Only Go to Baylor Law IF:
Posted: Tue Feb 18, 2014 1:54 pm
I hope this can help elucidate the pros and cons of selecting Baylor Law School as your law school of choice. The moral of the story--Only go to Baylor Law School if:
(1) You only want to work in Texas. Texas is a great market, probably one of the best in the country with several large cities (and economies), but consider what you want type of legal work because the amount and quality of work opportunities in Texas will likely depend of which law school you choose to attend. For Baylor 2012 Grads (138 total), 117 were employed in TX (85% of the class); 2 in OK; 1 in CA; 15 were Unemployed (or 11% of the class and it’s safe to assume that some of these couldn’t find a job in TX); 3 Unknown), which leads me to my next point….
(2) You only want to work in a small- or mid-size firm. Not saying there’s anything wrong with that, but look at the numbers before you decide: http://www.lstscorereports.com/?school=baylor(For 2012, 4 grads went solo/didn’t like unemployment; 47 went to 2-10 attorney firms; 19 went to 11-25 attorney firms; 12 went to 26-50 attorney firms; and 3 went to 51-100 attorney firms; 2 unknown). Since you’re probably wondering (and too lazy to look up the numbers yourself), here is the gist of it: 62% of the 2012 Baylor class went to work in a law firm of 100 or less lawyers. That’s fine, but if you’re paying sticker (see #4), you’re setting yourself up to be paying off loans for a long time. Estimated monthly loan payment on a 10-year plan would be $2,853, or $34,246 per year. Put another way: In 2011, the median salary for Baylor Law Grads was $60,000, the 75th percentile was $85,000. Assuming an average tax rate of 20%, median earners are left with $48,000 after taxes and 75th percentile earners are left with $68,000 after taxes. So (using the 10-year payment plan) a median earner (without PAYE) would have 75% of his take-home pay earmarked for loans and a 75th percentile earner would have 50%. That’s just not sustainable or possible. That kind of debt payment would suck if you made 160K, but that’d suck even worse when you’re only making $60K. But that’s what PAYE’s for, amirite?
(3) You do not aspire to work in BigLaw (the only schools that Baylor sometimes outplaces in Texas BigLaw are Texas Tech (and other TTT(T)’s), and even South Texas kicks Baylor’s butt at placement in some Houston firms). Only 13 of Baylor’s 2012 Law Grads went to “BigLaw,” which is less than 10% of the entire class. Statistics suck, but that means 9 out of 10 people at Baylor won’t ever reach the 160K pie-in-the-sky. Which really sucks because you’re going to have a whole pile of debt waiting for you upon graduation …see #4
(4) You have lots of money sitting around burning a hole in your pocket (Class of 2016 projected cost for Baylor = $239,584, or the equivalent of two decent houses in Waco – are you sure you don’t want to get into real estate investing??) and 3 years to spend/waste (matter of perspective-but remember to consider opportunity costs) OR you have a lot of scholly $$$ calling your name, AND . . . .
(5) You've maxed out your retakes, must stay in Texas, and you have no better offers at schools that will offer you better employment prospects (in terms of both job chances and salary outcomes). As mentioned above, if you want to work in TX, consider this: http://www.lstscorereports.com/?r=tx. Baylor is 10th on the list, even though they are the 4th highest-rated school in the state (based on USNews), sandwiched between the University of Oklahoma and South Texas College of Law. Some prestigious company to be in, for sure.
(6) You just absolutely love litigation; like you dream of Joe Jamail (no, wait, he went to UT Law) and that’s what you want to do and you just want to soak it all in. I know, I know, you’re going to be the next Ken Starr, but you’ll only be famous like him if Bill Clinton is back in office.
(7) You are masochistic – Law school sucks enough already; go ahead and use the search function to find out how much more sucky Baylor Law is. It’s intense and insanely competitive (https://baylorlariat.com/2011/10/13/bu- ... mpetitive/). For a TLS discussion on how much Baylor Law sucks, here’s a head-start: http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 4&t=192436.
(8) More specifically, instead of coasting your last year of law school, you want to put yourself through living hell with “Practice Court,” which every Baylor Law alum I’ve talked to has described as “intense,” “brutal,” or “super busy.” This sucks for 3 reasons: (1) if you are on the summer track, you may be doing this instead of getting legal experience at a possible employer; (2) you are extremely busy/stressed your last year of law school and you don’t have a ton of time to find a job (and since you live in Waco—see #9—this only makes it harder); and (3) you’re apparently getting fantastic practical experience, but apparently only smaller law firms tend to agree – see #2. If you’re worried about passing the Texas Bar, Baylor will get you ready for that, but so will many other TX law schools, and you’ll actually have a life your 3L year. And you’ll get to do it in Dallas, Houston, or Austin, all of which are NOT . . .
