I echo Spoons. That was certainly was the case for the law school I went to in Canada. Many Americans would find the experience very similar to the U.S. experience including the need as indicated above to write and excel at the LSAT.
To the OP I echo those who have suggested spending time at a private firm to find out what the practice of law is really like. Within 10 years, many from my graduating class had moved away from private practice. In my opinion law school teaches you about the law and how to think like a lawyer but does not prepare for the day-to-day life of being a lawyer in private practice. In Canada, the articling year, post graduation, is the year where those skills are learned. And then, you want to make friends quickly with other junior lawyers and with the support staff.
If it scares you, then it is something you might want to consider before going to law or business school. First of all, the competition is pretty intense (I mostly know about business school and consulting but I imagine much of law school applies). There are diferent levels of law schools and B-schools and where you graduate from can mean the diference between making $100,000+ out of school and making a mere $60,000. A big diference when you have $60,000 in loans and you are living in expensive places like New York, San Fran or Chicago.
There is also the matter of not really gaining anything that places you above the competition. As an MBA. I’m not really competing with college grads for jobs. I’m competing with OTHER MBAs and people with advanced degrees for consulting and banking jobs (or in this case, lawyers).
Then there are the people. You are going to work with a lot of people who, while not necessarily cutthroat, will still be highly driven workaholics. At the very least, you will work under a lot of people who have little or no consideration for your time or personal life because they either assume that everyone else is a workaholic too or they simply don’t care. In other words, do you want to work in an environment where your boss or client might call you on a Saturday afternoon and expect that you pick up?
And finally, what do you actually want to do for a living? Do you want to argue cases in front of a judge? Review contracts? Facilitate negotiations? You need to get beyond the “glamor” of the job title and figure out what you actually do at work.
ie:
I work as a management consultant for boutique firm that specializes in providing supply chain consulting services to multinational and Fortune 2000 companies.
What does that mean exactly?
I work for a small firm where I travel all over the world to big companies and spend days sorting through databases of tens (or hundreds) of thousands of records of purchases. Not very exciting.
Just an observation, but many people at 19 are simply not mature enough to make the right choice. Try taking a year out - what we in the UK call a gap year. Volunteer for something overseas. Or, for a longer spell, enlist and when you come out, you’ll have Uncle Sam make a significant contribution to your education, not only in money but also in your attitude.
Fellow UB PSC major checking in (American concentration, doubling with Philosophy). See if you can work in classes with Eagles and Campbell. You won’t be sorry. If you do decide to go to law school, see if Lamb comes off sabbatical and goes back to teaching undergrads. If he does, take his 301-303-302 case law sequence in that order. You WILL be sorry about that one - he absolutely kicks your ass, but you come out way ahead of the game.
:: cough :: Anyways.
I’m graduating in the spring and going to law school somewhere - not entirely sure where yet - in the fall. If your heart’s not in a legal education, I can’t imagine why you’d put yourself through that meatgrinder just because you had an extra three years after you graduated. If anything, get an MA (MBA) in your discipline of choice - at least you’ll have decided you like that field, and there’s always the prospect of academia.
If you’re worried about PSC being nonviable as a major for anything but law school - pick up a second major, or go with another major and drop to a PSC minor! The law schools won’t care what major you are as long as you do well in it and on the LSAT.