Are successful/smart/hardworking students subsidizing others Forum

[paul_m86]

Longtime lurker, first time poster here.

It seems like many of the students at my school who did well are heading to biglaw or elite boutiques, i.e. money is not going to be a problem for them. They'll probably end up being successful and make a lot of money. And they might deserve that. After all, they worked hard and put in a lot of time studying, and got good grades out of it (generally speaking). It seems like a lot of the people who 1) struck out at OCI/biglaw or 2) chose not to do OCI because chances were high they would strike out anyway, are going into public interest. The people in the former category usually say something about biglaw not being their "true calling" or some crap like that, and the others in the former category try as hard as they can to make it seem like they were public-interest-or-die all along ("Look! I didn't even do OCI!"). (and yes, I know, there are exceptions) They'll probably end up not making much money and will rely on LRAP. Maybe even get their loans forgiven, while people who made biglaw will be left paying back every red cent and then some of their loans.

I'm just wondering if in a way the better students, who tend to do biglaw, are footing at least part of the bill for lower-performing students, who tend to flock to public interest. Anybody else thought of it this way?

[headandshoulderos]

i mean, i would worry about subsidizing a lot of other wasteful federal spending before i worried about subsidizing my fellow law students.

[Eco]

I like how you categorize people who couldn't get a job as pretty much lazy-being-subsidized-making-excuses-losers. What's the point of this post. Do you want to tell us you're working somewhere awesome and you don't want to subsidize the losers?

[NinerFan]

Longtime lurker, first time poster here.

It seems like many of the students at my school who did well are heading to biglaw or elite boutiques, i.e. money is not going to be a problem for them. They'll probably end up being successful and make a lot of money. And they might deserve that. After all, they worked hard and put in a lot of time studying, and got good grades out of it (generally speaking). It seems like a lot of the people who 1) struck out at OCI/biglaw or 2) chose not to do OCI because chances were high they would strike out anyway, are going into public interest. The people in the former category usually say something about biglaw not being their "true calling" or some crap like that, and the others in the former category try as hard as they can to make it seem like they were public-interest-or-die all along ("Look! I didn't even do OCI!"). (and yes, I know, there are exceptions) They'll probably end up not making much money and will rely on LRAP. Maybe even get their loans forgiven, while people who made biglaw will be left paying back every red cent and then some of their loans.

I'm just wondering if in a way the better students, who tend to do biglaw, are footing at least part of the bill for lower-performing students, who tend to flock to public interest. Anybody else thought of it this way?

LRAP is a program by law schools. Those kids all had to pay the tuition that they're now getting LRAP for, so you're not really paying anything there, it's more like a refund from the law school for helping the less fortunate and doing goody-goody things.

Loan forgiveness could arguably be seen as "subsidizing"... but I'm not sure why I'm even talking about this. Yes, sure, successful people subsidize less successful ones. It's not a law school thing. Successful people in life generally pay more taxes then less successful ones, but generally receive the same or less benefits from the government than less successful ones.

I'm not sure why this post was relevent to this forum.

[Bronte]

Of course students who go into the private sector subsidize students that go into public interest. This is because those who go into public interest are doing something good for the country. The idea that they're less successful, smart, or hardworking is bullshit. Most people at top schools are quite smart, many people who get good grades do PI as a choice, and regardless everyone agrees to the LRAP deal by enrolling in a school that offers it.

[rinkrat19]

I would argue that the public interest jobs are necessary. SOMEONE needs to do them. You can't pay back loans on a PI salary, so LRAP makes it possible for those jobs to be filled. Otherwise only a few bizarrely altruistic rich kids would ever do PI.

[paul_m86]

important to keep in mind that I was just speaking in general terms

Maybe its just my school, but I don't know a single person on law review who is going into public interest, while the people who struck out at OCI are heading there in droves

[maximator]

Ugh and just think of those students on scholarships, leaching off of successful almuni. Makes me sick.

[studebaker07]

I like how you categorize people who couldn't get a job as pretty much lazy-being-subsidized-making-excuses-losers. What's the point of this post. Do you want to tell us you're working somewhere awesome and you don't want to subsidize the losers?

+1. I struck out at OCI and yet I am sitting around the Top-10%, made LR, all around kicking ass and taking names, etc. I probably work just as hard, if not harder, than other students who have secured a big law job and can just sit back and coast the rest of school because they have job security.

