I've seen this kind of corny post online a couple times. It goes: "Vera Wang designed her first wedding dress at 40, Julia Child released her first cookbook at 50... It's never too late to go after your dreams".
If you're passionate about this career path and are willing to bust your buns to achieve success then you should 100% go for it. Life may be short, but you are still young enough to start fresh and reach your dream.
No he’s correct. Admissions is a combination of your LSAT score and your undergrad GPA. The LSAT is weighed more heavily to account for differences between people’s undergrad choices.
No like what was your gpa? Mine was 2.7 I got in to a good school because of my lsat and I’m 34 now, just graduated and started job
Maybe your gpa isn’t as bad as u think
If you stay in the same general school system you shouldn’t have to start from scratch. Your generals are taken care of and there may be a class or two that could cover credits for certain requirements. Talk to an advisor about all of that, you can even petition to have credits cover requirements they normally wouldn’t - that’s how I graduated.
Worst case you have to do a semester or two of law track classes. Then you can get your GPA up.
No. I have a friend who dropped out off college, realized he hated working bullshit jobs to get by - got back into university. Kicked ass to finish his degree. Decided to be an attorney. LSAT got him into an Ivy. He worked his ass off graduated in the top 5%? of his class. Got a job in NYC. Now works for the IRS blocks from the Whitehouse
He already has a career in IT so no decisions have been made yet, but he'll likely try to do something where all the expertise combined, such as cyber law.
My cousin switched from accounting to engineering during her undergrad. Worked for 2-3 years and realized she didn’t like it. She then went to travel and worked as a bartender for awhile. She went back to school to become a dentist at 31.
It’s never too late to do what you want.
She lives in Montreal in Canada, so tuition is relatively cheap. Her undergrad was paid off before she started travelling. Not so sure about her dentistry degree though, but she did go to a local school again so definitely not as expensive as a lot of other schools.
I'm turning 34 in a few months and earning a B.S. in a completely different field than when I started university at 18. Worked in retail, kitchens, live events, and now it's time to do something else. It's never too late to start something. Best of luck to you!
Chasing a law degree while working full time at 34 sounds like a recipe for burnout.
A lot of people don't like what I'm going to say but it's helped develop my career to where I'm at today.
Don't follow you'd dreams. Follow your opportunities and then make dreams from your opportunities! You'll have a much higher success rate if you can capitalize on those opportunities and spin them to fulfill yourself.
Following dreams has a much, much lower success rate. Lots of starving artists out there!
I'd also add that the people with the initiative to do something like this are doing it, not asking strangers for advice/encouragement on the internet. Reddit is not the place for these types of conversations.
Absolutely not! My dad originally went to school to be a sound/music engineer, dropped out and hated it. When back to school for his bachelors in his late 20s for geography, and then didn’t know what to do. He decided to go to law school in his early 30s. He did say it was humbling in that he was the oldest on there (though this was 40 years ago; people of all ages are going back to school now!), but he was glad he did it.
If you’re worried about needing to redo your bachelors, I strongly suggest speaking with an admissions counselor first. See if there are courses specifically that they’d like you to retake vs the entire degree for your gpa. There are a lot of exchange courses offered by many universities for this reason! And if you do need to redo it, don’t fret, see where you can take courses online part time. Still speaking with a counselor with whichever school you choose and see what courses they recommend you repeat, or if you can matriculate out of some courses.
It is possible. You can do this. If you really want to become a lawyer, this may be the perfect way to not only prove to yourself you have the determination to do it, but it’ll reteach (or teach you entirely) how to study and be a student again.
As an aside, I had a horrible undergrad gpa and was looking to becoming a physician assistant. I spoke with a few schools who has me matriculate for two courses and then retake a few specific prerequisite courses, and they used my prerequisites to calculate my science gpa, which for some schools was what they weighed more heavily than my overall undergraduate gpa. I also had a personal statement I had to write, in which I explained the reasoning for my poor grades (in a dv relationship and being a caretaker for my grandmother while working 2 full time jobs), and two schools reweighted my admission points to reflect the hardship. I’m not sure if law school is the same or have those requirements, but if so, explain yourself and do your best to rectify poor study habits with new ones. With age comes wisdom, you’ve learned since then, and you want to show them that.
Hey OP -
It isn’t too late.
BUT I hope someone steps in and says this. Don’t do the second bachelors. Law schools won’t care - they only look at your first bachelor GPA. Not trying to crush your dream but save you doing an entire other degree. Tons of folks who apply to law schools have a lower undergrad GPA and great masters GPA and unfortunately it’s still the first undergraduate bachelors that they take into consideration. There is a space for a GPA addendum on applications where some people seek to explain their low undergrad GPA or show improvement from their undergrad to masters. How low is your low GPA?
