So I'm researching both law schools and music schools. It's infuriating that I still, after a whole degree, have no idea what to do. On the one hand I love playing piano, and I'm easily good enough now to get into a music school of my choice. Hell, I was only about 5 wait list spots from music school 5 years ago when my piano level was considerably lower than it is now. On the other hand, I love arguing, debating, philosophy, ethics, and all things of that sort. The LSAT, I believe, will be a breeze.
But then there are drawbacks to all choices. If I aim for law school, it can only be one of a few schools, Victoria not included (in all likelihood), because my B+ GPA just isn't very high. I'd probably end up in Edmonton or Manitoba or maybe Dalhausie on the east coast. Boy did I ever work hard every semester, for a few weeks during all the exam and essay due dates. But the rest of the time I just didn't hold much of an interest in regular studying and reading. It shows on my transcripts. Most of my worst grades are in easy non-philosophy classes, because I just didn't care. All my ethics classes, on the other hand, show A's and A+'s, because I had an interest in that area. I just wasn't one of those people for whom grades closer to the beginning of the alphabet were a motivation; I rested absolutely none of my sense of self-worth or intellectual acheivement on them. And now, as I look at all the law schools that won't let me in, I will pay a certain price for that attitude. Not much of a price necessarily, since, after all, if I get into an OK law school and get good grades, finding a job in Victoria won't be a problem, which was the tentative plan all along. I will have to destroy the LSAT in any case (or more accurately, best my fellow percentile group test-takers) if I want any law school to take me in, to make up for my so-so GPA.
And then there's music. I could begin again, get into UVic (or anywhere else) and take an undergraduate major in performance... pursue the dream of being a performer of concertos at symphony houses around the world. This would have serious disadvantages, the most pressing of which are that I'd be without a way to build income for at minimum another 4 years, and absolutely no assurance that I'd ever build much income with that degree, any more than I can with the one I've already got. The loftier goals usually carry more risk, as in this case the market can sustain only very few professional classical musicians (particularly pianists, who don't fit into orchestras), while it can sustain many, many more lawyers.
I don't know what to do, and I don't know even if there aren't more paths I might end up focusing on. In the mean time, I'm boning up on LSAT skills and playing regularly at a nearby piano school, and banking money every month.
But then there are drawbacks to all choices. If I aim for law school, it can only be one of a few schools, Victoria not included (in all likelihood), because my B+ GPA just isn't very high. I'd probably end up in Edmonton or Manitoba or maybe Dalhausie on the east coast. Boy did I ever work hard every semester, for a few weeks during all the exam and essay due dates. But the rest of the time I just didn't hold much of an interest in regular studying and reading. It shows on my transcripts. Most of my worst grades are in easy non-philosophy classes, because I just didn't care. All my ethics classes, on the other hand, show A's and A+'s, because I had an interest in that area. I just wasn't one of those people for whom grades closer to the beginning of the alphabet were a motivation; I rested absolutely none of my sense of self-worth or intellectual acheivement on them. And now, as I look at all the law schools that won't let me in, I will pay a certain price for that attitude. Not much of a price necessarily, since, after all, if I get into an OK law school and get good grades, finding a job in Victoria won't be a problem, which was the tentative plan all along. I will have to destroy the LSAT in any case (or more accurately, best my fellow percentile group test-takers) if I want any law school to take me in, to make up for my so-so GPA.
And then there's music. I could begin again, get into UVic (or anywhere else) and take an undergraduate major in performance... pursue the dream of being a performer of concertos at symphony houses around the world. This would have serious disadvantages, the most pressing of which are that I'd be without a way to build income for at minimum another 4 years, and absolutely no assurance that I'd ever build much income with that degree, any more than I can with the one I've already got. The loftier goals usually carry more risk, as in this case the market can sustain only very few professional classical musicians (particularly pianists, who don't fit into orchestras), while it can sustain many, many more lawyers.
I don't know what to do, and I don't know even if there aren't more paths I might end up focusing on. In the mean time, I'm boning up on LSAT skills and playing regularly at a nearby piano school, and banking money every month.
Comments
Don't rule out the good universities from what the "pre-requisites" page tells you because schools use it to discourage those that don't really want to attend enough to risk being rejected.
Clearly you've studied grammar thoroughly.
So chill out Anon #2 and take the time to actually READ what I wrote instead of making assumption after assumption and then getting yourself all worked up over things that were never said, nor implied. In closing, I find it funny that a post about law and the LSAT, a test with both logic and reading comprehension based questions, would generate a response so illogical, one that so clearly and miserably missed the point of my post entirely. Better luck next time.
And, strictly speaking, I can (and did) learn all about an institution's requirements for admission without taking note of the institution's name's precise spelling. It's not like there's a spelling test to access the admissions information.
If for example I say "Albert Einstien" (and not "Einstein") in a blog entry, should one immediately assume I know nothing of the person, or relativity, or that I am unprepared to take a physics class on the topic? I mention this example because, after recently enjoying a phone book of a biography on the men's life and works, I /still/ periodically have to stop and search my mind amid second-quessing for the correct spelling of his name. I have no idea why, it's just a quirk of my brain; any assumption one makes on that basis about how well I ingested the book or how well I know relativity is using a complete non-sequiter, in my view.
The word font.
The general layout (I couldn't re-create it)
The bulleting style.
The webpage header colours.
The header photo (I don't even remember whether there was one)
Whether there was a specific name for the law faculty (sometimes there is).
Whether Dalhousie grants an LLB or a JD to graduates.
And (until the obnoxious comment) whether the university's name was spelled with an A or an O.
And so on. I do, however, know and have written down what the GPA and LSAT averages are for admissions, as well as other related information, which were the only things I cared to discover at the time from the 10-or-so school websites I visited in my most preliminary research. Convict me of whatever intellectual crime you feel is appropriate.
I assume you were trying to be funny, as usual (cough cough), when you wrote a run-on sentence about "grammar and spell check[ing]" your posts. Yes, "Please feel free to grammar and spell check it, you seem to like doing that" is yet another run-on sentence. :) Oh, and I can't help but also notice that you used the word "it's" when you should have used the word "its" when you wrote, "If you research a university for more than 30 seconds you can easily learn how to spell it's name," and again when you wrote "...the fact that he doesn't even know it's name..."
What is funny, actually, is that posts about (for whatever reason) misspelling the name of a university have so many basic, basic spelling and grammatical errors in them, including the misspelling of a word that is meant to refer to the university itself.
I'm not "grammar and spell checking" you. Anyone who can write properly can (and likely does) spot such glaring errors. I suggest, in the nicest possible way, that you check your spelling and grammar a little more carefully before you sarcastically criticize others'.