2020 alumna, Katie Cooper is 1L at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law.

“Zoom School of Law” as people call it, is not as bad as people want you to think. The way law professors traditionally teach courses are very Zoom-friendly, but you have to have a LOT of self-discipline to not lose focus or assume something makes sense to you and zone out. The hardest part about law school is not the content, or the learning curve to how it all works.

The hardest part is remaining calm and believing in yourself. At some point in the evening, you have to close your laptop and know that you did all you could, and that has to be enough. Progress has to be a higher priority than perfection. Some peers will have no problem in flaunting self confidence and that’s not necessary, but I had to learn how to receive criticism and not beat myself up. Instead of writing a final paper, we had five different writing assignments that all build, meaning that giving up is not an option.

Missouri State and specifically the Political Science department prepared me very well for the content of my courses for the first semester. As far as reading, writing, and other basics, you would be very surprised how many people do not have these skills that are truly pivotal to excelling in undergraduate classes. I was thankful I did not choose an “easy” discipline in college because it put me way ahead in the long run.

I have enjoyed my first semester a lot, even the parts that stressed me out beyond belief. I thought I would hit a period where I would think “I don’t know if I want to do this anymore”, but I didn’t. It has been very challenging but not unmanageable, so that’s been good.

Advice I would offer:

It is super important to begin forming good habits before you start law school. Missouri State, and the political science department does this well by simply shaping courses to focus on reading a textbook and synthesizing its contents. You would be surprised how many students from other universities did not have this experience. If you can read a textbook you will go a lot further than you think, certainly in the first few weeks. This is especially true with reading cases.

Knowing the lingo that courts use when writing opinions is something that can be hard to catch on to but makes a world of difference in comprehension. As Dr. Pybas always stressed: Google every word you do not know. Be able to explain what a word means if someone were to ask you, because multiple professors did ask us to define a certain word and a lot of times, the class got caught sleeping.

I did not expect to be on the younger end of the spectrum as a law student in my class. Especially with going to a state school, being 22 or 23 at the beginning of law school is rare. Most people have taken at least a year or two off, some many more. This does not replace good habits, focus and mental stamina. Age is truly just a number. This does make the social scene a lot more difficult, which is not something to disregard. Without a good study group and good rapport with my classmates, I might have missed small details of assignments, an important part of notes, or a deadline even.

Older law students and even peers will convince you that being cynical or dreadful is cool- it is not. A lot of students come in with bad attitudes, or false assumptions about content or law school culture, don’t be that student. Some students will very loudly announce their disdain of a professor or complain about changing their ways, don’t be that student. A good attitude will take you further in law school than almost every other quality or knowledge base. Law school transcends a typical student’s comfort zone.

A comfort zone is a beautiful place, but nothing ever grows there.