quit law school

I typed “I’m in law school, but I’m not quite sure what I want to do anymore” into Google and I stumbled upon this site.
Accident? I think not.
I’m in my first year of law school in England (1st semester). I’ve left my family, friends and everyone I know back in Asia. I thought coming to England would be easy peasy, it’s similar to my home country of Sweden where I was born, and I miss living in Europe. (I’ve been in Asia for the past 9 years.)
So coming to England to study law should be easy.
I came with my mom, she left for 10 days and I felt depressed. I had new found friends from the university but I felt alone, sad and ultimately depressed. Then my boyfriend came from the States. He stayed with me for 2 months. (While my dad and mom were there too.) I was blissfully perfect. I was in Oxford, England. Studying law. Parents would kill to have me as a child…
Then my parents left, it got a bit tougher. Then my boyfriend left.
I can’t even remember why I came to England to begin with. If I wanted to go to a place like my home country, I should have just gone there instead.
Oxford is nothing like people make it out to be. It’s not glamorous or exciting in anyway. There’s barely anything to do, and what students do is drink Mon-Fri. I’m not a drinking/partying type of person so Oxford is pure hell for me.
After everyone I cared about left Oxford, I am now feeling depressed. I think everyone I cared about was covering up how much I despise Oxford.
Now I’m questioning why I’m even studying law. I think I came here because of the glorification law students get here. The oohs and aas you get when you say you’re studying law in England.
It’s nothing like I imagined it. I always thought being a lawyer was my dream, now I’m not even sure it was my dream. I think my dad made me have it, by discouraging me that I couldn’t do it. So rather than thinking “I don’t want to do it…” I thought “I’ll show him!” And as a result, I think I ended up doing something I don’t actually want to do.
What I really want to do is be a teacher. I want to teach kids.
At least that’s what I think I want to do. I have to figure out what I want to do now, because my dad has already personally paid for this entire year. Which there are 5 months left of.
Now I just have to figure out if being a lawyer is really what I want. Maybe I have to study law somewhere else, like Sweden where I’m from in order to enjoy it. Because studying it in Oxford, sure is not enjoyable.
I hate going to classes. I hate writing legal essays. The only class I don’t hate is because the professor jokes a lot and isn’t serious. I hate all the other subjects and find them boring. Certain times I’ll think something is interesting, but I can always google that or find it on some law facts website.

I started law school at a top tier school and took out an insane amount of loans out to cover my first year. My grades were great. I got into a very competitive internship and everything looked great….from the outside. But I hated it. It wasn’t the classes, though some of them were boring. It was the environment. The constant pressure to compete and win. It’s a Type A personality environment on steroids. So I quit and moved back home. But the pressure from family and reality (student loan payments) sunk in so I went back. Now, I’m at a much lower ranked school with one more year to complete and I want to quit again. I dread going to class. I was happy when I got the flu because then I could miss an entire week of class. It doesn’t seem worth it but with only one more year left, it’s hard to leave again with the same student loan payments lurking in the horizon.

I have only been in law school five weeks. I went on the urge of my parents and thought being a “lawyer” would be a good job. Well, after driving my fiance insane b/c I was so miserable I applied to go get my masters about two weeks ago. It is funny though b/c before this experience I never doubted that I would be successful and happy. Now, I am filled with fear of not being successful. The only change was law school. It has created this inherent fear, and telling my parents Im not going to keep going wont be easy. Part of the topics interest me, sure, and occasionally I think “I can do this.” But at the end of the day, I cry everytime I have to go to school, I cry when I get home from school and cry when I go to bed. I am going to withdraw and figure out what is right for me. And if I decide to go back it will be because I decided I wanted it, not because my parents said I should or because I didnt think I had any other choices. I can always go back, but I can never get back the time wasted.

