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

How can I hack my way onto an elite career track?

• tl, dr: I didn't go to an elite school, and find myself boxed out of juicy opportunities in my field by those who did. How do I muscle my way back on to the elite track? I  was one of the first people in my family to go to college; I went to a  decent university that I found impressive at the time, but is notorious  for valuing inflated tuition and flashy branding over academic rigor. I  graduated with a solid but not spectacular academic record, and thanks  to a generous academic scholarship a manageable amount of debt. As a  student, my ambitions were a bit unfocused; I studied in a  'soft-science' field because of a warped perception of the opportunities  available, based on observations of the most elite outcomes; however, I  did not really understand the critical steps necessary to obtain those  comes, and did not focus my time at college appropriately; took  scattered classes that struck my fancy at the time rather than building a  niche or a focused skill-set; I did a couple of unpaid internships that  didn't lead anywhere; I didn't build the requisite connections and  credentials. My peers in this field have fallen into a few  distinct categories. Some have taken extremely low-paid jobs working as  research assistants or glorified office support in nonprofits or  lower-tier private firms. Others have gone directly into law school or a  two-year prof. program, either supported by their parents or by taking  on frankly terrifying amounts of debt (i.e. 120K in debt for a public  policy M.A. to secure a ~50K government job). A few more have fled into  the Peace Corp or backpacking or teaching English abroad in order to put  off the inevitable reckoning. I earn a livable salary (better than the ~35K a lot of my friends  have had to settle for) in a tedious job, tangentially  related to my field, in the metaphorical basement of a very large  company. There is no career track and no skill development; I have been  furiously trying to maneuver into a better job, but have had tremendous  difficulty; I can't even transfer inside my own company, since the  back-office I'm in is something of a scarlet letter for the business  side. I've been out of college for nearly two years, and although I've  done an  excellent job at my job, it's not the kind of work that impresses  anyone. I have a few side projects, but since this is non-technical  field its much harder to get them in front of anyone who matters. I  know a handful of superstars who have managed to secure the plum jobs  we were all hoping for, but these positions are almost universally taken  by elite LAC or Ivy League grads, not on the basis of any particular  merit; the top-tier degree is just the filtering-mechanism requirement  to get a foot in the door. Worse, the opportunities that lead to better  opportunities are monopolized by these people; the career path is  self-reinforcing. People who are forced to take the "lower-tier" jobs  have an extremely hard time getting a crack at the interesting  opportunities down the line; I know a lot of very intelligent, capable  people who can't even get a hearing, or can't get into a position where  they're able to demonstrate their abilities; even if they can, they have  to not only demonstrate ability on the level of an elite-school  competitor, they have to outshine them in every possible way.  My  family thinks I should be content with grinding out a low-to-mid-tier  no-name white collar position, which I could certainly do, but I'd like  to aim a little higher.  I've considered going back to school for a  technical degree, but given my limited technical background and somewhat  constrained financial situation I couldn't get anywhere near a top-tier  institution, and I'm concerned that having a mediocre credential and a much later starting date (I'd be in my late twenties) would put me in  just another variation of my current situation (barring outlier  possibilities like discovering that I've been an untapped  computer-science savant all along; I'd like to base my decisions on the  likeliest outcomes). So how can I short-circuit the feedback loop of elite credentials -> elite opportunities and get myself back in the game?

• Answer:

  Before you read my answer, know that I am entirely biased because I am from one of those "top schools". Know that I do not know what it is like to be in your position. Take everything I say with a grain of salt.You want to know how to beat people like me? I am people like me. I know where we fall short. And this is how you can beat me. The quickest way to beat out all these top school grads is to be desirable, but not in the way that they are desirable. They (meaning we, for my case) are desirable because of a fancy name on our resumes. They are desirable because they spent 4 years doing the same thing that recruiters at shmoozy jobs also did when they were in college. They are desirable because they tested well, or worked harder, or whatever it is that put a higher number on their college applications. They are especially desirable if they could do that while fighting adversity (low income, troubled family situation, etc.). You need to be desirable by having the skills that they don't have. Here's the secret: most of us will learn our skills on the job. We will not know how to do our job until our companies train us. Here are some classes I have taken that will not contribute a single thing to my career: CogSci 211 - Learning, Memory, and Representation Ling 250 - Sound Patterns of Human Language Econ 310-1 - Intermediate Microeconomics PoliSci 315 - Intro to Positive Political Theory I'm not going to work in cognitive science, linguistics, economics, or political science. Even if I were, I would need at least a Master's degree or higher to have any idea of what's going on. So, how do you beat people like me? This is why degrees like JD, MD, and PhD are so attractive to immigrants. They offer security, because having one of these means you are automatically ahead of x% (where x is some huge number) of the population. But you're not going to get a JD, MD, or PhD. I certainly hope not, in your position. I have seen more people from "non-top schools" make great livings as a developer than any other career field, barring something like oil drilling. You will automatically be better than me and x% (where x is some huge number) of the population if you know how to code. People in this field do not care about 1) the name of the school unless its a well-known tech school, 2) if you tested well in high school, or 3) what kind of time-wasting activities you spent your time on in school. You are in a unique opportunity where age and pedigree do not matter. You need to take advantage of it. If you miss it (you probably won't. I mean the demand for developers is going to be amazing for a while), you'll miss the most blatantly obvious solution for a while. You need to find a place where merit is worth more than anything else. And I don't think there's a better industry in the world for that than in software. Get your ass to a programming book and get going.