Is Law School Worth It? Forum

[helloperson]

I came across this excellent analysis by some law professor at Vanderbilt. Oldish (Oct. 2009), but still excellent.

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm? ... id=1497044

Bottom line:

Three possible students, none of whom are receiving merit aid, with possible starting salaries without law school of 40k, 55k, and 70k for Also Ran, Solid Performer, and Hot Prospect respectively, would have to earn the salaries in the figure below to make law school "worth it."

[FiveSermon]

Tell me what schools you got into and how much $$ they can offered you and I can give you a general guess as to whether it's "worth it".

[arvcondor]

What the hell does "also ran" mean?

[Ty Webb]

What the hell does "also ran" mean?

If you can't spot the also-ran at the able, then you are the also-ran.

[Fred_McGriff]

Always worth it no matter what. $250,000 in debt for Ave Maria is going to be worth it, as long as you study abroad and go to Barry for an LLM in International Law. Lawyers make millions, it's a proven fact, and it takes money to make money. Even if you only make a few hundred thousand a year, you get to be surrounded by awesome courtroom drama and help Benson and Stabler solve sexy cases. What other profession lets you put the bad guys in jail, get paid to interpret the constitution, and make guaranteed mega bucks?

[helloperson]

Tell me what schools you got into and how much $$ they can offered you and I can give you a general guess as to whether it's "worth it".

I'm in a unique situation in that I have an electrical engineering background; my choice of school is somewhat less important than someone with, say, a philosophy major. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), this also makes my situation more closely resemble "Hot Prospect" from the paper than either of the other two: even with scholarships, I must earn in the neighborhood 100k+ out the gate for law school to be "worth it."

So far my top choice of schools I am in at is USD with $90k, but I am still waiting on UCLA/USC/NYU. PM me for stats.

Back to the thread topic though: what do you guys make of this professor's analysis? What flaws do you see? Should the numbers be lower/higher?

[thexfactor]

ITE the numbers should be alot lower. A ok school doesnt give you 20% chance. It gives you 10% (villanova, miami, upitt, case) Good school gives you 20-25.(wust/emory/uiuc) Great school gives you 60.(CCN)

[FiveSermon]

Tell me what schools you got into and how much $$ they can offered you and I can give you a general guess as to whether it's "worth it".

I'm in a unique situation in that I have an electrical engineering background; my choice of school is somewhat less important than someone with, say, a philosophy major. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), this also makes my situation more closely resemble "Hot Prospect" from the paper than either of the other two: even with scholarships, I must earn in the neighborhood 100k+ out the gate for law school to be "worth it."

So far my top choice of schools I am in at is USD with $90k, but I am still waiting on UCLA/USC/NYU. PM me for stats.

Back to the thread topic though: what do you guys make of this professor's analysis? What flaws do you see? Should the numbers be lower/higher?

Oh. IP law? Then you should be fine.

[seriously????]

Always worth it no matter what. $250,000 in debt for Ave Maria is going to be worth it, as long as you study abroad and go to Barry for an LLM in International Law. Lawyers make millions, it's a proven fact, and it takes money to make money. Even if you only make a few hundred thousand a year, you get to be surrounded by awesome courtroom drama and help Benson and Stabler solve sexy cases. What other profession lets you put the bad guys in jail, get paid to interpret the constitution, and make guaranteed mega bucks?

Dude, benson is from a tv show, its not real. The real life benson is much hotter and willing.

[jcunni5]

ITE the numbers should be alot lower. A ok school doesnt give you 20% chance. It gives you 10% (villanova, miami, upitt, case) Good school gives you 20-25.(wust/emory/uiuc) Great school gives you 60.(CCC)

fixed

jk kinda

[AreJay711]

What the hell does "also ran" mean?

It is a rather weird way to put it. Why not just put salaries on the top of the chart?

Also, a 12% rate of return isn't bad and that would basically be what the discount rate means in this case. The thing that is missing is time spent working and stress level of the work. The job I was passing on would have been way less stress and more predictable times than a law job making 100K a year would most likely be.

[seriously????]

ITE the numbers should be alot lower. A ok school doesnt give you 20% chance. It gives you 10% (villanova, miami, upitt, case) Good school gives you 20-25.(wust/emory/uiuc) if you have ties to that region, otherwise 10-15% Great school gives you 60.(CCN)

fixed

[Hank Chill]

Always worth it no matter what. $250,000 in debt for Ave Maria is going to be worth it, as long as you study abroad and go to Barry for an LLM in International Law. Lawyers make millions, it's a proven fact, and it takes money to make money. Even if you only make a few hundred thousand a year, you get to be surrounded by awesome courtroom drama and help Benson and Stabler solve sexy cases. What other profession lets you put the bad guys in jail, get paid to interpret the constitution, and make guaranteed mega bucks?

This is the truth.

[PomasThynchon]

ITE the numbers should be alot lower. A ok school doesnt give you 20% chance. It gives you 10% (villanova, miami, upitt, case) Good school gives you 20-25.(wust/emory/uiuc) if you have ties to that region, otherwise 10-15% Great school gives you 60.(CCN)

fixed

Ah the "ties to the region" buzzword. Not every city is parochial.