Post
by Icculus » Fri Feb 08, 2013 12:20 pm
So at my school I think most people had a pretty good idea of things going in, but it's a T14 and my guess is the higher ranked the school, the more knowledagble people are about the market. I know I'm only at NU because I found this message board, otherwise I would have been listening to the shitboomers and my friends who graduated in 2005 when things were far different. It's funny, when I was applying, a friend of mine who went to NESL tried to convince me not to retake the LSAT (because a 167 is really great, you can get into some really great schools even with your GPA, why risk a score drop?), was shocked I would not even apply to NESL, and in general thought I made some very poor decisions. When I told her I was going to NU she was almost annoyed with me. Now imagine had I not found this website and I decided to go to her for advice, a licensed attorney, who had graduated LS, and who had a job (not biglaw, but a decent job). She thought I should have gone to the new UMass law school (which had not been accredited). Luckily I found TLS. Even my friends who are attorneys in NYC, who were all 100% behind me going to NU once I got in, hd given me some pretty crap advice about applications, etc. It's not because they didn't care, but they just entered into all of this in a very different economic environment.
I'm sure there are 0Ls out there, attending these TTTs, who have asked for advice, but they are asking the wrong people. Shitboomers tell them, oh staTTTTe places really well here, I went there, so did many in my firm and 0Ls believe them without thinking through the change ITE. They're told, don't listen to those people about prestige, they're just assholes. They don't realize that we're not looking at prestige, but rather job prospects. They're told, if you've always wanted this, go for it, consequences be damned, because you're special, and if you work hard you can achieve anything. The don't understand the curve, and the fact that 90% of the class will not end up in the top 10%. (i mean the understand that it works that way, but they don't seem to realize no matter how hard you work it can be you.) And very few people go in with the back up plan of dropping out if their grades suck. I don't necessarily fault these people who think they got good advice. I fault the people who find TLS and ask for advice, get all the info, and then choose to ignore it. Though I do think if you're going to spend a quarter million dollars you should do more research than just ask around, but i also know most people don't think that way.
Not to mention, other grad programs are not much better. I got a master's for teaching, most people I graduated with could not find teaching jobs (the english and history teacher market is oversatuarated) but what people forget is a one year MAT program costs, at most, around $50-$70K if you get no schoalrship money (luckily I did) whereas law school costs $150-200K+ for most people. Big difference. You can get out of a teacghing program and find a job in another field that can pay the bills and loans back. After law school if you have $200K you need dat biglaw paycheck. So when people say the economy is tough for everyone, while technically true, it is intellectually dishonest make such a sweeping generalization.
edit: grammar sucked, hopefully it's slightly better.