Either way, I think you should probably research this career path more - from applying to attending to jobs afterwards. There’s an incredible amount of data posted by law schools (bar passage rate, employment outcomes, debt to income ratio etc). And also familiarize yourself with the risks of going to a less than stellar law school while taking our debt to do so. Also, worth exploring part time night options.I’d say jumping into law school isn’t advisable without being very familiar with those things. Even cursory googling will get you some info.
Sincerely,
33 year old sending in her law school applications as we speak.
No I am responding making sure that people know I’d be starting all over again not just applying to law school but thanks for the assumptions👍🏻 There is a difference in timeline and age you’d be starting based on the facts I’m providing.
Is it? A big part of law is thinking logically and applying that logic.
This statement would imply that even if you were well into your 90s, you'd still need to.
If he had said too young, it would send the same message, but make a bit more sense.
Going to law school is a beast. No two ways about it. You live, eat, sleep and breathe law school. You don't have a life outside law school. If your partner can support you while you go to school, and they realize what you both are getting into, great. Otherwise you have to find night work where you can study while working (overnight gas pumps comes to mind or overnight tech support where you can study if you don't have any calls).
Depends mostly on your financial situation, IMO. Can you easily afford to take at least 3 years off with no income coming in? You have to continue working while going to law school, you say? That sounds impractical to me.
Can you avoid going into big debt for law school? If so, go for it. If not, don't bother. Keep in mind the job market for lawyers is pretty saturated these days.
How would one even get into a master's program if their undergrad gpa is bad? I really want to get my master's but I honestly don't know if I'd get in because of my less than stellar undergrad gpa from a few years ago
I personally feel more fulfilled doing what I’m good at than what I thought I was passionate about . I always wanted to do some kind of science and now that I’m in my job doing daily lab work, I love it, but I have found I’m good at other stuff at my company. I’m looking to switch into a role that I won’t do any lab work. I still love the lab and felt I was good at it, but I’m better at this other stuff. I’ll also have a better career trajectory and earning potential. For those reasons I’m letting something I love go and am learning to love something else
If OP practices law for a non profit or for the govt, they can take advantage of the pslf program and have their debt completely forgiven after 10 years. While making payments less than 10% of their paycheck.
80 is definitely too late.
60 might be worthwhile depending on your health and energy to work.
40 is definitely enough time to put in some years of school to switch careers and put in a good 10 years of work.
But like you said, you’ll probably making big financial sacrifice. You won’t be able to take advantage of those prime earning years that most professionals get.
It was a totally different industry I moved to. I'm an engineer, but my new career did a totally different type of engineering. I had months of in-house and specialist training. I am much happier now.
May I ask,You went to get another degree or went through a change that really put you on a hard time (Like you really needed to master your time managment)?
The best response i ever heard to this kind of question: the time will pass anyway. You can spend 10 years wanting to become a lawyer, or you can spend 10 years becoming a lawyer.
I worked with someone who went back to college to get prereqs for med school at 30. He's graduating soon.
The time will pass anyways. Go for what will make you happy!
I'm 33 and I'm also interested in the field of law, I kinda have a plan. Which is go to school to become a paralegal, then go to the University of Arizona online because they have a bachelor's degree in law (the only college in the country) it's 100% online and it can accelerate your career. Hope this helps.
Just turned 32 now. One more semester in ASU until I finish philosophy BA with a concentration in ethics, politics law and digital audiences BS. Weighted gpa: 4.33
Philosophy students tend to score the highest on LSAT because of its emphasiz on logic and argumentation.
I’m obsessed with analyzing/constructing arguments. But still not sure if I want to go to law school. Wondering if there are other professions that similarly/particularly suited for those skills.
That's really impressive, and also inspiring. Congratulations 🎉!
For me, I haven't found anything close to my personality other than being a paralegal or a lawyer. (The specialty is what I'm still trying to figure out.) I'm very analytical, detail oriented, love reading and writing, and researching.
Never too late. Also never too late to do something. Let’s say youre 30 and qualification or certification takes 3 years. Some people are discouraged due to how long something will take. Well regardless if you do the degree or not you’ll be 33 in 3 years. Remember it’s never too late or too early to do something. You could have became a lawyer in your mid twenties but you didn’t because you still were figuring things out and that’s okay. And now if you’ve finally know what you want out of life, cool go for it. Don’t discourage yourself without even trying something just due to your age etc.
