How many people in 2013 still clueless about law school? Forum

[jwinaz]

How many people do you guys find or suspect are still clueless about post-law school employment realities now in 2013?

I just had a talk with a friend who told me of someone he knew who fit that description. Granted it's one person, but it was still ...shocking? ...don't know if that's the right word...to hear.

[you'rethemannowdawg]

Ignorance about the legal market is still incredibly widespread. I know a few people with decent grades that only took the LSAT once and are now attending schools with terrible employment prospects. One of them is posting all over Facebook about how happy she is to be accepted to a TTT in a completely different region and her friends commented things about her becoming a "big, important lawyer" and asked her to "remember all the little folks when you make it."

Outside TLS, awareness about the job market is rising, but most people seem to this that lawyers make 80k instead of 100k upon graduation. 6

[20130312]

Literally everyone, except those that have done an ounce of research. Even people that I go to law school with are completely clueless.

[law2015]

I know a lot of people who plan on going to law school and they have no clue. When I try to give them advice they ignore it.

[scifiguy]

Even on TLS, wasn't this kind of different a few years ago?

My friend's sister was a TLS member back in like 2007-ish when she was getting ready to apply to ls.

She seemed to have a more positive outlook desptie applying to lowerT1/top T2 (I think it's straddled those two ranges). ....I remembet hearing her talk about making biglaw type salary and wanting to donate to charity. Now, I believe she's working as a document reviewer/staff attorney at an IP firm. She's definitely not in biglaw.

But she was actually the person who got me to even think about TLS, because I remember her talking to my cousin about it when both were looking at law schools and they used the term TTT and I didn't know what it was .....and they told me about this site.

Anyhow, that was like 4-5 years ago! But wasn't TLS different then? Anyone know?


When exactly did the "scam" stuff start coming out online?

[20130312]

Even on TLS, wasn't this kind of different a few years ago?

My friend's sister was a TLS member back in like 2007-ish when she was getting ready to apply to ls.

She seemed to have a more positive outlook desptie applying to lowerT1/top T2 (I think it's straddled those two ranges). ....I remembet hearing her talk about making biglaw type salary and wanting to donate to charity. Now, I believe she's working as a document reviewer/staff attorney at an IP firm. She's definitely not in biglaw.

But she was actually the person who got me to even think about TLS, because I remember her talking to my cousin about it when both were looking at law schools and they used the term TTT and I didn't know what it was .....

Anyhow, that was like 4-5 years ago! But wasn't TLS different then? Anyone know?

The ECONOMY was different then. The bottom didn't fall out on the legal market until around 2008 and it hasn't recovered since then.

[scifiguy]

Even on TLS, wasn't this kind of different a few years ago?

My friend's sister was a TLS member back in like 2007-ish when she was getting ready to apply to ls.

She seemed to have a more positive outlook desptie applying to lowerT1/top T2 (I think it's straddled those two ranges). ....I remembet hearing her talk about making biglaw type salary and wanting to donate to charity. Now, I believe she's working as a document reviewer/staff attorney at an IP firm. She's definitely not in biglaw.

But she was actually the person who got me to even think about TLS, because I remember her talking to my cousin about it when both were looking at law schools and they used the term TTT and I didn't know what it was .....

Anyhow, that was like 4-5 years ago! But wasn't TLS different then? Anyone know?

The ECONOMY was different then. The bottom didn't fall out on the legal market until around 2008 and it hasn't recovered since then.

Yeah, but weren't there scmablogger then? When did scambloggers really become more pupular?

Then again, many people probably would'nt even read them.

[A. Nony Mouse]

No, scamblogs are more recent - product of the economic nosedive. Nando, king of the scambloggers, didn't start until August 2009. The blogs I checked on his blogroll all start after that. Campos doesn't start till August 2011.

(And it's really creeping me out to see you with someone else's avatar.)

[scifiguy]

No, scamblogs are more recent - product of the economic nosedive. Nando, king of the scambloggers, didn't start until August 2009. The blogs I checked on his blogroll all start after that. Campos doesn't start till August 2011.

(And it's really creeping me out to see you with someone else's avatar.)

haha...i think someone else saidt hat too.

maybe i"ll find antoher cat! I just liek this one a lot.

I can't believe Campos started in 2011. That's crazy. I guess it's still relatively new then. For some reason I thought Campos had been around longer.

[rad lulz]

When I started lurking in late 2009, the experienced poasters were all about how law school was a bad idea, but there was a large amount of naïveté. There is much less now. I rarely see threads about NYLS or Pace any more. But I still see plenty of threads about people who still want to pay a lot for middling schools (like say Hastings). So we have a long way to go.

[nickb285]

.

[star fox]

People that have no interest in going to Law School still assume everyone who does makes six figures.

It's why you'll never see any sympathy for unemployed JDs. They assume you must have been last in your class while doing nothing outside of school. Lots of misconceptions based off "oh Bill down the street went to a mediocre law school 25 years ago and is doing really well..."

[Rahviveh]

In my experience almost everyone is aware of the employment realities - they just:

a) don't know the specifics or the actual statistics
b) think it won't apply to them or somehow they'll be fine.

[20130312]

In my experience almost everyone is aware of the employment realities - they just:

a) don't know the specifics or the actual statistics
b) think it won't apply to them or somehow they'll be fine.

