2024 the best law schools in the us review

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Each year, over 40,000 new students enter America's law schools. Each new crop experiences startlingly high rates of depression, anxiety, fatigue, and dissatisfaction. Kathryne M. Young was one of those disgruntled law students. After finishing law school (and a PhD), she set out to learn more about the law school experience and how to improve it for future students. Young conducted one of the most ambitious studies of law students ever undertaken, charting the experiences of over 1000 law students from over 100 different law schools, along with hundreds of alumni, dropouts, law professors, and more. How to Be Sort of Happy in Law School is smart, compelling, and highly readable. Combining her own observations and experiences with the results of her study and the latest sociological research on law schools, Young offers a very different take from previous books about law school survival. Instead of assuming her readers should all aspire to law-review-and-big-firm notions of success, Young teaches students how to approach law school on their own terms: how to tune out the drumbeat of oppressive expectations and conventional wisdom to create a new breed of law school experience altogether. Young provides readers with practical tools for finding focus, happiness, and a sense of purpose while facing the seemingly endless onslaught of problems law school presents daily. This book is an indispensable companion for today's law students, prospective law students, and anyone who cares about making law students' lives better. Bursting with warmth, realism, and a touch of firebrand wit, How to Be Sort of Happy in Law School equips law students with much-needed wisdom for thriving during those three crucial years.

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Stanford University Press; 1st edition (August 7, 2018)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 312 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0804799768
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0804799768
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 15.2 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.78 x 9 inches
Reviewer: Chris Fan
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: I so wish that I'd had this book in law school!
Review: I read this book this past weekend and found myself constantly nodding and saying "Yes!" out loud. There were just so many points in reading the stories and anecdotes that so completely resonated with my own law school experience (which was, unfortunately, felt largely miserable and lonely). I wonder how things might have been different, at least for me emotionally and mentally, if I'd had this book with me as a companion during those three years. Certainly, I would have known in many respects, the experiences of alienation and self-doubt that I was having were much more universal, and I know that even that would have been a great comfort.I've already gifted this book to two friends of mine -- one is in her first year of law school, and one is about to start in the fall. The friend who is in her first year has already professed how helpful the book has been in helping to allay so much of the anxiety that crops up during her first semester. I'm so thankful to Professor Young for putting this book out there, and it makes me happy to know that in giving her book to others, I am hopefully helping them find a better way to muddle their way through the experience that is law school, than I had myself.

Reviewer: Lucille Ste-Marie
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: The World Needs More Books Like This
Review: This truly is a must read for prospective and current law students, their family and friends, and anyone else considering or actively pursuing higher education. Unlike most resources aimed at prospective students, Young doesn't dance around troubling statistics (lack of diversity, prevalence of mental health struggles and financial debt). Instead, through qualitative research and an extremely personable voice, she presents a more realistic look into the world of law.Beyond its honesty and informational value though, this book is amazing for the soul. In each chapter, there are thought experiments and tangible solutions that allow readers a deeper understanding of themselves and a sense of control.This book is eye-opening and particularly ahead of its time in the way it shines light on often stigmatized topics in institutional environments (and most high stress environments for that matter). Still, one can't help but feel more assured of their purpose, empowered in deciding to take action, and less alone in their fears after reading.

Reviewer: Amazon Customer
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Love this book
Review: Eased my anxiety before going into my 1L year!

Reviewer: Kayla Wingert
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: This is a must-read for any law student, especially 1Ls and prospective 1Ls
Review: As a current second year law student who read this book as a 1L, I can say, without reservation, that this book made all the difference for me. It's full of wisdom, humor, and important reminders of things you may already know but can easily lose sight of while immersed in the law school environment. Unlike the typical how to navigate law school book, this book is written not only for the law student who seeks to accumulate all the well-known badges of prestige, but also the law student who is LGBTQ, racially diverse, interested in pursuing public interest law, or struggling to stay connected to the values that brought them to law school in the first place. In addition to being a quick and enjoyable read, it is deeply affirming, tailored to the individual experience, and overflowing with pragmatism and concrete advice that you can employ immediately to make the law school experience more pleasant. I would recommend it wholeheartedly and enthusiastically to anyone attending or thinking of attending law school.

