Nico, 28
“I always knew I was going to come to law school. When I graduated from undergrad, the legal market was in bad shape. I worked for a while and waited until it improved. I always knew I was coming, it was just a matter of when. I gave up a pretty successful career (with good earning potential and growth opportunities). I’ve also had to sacrifice a great deal of time with my husband and children.”
| Getting back into the “swing” of things… | I tried to hit the ground running, and honestly the fear of failing pushed me pretty far my first semester. I was also able to take many of the lessons that I learned from working and apply them to be successful in law school. |
| Biggest shock of coming back to school… | Losing my income haha. |
| Greatest challenges in law school… | Probably finding the balance between my school work and my home life. I tended to prioritize my home life because coming into law school I thought it might be easy to get caught in the mix. My biggest learning opportunity thus far has been determining how much time I should invest in something. I don’t want to give too little that I don’t do well, but I also don’t want to give too much and end up missing time with my family. |
| Greatest resources… | Trial and error, mainly. I’ve been able to discuss the challenge with many of my colleagues and even some of the Deans. |
| Law school and your personal life… | See above! I try to be as efficient as possible with my school work. I don’t invest more than it takes to get the grade that I want. |
| Your Story/Advice… | My pre-law school career has helped me more than I ever thought it would. I would highly recommend being patient and waiting for the right time. And I would also highly recommend prioritizing your personal life. Not many people have families, but even prioritizing friends and personal activities helps with efficiency and stress management while in school. |
First Gen JD 