Is this legit? Forum

[preamble]

If a student can get into one of the nation's top law schools (say, t14 or t6), does that student probably have a lot better options in life than law school?

[Clearly]

Kind of a ridiculous question, many will and many won't, depends on education, connections, major...

[twenty]

That's a ridiculously over-broad question. The only responsive answers you're going to get are "omg yes" because, (to those people in particular), anything is a better option in life than law school short of prostituting yourself out for meth.

[phillywc]

t6 student, have no better options, but i'm probably in the minority

[RZ5646]

Another day, another troll trying to convince us not to go to law school.

[preamble]

That's what I thought (that the statement was too broad.)

I came across that claim on a TLS thread (or maybe JDU) and I'd been thinking about it for sometime. I'm not trying to dissuade anyone from law school (I'm not very charismatic anyway) -- people on TLS are usually far more educated about the nuances of law school and the legal market than the general populace and are far more inclined to make intelligent decisions.

[georgej]

I think for splitters from low-prestige undergrads who don't want to just start a business selling something, law school could be viewed as a "best option" if the scholarship money is high enough.

[RZ5646]

I came across that claim on a TLS thread (or maybe JDU)

You have to realize there's an enormous sample bias. You aren't going to hear from the lawyers who are content with their lives, but the miserable ones will come back here and rant to let everyone else know how miserable they are. So you end up with all these posts attacking law school ranging from the hyperbolic ("no one should ever consider law school") to the idiotic ("just do McKinsey, bro") which aren't really a representative sample of lawyers' views.

Now that's not to say that big law is all fun and games—I'm sure it's not—but I doubt it's much worse than most other six-figure professions, and for certain students its more accessible than medicine, ibanking, consulting, etc.

[twenty]

I think my bigger frustration with this question, though, is that you're saying what a lot of prospective (or actual) law students are thinking. "Better options in life" is the swan song of a directionless recently-graduated college student whose friends and family go "BA in Philosophy? Enjoy Starbucks for the next fifty years." The concept of success ends up being a given hypothetical situation where you're doing better than your class-of buddies or meeting some financial expectations your overbearing parents had for you.

[Johann]

Presumption is yes , t14 and t6 kids can do much better things with their lives. Though obviously that's overbroad and doesn't include everyone. This is especially true in 2015. Up to 2012 I got it, but not so much now.

[preamble]

I think it is the aforementioned sample bias that tripped me up - all I ever hear is this sort of dichotomy with the legal market where you are either left under/unemployed with a mountain of crushing debt or you land the coveted 160k starting salary, which, while you can now finance your loans, entails 100 hour work weeks. A lot of people portray law school as a sort of catch-22; you lose either way.

[A. Nony Mouse]

I don't think people here generally say that all students who can get admitted to the T14 or T6 have better options. I've seen it suggested for people who have high GPAs (which is a lot of students at the top schools), from a name-brand school and/or in an employable major.

There are also plenty of people here who think law school isn't a good option, but that's usually for anyone, not just people going to top schools. There's a difference between thinking law school is a bad idea because of the risk of not getting a job/the crushing debt/the misery of biglaw, and thinking a specific applicant may be well-served to do something else because they have the qualifications to do something else (that's interesting/lucrative/stable).