Would I Be Able To Get Into An Elite Law School?

Why is law school so hard to get into, yet the actual curriculum is set up so nobody can fail?

• Also, how would you make the system fair? My first semester of Law school was the toughest. New school, new city, new life, and best of all I'm going to law school! I spent all of my time briefing and doing class prep work, barely meeting new people, and barely having fun. I gave everything I had into these courses and received a slew of B+'s. My initial thought was, "OMG, WTF, I FAIL AT LIFE!" Then I realized that mostly everybody in my class received B's and C's. Next semester, I meet a business major and we open a home painting business together. Initially, we were the painters because we didn't have enough capital for employees. The business took away a lot of time from my studies and also from physically being in the classroom. For about two months I only went to class once a wee...  Also, how would you make the system fair? My first semester of Law school was the toughest. New school, new city, new life, and best of all I'm going to law school! I spent all of my time briefing and doing class prep work, barely meeting new people, and barely having fun. I gave everything I had into these courses and received a slew of B+'s. My initial thought was, "OMG, WTF, I FAIL AT LIFE!" Then I realized that mostly everybody in my class received B's and C's. Next semester, I meet a business major and we open a home painting business together. Initially, we were the painters because we didn't have enough capital for employees. The business took away a lot of time from my studies and also from physically being in the classroom. For about two months I only went to class once a week. Yet, when the dreaded final exam came around, I still received B's. Obviously I'm super smart and gifted right? Wrong! I'm easily one of the least intelligent people in the classroom. First semester of 2L, business starts getting off the ground and needs less of my attention. Yet, I still find myself only going to class once or twice a week. My social life starts taking off immensely and I'm having more fun than when I was an undergrad. So my social life soon starts getting attention. I would say at this point in my life, my attention was 50% on the business, 20% on my social life, and 30% on Law school. Final exams come around again and I receive B's and C's. I'm rather astonished by the fact that I'm not putting in a whole lot of effort and I'm still in the top 50% of my class. Current semester, I've probably been to class three times since the semester started. Business is booming. I've calculated that I should only be in $75,000 (including undergrad) of debt after graduating. So an extension to my question is, should law schools implement a different grading system? I do feel bad for the people in my class that go to every single class, study extremely hard, completely give up their social life, and earn the same results that I do, or even worse. Most of my classmates are in crippling debt, depressed, and even suicidal for making the choice to go to law school.     Also, how would you make the system fair? My first semester of Law school was the toughest. New school, new city, new life, and best of all I'm going to law school! I spent all of my time briefing and doing class prep work, barely meeting new people, and barely having fun. I gave everything I had into these courses and received a slew of B+'s. My initial thought was, "OMG, WTF, I FAIL AT LIFE!" Then I realized that mostly everybody in my class received B's and C's. Next semester, I meet a business major and we open a home painting business together. Initially, we were the painters because we didn't have enough capital for employees. The business took away a lot of time from my studies and also from physically being in the classroom. For about two months I only went to class once a week. Yet, when the dreaded final exam came around, I still received B's. Obviously I'm super smart and gifted right? Wrong! I'm easily one of the least intelligent people in the classroom. First semester of 2L, business starts getting off the ground and needs less of my attention. Yet, I still find myself only going to class once or twice a week. My social life starts taking off immensely and I'm having more fun than when I was an undergrad. So my social life soon starts getting attention. I would say at this point in my life, my attention was 50% on the business, 20% on my social life, and 30% on Law school. Final exams come around again and I receive B's and C's. I'm rather astonished by the fact that I'm not putting in a whole lot of effort and I'm still in the top 50% of my class. Current semester, I've probably been to class three times since the semester started. Business is booming. I've calculated that I should only be in $75,000 (including undergrad) of debt after graduating. So an extension to my question is, should law schools implement a different grading system? I do feel bad for the people in my class that go to every single class, study extremely hard, completely give up their social life, and earn the same results that I do, or even worse. Most of my classmates are in crippling debt, depressed, and even suicidal for making the choice to go to law school. Link to Questions, Topics, Blogs and People

• Answer:

  It's more than pure economics on the part of the school. Law school admits already have a degree, they're adults, they are making a conscious decision to spend a few years of their life to train to become a lawyer. Other than a few admit mistakes, everyone who is admitted is fully qualified to go through the program. There's no mileage for anybody to set up a funnel to weed a lot of people out. It sounds like you're gaming the system. To some extent that is what being a lawyer is about, so you're showing some initiative. Your grades might be real, you might be a better lawyer with 30% effort than your classmates are with 100%. But you're only shortchanging yourself. Beyond having lower grades than you could, you're also missing most of your education. Believe it or not, you can actually learn a lot in law school that would help in a career.