or government which is what it was known as at Harvard in order to go to law school did I major in Poli SCI slash government yes I was a double major if I could go back in time would I do it again absolutely not it was not something that I was genuinely interested in or passionate about I discovered sociology and I double majored actually in sociology and government and I always say if I had an extra year I would have dropped government altogether it was kind of an incremental thing it was like all right first I started off being government that I tacked on sociology as my minor then I made sociology then the following year my junior year I made sociology um my uh double major but then I made it the like secondary in my double major and then my senior year I made sociology the primary in my double major and government the secondary and I was like if I had one more year I probably would have reached the point where I just dropped the government all together and only majored in sociology um there are a number of reasons why this tends to be kind of a misconception and the biggest one is I think like it sounds good most people who um or not even that it sounds good it's that most people who want to go to law school associate the law with government right because like that's where our laws come from most of the time at least public laws um and so I think in that way people are like oh in order to go to law school I need to have a background I need to have an understanding and the mini misconception there is that you need to know anything to go to law school they will teach you what you need to know in law school there's nothing that you can really learn before you get to law school that will prepare you for what law school demands of you and that is because professors want their own things schools are different curriculums are different things like that um and even though like we're all shooting towards taking a bar exam and things like that like it really is just kind of like you know a free-for-all almost of sorts and so I would say the solution or the biggest takeaway or the truth is that you can major in whatever you want to major in but you need to do well um I think there you know there's some Rumblings out there that you know if you study um one of the hard Sciences law schools might be more lenient with your GPA I don't have experience with that and I'm not an admissions officer so I'm not going to necessarily tell you that but what I will tell you is that good grades get you far excellent grades will get you further um and so having a strong GPA regardless of what your major is is going to do you much is going to help you much more than studying political science because you think you need to study it and then maybe not doing it as well in it because you just genuinely weren't interested in it and the concepts just weren't really flowing with you um political science like it's not like you're out here studying laws you are studying Theory political theories how governments form why they form and the way they do the various types of governments like it's all Theory and it's not like it's not at all like what you learn in law school which is more which is also theoretical but to an extent um more based on the judicial system versus uh you know the political science being more based on I would say maybe the executive or legislative if that makes any sense at all um so yeah myth number one you need to be pre-law or and that's another thing there's actually no really no real such thing as being pre-law um and maybe your school has something that's called like a pre-law major which like I wouldn't I would that would kind of raise an eyebrow for me and what I mean by that is compared to Medicine where there is pre-med being pre-med in medicine means you actively have to meet certain requirements in order to get accepted into medical school and if you don't meet those requirements you'll have to do a post-bac program you'll have to take those classes to make sure that you meet the requirements necessary to go to medical school and if you don't meet those requirements then you actively cannot go to medical school so like you can be a sociology major who is pre-med right like and do the sociology but like you need to make sure you meet the requirements that the med schools are asking you for there is no such thing there is no similar structure or setup um in law school like there's no like oh you need to make sure you have five constitutional law classes or two one constitutional law class one this you need to make sure you meet this and in this bucket there's nothing at all like that no one's going to look at your transcript and say oh no you need to go to a post back law program why because the post office our program does not exist and so in that way like there genuinely is no such thing as really being pre-law study what you want to study study what interests you study what intrigues you because College especially if you're at a liberal arts college is one of the last opportunities that you have to truly enjoy academics for the sake of academics once you go to law school you're not really you can enjoy it but it's for it a lot by and large is for the sake of getting a job because like you came to law school to get a job like that is what professional school is um and so in that way I would say study what you want to study you will make your college experience more enjoyable um and just think about how you can craft a narrative about going to law school if what you study ends up being kind of far off or something like that far off so for example like if you study film or if you study art or something like that right like there there's art law right like there's entertainment law and there's a way that you can spend that narrative to talk about how what you studied um uh has led you to want to pursue law if that is your truth if it is not your true you tell your truth um but like just because you've studied not something that is completely seemingly unrelated to the law doesn't mean that there is a that there is not a way to tie it back in so just think critically about those things because there's no major that will keep you from going to law school and lastly the misconception that I will talk about probably is most relevant to me and I don't even think it's a misconception um as much as it is a misunderstanding or just something that people Overlook um is that uh you have to practice law um I yeah I don't think I even intended for the sentence to end the way it did but yeah I think it's interesting because I feel like everyone when they're applying to law school has the traditional notion of what it is to be a lawyer um and that's you know what you see on suits which you see on Law and Order SVU which you see on the TV shows in the courtroom in the movies all those things and well that's another mini misconception most people actually won't be in courtrooms a lot of people a lot of lawyers do not actually litigate um and they might do things like negotiations and Deals or reviewing contracts but they may not necessarily be in a courtroom litigating so that's a mini misconception for people um but I think people go into law school and they have a conception of you know what it means to be a lawyer and that is you know Justice and equity and fighting for rights and being in a courtroom and all that stuff and the truth is a lot of people leave the practice of Law and they still use their JD they still use the experience that they have but there's so much more that you can do with the JD um Beyond Beyond being a lawyer and it's interesting because like you kind of have to want to be a lawyer first if that makes sense um and the reason I say that is because like law school is a little bit too expensive in terms of like money but also time energy um resources like it is a little bit too expensive to be like yeah I want a JD so I can be an entrepreneur like no one's really going to like say that um because like it is still called law school after all and so I think it's like why do you want to be a lawyer is going to be like the question and also the question that people have to address um like you have to in a way want to want to be a lawyer but if you get to the profession and realize it's not really what you thought it would be or it's not really what you wanted you absolutely can pivot and there are so many people who do I've seen so many like and the thing about it is like people don't really like know I don't think there's a clear understanding of like how people with JD's get to do all of the things that they end up doing that is outside of practicing law but you just like hear of like the JD who's the CEO or the JD who's running their own business or the JD who's a superintendent or the JD who um is in the Senate where the Jade like all of those things like the JDS are everywhere but like there's no like this is how you get to do those things it's kind of like all right like you just live your life and you take your career one step at a time one day at a time and you make decisions that way and so I think it's a big misconception that like to go to law school like going to law school means you'll be practicing law forever um I am a much and I'm an example of that much sooner than I thought I would be um but I also like by the time I was halfway through law school was kind of just like yeah I don't know that I see myself practicing law forever and I've even had other people tell me that as well like that they could see me going down a number of different paths that don't necessarily mean I will be practicing law and so um if you find that you are in law school and you are feeling the same as well does that mean you should drop out not necessarily it just means like you have to be more keen or aware about the things that excite you pay attention to those things and it means you actively have to seek out more non-traditional resources because law schools often push down the stereotypical push the stereotypical path down your throat by default and if you do not push against that you will go down the stereotypical path by default and so it takes a little bit more work to be like all right like my path is going to look a little bit different but paths are different and there are so many options out there if you go to law school but do not want to practice law and just like that we have come to the end of this video I'm keeping it a little bit sort of short and sweet but I am so looking forward to chatting I'm so looking forward to chatting more with you and to just sharing some you know mentorship mentorly that's probably not even a word um advice so yeah be sure to again subscribe check out the other videos on my channel and I look forward to seeing you again next time bye

Channel: Eni Popoola

Views: 7,683

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Id: KBT65hKP00Q

Length: 14min 32sec (872 seconds)

Published: Wed May 24 2023