Another reason why law school sucks

You know what I hate maybe MOST about law school? The way that it's about collecting credentials rather than experiences. I mean, the experiences are important, too. But sometimes it feels like the things you're supposed to do to have a "good" resume are necessary to do so you can check them off a list, so you can accumulate them on your resume, not for what you actually get out of the experience. 

Law review is a good example of this. Myself, I'm a huge geek, a research and writing nerd, who has actually published academic stuff before. So you can get that I value (and enjoy) law review for its own sake (and yes, I do enjoy a lot of the stuff I do for law review). I think most if not all of our board members feel the same way. But I know there are staff members doing law review not because they could give a rat's ass about research or writing or scholarship or publishing, but because law review is one of those things that you're supposed to do to make yourself look good.

And you know, I can't at all blame those people. I'm not trying to knock that attitude about law review, because it's completely rational (even though it entails spending a lot of time on stuff you probably hate, which isn't really that rational when you think about it). I just use this attitude as an example of how what you do in law school feels like it's about collecting the right experiences in order to get even more experiences; everything is presented as a trophy to compete for so that once you have it, it can be used to go on and win more trophies. (Admittedly, some of this is just my nature, not just law school, but law school brings it out in me in a huge way.) 

This bugs the crap out of me, because it makes everything about what it can get you at some point in the future. So you end up living for that mythical future, when you will have done enough stuff and collected enough accolades to be able to achieve whatever job/step/pinnacle you're trying to achieve. And even then, you probably won't know what to do with yourself because you're so trained to work towards some future goal rather than actually enjoy the experience you're having at the time you're having it.

(Of course I'm also in the midst of some annoying applications that will probably drag out through fall semester and possibly beyond, so I may not be very impartial about this right now.) 

Comments

[Notorious Ph.D.]

NK, your penultimate paragraph sums up my musings on my whole freakin' life right now. Law review is a nice metaphor (even though it's also real).

[idwsj]

It's even better when you're trying to build up credentials for no apparent reason other than to build up credentials.

[Historiann]

Interesting post--like Notorious, I wonder how much Law Review is a metaphor for all of life. Why do we do stuff? Is it for the notches on the belt, the toy surprise inside the cereal box, the sticker saying "Great Job!", or is it because we like or love or believe in something? This is a profound question.

It does make one wonder when your checklist-consulting law school classmates will settle down and just do something for the love of it. When will the accumulated experiences be enough? Where does it end? I certainly don't know the answer to these questions.

I realized a few years ago that rooting for the academic year to be over quickly so that summer could come again was rooting for my life to speed by. And that's not something I want to happen, actually, even if I have to await the summer in its own time.

[Jansen]

Totally quoting this to 1Ls during orientation. Saved! Very well writen, as always.

[joy]

If the applications you refer to are for clerkships, I would LOVE a post on your thoughts about non-traditional law students pursuing clerkships.

[butterflyfish]

Nontrads are looked at pretty favorably for clerkships in my state anyway.

[WW]

"This bugs the crap out of me, because it makes everything about what it can get you at some point in the future. So you end up living for that mythical future, when you will have done enough stuff and collected enough accolades to be able to achieve whatever job/step/pinnacle you're trying to achieve. And even then, you probably won't know what to do with yourself because you're so trained to work towards some future goal rather than actually enjoy the experience you're having at the time you're having it."

Yes, yes and YES :-(