Nope.

[Tom Joad]

Judging by my grades, me.

[drmguy]

In my experience almost everyone is aware of the employment realities - they just:

a) don't know the specifics or the actual statistics
b) think it won't apply to them or somehow they'll be fine.

Does almost everyone include anyone other than the 3 people you have talked to about this?

[Rahviveh]

In my experience almost everyone is aware of the employment realities - they just:

a) don't know the specifics or the actual statistics
b) think it won't apply to them or somehow they'll be fine.

Does almost everyone include anyone other than the 3 people you have talked to about this?

What I meant by that is that most people have heard about all the news stories regarding the employment situation. Do they know the specific NALP/ABA data? Of course not. But the key is that they think it won't apply to them and they just go anyways. I talk to a lot of 0L's its more than 3 people.

[BarcaCrossesTheAlps]

I took a year off, enrolling in Fall '13...

So I have been asked to speak with some students at my UG mostly about tips for thesis, etc., but I've also been asked to give some advice to law school wannabees, mostly poli-sci folk.

It is frightening how naive people are. Last semester I spoke to about 10 kids and all of them looked at me like I had two heads. "The job market sucks." etc, etc. I told them all the bad/realistic stuff. Gave them sites to use to make a better decision through analysis. They seriously believed that getting a law degree, from pretty much anywhere, guaranteed 100k per year jobs. My jaw dropped. These fucking kids only "researched" the schools' websites and sterile bio-books on schools. When I explained that law school was about end-semester exams some of the kids replied they were "pretty smart" and gave me their GPAs. I basically told them that frame of mind would surely doom them in any law school setting and the "meeting" ended with a whimper.

It is DAMN HARD to educate someone whose confidence is based in ignorance. The professor who asked me to talk to them just said, "Yeah, well, now you know why I wanted you to come...."

Sad state.

[prezidentv8]

The professor who asked me to talk to them just said, "Yeah, well, now you know why I wanted you to come...."

This prof sounds like a legit dude.

[BarcaCrossesTheAlps]

The professor who asked me to talk to them just said, "Yeah, well, now you know why I wanted you to come...."

This prof sounds like a legit dude.

Yeah, I really respect the people who gave me my UG education. But this guy is in a weird situation. He basically educates kids to send them on to grad degrees, a good percentage of which traditionally go on to law school/PHd programs. So his situation is a little frightening. "Hey, guys, political science is really fun, cool, etc." on one hand, and "Umm, yeah, the job market sucks. Everyone is getting poli-sci, psychology, etc. degrees." Oh, and the always popular, "You are not a special snowflake" speech he gives on the other hand.

[scifiguy]

Do people get offended if you try to tell them?

I treid having this talk to someone I met who was applying, but she didn't seem very interested and I got the feeling she was still going to apply. I don't think she fully understood the implications of what I was saying, nor fully believed me maybe. Or she thought she was a special snowflake.

But also, I think that she may have been offended ...I don't know, but here's what I feel based on my impressions. I think she thought I was saying SHE was NOT smart enough to go or something like that. YOu know...like I figured she wasn't law school material and was just highlighting the negative and not giving her a complete picture with the positives. I can't tell for sure, but just based on some indicators, that's what it felt like. It's as if she thought I was challenging her intellect somehow and didn't want to hear it. She had planned on law since high school I think ....at the very least since college from which she graduated about a year ago. I think she just had her mind made up and me telling her something negative felt like it was a threat to her in some way. That's how I kind of felt.

It seemed she was annoyed by me possibly. Anyone else get that?

[20130312]

I don't even try to talk to people about it because people have ridiculous fucking egos. Just say "congrats" and be on your merry way unless they specifically ask for advice or your opinion.

[moonman157]

I don't even try to talk to people about it because people have ridiculous fucking egos. Just say "congrats" and be on your merry way unless they specifically ask for advice or your opinion.

This. Most of the pre-law people are aware that the market is "bad" but don't chalk it up to much more than the rest of the economy. For a lot of people I know, the very idea of going to law school has not lost its luster or prestige, so simply going to law school is a huge fucking deal (plus, what else are you going to do with that humanities degree ITE?). Special Snowflake Syndrome is very, very real, unfortunately.

[Poo-T]

me

[scifiguy]

I don't even try to talk to people about it because people have ridiculous fucking egos. Just say "congrats" and be on your merry way unless they specifically ask for advice or your opinion.

This. Most of the pre-law people are aware that the market is "bad" but don't chalk it up to much more than the rest of the economy. For a lot of people I know, the very idea of going to law school has not lost its luster or prestige, so simply going to law school is a huge fucking deal (plus, what else are you going to do with that humanities degree ITE?). Special Snowflake Syndrome is very, very real, unfortunately.

There's got to be a line or two...or three..you can use that will be a strategic way to talk to people.

In my situation, I think I lacked that touch/balance of showing concern, wanting to tell the truth, and also respecting that person. I think my acquaintance literally thought I was putting her down (her intelligence). ...It was maybe the way I worded it you know. ...It made me wonder if I could have come up with a different approach that would make this more digestable.

I've thought of telling super horror stories, lol., Ones taht would make them see the seriousness of it all.