I will probably end up paying back all the money I took even if I have lower disposable income. I don't think that, in general, one can say that those who take public interest work or anything lower paying for that matter are somehow lazier or that they are being subsidized by big law lawyers. Wouldn't most of those big law bound folks have been on scholarship anyways (after all, they probably had higher GPA's and higher LSAT scores).

If that's the case, who is subsidizing who?

[paul_m86]

This is because those who go into public interest are doing something good for the country.

i have seen a hell of a lot of "public interest" jobs that would be extremely debatable when it comes to doing something good for the country

[Bronte]

This is because those who go into public interest are doing something good for the country.

i have seen a hell of a lot of "public interest" jobs that would be extremely debatable when it comes to doing something good for the country

In the aggregate, they serve a need that the market doesn't support.

[paul_m86]

Wouldn't most of those big law bound folks have been on scholarship anyways.

I know more than one Wachtell-bound person who is going to school at full-tuition. At the good schools (more than 50 percent into biglaw), I don't think most are. Even if they have some scholarship money, they still probably owe a lot.

[rinkrat19]

important to keep in mind that I was just speaking in general terms

Maybe its just my school, but I don't know a single person on law review who is going into public interest, while the people who struck out at OCI are heading there in droves

How about the people on the environmental or human rights or gender law or civil liberties journals?

OP, you sound like an ass. I hope this impression is mistaken.

[paul_m86]

This is because those who go into public interest are doing something good for the country.

i have seen a hell of a lot of "public interest" jobs that would be extremely debatable when it comes to doing something good for the country

In the aggregate, they serve a need that the market doesn't support.

They would just start going to schools that gave them more scholarship money then. Sure, maybe they go to GULC instead of Columbia, but it's not like the level of education is actually that much different.

[paul_m86]

How about the people on the environmental or human rights or gender law or civil liberties journals?

They usually just join those journals because they didn't make law review but still feel the need to join some kind of journal to make themselves more appealing job candidates. It's not like somebody who can grade onto law review is voluntarily joining the gender law journal.

[20130312]

Please, tell us more about the SA you landed at OCI

[theavrock]

How about the people on the environmental or human rights or gender law or civil liberties journals?

They usually just join those journals because they didn't make law review but still feel the need to join some kind of journal to make themselves more appealing job candidates. It's not like somebody who can grade onto law review is voluntarily joining the gender law journal.

134

Sorry OP troll better not harder

[paul_m86]

Please, tell us more about the SA you landed at OCI

meh

getting an SA out of OCI isn't something huge to brag about

pretty much like bragging about getting above median

not that big of a deal

[IAFG]

I sure as fuck am subsidizing something: I am paying more on my LS loans than my fucking credit cards.

[BeenDidThat]

Yeah, I'm sure we'll feel really bad that maybe a week's paycheck per year will go to subsidizing our colleagues. Boo fucking hoo.

And as noted before, a lot of those top performers are paying less than full price anywho.

Go away.

[paul_m86]

Yeah, I'm sure we'll feel really bad that maybe a week's paycheck per year will go to subsidizing our colleagues. Boo fucking hoo.

Oh, so you wouldn't mind if I took a paycheck or two of yours every year? Cool! I will make sure it goes to a charity ... or ... something.

And as noted before, a lot of those top performers are paying less than full price anywho.

At my school, the average scholarship for people getting biglaw might be $15-$20 year. Which means they are still going to be dealing with insane debt.

[headandshoulderos]

Please, tell us more about the SA you landed at OCI

meh

getting an SA out of OCI isn't something huge to brag about

pretty much like bragging about getting above median

not that big of a deal

stay classy tls

[Mal Reynolds]

Douchebag troll is very douchy.

[paul_m86]

Douchebag troll is very douchy.

yeah, I'm a real douchebag for suggesting that people good at law school might in part subsidize people who are not good at it

I should never have pointed out that people who are unsuccessful at law school (because of not doing well on law-school-style exams, not studying hard enough, whatever) generally flock to public interest. People might get their feelings hurt.

[leobowski]

You're either incredibly dumb or trolling to think that all the top 10%/LR peeps flock to biglaw. I'm going to go with the latter.