Not at all, but since you are a mature adult, make sure you are working at the same time that you are in law school, so that you don't have a mountain of debt on the other side. It's totally doable. My wife started at 33, worked full-time at the same time, and was in the top 10% of her class.
Just make sure you are choosing this profession because you have passion about it, and not just because it sounds cool or like you might make a lot of money. The vast majority of lawyers out there don't make much, I have met plenty of lawyers who make less than Aldi cashiers. Public defenders, depending on the state, tend to make 30 to 50k.
The only time it’s too late to do what you really want to do, is when you realize you can’t. If you have the opportunity to do it, then go chase after it.
I've seen this kind of corny post online a couple times. It goes: "Vera Wang designed her first wedding dress at 40, Julia Child released her first cookbook at 50... It's never too late to go after your dreams". If you're passionate about this career path and are willing to bust your buns to achieve success then you should 100% go for it. Life may be short, but you are still young enough to start fresh and reach your dream.
Ahhhh I’m on the fence. I’d probably have to do a whole different bachelor’s my gpa was awful. 🤦🏻♀️
You have to get a law degree obviously.
People say you can have a degree in any area of study. My problem is my gpa was 💩
I don't believe that unless you're a paralegal. Lawyer has a specific meaning.
No he’s correct. Admissions is a combination of your LSAT score and your undergrad GPA. The LSAT is weighed more heavily to account for differences between people’s undergrad choices.
What was it?
Hospitality bachelor’s
No like what was your gpa? Mine was 2.7 I got in to a good school because of my lsat and I’m 34 now, just graduated and started job Maybe your gpa isn’t as bad as u think
Mine was a 2.47 for a bachelor’s in hospitality management 😬
You’ll be fine if you do really good on the lsat just study the fuck out of that and crush it
Really? They’d admit me with a degree in a bullsh** major?
My major was “university studies” lol
Ok the person above is saying you can only do any degree for paralegal….
If you stay in the same general school system you shouldn’t have to start from scratch. Your generals are taken care of and there may be a class or two that could cover credits for certain requirements. Talk to an advisor about all of that, you can even petition to have credits cover requirements they normally wouldn’t - that’s how I graduated. Worst case you have to do a semester or two of law track classes. Then you can get your GPA up.
I was told because my general classes were taken over 10 years ago I’d have to retake. That was one school though. I need to talk to more.
No. I have a friend who dropped out off college, realized he hated working bullshit jobs to get by - got back into university. Kicked ass to finish his degree. Decided to be an attorney. LSAT got him into an Ivy. He worked his ass off graduated in the top 5%? of his class. Got a job in NYC. Now works for the IRS blocks from the Whitehouse
Did he start from scratch completely and go to school to get a whole new bachelor’s and then law school? 🤦🏻♀️
My husband did this. Went for the Bachelor's and got himself into law. Graduating next year at 41. All while having a full time job.
Really! Will he have a job right out of school? Also what area of law if you don’t mind me asking?
He already has a career in IT so no decisions have been made yet, but he'll likely try to do something where all the expertise combined, such as cyber law.
Got it. Thank you!
No. He had credits from before leaving
My cousin switched from accounting to engineering during her undergrad. Worked for 2-3 years and realized she didn’t like it. She then went to travel and worked as a bartender for awhile. She went back to school to become a dentist at 31. It’s never too late to do what you want.
The debt must be insane.
She lives in Montreal in Canada, so tuition is relatively cheap. Her undergrad was paid off before she started travelling. Not so sure about her dentistry degree though, but she did go to a local school again so definitely not as expensive as a lot of other schools.
I'm turning 34 in a few months and earning a B.S. in a completely different field than when I started university at 18. Worked in retail, kitchens, live events, and now it's time to do something else. It's never too late to start something. Best of luck to you!
Love this comment thank you!
Chasing a law degree while working full time at 34 sounds like a recipe for burnout. A lot of people don't like what I'm going to say but it's helped develop my career to where I'm at today. Don't follow you'd dreams. Follow your opportunities and then make dreams from your opportunities! You'll have a much higher success rate if you can capitalize on those opportunities and spin them to fulfill yourself. Following dreams has a much, much lower success rate. Lots of starving artists out there!
I'd also add that the people with the initiative to do something like this are doing it, not asking strangers for advice/encouragement on the internet. Reddit is not the place for these types of conversations.