(9) Waco. If you don’t mind living in Waco (or as my wife first pronounced it when we moved to Texas: “Whack-o”; she’s not too far off). It’s an ugly town (and that’s saying something in TX) and it’s not exactly an awesome campus. Plus, crazy people seem to flock there, I’m joking on this, but still this is one of the first things that people think about when you say Waco. (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline ... oresh.html). Also, there isn’t a ton to do in the town, but the real problem is that Waco is not exactly a booming town, there aren’t a lot of employers there (and hence, not a lot of legal jobs), and you’re so busy w/ school/exams/practice court that you don’t have time to go to Houston, Dallas, Austin, etc. to make connections or find legal job opportunities. And as we discussed above, don’t bank on big firms coming to OCI in Waco and rolling out the red carpet for you (I’m sure some Baylor grads fight over who has to go (not who gets to go) to Waco and do the OCI interviews). It’s putting yourself in a sub-prime legal market (location and prospects), with sub-prime activities to do and see in the town, and just hoping that you defy the statistical odds to find gainful employment to pay back your pile of loans.
(10) (<sarcasm>) You only want to study and don’t like parties, dancing, and you epitomize conservative/Baptist viewpoints (</sarcasm>)
(11) Bonus – they have a pretty good/exciting football team, Art Briles is a great coach and they could be good for several years as long as he’s there, and they just got a new stadium built.
(12) Bonus-- Waco has, like, a Chipotle, a Fazzoli’s, and like, so many other fine dining options.
TL;DR – Only go to Baylor if you have a scholarship, want to do litigation in TX, don’t care if it’s at a small(-er) law firm, and don’t mind living in Waco for 3 years, and you want the most competitive, miserable law school experience ever.
*Disclosure: I didn't go to Baylor Law and I'm glad I didn't. I am not from Texas originally, but I am very familiar with the Waco area and Texas overall. And I've heard first-hand from multiple sources of their experience at Baylor (and others' are well documented on TLS). I see this as a public-service announcement so those considering Baylor Law can objectively identify whether the school will provide the means to help them reach their employment goals.
(1) You only want to work in Texas. Texas is a great market, probably one of the best in the country with several large cities (and economies), but consider what you want type of legal work because the amount and quality of work opportunities in Texas will likely depend of which law school you choose to attend. For Baylor 2012 Grads (138 total), 117 were employed in TX (85% of the class); 2 in OK; 1 in CA; 15 were Unemployed (or 11% of the class and it’s safe to assume that some of these couldn’t find a job in TX); 3 Unknown), which leads me to my next point….
(2) You only want to work in a small- or mid-size firm. Not saying there’s anything wrong with that, but look at the numbers before you decide: http://www.lstscorereports.com/?school=baylor(For 2012, 4 grads went solo/didn’t like unemployment; 47 went to 2-10 attorney firms; 19 went to 11-25 attorney firms; 12 went to 26-50 attorney firms; and 3 went to 51-100 attorney firms; 2 unknown). Since you’re probably wondering (and too lazy to look up the numbers yourself), here is the gist of it: 62% of the 2012 Baylor class went to work in a law firm of 100 or less lawyers. That’s fine, but if you’re paying sticker (see #4), you’re setting yourself up to be paying off loans for a long time. Estimated monthly loan payment on a 10-year plan would be $2,853, or $34,246 per year. Put another way: In 2011, the median salary for Baylor Law Grads was $60,000, the 75th percentile was $85,000. Assuming an average tax rate of 20%, median earners are left with $48,000 after taxes and 75th percentile earners are left with $68,000 after taxes. So (using the 10-year payment plan) a median earner (without PAYE) would have 75% of his take-home pay earmarked for loans and a 75th percentile earner would have 50%. That’s just not sustainable or possible. That kind of debt payment would suck if you made 160K, but that’d suck even worse when you’re only making $60K. But that’s what PAYE’s for, amirite?
