ThatWeirdLawyer

Do not go to law school if you are not 100% sure you want to be a lawyer.
 
I'm an attorney, largely because I was a good student with a liberal arts education and didn't know what else to do. That was a terrible reason to go to law school. I can't stand practicing law. I've tried big law and two very different types of public interest, and that's been enough to convince me to leave the field; this summer, I will start a PhD program in computer science.
 
My experience of law is far from unique. I know many lawyers personally who are very unhappy with their jobs. A lot of them feel trapped by debt, or by the same sense of not knowing what else to do that led them to law school in the first place. The profession as a whole has unusually high rates of depression, suicide, and self-medicating behaviors.
 
This is not to say no one should ever go to law school. I have good friends and colleagues who love their jobs practicing law, and if it's a good fit for your personality and interests, law can be a rewarding (not to mention lucrative) career. What is essential, however, is knowing before you decide to go to law school whether the practice of law (note: this is different from the practice of being a law student) is a good fit for you.
 
One of the best ways to do this is to work in the field before you decide whether you want to go to law school. True, you can't be a lawyer yet, but many firms hire recent college grads as paralegals, and there may be business-related support positions (marketing, training, IT, and so on) at large firms. You say you might be interested in practicing environmental law. Start looking for law firms that have an environmental practice, and apply there. See if there's a public interest group that does the kind of work you'd like to do, and apply there. If they can't afford to hire you, can you volunteer for them in your spare time? Work side by side with people who are doing today what you'd like to be doing in five years. Understand what they do from day to day. Ask them what they like about their jobs and what they don't like. Ask what they'd do differently if they'd known when they applied to law schools what they know now. If you do decide the practice of law is right for you, you will have a stronger application to law school after a year or so of this. And if you realize law is not for you, you've spent a year earning a salary, rather than three years racking up debt.