Disadvantages to Entering Law School Before Graduating Undergrad?

[pink222]

Hey! I'm currently in my second year of undergrad and I'm planning on applying to law schools next year and if admitted, I would begin law school after my third year (before graduating). I was wondering if anyone who has done this would be willing to share if there were any disadvantages. I don't really care for having a degree but I'm mostly worried about getting jobs once I'm in law school (ie: 1L summer). Will I be considered less competitive or perhaps not even considered at all? 

I would really appreciate any insight anybody has. Thank you so much!

[qsizzle]

Only disadvantage I see is that it'll be more difficult to get into law school. Schools have a very small percentage of spots they give to 3rd year students. So you'll be competing for those spots. And the students that are applying usually have incredible stats.

Other than that, I don't think it would affect job opportunity in anyway. If anything, it's more impressive to get into law without completing your degree.

Most law firms will vastly care about 1L grades over undergrad.

[DennisNextDoor]

I think there are sometimes some more drastic mental health issues that are not necessarily due to whether you have a degree or not, but rather your age while you are in law school. I have seen some close friends of mine reason that they may have entered law school a bit too early and were not at the point of maturity needed to not only deal with the stresses of law school, but deal with the physical work. 

I also know from an admissions point (at least at my school), the admissions team would prefer people with degrees, and would require students who did not have that degree to have 'out of this world' type stats. I think it would be fair to say that students who came to U of S without an undergrad degree applied with statistics that were drastically above average. 

[ABBY98]

Hi! The only other thing that I can think about, and that I was told, was that the benefit of having an undergraduate degree is that if, god forbid, something happens during law school in which you cannot finish it, you won't have a 4 year undergraduate degree to fall back on. You can graduate with a 3 year degree, but if you decided to try and get a master's degree (or something) down the road, most require the 4 year degree! 

That's just my two cents! I'm sure you will do great in law school! But it's just something to think about.

[pink222]

Thank you so much to you all for the insight, definitely things I'll think about and consider over the summer when I'm finalizing whether to apply or not. I really appreciate you taking the time to reply!!