Quote:
Originally Posted by jesselt
That was a great read for someone planning on going to law school after next year =/
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Law school as a fallback for liberal arts majors is ridiculous and should stop happening. You'll spend $180K in tuition and room and board and stuff (did you see California schools knock their tuition up that high?) for three years. In the meantime, if you get a $50K/yr salary out of college, you'll earn $150K in those three years.
So you'll be
ahead $230K at the end of those three years. Then you've probably got about $50K in interest payments on those loans, if not more: $280K further in the hole because you went to law school. Unless you're at a top 6 school (if the economy were better, I'd say top 20), it's a lottery to get a job that pays $145K out of school. I currently have a fairly prestigious job clerking after graduating from a top law school, and I'm worried I won't be able to find work next year to pay off my loans.
In short, if you go to law school and don't go on scholarship, you'll probably be $230K worse off after school than if you'd gone straight out and worked. Then there's the fact that lawyers work insane hours compared to what you'd be working if you had a "regular" job. So 12-hour work days and $230K worse off.
Sign me up for that!
I'm of the opinion everyone who wants to go to law school should get a real job out of university first. Those people are the ones who succeed in law school because they understand how screwed they will be if they're not in the top 20% of their class.
Google Autoadmit and read that board. Read Above the Law (a blog). Read this blog:
Temporary Attorney: The Sweatshop Edition
Then tell me going to law school isn't super risky. I would strongly advise anyone not going to Yale/Harvard/Stanford/Columbia/Chicago/NYU not to do it.