There’s a quote I often think about that keeps my fears in perspective. It’s a quote I discovered only a few months ago but wish I had heard many years before. The line is attributed to the great explorer Christopher Columbus. “You can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage to lose sight [...]

Taking the plunge – what types of things should you be considering before applying to a graduate school program? After earning your lifetime General status, the allure of getting an advanced degree can be quite real for many. Making the decision to go back to school is big, and not just because of the tuition; [...]

Your life is a failure. From Day 1, you failed at everything. You could not walk, you could not talk, you could not even feed yourself. If left in the wild, you would not have lasted more than 24 hours. By every measurement, you were a complete failure. However, each of these little failures – [...]

What path should I take after college? That’s a question we often think will be magically answered once we chart a course in undergraduate school. Alas, the question is not always answered as definitively as we think it will. I was that unusual student who knew what his undergraduate major would be prior to even [...]

Pretty much since I was no taller than my daddy’s knee, I’ve been acutely aware of and sympathetic to socioeconomic disparities, social justice problems, and the plight of the poor. I’m from Petersburg, Virginia, where the poverty rate is more than double the overall statewide figure, and more than one-third of children under 18 live [...]

Midway through senior year, the question starts popping up – during meetings with professors, at fraternity parties, in phone conversations with your Great Aunt Edna: What are you doing next year? The default at a school like W&L seems to be viewing the first year after graduation as a jarring leap into the “real world,” [...]

It is crucial to do one's homework when it comes to choosing any career, and this could not be truer than for someone who is considering law school and a legal career.  So how can a college student, who is undecided about a legal career, go about doing that homework? I, too, was undecided about [...]

A very common reason college graduates give for enrolling in law school is, “I don’t really know what else to do." Law school is a great, although not necessarily a cheap way to: (i) defer making any serious career commitments, (ii) enjoy a college lifestyle for three more years. And after enduring four years of [...]