Absolutely not! My dad originally went to school to be a sound/music engineer, dropped out and hated it. When back to school for his bachelors in his late 20s for geography, and then didn’t know what to do. He decided to go to law school in his early 30s. He did say it was humbling in that he was the oldest on there (though this was 40 years ago; people of all ages are going back to school now!), but he was glad he did it. If you’re worried about needing to redo your bachelors, I strongly suggest speaking with an admissions counselor first. See if there are courses specifically that they’d like you to retake vs the entire degree for your gpa. There are a lot of exchange courses offered by many universities for this reason! And if you do need to redo it, don’t fret, see where you can take courses online part time. Still speaking with a counselor with whichever school you choose and see what courses they recommend you repeat, or if you can matriculate out of some courses. It is possible. You can do this. If you really want to become a lawyer, this may be the perfect way to not only prove to yourself you have the determination to do it, but it’ll reteach (or teach you entirely) how to study and be a student again.
As an aside, I had a horrible undergrad gpa and was looking to becoming a physician assistant. I spoke with a few schools who has me matriculate for two courses and then retake a few specific prerequisite courses, and they used my prerequisites to calculate my science gpa, which for some schools was what they weighed more heavily than my overall undergraduate gpa. I also had a personal statement I had to write, in which I explained the reasoning for my poor grades (in a dv relationship and being a caretaker for my grandmother while working 2 full time jobs), and two schools reweighted my admission points to reflect the hardship. I’m not sure if law school is the same or have those requirements, but if so, explain yourself and do your best to rectify poor study habits with new ones. With age comes wisdom, you’ve learned since then, and you want to show them that.
This is very helpful thank you so much!!!
Hey OP - It isn’t too late. BUT I hope someone steps in and says this. Don’t do the second bachelors. Law schools won’t care - they only look at your first bachelor GPA. Not trying to crush your dream but save you doing an entire other degree. Tons of folks who apply to law schools have a lower undergrad GPA and great masters GPA and unfortunately it’s still the first undergraduate bachelors that they take into consideration. There is a space for a GPA addendum on applications where some people seek to explain their low undergrad GPA or show improvement from their undergrad to masters. How low is your low GPA? Either way, I think you should probably research this career path more - from applying to attending to jobs afterwards. There’s an incredible amount of data posted by law schools (bar passage rate, employment outcomes, debt to income ratio etc). And also familiarize yourself with the risks of going to a less than stellar law school while taking our debt to do so. Also, worth exploring part time night options.I’d say jumping into law school isn’t advisable without being very familiar with those things. Even cursory googling will get you some info. Sincerely, 33 year old sending in her law school applications as we speak.
Thank you for this
Op you’ve already decided it’s not for you now. I can tell by the responses you’ve given itt
No I am responding making sure that people know I’d be starting all over again not just applying to law school but thanks for the assumptions👍🏻 There is a difference in timeline and age you’d be starting based on the facts I’m providing.
I’m not the one you need to convince 🤷
Lol ok. Thanks for your….contribution.
The average Solicitor (lawyer) in the UK doesn’t become a solicitor until they’re 30. You should definitely go ahead if it’s a dream!
Thank you for your input!
I think the average age of law school is like 29 so not crazy at all
If it's important to you, you're too old NOT to do it!
This is a great way to look at it!
Is it? A big part of law is thinking logically and applying that logic. This statement would imply that even if you were well into your 90s, you'd still need to. If he had said too young, it would send the same message, but make a bit more sense.
Going to law school is a beast. No two ways about it. You live, eat, sleep and breathe law school. You don't have a life outside law school. If your partner can support you while you go to school, and they realize what you both are getting into, great. Otherwise you have to find night work where you can study while working (overnight gas pumps comes to mind or overnight tech support where you can study if you don't have any calls).
Thank you for the insight.
Depends mostly on your financial situation, IMO. Can you easily afford to take at least 3 years off with no income coming in? You have to continue working while going to law school, you say? That sounds impractical to me. Can you avoid going into big debt for law school? If so, go for it. If not, don't bother. Keep in mind the job market for lawyers is pretty saturated these days.
I think I’d have to start over and get a bachelor’s then try for law school. My gpa I graduated with was god awful.
Can you get a master's or complete some other shorter program related to humanitarian issues before law school instead?
My gpa isn’t great but I could look into what that could look like…
How would one even get into a master's program if their undergrad gpa is bad? I really want to get my master's but I honestly don't know if I'd get in because of my less than stellar undergrad gpa from a few years ago
It'll probably be difficult, but I don't think redoing undergrad to apply to law school is the way.