(3) You do not aspire to work in BigLaw (the only schools that Baylor sometimes outplaces in Texas BigLaw are Texas Tech (and other TTT(T)’s), and even South Texas kicks Baylor’s butt at placement in some Houston firms). Only 13 of Baylor’s 2012 Law Grads went to “BigLaw,” which is less than 10% of the entire class. Statistics suck, but that means 9 out of 10 people at Baylor won’t ever reach the 160K pie-in-the-sky. Which really sucks because you’re going to have a whole pile of debt waiting for you upon graduation …see #4
(4) You have lots of money sitting around burning a hole in your pocket (Class of 2016 projected cost for Baylor = $239,584, or the equivalent of two decent houses in Waco – are you sure you don’t want to get into real estate investing??) and 3 years to spend/waste (matter of perspective-but remember to consider opportunity costs) OR you have a lot of scholly $$$ calling your name, AND . . . .
(5) You've maxed out your retakes, must stay in Texas, and you have no better offers at schools that will offer you better employment prospects (in terms of both job chances and salary outcomes). As mentioned above, if you want to work in TX, consider this: http://www.lstscorereports.com/?r=tx. Baylor is 10th on the list, even though they are the 4th highest-rated school in the state (based on USNews), sandwiched between the University of Oklahoma and South Texas College of Law. Some prestigious company to be in, for sure.
(6) You just absolutely love litigation; like you dream of Joe Jamail (no, wait, he went to UT Law) and that’s what you want to do and you just want to soak it all in. I know, I know, you’re going to be the next Ken Starr, but you’ll only be famous like him if Bill Clinton is back in office.
(7) You are masochistic – Law school sucks enough already; go ahead and use the search function to find out how much more sucky Baylor Law is. It’s intense and insanely competitive (https://baylorlariat.com/2011/10/13/bu- ... mpetitive/). For a TLS discussion on how much Baylor Law sucks, here’s a head-start: http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 4&t=192436.
(8) More specifically, instead of coasting your last year of law school, you want to put yourself through living hell with “Practice Court,” which every Baylor Law alum I’ve talked to has described as “intense,” “brutal,” or “super busy.” This sucks for 3 reasons: (1) if you are on the summer track, you may be doing this instead of getting legal experience at a possible employer; (2) you are extremely busy/stressed your last year of law school and you don’t have a ton of time to find a job (and since you live in Waco—see #9—this only makes it harder); and (3) you’re apparently getting fantastic practical experience, but apparently only smaller law firms tend to agree – see #2. If you’re worried about passing the Texas Bar, Baylor will get you ready for that, but so will many other TX law schools, and you’ll actually have a life your 3L year. And you’ll get to do it in Dallas, Houston, or Austin, all of which are NOT . . .
(9) Waco. If you don’t mind living in Waco (or as my wife first pronounced it when we moved to Texas: “Whack-o”; she’s not too far off). It’s an ugly town (and that’s saying something in TX) and it’s not exactly an awesome campus. Plus, crazy people seem to flock there, I’m joking on this, but still this is one of the first things that people think about when you say Waco. (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline ... oresh.html). Also, there isn’t a ton to do in the town, but the real problem is that Waco is not exactly a booming town, there aren’t a lot of employers there (and hence, not a lot of legal jobs), and you’re so busy w/ school/exams/practice court that you don’t have time to go to Houston, Dallas, Austin, etc. to make connections or find legal job opportunities. And as we discussed above, don’t bank on big firms coming to OCI in Waco and rolling out the red carpet for you (I’m sure some Baylor grads fight over who has to go (not who gets to go) to Waco and do the OCI interviews). It’s putting yourself in a sub-prime legal market (location and prospects), with sub-prime activities to do and see in the town, and just hoping that you defy the statistical odds to find gainful employment to pay back your pile of loans.
(10) (<sarcasm>) You only want to study and don’t like parties, dancing, and you epitomize conservative/Baptist viewpoints (</sarcasm>)
(11) Bonus – they have a pretty good/exciting football team, Art Briles is a great coach and they could be good for several years as long as he’s there, and they just got a new stadium built.
(12) Bonus-- Waco has, like, a Chipotle, a Fazzoli’s, and like, so many other fine dining options.
TL;DR – Only go to Baylor if you have a scholarship, want to do litigation in TX, don’t care if it’s at a small(-er) law firm, and don’t mind living in Waco for 3 years, and you want the most competitive, miserable law school experience ever.
*Disclosure: I didn't go to Baylor Law and I'm glad I didn't. I am not from Texas originally, but I am very familiar with the Waco area and Texas overall. And I've heard first-hand from multiple sources of their experience at Baylor (and others' are well documented on TLS). I see this as a public-service announcement so those considering Baylor Law can objectively identify whether the school will provide the means to help them reach their employment goals.