graduation and after

By michaelcorleone in Columbia University - Class of 2010 on Jun 02, 2010

For those curious, fortunately, I did graduate this May. After the initial disappointments over results for the fall sem, I was able to pull up my grades and ended up graduating with honors! I am currently in the thick of bar exam preparations.

Some last few tips before I try to post less here on LLMGuide (It's rather addicting for me to post messages here on LLMGuide):

-- Jobs-wise, I'm not really sure if people were able to get the positions that they wanted. The legal market is still in crisis-mode. Various factors contribute to this. Many foreigners are now doing JDs, and firms would rather hire foreign JDs rather than foreign LLMs. There are lots of firm events, but they are really more interested in JDs and don't really have much to offer to LLMs. I tried to search, but I will mostly be doing the search after the bar exam.

-- Class-wise, I took 10 classes, which is way more than what an average LLM will do, and considering I opted out of CIAL, it's quite a bit. And there are still so many classes I want to take! In the end, the advice of my securities prof in taking classes is the best advice -- take classes that you want to specialize in, but also take classes with the big names. Don't take all of your classes in what you think is the "hot field" because you are preparing yourself for a career that will span 40-50 years. And the best lawyers are those who know a lot about a narrow field, but also know a little about many things -- so take that stray class in Human Rights just because you find it interesting.

-- It's a bit tough to be able to balance trying to save with going out with people to socialize. Socializing doesn't always have to be expensive (the best parties are those BYOB parties held in people's apartments) but people do tend to enjoy going out to bars to hang out, and that tends to get expensive. But if you're worried about finding cheap raw food, that's never an issue in New York, like raw vegetables/seafood/meat in Chinatown is even cheaper and fresher than what I have back home.

Best wishes to everyone!
Mike

Comments

Easy, Mar 08, 2011 20:59

Hi Mike, I know your post is from last year, but do you still feel that the legal market is in crisis mode? I'm getting most of my undergraduate stuff done before I apply for law school here at BYU - and trying to apply for all the scholarships I can in the meantime =) ... But a lot of friends of mine are telling me the market is saturated right now. What do you think?