And to qualify, We have done three assignments thus far and I have gotten really good reviews on them. I know i CAN do it, and do it WELL…I just dont have the heart for it. The hardest part is that I feel like I wasted time waiting around to go to school when I could have been getting my masters and furthuring my career and finding something I truly loved. Time to pick up the pieces and move on…law school is not for me. I just cant justify over a 100k in debt for a T4 when I am not sure I even like doing it…

The weight of this decision is more tremendous than I ever thought. I’m horrified of so much; letting my family and friends down, striking out, feeling like a failure. But I cannot do this anymore. I’ve worked harder than at any other time of my life and I know I could finish (though certainly not at the top of the class), but I will get more for this hard work elsewhere. There’s another place for me and I can’t wait to feel like I can breathe again.

i just started my second semester of law school. my boyfriend broke up with me last night because the stress and time commitment has taken its toll on our relationship. i know there are going to be people on here who think that quitting for a relationship is stupid. generally, i would say the same. but this is my thinking: if i quit law school (which has taken its toll on my life otherwise and on my general health), i will wonder about it but possibly be able to go back at some point. if i stay in school and don’t give this relationship every chance that i can, i will wonder about it forever but have no way to go back and try it again.

I do not think I ever slowed down to really think about life in law school. I knew I was capable and I enjoyed it. I just assumed go through law school, always have something to fall back on. In my mind knowing I always wanted to be in business. Considering it now everyday I get in my car, I cry. I do not know why I am so unhappy there. I am not scared of completing law school, my grades are good. I know I can. I just do not know if I want to. I am not worried about my parents, or about being successful in my future. I am just worried that I am not making a good choice.

Two months into law school, and after five years of trying, I became pregnant. I completed my first year of law school in what I can only describe as complete mental torture, emotional anguish, and hormonal psychosis.

After taking some time to think about new priorities, and spending two years working in a law firm, I realized that wanting to practice law is a ridiculous notion if I want to be any kind of decent quality parent to my precious little one.

Now that my fellow students have graduated, passed the bar, I am over the shame I felt in getting such silly grades my first semester, and feel the weight has finally lifted. There IS LIFE after law school. I will instead keep gainful employment and finish my MBA without the tremendous financial burden my friends carry, and I am making at least 40K more a year than they are.

Its all good.

thank god now i can move on and take control of my life again

I just turned in my withdrawl paperwork today and it felt great. There are a few friends I will miss, but on the whole lawschool was not the place for me. I knew from the beginning that it was the wrong decision, but I thought if I could get through it there would be some higher paying job waiting for me. Truth be told, without job experience those higher paying jobs are still out of reach even with some sort of an advanced degree. If you don’t want to be a lawyer, don’t go to law school. If you are in law school and hate AND don’t want to be a lawyer, get out. If you are in law school, hate it, but do want to be a lawyer, hang in there, it does get better. Be sure to get involved in as many activities as possible and get as much experience as you can cram into those three years.

I am half-way through the first semester of my second year of law school. I have a C average from my first year and did not do well enough to write-onto law review, which was devastating because the class that I did do exceptionally well in was the legal writing class. I admittedly went to law school for the wrong reason, my dad kept bugging me to go to grad school for six years. I caved and applied, thinking my low LSATs and boring essay would keep me from getting in anywhere. But, I got into a third teired school, left my boyfriend, and house to live in a crappy apartment isolated from what few friends I have managed to make in law school. I really hate it. I hated it the moment I started, even though some of the concepts and ideas are things I am passionate about. I like debating, writing, researching, and learning, but I don’t want to be a lawyer. I don’t want my soul to be sucked by a firm, I don’t want to be a litigator constantly anxious over court appearances, and I don’t want to bore myself to death with transactional law. I just don’t want to do it. But I am now stuck. If I finish this trimester, I will be half way through and to quit seems like a waste. On the other hand, to stay seems like a waste too. My father will probably disown me along with my grandmother if I quit (although I havn’t talked to them about it) and my mom told me straight up that if I quit she will “no longer support me”. If this ment no financial support I coul handle it, but if it means she will no longer love me, then how can I choose to disappoint her that much? She wants to help me be more comfortable out here and suggests I should take time off. What sense does that make? Isn’t that just putting it off indefinitly instead of just either pushing towards the end or just cutting it off right here right now? Any advice is appreciated. Sorry this is so long, I am an emotional basketcase at the moment.