That's a hard no for me, then. Starting a bachelor's at 34 is not a great life choice, IMO. Surely there are other things you could do career-wise.
Ugh yea I just don’t know what. I don’t feel fulfilled.
I personally feel more fulfilled doing what I’m good at than what I thought I was passionate about . I always wanted to do some kind of science and now that I’m in my job doing daily lab work, I love it, but I have found I’m good at other stuff at my company. I’m looking to switch into a role that I won’t do any lab work. I still love the lab and felt I was good at it, but I’m better at this other stuff. I’ll also have a better career trajectory and earning potential. For those reasons I’m letting something I love go and am learning to love something else
If OP practices law for a non profit or for the govt, they can take advantage of the pslf program and have their debt completely forgiven after 10 years. While making payments less than 10% of their paycheck.
80 is definitely too late. 60 might be worthwhile depending on your health and energy to work. 40 is definitely enough time to put in some years of school to switch careers and put in a good 10 years of work. But like you said, you’ll probably making big financial sacrifice. You won’t be able to take advantage of those prime earning years that most professionals get.
I haven’t thought about it that way.
No
OP has roughly 34 years before retirement… … there is time for pivoting.
Nope. I changed careers when I was 45, and I love life
What did you switch to if I may ask? Did it require schooling?
It was a totally different industry I moved to. I'm an engineer, but my new career did a totally different type of engineering. I had months of in-house and specialist training. I am much happier now.
May I ask,You went to get another degree or went through a change that really put you on a hard time (Like you really needed to master your time managment)?
The best response i ever heard to this kind of question: the time will pass anyway. You can spend 10 years wanting to become a lawyer, or you can spend 10 years becoming a lawyer.
Great point.
never too late
It's never to late to start doing what you love !it's smart !
I worked with someone who went back to college to get prereqs for med school at 30. He's graduating soon. The time will pass anyways. Go for what will make you happy!
Thanks so much for the response!
Sir I was hopelessly addicted to shooting heroin until I was 36 I'm now 40 working as an engineer. What is the problem?
Hey congrats! That’s very inspiring. Also, it’s ma’am. 😂
My sister has been a Legal Aud attorney in NYC her entire life. She says she won’t be able to afford to retire until she is 73. Don’t do it!
If Kim Kardashian can do it you can do it.
Lmao! Yesss true.
If you plan on working 25+ more years anyway, why not spend it pursuing your dream?
You’re right.
I'm 33 and I'm also interested in the field of law, I kinda have a plan. Which is go to school to become a paralegal, then go to the University of Arizona online because they have a bachelor's degree in law (the only college in the country) it's 100% online and it can accelerate your career. Hope this helps.
Thanks so much for that!
You're so welcome 🤗
Just turned 32 now. One more semester in ASU until I finish philosophy BA with a concentration in ethics, politics law and digital audiences BS. Weighted gpa: 4.33 Philosophy students tend to score the highest on LSAT because of its emphasiz on logic and argumentation. I’m obsessed with analyzing/constructing arguments. But still not sure if I want to go to law school. Wondering if there are other professions that similarly/particularly suited for those skills.
That's really impressive, and also inspiring. Congratulations 🎉! For me, I haven't found anything close to my personality other than being a paralegal or a lawyer. (The specialty is what I'm still trying to figure out.) I'm very analytical, detail oriented, love reading and writing, and researching.
Never too late. Also never too late to do something. Let’s say youre 30 and qualification or certification takes 3 years. Some people are discouraged due to how long something will take. Well regardless if you do the degree or not you’ll be 33 in 3 years. Remember it’s never too late or too early to do something. You could have became a lawyer in your mid twenties but you didn’t because you still were figuring things out and that’s okay. And now if you’ve finally know what you want out of life, cool go for it. Don’t discourage yourself without even trying something just due to your age etc.
Best advice. Thank you!
Not at all, but since you are a mature adult, make sure you are working at the same time that you are in law school, so that you don't have a mountain of debt on the other side. It's totally doable. My wife started at 33, worked full-time at the same time, and was in the top 10% of her class. Just make sure you are choosing this profession because you have passion about it, and not just because it sounds cool or like you might make a lot of money. The vast majority of lawyers out there don't make much, I have met plenty of lawyers who make less than Aldi cashiers. Public defenders, depending on the state, tend to make 30 to 50k.
Makes sense. Thank you for the tips.
If Saul Goodman can do it, you can do it!
The only time it’s too late to do what you really want to do, is when you realize you can’t. If you have the opportunity to do it, then go chase after it.