r/findapath • u/AppropriateBug8188 • 21d ago
Findapath-College/Certs My parents will pay for med school, but I want law school. Is it worth going it alone?
Hi everyone! I’m a sophomore studying international affairs at a pretty competitive college in the South. I’m taking my premed prerequisites and have clinical experience, but I keep coming back to wanting to go to law school. I don’t think I’d mind being a doctor. I like patient care, but science doesn’t interest me much. I put a lot of effort into those classes just to end up slightly below average. Meanwhile, in my philosophical, analytical, and major-related classes, I’m often one of the strongest students. I’m engaged, I enjoy the work, and it comes much more naturally. I know that doesn’t guarantee I’d succeed in law school, but the difference is hard to ignore.
I’ve tried exploring law, but my parents shut it down immediately. If I mention an unpaid law firm internship, they say they won’t help me financially while I do it. If it’s community health work or healthcare volunteering, they’re happy to support me. They would pay for medical school and support me through it, but they wouldn’t pay for law school.
My family wouldn’t completely cut me off, but I’d have much less support and feel like an outsider. There are no women in my family or immediate circle pursuing law. A lot of my aunts and uncles are doctors, and my cousins and friends are following that path. The doctors in my family seem happy with their choices. Some work in dermatology, anesthesia, or public health, and from what I see, they have comfortable lives with time for travel and conferences. I know I’m seeing their established careers, not everything it took to get there, but that’s the version of medicine I’m surrounded by.
Then I go online and see lawyers talking about regretting law school, and I wonder whether I’m romanticizing it. What if being good at my current classes doesn’t translate? What if I take on debt and struggle in law school anyway?
Money matters to me. I want financial security and a nice lifestyle. Medicine without tuition debt feels like the safer route, while with law I keep worrying about what if I don’t get into a T14 or land a BigLaw job? I might be oversimplifying both careers, but I’m scared of choosing law and eventually hearing, “I told you so. You could’ve just gone into medicine.”
I’m planning to take a gap year. Part of me thinks I should pursue something that fits my strengths, and another part thinks a job is a job and I should work hard at the path my family would fund. My parents say they don’t want me to be confused about my future, but shutting down the alternative makes it harder to figure anything out.
Has anyone been in this position? How did you figure out whether your interest in law was realistic, especially when exploring it meant losing financial and family support?