Recently, Department of Political Science and Sociology alumnus Cole Manion was elected to the prestigious position of Notes Editor at UK College of Law. Cole was a fall 2019 recipient of Murray State’s Outstanding Senior Award.
Dr. Ihsan Alkhatib, Associate Professor of Political Science, reached out to Cole with a few questions about his law school experience so far and how Murray State prepared him.
How is law school? Is it what you expected? Did you feel prepared for it?
Law school is going much better now than this time last year. The first year was similar to what I expected, at least in the format of classes. I knew that “the Socratic method” was going to be used instead of a typical undergraduate lecture style and that reading would take up much more of my time than before, but I still wasn’t expecting the quantity of work I felt compelled to do on a daily basis. While there were no daily homework assignments, or even periodic tests, throughout the first year I felt the need to read assigned readings to be prepared for class, and I wasn’t expecting the sheer time commitment this reading took. A year and a half later, I feel much more comfortable with handling the individual tasks that each day has in store than I was at this point last year. I was prepared for law school in that I was generally familiar with how law school worked and had a base knowledge of many of the concepts from my time at Murray (e.g. constitutional law and criminal law), but I wasn’t prepared for how to “do law school.” Only time and experience taught me how to make it through the semester.
Looking back, is there anything you would have done differently as an undergraduate student at Murray State?
Before coming to law school, I often heard current law students tell prospective students to relax and not worry about the substance of what you’ll learn in law school until you get there. If I had to pick out one thing to do differently as an undergraduate student, and I could even say this about my first year of law school as well, it would be to worry less about the future. This would have saved me a lot of grief, especially during the application process.
What advice do you give our undergraduate students interested in law?
To undergraduate students interested in law, the advice I have is to not let any person convince you to give up your interest. Individuals in the legal profession have a habit of gatekeeping the law and law school by emphasizing how difficult it is to get in, how difficult it is once you get there, and how difficult it is once you start practice. While it is certainly not an easy thing to accomplish, a legal education isn’t some unattainable thing set aside for a select few. It is accessible, especially in the state of Kentucky, and many more people are capable of finding success in the law than that think they are. If you have an interest, I hope you pursue that interest to its conclusion.
Anything you would like to add?
While some aspects of law school (especially when encountering new ones) have been more difficult than I anticipated, I would recommend this experience to any person seeking to better themselves, either personally or professionally. Law school has pushed me to make progress in my personal and professional lives that I never considered possible for myself while in undergrad. The tools I’ve learned in just a short year and a half of law school have given me a sense of empowerment to set high goals and pursue them that I just didn’t have before coming here.
Thank you, Cole and Dr. Alkhatib!
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