Reviewer: Lisa C.
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Gave as a gift
Review: Gave this book to my son who really enjoyed reading it.

Reviewer: Samantha Rodriguez
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: A great guide book for anyone who is around a law student or is one:
Review: This book is an honest guide on what to expect while in law school. I HIGHLY recommend this book not only to law students but to everyone [kids, parents, friends, etc] who plans to spend time around them. It's honest and direct, there's no sugarcoating a difficult journey in law school. I sent my friends each a book so they could try and understand what my journey will be like, and how they could best support me on this next chapter of my life.

Reviewer: Malik
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Considering Law School? Give this a read.
Review: Though the book primarily speaks to current and relatively entrenched Law School students, it aptly captures all those aspects of your life that will be impacted by the choice to attend Law School. There are also plenty of lifestyle tips that are valuable whether or not you plan to have a career in the legal profession.

Reviewer: Chris Smith
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Must read for law students and educators
Review: I am a university professor and many of my students want to go to law school. I now recommend this book to all of them. But I also recommend this book more broadly. This is not your typical back to school book for L1 students. How to Be Sort of Happy is a rigorously researched, sociologically oriented, and well-written book that should be read by educators and education scholars as well as current and potential law students, practicing lawyers, and people who left law school. I learned a lot about legal education and the ways in which inequality is playing out in law students' lives. Professor Young is an award winning educator and sociologist. But it is her humor in this book and expertise in the field of legal education that make this book such a joy to read.

Reviewer: A. Letourneau
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: I had to buy this book when I read the title on Amazon.ca. It was most intriguing. As the author of So, You Want to be a Lawyer, Eh? Law School in Canada, Third Edition, I was very interested in what Ms. Kathryne M. Young, Ph.D., JD meant by "Sort of". I have spoken to many, many law students, former law students and lawyers or former lawyers who have shared numerous stories of how great law school is or was, or how terrible it is or was. Ms. Young has collected a wide range of similar stories in her academic work (especially about difficult or poor experiences), and she has shared many of those comments in this book. This was most engaging to read, especially in that many of the shared anonymous comments were from a large cross-section of law students across the US from a variety of law schools. This lends great credibility to her very entertaining commentary about the law school experience.At first, I was skeptical of Ms. Young, when reading the beginning of this book when she shared that she had quite despised many aspects of law school. I actually enjoyed many aspects of law school at the University of Alberta in Canada, but as I continued to read this book, I smiled often as I remembered various experiences and possibly even traumas throughout my law school experience and as I started in my legal career.My favourite parts of this very well written, introspective, and quite complete commentary about the law school experience was Ms. Young's personal commentary about law school professors (especially the crappy ones) and her individual thoughts about how the law school experience and law school pedagogy could be improved upon. As an instructor of law-related courses at the Dhillon School of Business, I am always looking for more effective ways to teach university students about the law. Ms. Young, although not a law school professor, has many good ideas here that she is willing to share. I do hope that some, or rather many, law school professors read this book and take note of the student commentary and Ms. Young's thoughtful suggestions for improvement.This could have been a depressing read, with many of the student comments being quite negative or even shocking. However, Ms. Young has provided many resources and suggestions for getting through the more obviously difficult experience of law school, and to find potential success in the legal field. She does not sugar coat law school at all. It is obvious that Ms. Young has more to say about how we could improve law schools. However, she comes across as being optimistic in the end.The sociological approach and commentary are a welcome addition to the law school guidebook libary, and I hope that many of my readers will consider this entertaining and enlightening book as they approach law school or as they navigate their way in or out of law school.I think that many of my law school and legal colleagues might have benefited from reading this book and possibly leaving law school or the legal profession before it became a true chore to them. Many people enter law school with naive ideologies and are afraid to pursue a different path that might be more agreeable to their personalities. It is well worth considering the commentary in this book as you contemplate your career choices.As I said, I really quite liked law school, and many people have shared that sentiment with me. However, it is important to look at law school from many perspectives before plunging in.In the end, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would recommend it to any prospective or current law student, or to all law school professors or law school administrators.Adam Letourneau, QC, JD, LLM

Reviewer: C
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Bought this for my fiance before he started law school and we read it together. This really helped prepare us both for what to expect, and it has been helpful for me to understand what being in law school is like. Highly recommend.