In a College Course I hate, Wasting Life

LegacyUser

2 years into a law course and I really don't want to be here. I have no interest in law and really don't see myself working in such an enviroment. I've paid a lot of money as I'm in private college and it all just seems like such a waste. I want to do journalism its my passion. I've always had a huge interest in foreign affairs and international conflict and I would love nothing more than reporting on war, terrorism, espinage and the likes. Seeing a movie about Daniel Pearle last night really brought it home for me. I cried today that I'm not doing journalism. I want to travel the world and report, its my dream. But I simply cannot drop out a year and half out from finishing law after all the money and time I've invested. I just feel I'm going to be too far behind if I attempt to do an M.A in journalism and of course it would look awful on my CV if I had Bachelor in Law and M.A in journalism when others would have more journalism credentials. I have to study today for upcoming law exams and I just cant bring myself to do it. I have one life and I want to seize it, I dont want to end up in law enviroment. I am a free spirit and I love to write and whats more I have an obsession with, in particular, the middle east. I feel so down that I'm wasting years doing a degree I dont want. Other aspect is that my parents would be devastated if I didn't pursue law after spending 3 years and so much money studying it.
As you can tell, my writting is very poor for journalistic standard. I should be trying to improve it now in order to catch up but I can't. Night courses are out of the question as law workload is just too much....help

LegacyUser

You'd be amazed how many of the top journalist in the world have law degrees.

If you're interested in areas like you mentioned just take law modules like human rights, public international law, international criminal law, terrorism law, international criminal law etc etc and then do a masters. You wont be far behind anyone when you start your journalism masters and you'll have a good idea of the law behind the things you are discussing (this is a great help - some established journos out there dont have a clue of the law when they are writing and their pieces are the lesser for it)

Try to get involved with the student law journal at you college if there is one. It'll help improve your writing.

Law and journalism are a great mix. Remember you're in law school NOT lawyer school.

LegacyUser

I've done a journalism degree and I can tell you it is definitely worth a heck of a lot more to do a different degree and then move into journalism. Getting a job in a paper or tv station etc - they don't care if you have a degree in journalism, you are worth a thousand times more with a law degree because you will have so much more knowledge on law issues than people who study a straight journo degree. You can work in business, international affairs, current affairs, EU reporting, court reporting - all a lot more competently than someone with a journo degree. Stick with it, trust me, there's a huge swap over between the two careers as far as I've seen and you will benefit a lot more from doing ur degree and getting an MA if u want, or just going straight into reporting.

To improve your CV start getting stuff published and write. Forget needing the degree, I got laughed at in a top Irish national newspaper for doing a degree in journo, he said why didn't I just start working in a paper instead of spending 4 yrs learning little. It's helped, but having worked in a paper after my degree I can hand on heart tell you that I wish I'd studied something else!

LegacyUser

thanks guys thats encouraging

Fox McCloud

Agree with the posters above, a completed law degree looks really good on a CV no matter what area you trying to get into.

You should focus on doing well in your exams and getting writing experience. Write for the college paper if there is one, other wise try a local paper. Start a blog and practise your writing skills on that. Dont focus on opinion pieces, try and work on an objective and comprehensive view of whatever your writing on.

A Masters in where everyone specialises these days. Also whatever area you have a big interest in writing about/from, learn the language in your free time. This will seriously put you ahead of other candidates when it comes to job application time.

Distorted

Law graduate myself and qualified in the profession, however so many in my degree course never worked as lawyers and have jobs in different fields including two that I know of in journalism. Its generally accepted that law is an excellent business degree and to become any kind of qualified lawyer you have to do an additional postgraduate course and then two years pupillage anyway.

You would be better to finish your current degree and then either do a postgraduate course or start working. Theres nothing to stop you applying for journalism jobs right now of course, but you might have to start working at the bottom with poor pay, and its not going to look great on your cv that gave up on your degree course.

Law is hard; it requires a lot of concentration and checking of facts and gathering material together. Its an excellent preperation for a career in journalism but as you work through the degree and get to the more difficult stages, a lot of it is about training your brain and developing the discipline to work hard. Thats why its one of the hardest degrees to get into - I needed 6 As to get into my course.

Can I just point out that if you get any kind of test as part of an application process for journalism, you are not only going to have to brush up your writing skils but your spelling as well - "environment", not "enivoment", "espionage" not "espinage" and "Middle East", being a geographical location, is capitalised. If you want to seize your life, perhaps just study for your upcoming exams and get on with it?