Seeking Advice/Guidance On Next Step For My Education Forum

[wilkinrs]

To start, I'll give some background about myself. I'll soon complete my B.S. in Mortuary Science and will sit for my national and state board exams at the end of next month. I will then be a licensed funeral director. I'm twenty-two years old and have been involved in the field for quite a few years and still love what I do, but I've always planned on continuing my education and law has always been an interest of mine. Being a funeral director involves wearing many hats which includes law. Therefore, having knowledge in regards to probate/Elder Law/regulatory compliance/etc. is very beneficial. That kind of stuff really interests me.

I've talked to a few attorneys and judges who I know and they've all been encouraging given my background. On the other hand, I'm gathering from many sources that being involved at all in the field of law today is the worst idea anybody could think of.

Seeking advice and guidance. Please help. Thank you.

[WhiskeynCoke]

Did you hear the one about the 22 year old funeral director who wanted to become a lawyer? How does the whole "yea I bury dead people for a living" thing work on those undergrads at the bars? You must crush it with the goth chicks/dudes.

Assuming this isn't a flame.......

If you want to bury dead people, be a funeral director. If you want to be a lawyer, go to law school. Don't go to law school if you want to bury dead people. Also, read: Don't go to med school if you want to be a funeral director; don't get your PHD in astrophysics if you want to be a funeral director; and a real classic, don't go to clown school if you want to be a funeral director.

Wasting three years of your life and going hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt, just to do what you already do, cannot possibly sound like a good idea to you. The attorneys and judges who have been "encouraging you" are either being nice, or are acting like stupid boomers. Given your "background?" What background? Studying how to bury dead people in undergrad makes it appropriate for you to pursue law school?

I'm twenty-two years old and have been involved in the field for quite a few years and still love what I do, but I've always planned on continuing my education and law has always been an interest of mine.

You love your job, and haven't once said "I want to be a lawyer." If law is "an interest of yours," read some Supreme Court opinions. Don't quit doing "what you love" just to hit the rewind button to become a student again, making no money, planning to be a funeral director one day.... Come on.

[TheSpanishMain]

Yeah, if you just want to learn a little more about the law, then just buy a few books/audit an undergrad survey course. Three years and a ton of debt just to satisfy some curiosity is insane. Buy some supplements on elder care law or something if you just want to broaden your horizons.

If you actually want to be a lawyer and give up the whole mortician thing (which would be weird, considering you JUST got the degree) then that's (potentially) a different thing.

[LRGhost]

you will literally be pushed through your funeral home's doors if you went to law school

[North]

Is there a law school in your town?

Which school?

[#NotACop]

I think I know who this is, OP are you looking at a regional school in the north east?

[wilkinrs]

Is there a law school in your town?

Which school?

Michigan State University School of Law is the closest.

[nightcheese]

You're a young funeral director and you want to go to law school? OP, is your name David Fisher?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0owAOKXWqw4

[North]

Is there a law school in your town?

Which school?

Michigan State University School of Law is the closest.

Just re-read your OP. So you're not currently a funeral director, you're just getting out of school for it? Okay. Do not go to law school. Establish yourself in your profession first, then come back to the idea. You don't need a JD to have a functional understanding of probate law and the like, and you especially don't need it when you haven't really even started in the profession you think it'll be helpful for.

When I thought you were already an established funeral director, my advice was going to be that you take the LSAT as many times as necessary to get a full ride to whatever TTT law school is in your hometown and then take night classes there while continuing to work full time at your real job.

However, your response indicates that (even if you were an established funeral director) you'd have to move to attend MSU. That would be a terrible idea. You don't need to take on cost of living debt and forgo your income to pursue a degree that will barely be of use to you, and that's assuming you have a full ride covering tuition.

As far as you saying you love the law or whatever, law school sucks. Buy an estate law casebook to read if you're really that interested. Don't think about law school again until you're set up in your profession and can determine whether you actually need legal licensing to make more money. And then, don't go unless you can go for free and without moving. Law school isn't even worth the $200,000+ it costs to people who actually want to be full time lawyers.

[heavoldgotjuice]

flame or you're a retard