Nervous About Starting 1L Year – What Should I Do?

It’s perfectly normal to be nervous about starting 1L year. An approaching big change in your life is always nerve-wracking. But one thing to remember is that everyone in your class is going to be nervous. I remember a few months before I started I asked a friend who was going to be in my class if he was excited. The response? “Not really.” Everyone feels some sort of apprehension about this new challenge. No one really has an advantage going in as no one has ever done this before. At the risk of sounding cliché, you’re all in this together!

Nervous About Starting 1L Year – What Should I Do?

If you’re nervous about starting 1L year, don’t forget that you’ve already completed many difficult things in your life. You’re already a college graduate, you’ve done well on the LSAT, and some of you have already received other advanced degrees. Now while it is true that law school is a very different type of challenge, it isn’t necessarily more difficult. It’s just new. The material, class structure, grading system, etc. might be unfamiliar and you’ll need an adjustment period, but there is no obstacle in law school that is insurmountable with a little hard work.

With the beginning of law school only a few months away, here are a few things that you can do that will hopefully make you less nervous about starting 1L year:

1. Connect with your class on social media.

My school created a Facebook group page for admitted students in my class. This way we could spend the summer interacting somewhat, getting to know each other before school started. It helped to make some friends early so that you didn’t walk in on day 1 not knowing anyone. The group discussed other helpful things like buying books or places to live and eat on campus. It is well worth a Facebook search, or even an email to your school, to see if there has been anything set up so that prospective students can interact.

2. Consider a mentor.

If you know anyone already in law school, now would be a great time to contact them and pick their brain for any tips they might have. If you have specific questions about the experience, there’s no one better to ask than someone who just went through it as well! It will definitely help you in the long run to make connections with older students specifically at your school. One of the greatest resources they can give you is access to outlines from their first year so that you can see what material you will be exposed to. If you don’t know anyone currently in law school, perhaps you know of a lawyer whose brain you can pick. Everyone in the profession has been where you are now and we are all eager to share what we’ve learned and help you succeed!

3. Keep an open mind.

One of the first things I learned in law school is that it (and the legal profession in general, honestly) is very little like what you see on T.V. and in the movies. Those stories you see are fake, involving over-produced drama necessary to keep you entertained. Don’t be intimidated by what you see. The show How to Get Away with Murder premiered while I was in law school and very few of my classmates ever watched it. Why? Because it wasn’t real.

Professors aren’t out to destroy you or make you look like fools in front of your classmates. Trials very rarely turn into the circuses they are portrayed as. This is just another year of school. You’ve done this for many years already. Don’t freak yourself out going into it thinking that your life is going to turn into a T.V. drama. It’s just a new year of school.

4. Enjoy your summer!

I can tell you not to be nervous about starting 1L year a million times, but I know you still will be. Just try to take these next few months to relax and enjoy yourself. Spend time with friends, take vacations, do the things that make you happy. Don’t let your fear of the unknown ruin a perfectly good summer!

If you’re looking for a leg up on your competition and want some expert advice on how to succeed in law school, consider signing up for JD Advising’s free law school prep course! For those that are still very nervous about how to handle 1L year academically, this is a great resource!

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