President Theodore Roosevelt left Columbia Law School after a year to run for the New York state legislature. Novelist Harper Lee left the University of Alabama School of Law with only one semester to go, to focus on writing. Comedian Demetri Martin left New York University School of Law after two years, once he had found his passion for stand-up comedy.
They all landed on their feet. But the thousands of other law students who drop out each year likely feel more regretful, even if they find new and gratifying pursuits.
Before investing time, money and energy into law school, think about the following reasons why many law students drop out and how you can avoid making a costly misstep.
— Overconfidence
— Unanticipated hardship
— Unmet expectations
— Being pushed out
— Wrong fit
Overconfidence
Aspiring lawyers tend to be ambitious and competitive. They often fall prey to optimism bias, the common tendency to exaggerate one’s own capabilities and dismiss potential risks.
Too many students enter law school assuming they will easily rise to the top of their class and have their pick of opportunities. They may be in for a rude awakening. Performing well in law school is harder and less foreseeable than in college.
[READ: How to Survive and Thrive First Year of Law School.]
To avoid such sour grapes, enter law school with realistic expectations. Spend the summer beforehand preparing to hit the ground running. Find a niche — an activity or discipline or social group — that boosts your confidence.
If your early grades in law school are disappointing, try to see it as a learning opportunity rather than a personal judgment. However, there is less time to turn things around, now that law firm recruitment often starts in the first year.
Unanticipated Hardship
Unfortunately, optimism bias extends to risks, as well. Too many people enter law school with unrealistic hopes for how they can juggle costs or other time commitments like jobs or parenting responsibilities.
Part-time students often imagine they can squeeze in studying during nights and weekends. Students with financial hardships fail to budget realistically. Other students may fail to foresee the impact of law school on their health and personal relationships.
Before law school starts, game out potential risks and contingencies and make plans to mitigate them. Anticipate what may get in the way of completing your law degree and how to manage those challenges without quitting.
[Read: Questions to Ask Before Heading to Law School]
Unmet Expectations
The study and practice of law can be dry and dull compared to its media portrayal in legal dramas. Many law students face gut checks about their path as they slog through dense, centuries-old judicial decisions.
[Read: Questions to Ask Before Heading to Law School]
Before giving up, taking a clear-eyed view of alternate paths. Most careers have a hard learning curve, and the grass is rarely as green as it seems. Furthermore, a J.D. can be valuable even if you don’t intend to practice law.
Use your time in law school to explore resources, talk to professors and do volunteer work before coming to any fixed conclusions about what lawyers do. Many have found careers that balance their values and priorities in unexpected ways.
Being Pushed Out
Sadly, some law schools profit from having more students matriculate than graduate. This is one reason why low-ranked and unaccredited law schools tend to have high dropout rates. They take students who are unprepared and uninformed and set them up to fail, sometimes with unfair and deceptive grading practices.
While predatory scholarship practices have declined in recent years, carefully review a schools’ public disclosures about its grading curve and scholarship retention rates before accepting a conditional scholarship if you can’t afford law school without it.
[Read: 7 Things I Wish I Knew When I Applied to Law School]
Wrong Fit
Finally, many law students leave because they feel out of place. They look around at their classmates and see natural lawyers, while they feel like frauds. Perhaps they feel self-doubt or impostor syndrome, or they just feel out of step with their peers.
Such doubts are unavoidable, but you can prepare for them. Law school is designed to make you feel uncomfortable. While some professors are better educators than others, it’s not easy to take on a whole new mindset, from the Socratic method used in first-year lectures to the precision of legal writing.
If it hurts your brain or your ego, commiserate with your classmates, take a break from campus or find an engrossing activity unrelated to law. Take a long view and be mindful of your longer-term goals.
But before giving up, remember that every lawyer once felt like a misfit and sometimes still does.
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5 Common Reasons Students Leave Law School originally appeared on usnews.com
