Lawyers have a strong rep of being type A people: competitive natures, associating self-worth with achievements, you get the idea. And if you ever wondered why the profession was so full of ‘em and tried to spin up a root cause, you might have put the blame on law school. It has to be the readings and the confrontational spirit of Socratic method classrooms that made them who they are, right? Looks like the answer is no — they’re like that before they even get in.
r/LSAT had a thread making fun of the prestige desperate 0Ls who do that thing where they obsess over being the very best that no one ever was at logic games to guarantee their way into a T14. But for them, not all T14s are T14-y enough. Redditor reditory had this to say:
I’ve seen people on there ask if Harvard is “good enough”. Not making this up 😭
As we all know, Harvard Law is picking up the pieces after US News dropped it from Yale-Stanford trinity. That said, tying with Columbia is pretty damned good! Give them some grace and use what’s left for yourself. Many a school that’s not in the T14 has minted phenomenal lawyers that make huge changes in their community. Or get picked up by some big law firm in New York. They’re pretty much both the same thing, right?
Stay calm and trust the process. Believe me, Civ Pro will stress you out enough when you get to it.
Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s. He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who cannot swim, a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at cwilliams@abovethelaw.com and by tweet at @WritesForRent.
