Fordham, GW, Defer? Forum

[j99]

I’m having a hard time committing to a school, and deciding whether to defer for a one-year, 60k, job opportunity. What are your thoughts? Should I defer and take the job? Or, does the opportunity cost of deferring law school for one year outweigh the benefits of working?

[acr]

I’m having a hard time committing to a school, and deciding whether to defer for a one-year, 60k, job opportunity. What are your thoughts? Should I defer and take the job? Or, does the opportunity cost of deferring law school for one year outweigh the benefits of working?

You need to sit this cycle out and reapply. Seriously. There are so many upsides to reapplying that I can't even. Not only will you be able to enter law school with a more solid financial foundation (assuming you save some of the 60K instead of blowing it), you can spend the year working on improving your LSAT score to get into a stronger school with a full scholarship. And the work experience will only help you come OCI, especially if you can develop your writing/research skills at this job. There really is no decision here. These are terrible outcomes and I wouldn't wish it upon the worst gunner in my class to pay $180,000 for GWU or spend 3 hours commuting per day for the honor of paying Fordham $85,000.

There are no "opportunity costs" to sitting out law school for a year. Law school is law school is law school. It will be there a year from now and ten years from now and fifty years from now and my guess is it will be exactly the same.

[landshoes]

If you're talking about asking a school for a deferral, I'd say no.

I would say that you should reapply with a better LSAT, and I'd be curious what your overall stats are.

[j99]

You need to sit this cycle out and reapply. Seriously. There are so many upsides to reapplying that I can't even. Not only will you be able to enter law school with a more solid financial foundation (assuming you save some of the 60K instead of blowing it), you can spend the year working on improving your LSAT score to get into a stronger school with a full scholarship. And the work experience will only help you come OCI, especially if you can develop your writing/research skills at this job. There really is no decision here. These are terrible outcomes and I wouldn't wish it upon the worst gunner in my class to pay $180,000 for GWU or spend 3 hours commuting per day for the honor of paying Fordham $85,000.

There are no "opportunity costs" to sitting out law school for a year. Law school is law school is law school. It will be there a year from now and ten years from now and fifty years from now and my guess is it will be exactly the same.

By opportunity costs, I refer to the loss of one year of a post-jd salary level. Devoting time to a retake will, unfortunately, be difficult with the job...

If you're talking about asking a school for a deferral, I'd say no.

I would say that you should reapply with a better LSAT, and I'd be curious what your overall stats are.

165,3.7. Yes, I did mean requesting a deferral

[acr]

You need to sit this cycle out and reapply. Seriously. There are so many upsides to reapplying that I can't even. Not only will you be able to enter law school with a more solid financial foundation (assuming you save some of the 60K instead of blowing it), you can spend the year working on improving your LSAT score to get into a stronger school with a full scholarship. And the work experience will only help you come OCI, especially if you can develop your writing/research skills at this job. There really is no decision here. These are terrible outcomes and I wouldn't wish it upon the worst gunner in my class to pay $180,000 for GWU or spend 3 hours commuting per day for the honor of paying Fordham $85,000.

There are no "opportunity costs" to sitting out law school for a year. Law school is law school is law school. It will be there a year from now and ten years from now and fifty years from now and my guess is it will be exactly the same.

By opportunity costs, I refer to the loss of one year of a post-JD salary level. Devoting time to a retake will, unfortunately, be difficult with the job...

If you're talking about asking a school for a deferral, I'd say no.

I would say that you should reapply with a better LSAT, and I'd be curious what your overall stats are.

165,3.7. Yes, I did mean requesting a deferral

Landing a job from either of these schools that pays more than 60K is not an absolute certainty.

[landshoes]

I understand opportunity costs. You're not guaranteed a "post-JD" salary over 60k when you go to those schools.

http://www.lstscorereports.com/schools/fordham/
http://www.lstscorereports.com/schools/gw/2014/

Law salaries are bimodal. A lot of law jobs do not pay well.

[cron1834]

You have $60k in-hand with no risk, debt, or years off. Take it. 70% of these schools' graduates do not end up doing better than $60k with zero debt. You'll be more employable anyway.