Shadowing a lawyer for a day can also reveal useful insights. In general, the average age of a first-year law student is about 24 years old, and older students usually have a better chance of being accepted into a program. Many of these students have significant work experience that they bring to the classroom. The curriculum tends to be very vigorous, with a wide array of courses, seminars and clinical fieldwork opportunities. Larger schools, those with a population of 200 or more law students tend to have more classes, more frequent class offerings and resources.
Academic competition can be fierce for a couple of reasons.
In addition, grades and class rank are based upon these skills and are extremely important when vying for key law firm associate positions. First-year students spend a great deal of time reading and writing about case studies and learning law vocabulary. Second-year students take on more complex cases, and may start fieldwork or extracurricular activities. Some of these activities include community legal aid services, human rights committees or working on the school law journal or review. Third-year students may continue fieldwork in which they participate in practice trials and projects, and begin preparation for state bar exams.