Is there an optimum age to go to law school?
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The typical trajectory for a lawyer’s education is a high school diploma to an undergraduate degree to a JD. With this life plan, you can be a practicing attorney by your mid-20s—which is not uncommon. About half of all law school applicants from 2011 to 2015 were between 22 and 24 years old, according to the Law School Admission Council.
But that’s not the only path to law. Some students take a gap year to gain work experience before continuing their education. Others don’t realize they want to pursue law until they’ve already spent decades in another career. And one 16-year-old, Haley Taylor Schlitz, was recently accepted at nine law schools.
This week, we’d like to ask: Do you think there’s an optimum age to go to law school? If so, why and what is the optimum age? How old were you when you knew you wanted to go to law school? Looking back, do you wish you had attended when you were younger or older?
Answer in the comments and on social media. You can answer via Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Read the answers to last week’s question: Should we eliminate daylight saving time and why?
Featured answer:
Posted by ruralcounsel: “Old Ben did come up with it, but not for farmers, it was to save candles and lamp oil … Benjamin Franklin was astonished. ‘An accidental sudden noise waked me about six in the morning,’ he wrote in a whimsical letter to the Journal de Paris, ‘when I was surprised to find my room filled with light. I imagined at first that a number of lamps had been brought into the room; but rubbing my eyes I perceived the light came in at the windows.’ The year was 1784, and the 78-year-old Franklin—statesman, author and scientist—was living in Paris while serving as the American minister to France. His attendant had forgotten to close the shutters the previous evening, and when Franklin saw the sunlight streaming through his windows, he checked his watch. It was just six o’clock in the morning.”
Do you have an idea for a future question of the week? If so, contact us.
