I've decided not to enter law school in the Fall of 2010... Forum

[Altoids]

No way you're going to save 30-40 saved after taxes are taken out of a 33k salary, even if you have 10k on the side. I have a good chunk saved but even after good scholarships I'm looking at having 60k or so in debt.

[mstiger]

Thanks for all of the advice. I've considered retaking the test and attempting to improve my score. I scored a 165 on the June 2009 LSAT. I missed three on the Dino game, and the test was in the afternoon, which is not to my liking.

As for the posters suggesting that I need to figure out whether I want to practice law before attending law school, I'm not sure that's possible. I have been around the law before, but I got no real sense of what practicing law is actually like.

Even if I do save only 10K, that will be applied to any scholarship packages I receive during the next cycle. If I raise my score another 3-5 points, which is realistic, the amount of scholarship money would seem to increase along with the number of schools offering me scholarship packages.

[KansasSplitter]

OP has valid reasons for wanting to defer, but I would encourage her to study the number trends in depth.

Regarding LSAT...the results from this test relating to schools' admission standards has grown increasingly competitive in recent years. For example, 5 years ago a 163 would have been the golden number for schools like Texas, Vanderbilt, et al. They have increased their medians roughly a point a year since then. The same goes for most other top schools. Point being, if you don't improve your numbers, you will likely be a less competitive candidate and might receive less scholarship money next year. I speak from some experience on this since I contemplated going to law school three years ago, and instead pursued work experience. I am now looking at a lower tier of schools because of it.

Secondly, yes, you may be able to tuck away fifteen thousand dollars or so. However, look at tuition inflation at the schools you are contemplating. It's likely that their tuition is rising 8-12% a year. This will negate a large amount of the money you will have saved.

I'm not saying your choice is incorrect, just pointing out some additional facts to consider. Best of luck to you.