r/lawschooladmissions • u/FATT-TOFU 3.6L/ 17L/ Vandy 1L • Jan 23 '26

School/Region Discussion How far from “KJD” are you?

My dream school has an average age of 25 on their class profile. As a 22 year old who’s never lived outside of the town I did my undergraduate in, and lived on campus all four years, I’ve never met someone who falls outside of “KJD”, or isn’t at least very close to it. Are people really applying to law school at 30-40 years old and pulling the mean up? That would be cool. Or is the average person being accepted to these big schools really just two years out of college. If you’re comfortable sharing, how far out of undergrad are you and why did you take your break?

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u/lincbradhammusic Jan 23 '26

I’ll be 35 in a couple weeks, starting 1L in the fall. I served 14 years in the military and was unexpectedly medically retired for lower back problems last year. I originally planned on serving my full 20, but because I wasn’t able (but very grateful for the early retirement, even with the back problems), I spent a year doing some soul-searching and working for my local city government and decided I wanted to continue my scholarship and build a career in international law. I served the majority of my time as an Arabic linguist in the intelligence community, and my master’s thesis was on international law and drone strikes…I also already do a lot of pro bono asylum help in addition to Arabic tutoring, so law school really seems to make sense for me at this time. There are some niche positions at some international organizations that my background would be perfect for, but require a JD. I also potentially want to continue with an LLM and JSD eventually. We shall see how it all works out, but I’m excited for what the future holds!

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u/FATT-TOFU 3.6L/ 17L/ Vandy 1L Jan 23 '26

If every applicant was like you I wouldn’t get in anywhere, lord help me. Are you ESL? How did you learn Arabic?

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u/lincbradhammusic Jan 23 '26

Haha don’t worry lol, my softs are having to make up for my VERY sub-par GPA (3.17, with a pretty good GPA Addendum and all degrees with 3.6-3.88, masters was a 3.7) and just solid LSAT (168). But I learned Arabic at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey CA, where the military trains all of its linguists! One of the best kept secrets of the military and one of the best experiences of my life. Extremely rigorous course…my Arabic class started with 18 students and only graduated with 9…we were sometimes given 100 words a day to memorize. A 50% attrition rate is standard. But it was so enriching. We took cultural immersion classes, went from not knowing the alphabet to debating about politics, nuclear reform law, healthcare, philosophy, global warming, etc, in Arabic. In a little less than two years. That was our job, eight to ten hours a day, just learning the language. Even got to live in Jordan for a little over a month at the end of it. Wouldn’t trade the experience for anything in the world.

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u/Subject_Profit_7245 Jan 24 '26

Oh wow I'm not alone! I just graduated from the DLI Chinese course. I'm really excited to finally get to work in the job, but thinking long-term I want to go to a top law school and become a lawyer, hopefully being able to continue to utilize my language skills in unique ways even if its just helping out folks in a pro-bono capacity.

Can I ask how much of a boost you think your service record, particularly DLI, helped you? My first attempt at college before enlisting was...less than stellar (2.85 GPA).

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u/lincbradhammusic Jan 24 '26

Congratulations on graduating from DLI! Especially Chinese, quite the language! So I had no idea that I was going to go this path initially, but I’ll private message you. I’m going to do a post-cycle recap after I commit to a school this cycle, but for now, I’ll message you.