Guest Lawgirl79 Posted April 19, 2002 Report Share Posted April 19, 2002 Hello, I was wondering if anyone knows how admissions committees treat law degrees. Would they be treated more like grad degrees? I'm in my first year of law, and I am thinking of writing the MCAT this summer and applying. Law school is unfortunately turning out to be nothing like I had hoped--I am intereted in health care law, etc and instead have spent an entire year of my life (that I can never have back) learning about the ownership of common fences and the like. I have a BSc (3 year) and my undergrad GPA was approx 3.75. Would this even be good enough to get in anywhere? I am seeing from these boards that med school admission is crazy. That GPA got me a scholarship to law school. Anyways, I don't want to waste my time writing another standardized test if my chances are pretty slim. I have a lot of research experience--would that be important? I have worked both in clinical reseach and health policy. I have 11 publications, mostly in medical journals, 2 are Health Canada policy documents. Also, if I applied with the intent of deferring a year to finish my program, would that count against me? Much as I am not thrilled with law school, the thought of doing 2 out of the 3 years and walking away with nothing doesn't appeal to me. I would really appreciate any help anyone can offer me! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Lawboy Posted April 19, 2002 Report Share Posted April 19, 2002 Hi they will treat your law degree as an undergrad degree. So for Western they will take your best year in law school (your second degree) as the GPA to look at. UofT will look at all of your years, Queens will take the best two years of your law degree, Mac will look at the entire record, and I'm not sure about the rest. This may or may not be a problem as I have known alot of people who ended up with lower marks in law school. However you may be kicking ass in there. Just really curious, how did you get 11 publications during a 3 year Bsc. I know alot of Phd's who have never even come close to that! Just wondering if you could share your timeline and methods for obtaining such lucrative policy and research positions, ie did you start publishing in 1st yr!!!!! thanks and good luck, anymore questions feel free to ask Lawboy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest lawboy Posted April 19, 2002 Report Share Posted April 19, 2002 that 3.75 will get you plenty, PROVIDED that your law school marks are also good given what I explained in the previous post. Your background is excellent and given your amazing pubs/research work I think you will stand out. Med students are not all that amazing, trust me, they are for the most part lucky. Go to the Western website and read the bio's of the med students, nothing special there. Perhaps other schools like UofT might be a little more impressive but as you see from Western, they are just plain average with alot of luck. So in summary you have an excellent shot, and go for it if that is what you want! Good Luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Lawgirl79 Posted April 19, 2002 Report Share Posted April 19, 2002 Thanks for your help--much appreciated. My law marks aren't as good as my undergrad--I'm at McGill where the curve is under a B-. I'm somewhere in between a B and B+ right now (end of first year)--honours in my program, but I'm suspecting that this unfortunately might wreck my chances... As for the publications, when I finished high school, I had half a year off (I'm from Ontario, I did 4 1/2) and I begged a reaserach physician to take me on for free. It ended up working out really well and by first year undergrad I was paid and being given real work to do. That job then led to one with the policy group affiliated with Health Canada. I will give it a shot--Mac might take me, even if my average only works out to 3.6 or something with the law marks factored in. I also hear the marks in law go up significantly in second year, so I can always try again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Lawgirl79 Posted April 19, 2002 Report Share Posted April 19, 2002 By the way, are you a law student in/applying to med school? I'd be interested in hearing your experience. Were your law grades very high? It's a little unfair that a law degree is counted like any other undergrad degree...it's SO different. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Zack2006 Posted April 19, 2002 Report Share Posted April 19, 2002 Hey Lawgirl 179, I am in total agreement with you that treating a law degree like any undergrad degree is preposterous given the stiff competition to get into law school in terms of grades, LSAT rankings, etc.. That would be like law schools looking at a med studen's honours:p ass ratio in an application to law school - after all medicine is an undergrad degree as well. From the sounds of your post you seem to have a strong application to medical school. I am curious though, with a B.Sc and all that research you must have been interested in medicine to begin with, why did you go to law school instead (almost every B.Sc students has contemplated med school, it's almost implicit). