As an incoming law student, you’re probably wondering exactly what this experience is going to be like. That’s normal! Read on for advice on getting prepared for law school (mentally and practically) and some first-hand stories from law school orientation and from the first weeks of school.
We’ve also got useful stuff on the people you’ll meet in law school (hint, some of your classmates may be a little odd!) and advice for taking care of yourself and for the friends and family members of new law students. Remember, it’s a team effort.
If you’re very concerned about being ready to go when classes start, check out our flagship Start Law School Right course for help.
Best of luck!
Getting Mentally and Practically Prepared for Law School
- Forget What You Think You Know About Law School What misconceptions did you have before starting law school? Here is what law school is really like.
- Leveling the Playing Field: Using Resources and Seeking Accommodations in Law School Students come to law school with strengths from past studies, jobs, and life experiences, yet many find that law school is a struggle. There are many tools and strategies to help you succeed; one of these strategies is to address learning disabilities proactively.
- Read to Succeed: Learn the Language of the Law Learning the language of the law is critical to success in law school. Here are some websites with quality legal reading that will help you immerse yourself in the language of the law and develop your legal mind.
- How to Survive a Move to a New City to Attend Law School Are you moving to a new city for law school? These tips may help!
- Scholarships for Law School: Where and How to Get Them Struggling with how to pay for law school without racking up massive amounts of debt? Believe it or not, there are scholarships and grants that exist for law students, and here are some ways to find and access them!
- The Best Bags for All Legal Occasions If there is one guarantee when it comes to a legal career, it’s that things will need to be carried. Here are some suggestions for the best bags for all legal occasions!
- Shopping List for First Year Law Students: What You Need and What You Don't Need Now that you are a first-year law student, many companies will be rushing to sell you all types of aids to make your first year of law school easier. Read more if you want help figuring out which are crucial, and which are unnecessary!
- Things I Wish I Had Known Before Starting Law School Before starting law school, this student had no idea what she was getting herself into with the decision. Law school is completely different than anything you've done before, so don't miss these tips that this lawyer wishes she had been given before she started.
- What I Wish I Knew Before Going to Law School Everyone heads into law school with an arsenal of unique skills. Here, several lawyers detail what skills and knowledge they wish they'd had before attending law school.
- Ahead of the Curve: A Guide to Essential Law School Supplies This post is a guide to the best tech today and some recommended supplies for starting law school right! Read on for our advice on how to get the right gear at the right price.
- The Shock of Being Back in School You may have read our reflections on my 1L orientation, but we also want to share a list of some of the “culture shock” you will experience in law school. Spoiler alert: law school is not how you imagine it to be.
- The Only Way Around is Through As you gear up to start your 1L year, you’ll hear about lots of things that sound like they might be “the magic bullet.” But we’ve got some bad news for you. The only way around is through.
- Ahead of the Curve: How to Save Money When Starting Law School No matter where you go to law school, it can be expensive! If you're in the majority of students who don't work during their 1L year, you might benefit from these cost-saving tips!
- What Are Your First Semester Law School Goals? Setting goals for law school can help you stay focused, make smart decisions on how to use your time, and also give you a benchmark for progress. Here are some suggested goals to get you started.
- All the Supplies You Need to Start Law School Right Are you starting law school this fall? Congratulations! To make sure you start law school ready for success, we recommend having your supplies and technology ready to go before attending class. We put together a shopping guide to help you start law school right.
- Buying the Bluebook: Spiral-Bound or Online? The Bluebook is something that every 1L will have to buy. Trying to decide whether to get it in print or online? Here are some factors to consider.
- Your Frequently Asked Questions When Starting Law School, Answered Getting ready to start law school and wondering what to expect? This post will answer some of the basic questions that most 1Ls have.
- Everything You Need to Know About Law School - Law School Terminology While the beginning of your law school career can be confusing, your transition can be made easier by becoming comfortable with legal terminology. Here are some basic terms that should help you navigate the application process and the start of law school.
- Why is Law School Hard? It may be a funny question to ask, but it's actually a valid question. Is law school really that hard? And, if so, why? Read our thoughts here.
- Podcast Episode 104: Law School Essentials - What to Buy (And Not to Buy) Beforehand Are you gearing up to start law school? Listen for a discussion of law school must-haves, as well as some ways to save time and money as you plan your shopping.
- Podcast Episode 113: Life as a First-Generation College and Law Student (With Shirlene Armstrong) If you're considering law school, but would be the first in your family to do so, this podcast is for you! Shirlene Armstrong is talking about her experience, including some of the particular challenges she encountered as a first-generation law student.
Law School Orientation
- What to Expect at Orientation -- A Guide for Incoming Law Students Like almost everything else in law school, law school orientation is a somewhat unique experience. Here are some things you should be prepared for!
- Reflections On My 1L Orientation It's your first impression of your new surroundings, the start of a difficult but rewarding journey, and when you meet your new classmates: 1L orientation. Read what Lee experienced during her orientation -- good and bad.
- Suggestions for Surviving/Optimizing Law School Orientation Orientation is an important part of the starting law school process. In this article, the Law School Toolbox experts share with you some suggestions for surviving and optimizing law school orientation.
Surviving the First Weeks of Law School
- 5 Strategies for Surviving Your First Week of Law School Are you starting law school this fall? Use these strategies to survive (and thrive) your first week.
