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- Top Ten Survival Rules for Law School , March 11, 2010
- Don’t Panic, but your June LSAT Test Center is Probably Full , March 10, 2010
- Attention all Lawyers: Stop Crying , March 9, 2010
- Choosing an LSAT date: June vs. October , March 8, 2010
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Slaying the Law School Myth
So a story about a concerned would-be law school student came to our attention. Prospective legal student “Terrified” wrote to Salon.com in a panic because (to synopsize):
1. her father is a lawyer and she’s concerned she’s following his dream, not hers
2. she actually wants to be a writer
3. she has 100,000 in undergraduate debt
She writes a letter to a well-known columnist who responds that she should (to paraphrase):
1. create a vision of a happy life as a lawyer
2. find a box and fill it with items like bubble bath and feathers
3. go to law school because “you can always quit” and “law is not a dead-end career. You can still be a writer, or be president…”
This is precisely the myth about lawyers in America that must be found and ruthlessly uprooted. We have met so many students who, as liberal arts majors, go to law school as a back-up thinking that a JD can’t hurt them and that they can always move onto something else with the skills they’ve learned from going to law school.
But this is only true if you’re able to adequately deal with the debt.
Just last week we covered a news story about a new loan forgiveness program that explained how much money one would have to make in order to pay back 100k in debt. “Terrified” is right to be leery of the 100K she owes, because it’s likely she’s going to rack up at least another 100K or so by the time she obtains a JD, which means she’ll probably have around 200k in debt when she graduates. In other words, she’ll have to pay approximately $1700 a month if she wants to repay her loans in 15 years (at 6% interest). Which means she needs to make approximately $2,800 a month just to make the payment. And that’s only for her loans. This does not count anything else, like knockin’ out that rent, or making a car payment to get to work to knock out that rent, or eating some food to have the energy to knock out that rent…(you get the picture).
I’m sure that Cary Tennis is well-meaning, but how for goodness sake during a recession does someone fail to mention the grave consequences of the amount of loans with which Terrified is about to entangle herself? (Indeed, has already entangled herself). Is it a continuation of the near-fatal cavalier American attitude toward debt? Or perhaps the unexamined regurgitation of an edict about education that worked for a different generation but is running into trouble now—namely, that educational loans are the best investment you’ll ever make because you’re investing (cue inspirational music) in yourself. Which can be true. Except that some educational investments, like sub-prime mortgage loans, aren’t paying off. At the beginning of 2009, Forbes wrote an article discussing how many students were having trouble paying off their educational loans. The highlight? Two law students who eventually divorced, citing the size of their law school loans as a “major source of stress in their marriage.”
A likely scenario for “Terrified” is that she comes out of law school with 200k in debt and can’t pay it back any other way except for getting a job as a lawyer. What writing job pays $5,000 a month right out of the gate? Which means her first love—writing—is very likely to be strangled under a flood of blackberry alerts and late night filings.
Does this mean don’t go to law school or educate yourself in general? Of course not. But the dialogue surrounding whether or not law school is a good idea for you has got to take debt into account, as well as the job landscape in the midst of a severe recession. We can’t keep sending students to law school with the myth that no matter how much debt they incur their education is worth it, because they might be doomed to work in a job they don’t even like in order to pay back debt that no other job can begin to tackle.
So Terrified, if you’re listening, you’re right to be concerned. And no amount of bubble bath in a heart-shaped box should tell you otherwise.
Photo by: mugley http://www.flickr.com/photos/mugley/ CC Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic
Of course, with this recession, even those graduating law school who really do want to be lawyers are unable to find jobs and pay off their debt…
It does appear that so-called Big Law (law firms with 100 or more lawyers and six figure starting salaries for associates) have been hit hard by the recession. But several recent news stories have discussed the strength of the mid-size law firm. While the salaries aren’t as lucrative, the pay is still quite good and the quality of life can be much better. So the post law school landscape isn’t shriveling as much as changing. As long as students are informed and understand what their options are versus the debt they undertake, the legal profession can continue to be a viable and rewarding career for many.
So my grand grad plan of a Masters, a law degree and a doctorate might have a drawback? I figured if I stayed in school long enough, I would be able to defer forever.
It’s outrageous that someone actually believes that writing a letter to yourself and filling a box with scented oils & free-verse poetry could inform the question of whether or not to go to law school.
Cary Tennis’ advice might actually have been the worst advice EVER.
And there are things a person could do. You could get an internship to see what law is like.
Or at the very least have informational interviews or shadow a lawyer for a few days.
Or even read a few law blogs.
But, no, instead bath oil will make the decision for you.
Really?
Anonymous. You are missing the point of Cary’s comments. Of course bath oil will not make the decision for you. I believe she also said you needed feathers. It worked for me. Here is a text of my letter.
Dear Me:
Hey buddy. You smell nice. I was thinking you wanted to spend the rest of your life in a career that basically is listening to people bitch. But first, spend your early 20s studying while your college friends enjoy life. Don’t worry about the added debt. It’s the “in” thing these days. In the grand scheme of things it won’t matter. Every day you’ll die a little inside when you see another lawyer’s face on tv asking if you’ve ever been injured in an auto accident. Almost forgot. Free verse poetry. There once was a man from Nantucket…..
“Cary Tennis’ advice might actually have been the worst advice EVER.”
THIS. I could not believe it when I read his response. I wish so badly that someone had given me a good slap instead of this advice, so many years ago. 12 years out, I’m still 8 years from paying off the loans, and those “alternate careers” that one can supposedly get with a law degree never did materialize.
JT,
Midsize law firms are cutting back as well. And those few that are hiring are inundated with applications from the victims of layoffs. When it comes to getting a job–and keeping it–the options are, in fact, shrinking.
Anonymous: It’s clear that the legal profession has been hit hard and doubtless you are correct. I think the thrust of my comment was more for students to be informed about law before choosing it as a career. It’s not all doom and gloom – it just warrants careful consideration in light of today’s economic realities.
The top schools are still bringing in the big bucks, and no reason to assume this will slow down.
HI,
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