I'm pretty new to these boards. I've also been perusing through some of the JD undergrounds sites and I cant figure out why everyone is so down on the legal profession. I've seen it written that going to law school is a complete waste of money and any career path (including mcdonald's) would be infinitely better than pursuing a legal degree. I've also seen that some people think that pursuing an MD if possible would be the better choice. I don't understand. Let's say you come out of law school with a "lowly" starting salary of 40-50 grand. Keep in mind that you will be making this a year earlier than med school students because med school is 4 years instead of three. Thats more than doctors will be making during their first 4-7 years of residency. So for the first 5-8 years of being a lawyer you will be making more than you would if you had gone the medical route. And thats assuming that your salary wont increase AT ALL in 5-8 years. And medical school students also have an extra year of debt. So whats with all the complaining?

"The grass is always greener"? MD here and my daughter is applying to law school. I don't have the skill set to be an attorney, and she is poorly suited to being a physician or surgeon. A lot of it is personality types. You should do what you feel you might like doing 10 hours per day. What you say about money is absolutely true.

Because if you graduate from med school, you will be a doctor. Residency doesn't last forever.

How many law school graduates can't find jobs as lawyers?

48 thousand law grads each your (and rising) 24 thousand legal openings. Where in the world do you see a surplus of doctors?

If money is the only thing you care about, aren't there easier ways to achieve this end?

Reminds me of this classic that never fails:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7QtRCGQmrc

No. Because in other professions you have to be good at something to make money.

Cuba.

Wall Street disagrees.

There's always been a shortage of doctors in this country and it doesn't look like that'll change no matter how hard people try to reform the healthcare system. Reducing the shortage of doctors isn't even something that's being seriously discussed.

Unlike legal work, you can't really outsource what doctors do to India. Medical work isn't impacted by the economy the way legal work is... when Wall Street broke down all the legal firms on Wall Street got hit bad. What could happen to the economy to cause a shortage of medical work, short of inventing a pill that prevents all illnesses, injuries, and diseases?

If I was any good at (or interested in) the kind of things you need to do to get into med school I'd do it in a second. But I'm going with law because in the end you should still stick with your strengths.

Also, where are you getting this idea that residency can last 7 years? I've heard it's much shorter than that.

some last 3 years (family medicine), some last 7 years like particular surgery specialties, 4 years general surgery + 3 years in surgery specialty (neurosurgery)

I've seen friends go through top law schools, and I've seen others go through top med schools. I've known some lawyers, and I've known some doctors. And after my learnings, the practice of medicine scares the living shit out of me. Anyone who would like to be a doctor if s/he could is very impressive to me.

I lol'd.

doctors save lives and cannot purposely take them, ever.

lawyers sometimes purposely put people to death.

also, lawyers often interfere with doctors' practices... at least that's the perception.

Haha, touché.

I'm going with the grass is greener bit. My mom is a pathologist, but I'm squeamish as all hell, and the idea of slicing up cadavers freaks me out.

Yeah thinking about being a doctor and going through dissecting things reminds me of that image of a dog with the caption "do not want" that people are posting lately

Trading is hard. Most people cannot do it.

because doctors, for the most part, help people but lawyers, for the most part, don't.

That's great. There are a lot of other jobs on Wall Street.

This^ reminded me of this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2U_EfE-mqgE

There are two stereotypes here: 1) doctors "help" people, and 2) lawyers "don't help" people. But you're really only considering one side of each profession. Yes, there are doctors who devote their lives to helping people. Yes, there are lawyers who devote their lives to making large sums of money for big corporations. On the other hand, aren't there doctors who charge thousands of dollars for their services? Are they really helping people? Only their rich clients! And aren't there lawyers who defend helpless people? They're not necessarily making tons of money, but they sure are helping people. What about human rights lawyers? At the end of the day, we live in a capitalist society. People charge for services because the system demands it. It's immature to say that doctors are better than lawyers. The same goes for businesmen as well.

you can come out of a completely unknown school and have a six figure career in medicine. in fact you can not qualify for any us school , go to puerto rico and get ur degree then come back and still make good living. for law, everyone emphasizes t14 or bust. and ite top 50% at t14. medicine is completely recession proof. except maybe cosmetic surgery and the like.

100% false

in a recession people don't have jobs
people don't have jobs, they don't have insurance
people don't have insurance, doctors dont get paid

how does this escape your feeble mind?

I think it depends on what you end goal is. Will you be happy if you a lawyer? Will you be happy if you’re a doctor? Will you only be happy if you make a lot of money? If its 1 then LS will reach your goal, if its two then med school will reach your goal. If its 3 then neither 1 or 2 may necessarily reach your goal. If 3 is your goal focus on that rather than trying to get into a profession just to reach 3. There are easier ways than law school or med school to get to number 3 and there are lawyers and doctors who never get to number 3 anyway.