what's wrong with just under six figures starting salary? Forum

[BillsFan9907]

A Bunch are in the 80s. On the surface, even paying sticker price seems reasonable. So what's the catch with these schools? Are job prospects so bad that those stats are really just for the 12 people who got jobs?

I've been reading up on a huge controversy some years back when UCLA reported 160k.

I've seen so many knowledgable (I assume) people on here not to mention respected bloggers saying with almost absute certainty that if its not top 10, its not worth it.

What is missing from the equation?

[ph14]

Maryland, for example, is in the 80s. On the surface, even paying sticker price seems reasonable. So what's the catch with these schools? Are job prospects so bad that those stats are really just for the 12 people who got jobs?

I've been reading up on a huge controversy some years back when UCLA reported 160k.

I've seen so many knowledgable (I assume) people on here not to mention respected bloggers saying with almost absute certainty that if its not top 10, its not worth it.

What is missing from the equation?

It's because the statistics are misleading. Salary distributions of law graduates are bimodal. That is, you're either getting ~160k, or you're getting ~40-60k (for the most part). So maybe a school's average is 80k, but that doesn't mean that many people have jobs that actually pay 80k. Also, it's hard to even get any job in the first place. And this is coupled with the high debt for many graduates.

[BillsFan9907]

Bimodality ! I never thought of that. Was that graph u showed for any particular school?

I'm assuming trends are also bimodal for HYS?

[mr. wednesday]

If going to a school gave you an excellent chance of a starting salary of $80k and cost 1/2 of a T14 to go, that'd be a decent deal. But that's not what's happening.

Most people are not getting 80k; the very top are getting over 100 or 150k, the top/middle of the class is making 40 or 50k, and the middle/bottom never becomes lawyers. Almost no one is starting in between the highest salary and the lowest salary range. Plus tuition at those schools tends to be the same as a T14.

[A. Nony Mouse]

Those graphs show all entry level law jobs, regardless of what school the person in that job attended.

[ph14]

Bimodality ! I never thought of that. Was that graph u showed for any particular school?

I'm assuming trends are also bimodal for HYS?

Nope, as far as I'm aware those graphs are for all law school graduates. Note that the number of the people in the sample on one of those graphs is in the ~23,000 range, so it must be a decent sized percentage of graduates, at the least.

Trends are bimodal everywhere, as far as I can tell, because it is a reflection of the types of jobs available, not the caliber of the students seeking them. So while perhaps the percentage of biglaw is bigger at HYS, it's still going to be bimodal because there aren't very many 80k jobs out there.

[mr. wednesday]

The difference between a $45k job at HYS and a $45k job at a TTT is that the job at HYS is more likely to be a desirable public interest job with PSLF forgiveness and loan repayment assistance from HYS, and the TTT job is more likely to be manager of a Wendy's.