If this was your daughter....

[iluvmy4blessings]

My daughter has one year left (8th) before she starts highschool. I want to make sure that I have a plan in place for her so we are thinking ahead.

My daughter tells me that she wants to go to Law School. I know these things can change and so I'm not trying to pigeon hole her into anything. However, I do detect a longstanding pattern in her interests and would like to gear things towards that. She has had a longstanding interest since even her young years in what I would call "social justice". For example, she always has wanted to volunteer with the homeless and even when she was young she would insist on packing an extra sandwich to take with her wherever we went in case she ran into a homeless person :) She also is very into being a vegetarian and all about the environment . When she was younger she was really a rockhound . She had an entire collection of rocks that she cleaned and then categorized. We had a museum of rocks at one point!

The healthy/vegetarian/environmental stuff is really her own thing. Seriously this comes from no one in our family. She had to teach me how to recycle (not that I don't care!) For some reason, even when she was very little she wanted to be a vegetarian, but it was just not possible b/c I know nothing about it and have a family to cook for. My mom bought a bunch of books for her and a juicer since she was so into it. Now that she is older she has taken over as the chef and is learning to cook vegetarian dishes on her own that we eat. She also is the one that is in charge of recycling etc. around here. I honestly know next to nothing about any of these subjects except what she has told me.

I just know that my 13 y.o. daughter has always had an interest in laws, social justice, environment, health etc. Lately she keeps telling me that she wants to be a lawyer. That could also stem from the fact that my dh left us in 2006 and I had to quickly learn a lot about laws. However she has always had an interest. She also loves to watch the NCIS/CSI type of shows especially the legal aspects of that which has led to a whole interest in forensics, although she has taken no formal classes in any of this. I suppose there are many areas of law that one can practice so maybe she can find a way to encompass all her interests.

As I have mentioned before , I want to plan out her highschool years with all this in mind and especially with the possibility of getting her into some scholarships. So I need to find things that she can participate in that will look good on the application and make sure her classes are all geared towards this I suppose.

We live in Texas and I did find that UTSA has something called an Honors College where they award scholarships. They also have within the Honors College an Institute for Law and Public Affairs that I think might be for pre-law. I no nothing about it except what I found on the internet. For some reason I do not know my dd has also said she wants to go to University of Houston of which I know nothing about. We are not tied though to Texas. Please tell me about any colleges you know of. Should I make contact and ask for info already? Just to get a headstart!

I am open to any and all info that you all can give me. If this was your dd what would you do? If anyone can give me some ideas and a good plan I would be forever in your debt!

[melmichigan]

I would recommend doing as you mentioned in another post about making sure she is completing challenging courses. I would also look into your local CC if that is something that would interest you. There she could look at the possibility of doing some classes that would allow her to explore these topics when she reaches her junior or senior year. To get her toes wet so to speak.

Or, she could complete the classes for high school and look toward AP options in these topics. There are many AP resources available for high school classes. My DD9 has an AP wish list going. It grows with every publisher catalog that comes in the door. The possibilities are almost endless. You just need to check and see what your local high school is requiring for graduation and make sure you meet or exceed those in order to compete well for scholarships.

[Catherine]

It's homeschool2college@yahoogroups.com

I know of one list member whose son, I think, went to UT and I think is in the program that you're interested in. If I'm not mistaken, it was not by application, but by invitation.

[Cammie]

I am a laywer who doesn't much like being a lawyer - just so you know where I am coming from.

First, it is NOT at all necessary to do pre-law in college in order to go to law school. As a matter of fact MOST students in law school did not do pre-law. I would recommend using college as a time to check out a wide variety of classes and see if something else is interesting. Even if she is 100% sure about law - a degree in political science, philosophy, government, etc would be a better preparation than a pre-law degree. If she is interested in science the field of intellectual property is very hot for people with tech or science backgrounds.

Another great idea would be to try and get her an intership in a law office. The day to day life of a lawyer is NOTHING like what you see on TV - better she learn that before spending money on law school!

If she is interested in social justice work (a great and noble field) she needs to understand the economics of that. Those types of law jobs pay very poorly. If you get out of college and law school with sizable school debts to pay off - you will not be able to afford to go into social justice type work for many, many years. This is a trap a lot of law students have fallen into.

All that being said - there are a few pointers that can help. First, make sure that you limit debt as much as possible. Go to a state college, live at home, etc, etc. I was very lucky in having high SAT scores and LSAT scores. I then picked a (private) college and a (private) law school whose average SAT/LSAT scores were below my scores. Schools are always looking to move up their averages and they do that by attracting bright students. I had excellent scholarships to college and to law schools (and still managed to get quite a lot of debt!)

Finally, there are law schools that specialize in social justice/environmental law. These schools may offer programs to help pay off loans after law school for those students who enter into low paying fields. I attended an excellent small law school that happens to be the number one environmental law school in the country. They do work hard to help their students afford to go into those types of jobs.

Good luck to you and your daughter!

- Cammie

[dangermom]

You might like to look into debate clubs or clubs for public speaking.

[elizabeth]

Well, to begin with I am also a lawyer who does not like practicing law and to date have avoided doing so. Your dd sounds as if she is introspective, committed and very curious. What a perfect combination for a life long learner so I must offer kudos to her mother for a job well done!! If you are home educating at this juncture I strongly encourage you to have her read and discuss many areas in philosophy including political , legal and jurisprudential authors. Start with deToqueville, Plato , John Locke and Rousseau. Actually the founding fathers cribbed much of the US Constitution including the preamble from John Locke an English philosopher thus that is why they are not on this list. These ideas are those which serve as the philosophical underpinning of our legal system and political pradigms. If she has a familiarity with John Rawls for contemporary political philosophy she will be well on her way to understanding much of what is expected of law students in terms of reading level and depth of understanding. As a philosophy major I found law school ultimately simplistic and the reading well within my abilities which were honed through years of reading the most abstract and complex texts ever written. The business majors and their ilk did poorly and were not ready for the type of reading demanded by pursuing a law degree. If she integrates these readings into her study and loves the history of ideas, wonderful. If not another area of study might be her better option. She sounds like a very interesting person who already explores ideas, ethics , competing and conflicting interests and thus, likely to excel regardless of her eventual choice of major. College admissions counselours will find her to have many of the traits they seek in students. Best of luck in your new school year!

[SoCal Sandra]

I practiced law for 20 years before I began full time homeschooling and I loved the practice of law. It can be a very rewarding profession.

My state's bar association has a section on its website re: how to become an attorney. It is very helpful.

http://calbar.ca.gov/state/calbar/calbar_generic.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@2085238358.125 2853096@@@@&BV_EngineID=cccdadeiefghfelcfngcfkmdffidfnf.0&id=24442&cid=10581

I checked the Texas State Bar website and didn't see anything similar but that doesn't mean it isn't there. Also, it may have a publication of some kind available in hard copy. I would call the Texas State Bar and ask them if they have any information for prospective attorneys/law students. Also ask if there is an environmental law or public interest law section within the state bar that you can contact for more information. HTH. :001_smile:

[Laurel]

If she's not already doing some sort of logic, even informal, that's what I would recommend. Even just lots of logic puzzles would help. The LSAT doesn't test knowledge but reasoning skill. The section of the LSAT that is supposedly the hardest for most people is the "Logic Games" section. For someone who has experience doing logic puzzles, it's easy to get a perfect score in that section with little to no extra studying.