19-year-old Kate McLaughlin will be a 1L at Northwestern this Fall (she describes it on her blog (EvilProdigy) as an "ill-fated journey into Hades"). She scored a 174 on the LSAT (after scoring 780/700 on the SATs at age 11) and graduated from UC-San Diego at age 17.
"I'm worried I'll hate law school because it will take up too much of my time on things I'm not interested in," said McLaughlin. …
She says she's never taken the time to fully understand how her brain processes information, but notes that when she reads a book, she reads about half of the page at once – with full comprehension and retention. It should be a valuable skill in law school, she says.
McLaughlin is not sure yet what she wants to do with her law degree, but hopes it will help her to be more effective in lobbying for the social causes she feels passionately about – feminism, combatting racism, equal rights for gays and lesbians, and international humanitarianism. "I'm an idealist; I want to change the world," she said. "I bleed blue; I'm a Democrat. I'm an ardent feminist. I'm big on LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) rights – Prop. 8 was a big issue for me."
