danquayle wrote:Some people totally abhor the idea of having that kind of weight on their shoulders. Going to a cheaper school allows you to keep your options open. I know the stock answer to that is that you'll have more options out of a better school with more debt. This is only true in a certain sense. Its not true if you want a job that is low paying by default, takes a long time to develop, or is much higher risk. (Think non-profits, entrepeneurs, etc.)
With huge amounts of debt, you'll be bound to work for as long as it takes to pay that debt down. If you're lucky and get a big law job, that's only a few years. But even if, IF, you get that job, you're still wasting at least 3 or so years chasing a career you didn't want to begin with. And you'll be 3 years behind those people that jumped right into that career they wanted from the beginning. There's something to be said for the experience and networking gained from Big Law practice, but again, that's not universally applicable. It won't make much of a difference if you just want to open a business.
Choosing a law school is truly about your preferences. For 80-90% of law students, preference is prestige. That doesn't mean it always is.
You definitely make some good points here, however, a lot of these low-paying jobs that might seem to demand a cheaper degree would actually demand a prestigious one just as much, as they are (now especially) often as competitive as many high-paying positions. For this reason, it may not be preferable or possible to jump right in with a cheaper degree than to slog out a few years and catch up with a prestigious one. Of course, there are some cases in which the applicant simply wants a law degree for whatever reason and does not care much about what it adds to his or her marketability in the legal job market. It is true that, in such a case, the cheaper school is usually going to be the better choice.
GATORTIM wrote:your 'tar reminds me of the girl in the opening courtroom scene of the Devils Advocate.
He's a huge hog-beast. He probably eats a thousand pancakes for breakfast. By the way, have you ever heard of a game called "special places"?