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Lawboy Posted April 19, 2002 Report Share Posted April 19, 2002 Yeah I guess you can tell by my name, I was in law school actually finished, articled and worked for a yr. before meds. Your grades in law school (B/B+) are really good, I recall that even getting one A in law school was considered a really really big deal. I dont think you should have too many problems with a law GPA of 3.6. My marks infact did go up in second yr and more so in third yr. so I'm sure you will see an upward trend. As for me, I applied to meds initially after my Bsc but was rejected. I got accepted after law school. I think they were really impressed with my involvement with public service and poverty legal aid. They appreciated the writing/communication skills we as lawyers aquire so that should work in your favour. I remember alot of adcomms saying wow, we could use a law student in the class to help these science droids learn how to communicate, so your are at a definite advantage comparatively to the sea of boring plain jane bio applicants. My advice is to finish the law degree (whats an extra two years in 30-35 year career) and then apply, you never know alot of MD's in the US have Law degrees and practice both (ie health care / biotech patent etc) so you will be in big demand should you decide to persue health related law or health policy. If you have more questions feel free to ask. good Day Lawboy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest leather cheerio Posted April 19, 2002 Report Share Posted April 19, 2002 You seem to have everything going for you - just write down on the Mac application that you're a lesbian and you'll be virtually guaranteed a spot. Saying that you're a Communist will also help during the interview, but it's up to you. Good luck! BTW, med school sucks - don't say that nobody warned you. Listen up - pick a career that you LIKE. Just because you're good enough to hack law/medical school doesn't mean you'll enjoy it. I can't tell you how many people go into family practice not because they like it, but rather because they hate medicine so much that they can't bear the thought of spending additional time in a residency. Oh well, at least their Momma's proud, right? -Just editing your signature (I'm not a big fan of graphics in signatures). -Ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest curious Posted April 19, 2002 Report Share Posted April 19, 2002 Would I be at a disadvantage applying to law with a biology degree (3yrs)? In law school would I be restircted to science related stuff or would I be allowed/capable enough to pursue other areas of law? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Suggestion Posted April 19, 2002 Report Share Posted April 19, 2002 What's with LAW and MEDICINE?? Why does one person with great grades, who is motivated and ambitious need to pick one of these two? My suggestion is to work in a hospital, shadow some doctors, and figure out if you'll LIKE medicine - not medschool - that's just a few years in the whole scheme - and then figure out if you should apply. And does hating law school mean you'll hate being a lawyer? School usually sucks. You learn a lot of crap you don't need. Just a suggestion...... BTW... I hated my undergrad but now I love what I can do with it. And it's so true from so many things.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Passed on law Posted April 19, 2002 Report Share Posted April 19, 2002 You won't be at any disadvantage at all. And you will definetly not be restricted at all once you get in. First year is the same for everybody and then you can just pick your courses the last 2 years to work towards a certain area of the law. All law schools care about and I mean ALL they care about is your LSAT score. (as long as you don't have a 60% average) Once I sent the schools my LSAT score they were all over me trying to get me to their school (man it was sure satisfying when I got to turn them all down). Of course even then they kept phoning me wanting to know why I had decided not to come. The previous posts are just talking about that if you did have a law degree and an MD and were wanting to do some health related law then you would be in very high demand and could demand a high salary. Its the same for someone with a pharmacy degree and a law degree who goes into IP law dealing with drug companies. You are just that much more knowledgable about that certain industry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LawBoy Posted April 19, 2002 Report Share Posted April 19, 2002 Hey there, you can specialize in anything you want. Your undergrad Bio degree doesnt limit your options. After all most people in law school are liberal arts majours (english, polisci etc) and they go on to practice all kinds of law (corporate, real estate etc) Passed on law, I was just wondering why you did not go to law school and what are you doing instead? Thanks LawBoy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Lawgirl79 Posted April 20, 2002 Report Share Posted April 20, 2002 I am finding this discussion very helpful--I'm glad I found this website. To Zack2006--yes, I did think about medical school. I worked as a clinical RA for 3 years at a hospital, so naturally it crossed my mind. I chose law school because I am a hopeless idealist who thought I could make a greater contribution to health care through policy work. I was interviewing elderly people about their alternative medicine use as part of one project and the number of people dropping tons of $$ on unproven remedies made me really angry. I think that's what did it. However, I did not anticipate the bureacracy of Health Canada and the maddening injustice of the legal system. I have also noticed the reluctance of the medical community to take advice from anyone who does not possess an MD with respect to ethical and legal issues. So, I feel very limited in terms of what I will be able to do. In other words, despite some of the feedback I got here suggesting otherwise, I didn't just pick my head up in the middle of constitutional law and think, "Maybe I should be a doctor!