Top Law Schools

Possible 1L student with orientation this coming week at a top 30 school in the New York area (closer to the bottom of general top 30 lists than the top). I have absolutely no contacts in the law field but have a huge interest to be a lawyer. I graduated 2 years ago from a respectable undergraduate business program and now have a decent 40-50 hr/wk job earning close to $70k a year in NYC. Given the law market is improving but no where close to where it was in 06-07, would it be a dumb decision to drop my current job and chase a dream that could leave me $150,000 in debt for years? Top law firms pay $160k a year but 90% of the class is not gonna be in the top 10% to get those kind of jobs. I had a 3.9 GPA in finance and a 159 LSAT.

Drop out immediately. If you're going to go to law school, retake and get a big scholarship to NYU or Columbia. The LSAT is very learnable.

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ny regional in "top 30"?
are you taking about fordham (not "top 30")?

Yes Fordham. It's in the top 30 in some rankings

Withdraw immediately, work for another year and put as much time into the LSAT as you can. This is not a hard decision.

jimmywho wrote:Withdraw immediately, work for another year and put as much time into the LSAT as you can. This is not a hard decision.

Also, just say Fordham.

And 70k for a 40-50ish workweek is better than the modal outcome at Fordham, pre-debt / cost-benefit analysis.

rankings are flame
but i especially wouldn't trust one with the audacity to put fordham law "school" in the top 30

1) only 63.4% of last year's grads found full-time long-term legal jobs nine months after graduation
2) 26.6% of the class was temping, part-time, working non-professional jobs, or completely unemployed
3) fordham keeps its unemployment rate artificially low - 1 out of every 7 employed grads is hired by the school (this includes non-professional work)
4) fordham has dropped in every measure of student selectivity each year for the last three years, despite slashing class sizes
5) the debt-financed cost of attendance at fordham law is $295,466 at repayment

withdraw immediately

Withdraw. No question.

More than half of Fordham graduates would happily trade their employment outcomes for a 70k that requires 40-50 hours of work per week. And your talking about borrowing 6 figures and giving up 3 years of earnings to join them. This is a terrible move from a financial perspective.

If you hate your job and really believe (for valid reasons) that being a lawyer would be a good fit for you then study hard and retake the LSAT and try to get into a better school at a better price. Fordham just isn't worth it unless its free or very close to it.

Ok thanks guys. Employment figures at Fordham are improving but obviously still grim compared to NYU or Columbia.

Yodamaster1990 wrote:Ok thanks guys. Employment figures at Fordham are improving but obviously still grim compared to NYU or Columbia.

they are grim full stop; withdraw asap and study for a retake

It's grim for biglaw and I know that. But what if my goal is to work at the SEC. They pay better than I'm earning now and it'll be in something I want to do for my career. Finance is great and my low hours are fairly unique to the industry (of course the salary is no where close to I bankers). I'm not striving to be at the top and work 100 hours a week. But at the same time I don't want to be earning only $50k post graduation. Anyone know how selective places like the SEC are?

It's much harder to get a job with the SEC straight out of law school than it is to get Biglaw straight out of law school. Most SEC lawyers are biglaw refugees.

With your GPA and alternatives you'd be absolutely insane to go to Fordham right now. I'm not kidding and I'm not being hyperbolic when I say that going to Fordham would almost certainly constitute the worst decision of your entire life.

http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 4&t=226351
great info in this thread

plz don't ruin your life

If you had a 3.9 in finance, you can do better on the LSAT. Waiting out this cycle and boosting your LSAT could make a difference to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt and lifetime earnings. You're a little behind schedule for this application cycle, but even applying with a December LSAT score, assuming just a 6pt score increase, could land you T14.

what if i told you that with a mere four or five months of part-time studying
you could attend columbia or nyu with a fraction of the debt you're considering

also
to be completely honest
i wouldn't go to fordham for free if i were in your shoes
you'd be forgoing $210,000 in income
while incurring $100k in col+supplies+bar prep+interest+fees
with a 7 in 10 chance of making less than you do now
and a 4 in 10 chance of not finding any ft/lt/jd employment at all

even fordham full ride would just be too risky for me

I'm not the best standardized test taker. I do better with continuous study of hard subject matter (unlike the LSAT or even SAT's) which explains the large discrepancy between my GPA and LSAT. I did terrible on the LSAT's the first round and that score will be dropping off soon leaving just the 159 on my record. At this point it's either take it or leave it with Fordham. If I leave it I'll just focus on finance and take my CFA's

Unless you genuinely hate your $70K 40-50 hour a week job, I disagree with the people telling you to retake for Columbia or NYU. Say you improve your LSAT by 11 points, which is possible but extremely difficult. That would get you in, but at or close to sticker, which is now close to $300K debt financed. Even a half scholarship (maybe you get that with a 172-3) is going to leave you around $175K in debt four years from now. How many junior big law associates would trade their job and $200K in debt for your job and no debt? My guess is around 95%.

Going to Fordham in your circumstances is as people are emphasizing literally insane, but in fact there are very few circumstances in which law school makes sense for someone in your shoes, assuming you don't come from a rich family.

Thanks all for the help.