The Journey to Graduation Day: Sarah Losh, ’14: We’re in this together

Sarah Losh wasn’t used to academic setbacks before she came to the Law School. Sure, she got a B+ once – yes, just once – but for the most part, her talent and hard work resulted in near-perfection. And she’s aware that’s not necessarily a good thing.

“Law school was the first time many of us haven’t been the best at something. It’s a really good experience that we’re having too late in life,” Sarah said. “But it’s better than crying at your job.”

Luckily, Sarah quickly learned that she didn’t have to endure law school’s disappointments or celebrate its victories alone. She soon became part of a tight band of about a dozen girlfriends who supported each other with sympathetic ears, group dinners, dance parties, and “wine nights.” They met for lunches during finals under a simple rule: “We’re not going to talk about school for an hour. We’re going to talk about something else and eat Chinese.”

Sarah, 27, a native of Rolling Meadows, a northwest suburb of Chicago, studied English and Spanish at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. When she started at the Law School, she didn’t initially realize that grades were given on a curve, which means only a handful of students can get top grades. Another way Sarah put it: “Everybody coming in here probably had a 3.9 GPA in undergrad, and that’s not possible on a curved scale. Everyone does such a good job that doing a good job isn’t enough.”

Happily, Sarah found her fellow students to be driven, but never cutthroat. “I expected the grading system to foster a hyper-competitive environment, but it’s not. It’s kind of a group commiseration,” Sarah said. “I’ve never seen anyone try to undermine each other.”

Sarah said that support was key when she ended up with a grade she didn’t like. “Getting a median grade is the most frustrating. It’s not a bad grade, but it’s not a good grade. And when you worked really hard, that’s frustrating.”

In those moments, Sarah found that confiding in people outside of the Law School, such as her mom and sister, was helpful for some perspective. Her mom in particular often reminded her that just being at one of the nation’s top law schools was an accomplishment in itself.

But it was also good to have friends inside the Law School who understood, intimately, the trials of these three years. Like Sarah, most of her friends also understood the working world because they took a year or two to work before law school. “We shared the excitement of being back in school. We had some time working, and we knew that school is much better,” Sarah said.

And that’s saying something, because Sarah loved her two years in the workforce, which cemented her desire to be a lawyer. She spent the first year working as a legal assistant in felony cases for the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office and the second at a firm that handled civil cases, particularly personal injury and medical malpractice. To support herself, Sarah, a Joffrey Ballet-trained dancer who considered becoming a professional, taught ballet in the morning, evenings, and weekends. Her typical workday lasted from 5:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.

That intense schedule was good practice for law school, where, besides her studies, Sarah became executive editor of University of Chicago Legal Forum and a student lawyer in the Federal Criminal Justice Clinic. She played Dean of Students Amy Gardner three years in a row in the Law School Musical, a production she also choreographed. And recently she received the Ann Watson Barber Outstanding Service Award, given to graduating students who have made exceptional contributions to the quality of life at the Law School.

Sarah is not likely to get any less busy after graduation; she’s landed a job as an associate at Sidley Austin in Chicago. Now that law school is almost over, “what is hitting me is that I’m not going to sit around and talk to my friends all day,” Sarah said. “They are what have kept me excited and sane this whole time.”