I'm thrilled I still have two more years of law school. After the mental boot camp that was 1L year, I was exhausted and frustrated, but relieved that I still had two more years before graduation.

What happened? The economy royally tanked. I may not have been one of the students applying to law school for that reason, but my timing was pretty good. As we hear news stories about the economy's continual plummet, more and more students are applying to law schools in the hopes of not having to find a job just quite yet, securing an advanced degree for a chance to get better employment, and being able to live off loans for just a few more years (I admit, I love having loan money to do with as I please!).

The University of Minnesota Law School saw their number of applications jump nearly 30% last year. Perhaps more stunningly, a recent Kaplan survey of 1,000 students who took the February LSAT indicated that 40% were influenced by the economy when they made their decision to apply to law school.  Although the legal field has been affected by the downturn, service-oriented positions tend to remain relatively stable during recessions, so getting a law degree now seems like an investment.

But is this a good idea? In the next few years, we will see people who are truly passionate about the legal profession share classrooms with those who came to law school as a last resort in a tough economy. Phrased like that, it might be easy to suggest that those individuals are doing the legal profession a disservice, but is this really the case?

While I didn't come to law school because of the economy, I did come to law school because I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. I was seven months from graduating with a Women's Studies degree, and realized that there weren't a whole lot of job options available to me that wouldn't stress me out constantly (or pay me enough to warrant constantly being stressed out). A professor I had at the time suggested I consider law school, and when a professor that was the former mayor of Toledo and member of the Ohio House tells you to think about law school, you should probably listen. So I listened - sort of. I signed up for the next month's LSAT (Preparation? What's that?), took it, and waited. During that time, I started researching the law schools to which I wanted to apply, careers that combined my love of women's issues and the law, and realized that law school might actually be for me.

That is, until I started. I quickly became disillusioned with law school, and gave myself a one-year time frame to decide if I really wanted to stay at GW. I complained, whined, and cried perpetually throughout the school year (thank you if you dealt with me during those times!), and I'm sure that some people didn't think I deserved to be here.  People around me were, to paraphrase McDonalds, "loving it!" and I definitely was not. After making it through my 1L year, however, I was able to step back and objectively consider what I love and what I hate about the law, realizing that I actually should be here, because whatever I want to accomplish during my life will be easier to do with a law degree. The mental gymnastics you go through here are like exercise - you will notice a difference in the way you think, reason, and analyze everything in your life, not just legal problems or issues. It's rewarding.

I refuse to make a blanket statement about whether students should apply to law school based on the economy. At first thought, it doesn't sound like a good idea, not just for them but also for the students who are genuinely interested in a legal career. But just as many different people have different interests, there are a variety of things to like about law school. Coming to law school because you aren't sure what else to do doesn't mean you will be a lower quality lawyer or advocate, it just means you are on your way to discovering what interests you.