- Making the Jump From College to Law School: Study Strategies There are many differences between college and law school. But, if law school is so different from college, how exactly are you supposed to study? Well, you don’t have to completely abandon all of your undergrad study strategies. Instead, you need to adapt your current methods to law school’s demands while also developing a few new skills along the way.
- How to Start Law School Right Your performance in your first semester of law school will be due to many factors that are completely out of your control. So, how do you combat these steep odds? Well, you’re just going to have to do everything you can to stack the deck in your favor in every area you can control. That way, you can start law school right from day one! Here’s how.
- A Student's Perspective: My First Semester of Law School Shirlene is back to share more about her 1L law school experience. In her previous posts, she shared about her first week of law school, law school orientation, and dealing with death and hardships as a law student. Today she is reflecting on her first semester.
- Ahead of the Curve: Your First Month of Law: What to Do Week by Week Let's face it. The first month of law school is hard, and that's not even taking the subject matter into consideration. Here's a week-by-week guide to what you should be doing in your first month of law school.
- A Student's Perspective on the First Week of Law School I was not exactly sure what to expect from my first week of law school. I am a very prepared and detail-orientated person, so when I had my first day for undergraduate, I felt ready for what was about to come. Law school was a little bit different, however. I almost felt like I was lacking information and was unable to locate resources. However, I knew I needed to stay confident and work hard in order to be successful. This philosophy is what got me through orientation.
- Starting Off on the Right Foot: Survival Tips for the First Few Weeks There’s a lot of advice out there about your 1L year and how to succeed on your exams, but you have to walk before you can run, so let’s talk about getting through the first weeks of the brave new world of law school.
- Lessons After the First Month of Law School The first month of law school comes with a LOT of adjustments and worries. Here are some tips that might make your first month that little bit smoother.
The People You'll Meet in Law School
- Non-Traditional Law Students: Exploit Your Strengths, Meet Your Challenges Don't fit the average description of a college grad or twenty-something law student? You still bring unique strengths and challenges to law school, and here are some tips on how to make the most of it.
- Finding Your Community at Your New Law School To help ease the adjustment to your new routine and your new locale, it’s important to invest some time into finding a community at your school. Here are some suggestions that may help you find yours!
- No. The Gunner to Your Left Doesn't Know What He's Doing Either. Ignore him. Many students struggle with the first year of law school. Even those who you think know it all.
- How to Be the Star of Your Study Group Study groups are wonderful for some students and detrimental for others. Here are some ways that you help your study group be as effective as possible - and help you stand out!
- Office Hours - Should You Go? Here is a breakdown of why office hours are so helpful and how you should utilize them.
- The People You Will Meet In Law School Even if you’re the kind of person who can see the good in almost everyone, law school might throw you for a loop. You will probably run into personalities you’ve never encountered before, and they can be surprising, and challenging to deal with.
- Podcast Episode 107: How to Build Positive Relationships in Law School Today we’re talking about building relationships in law school with everyone from professors to classmates and potential employers. Of course grades are important, but building relationships can not only make your law school experience more pleasant, it can open doors of opportunity in the future.
Advice for Families and Friends of New Law Students
- 1L Advice for Passengers Along the Way Great advice to give to your friends and family who are also along for the law school ride.
- Parenting in Law School: Surviving Your 1L Year While Raising a Family Law school is challenging especially if you have a family. Here are some tips on surviving your 1L year with kids in tow.
- For Parents: Helping your Law Student Get Off to the Right Start Law school, more often than not, is a life-altering experience. This is true not only for the student but also the loved ones around them, especially their parents. While I think my parents are incredibly supportive, here’s a list I still wish I could have given them when I started law school.
- How to Support the Law Student in Your Life Law school can be a challenge for the people who are actually in law school, but it’s easy to overlook the toll that being in law school can have on one’s parents, siblings, partner, best friend, or children. Here are some tips for how to understand and support the law student in your life.
- How Helicopter Parenting is Hurting Law Students An interesting read on how overprotective parents are really hurting law students.
- Podcast Episode 109: Life as a Woman Entrepreneur With Meg Keene of A Practical Wedding In this podcast we talk about the path to entrepreneurship, challenges of running a business as a woman and mother, not to mention the challenges faced by the partner of a law student/lawyer! Tune in to hear more from Meg Keene.
Self-Care in Law School
- The Care and Upkeep of Your Inner Law School Child Sometimes the resemblance between kids and law students can be scary.
- How to Handle Stress in Law School While stress is inevitable in law school, how you handle it can make all the difference. Read this for eight ways to manage your stress.
- How To Turn Off the Lawyer Brain Whether you’ve just started law school or you have been there for a while, you probably suffer from ‘lawyer brain’. What does this mean and is it a good thing?
- This is Your Brain on Stress Are you paying attention to your studies and neglecting yourself? Making your mental and physical health a priority can be a brain-saver!
- Podcast Episode 110: Revisiting Mindset Our very first podcast was on mindset, specifically discussing fixed mindset vs. growth mindset. New information seems to suggest that focusing too much on grit and mindset might actually be harmful for learning. So, what’s the deal??
- Podcast Episode 115: Tips for Settling into Law School Settling back into law school after your first month can be difficult, even if you're a 2L or a 3L. In this podcast we talk about making sure that you're making proper adjustments and taking good care of yourself through this stressful time.