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Passed on law Posted April 20, 2002 Report Share Posted April 20, 2002 Suprisingly enough I am actually in dental school as we speak. As to why...hmmm... It actually took a lot of debating, researching, shadowing till I decided on dentistry. Dentistry had been my goal when I entered university. However, I ended up doing a BCom versus a BSci (which is what I started in in 1st year) and during my BCom I was able to take a couple of really interesting law courses and when my friend was writing the LSAT two summers ago I just decided to write it with him and apply just to keep my options open. At that time, I really didn't know what I wanted to do but in the end I just felt that I was more suited towards dentistry than law and thats where I decided to spend the next 40 years of my life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest m Posted April 20, 2002 Report Share Posted April 20, 2002 To Lawgirl (or anyone else with some health policy wisdom): Health policy has crossed my mind as well, so perhaps you wouldn't mind sharing some of your valuable insight into this field? What sort of things did you do in your health policy job? Do you know if there are a lot of people involved in making the major decisions who have only the MD, or is it advantageous to have the LLB or other degree (eg, a background in political science, business admin, or legal studies)? Also, what sort of things might one get involved with in this field? Obviously, governmental regulation seems like an interesting area, but the realist in me keeps nagging that it could be a highly monotonous job, since you can't just sit down and make every single change you would like to make. What is the average project or duty of someone who would enter this field? I'm just afraid of pursuing this area of study and then discovering that the only real jobs out there are in hospital administration and malpractice law, neither of which I could stand. Thanks for any advice! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Kirsteen Posted April 21, 2002 Report Share Posted April 21, 2002 Hi m, There is at least one other educational route to the health policy field and that is via one of the numerous health policy programs offered by various schools. UofT has an excellent department (Dept. of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation) offering quite interesting courses in the field leading to various degrees in health administration, etc. While taking one of their health policy courses last year I was exposed to a fairly large range of individuals (tutors, classmates, panelists) working within the health care policy sector. Their roles within the sector seemed diverse: some were health care professionals with a keen interest in policy-shaping, some were policy analysts within the government and others were independent authorities on health care policy who acted as advocates by serving on boards, etc. You could try giving the department a call and sussing out a little more info as to the career prospects for health admin. graduates, and perhaps check out their course offerings in the process to see if anything catches your fancy. Cheers, Kirsteen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Lawgirl79 Posted April 21, 2002 Report Share Posted April 21, 2002 Hi m, There are a lot of ways to get into health policy: law, medicine, administration (or any combination of these). A friend of mine is starting an MPA (masters public admin) with a health policy focus at Queens next year. You should check that out, I hear it's a great program. In terms of what you can do...there are lots of opportunities, but in my experience it's a bit frustrating. You write these long reccommedations for Health Canada (or whoever) that take months, and either nothing ever comes of it, or it takes years. It can be disheartening--all of your ideas collecting dust on the shelves... I should probably warn you that a great deal of people in health policy also end up working in hospitals or pharmaceutical companies, which may not appeal to you. In terms of law related careers, you can work for a firm that has a health law practice area (check out the website of Borden Ladner Gervais--www.blgcanada.com). Firm jobs pay lots of money, but from what I can tell, you really earn it; the work is boring, there is A LOT of it, and you never get to go home. From what I've been told, the schedule of a junior associate is 8 am-8pm (or worse). The upside to the law degree is that it only takes 3 years and it opens a lot of doors. I don't like it, but that's not to say that you wouldn't. Good luck--if I can help you with anything else, just ask. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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