Authored by: Sara Shiffman
In 2019, after many years working in marketing and communications reviewing contracts and advising clients on risk and redlines and reviewing social media content for compliance with federal advertising guidelines, I decided to embark on a journey to make my legal role an official one. Little did I know that I would be starting school in August of 2020, while working from home and navigating it all virtually.
According to the Law School Admissions Council, in 2022 approximately 20% of law school applicants were 30 years or older[1]. While that may not seem like a huge numbers, it is significant enough that many programs in Chicago cater specifically to those more mature students. As the 2024-2025 school year kicks off, I wanted to share some advice and words of encouragement for the 1Ls who are starting off and trying to learn how to navigate school, family, work and any other responsibilities as they re-enter academia.
Even if the story of my experience as a returning student wasn’t in any way what I envisioned (hello global pandemic), it was still an extraordinary experience filled with interesting characters and unbelievable stories. And as many of us are now navigating an uncertain and oversaturated job market, you might be visiting this blog because you are considering a career pivot to seek out new opportunities, here are some things I learned along the way.
- Organization is critical. This may seem obvious but many are not ready to juggle work, school and life responsibilities. How do you switch your brain from leading to learning and then back again? Sticking to a detailed schedule helped make that switch and helped keep everything on track. It also helped to keep a hard delineation between work time and school time when everything was happening at the same desk in the same location.
- Boundaries. The Loyola program is primarily on the weekends, but we had the opportunity to add evening classes that fit our educational goals and schedules. Other programs in Chicago meet during the evenings on weeknights. Of course the biggest crises at work will always occur on the evenings when you have class. For me, aligning with my company on my availability and the importance of school work ahead of time helped me stick to timelines and be able to tell teams I would not be available unless something was literally on fire. For the most part it worked, and there were minimal interruptions of the flammable variety.
- Find the fun. It’s very easy to become a robot who only has time for work and school, but that will lead to burnout and likely a severe breakdown once it comes time to study for the bar. Instead try to find a balance between working, family and school that also includes time to take a break. Keep your workout schedule. Watch the Bears on Sunday. Have dinner with friends. It’s going to be hard to juggle it all, and things will absolutely fall through the cracks, but making time to decompress will help you be successful.
- Enjoy the ride. For me, getting to exercise some new muscles in class was energizing. And ultimately it led me down a totally different career path than I expected when I started school in 2020. Even though it was challenging and exhausting and required many McDonald’s Diet Cokes with classmates, going back to school was also rewarding and interesting and even fun. You put in the effort to get accepted and take the first step, I’m not going to say the worst is over, but you have come a long way and should take advantage of what your school has to offer.
I’m not going to sugarcoat it, the journey is going to be incredibly hard and you will experience a level of exhaustion that you likely have never felt previously. But, the sense of accomplishment when you finish is well worth the caffeine-induced sleepless nights and anxiety dreams unlike those you had way back when you were an undergraduate. Finally, this is clearly not an exhaustive list. Have something else that worked for you when you went back, drop your advice in the comments.
[1] https://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/law-admissions-lowdown/articles/advice-for-older-law-school-applicants-to-consider
About the Author
Sara Shiffman is an experienced marketing and communications practitioner who executed strategic influencer-led campaigns for some of the country’s biggest consumer, food, spirits and pharmaceutical brands. She graduated from Loyola University Law School Chicago in 2023 and was admitted to the Illinois Bar in May 2024.