The survey asked a pool of 25,000 students at 88 law schools in the United States and Canada. According to the survey, nearly half of all those asked said they felt inadequately prepared to cope with several important factors of day-to-day life as a lawyer.
Among those factors which the students felt unprepared were: (1) the day to day stress of working in the profession, (2) being an effective member of a team of attorneys, and (3) managing ethical problems they may come across throughout their career.
The survey also found differences between the genders in the classroom. According to the survey, female law students were less likely than male students to ask questions or engage their professors regarding assignments. ''The gender findings were interesting and kind of disturbing,'' said Lindsay Watkins, project manager for the survey. ''We hope this is an area that folks will find intriguing and want to follow up on.'' Also according to the survey, female students reported being quieter in the classroom. Almost conversely, females cited being more motivated to work harder by a fear of failure and embarrassment.
One of the most notable topics that the survey touched on was the student opinion on career counseling. A hunger strike done by a young unemployed J.D., brought much attention to law school transparency regarding job prospects after law school. This particular study showed 59 percent of law students were content with their experiences with their school's career-counseling services. However, almost the same percentage of third years, 57%, to be exact, claimed that career-counseling services were not very helpful with their job hunt.
