Help Forum

[BeerMaker]

Am I crazy if I leave a $60,000 a year career to go to law school? I would like to be an attorney, but this recent job uncertainty has me freaking out!

[ph14]

Am I crazy if I leave a $60,000 a year career to go to law school? I would like to be an attorney, but this recent job uncertainty has me freaking out!

We're going to need more details to answer that one bucko.

[rinkrat19]

Do you have the numbers to get into a school worth attending?

I'm leaving a 55k job to attend a T14 school.

[shock259]

What are you doing / how much upward mobility do you have / are you building skills where you can lateral into somewhere with more upward mobility if you don't have much / how much debt do you / etc.

And then:

What school are you going to / how much are you paying for the school / what ties do you have to the area / what do you want to practice / etc.

[thegrayman]

It's a definite roll of the dice.

I left a $50K job to go to law school FWIW

Time will tell whether that was a good or bad decision on my part

[Extension_Cord]

I left a 35k a year job for law school, big fing mistake.

[NeighborGuy]

Generally, big mistake unless you're utterly miserable doing what you're doing now and you will just die if you can't be an attorney.

It's a ton of work, stress, and risk, and there is no sense doing it unless you NEED to be a lawyer.

[random5483]

I left a 50k+ job (would have been a 60k job in a few years even if I did not promote) for law school.

No regrets here. I have always wanted to be a lawyer, and I love what I do now (disliked old job). My internship experiences thus far have been awesome. Maybe I will regret the choice in the future, but if I did not roll the dice, I would have regreted my choice not to go to law school for the rest of my life.

Sometimes, you just have to roll the dice. For most people though, giving up a 50k job for law school is probably a bad decision.

[jess]

.

[c3pO4]

I gave up 65+ to come to law school. 0 regrets. The work exp helped me get a job outperforming my gpa. I know I made the right move to leave sales, but am glad I have some sales background because I've realized it's important for lawyers. I remember cursing my sales job as being irrelevant, but now think having it pre law school was the best possible training. Crazy how the world works.

[Extension_Cord]

Who says you have to practise law once you graduate? Its only three years. Now if your paying 40k a year + living expenses at a lower ranked school and your not sure its what you want to do, then yeah rethink it, rethink it hard. If its something you want to do and you can get into a decent school or state school and will still have job opportunities available if you decide law isnt what you want to do, then go ahead and give it a shot.