Grad school then apply to law VERSUS apply to law right away Forum

[sarahh]

And from what I've been told it's nearly impossible to get a decent full time job if one is in humanities or social science, which is why I regretted for past 3-4 years for not going into business or engineering.

Eh. I majored in sociology and my husband majored in psychology, and it was not that difficult for us to find jobs. I would look at the non-profit sector. There are many counseling-type jobs that only require a BA. Also, although the pay is terrible, AmeriCorps can be a good option if you only want something for a year. Many of the employers are willing to take someone just out of college.

[09042014]

1) It's impossible to get a job in the humanities or social science because those aren't job fields they are academic fields. However it's very possible to get an entry level business job with literally any BA. You don't need a business degree to be a desk jockey.

2) One year of w/e isn't going to do shit at OCI, especially if it sucks. If you'd prefer to get the masters AND can do it debt free why not.

I think you should try to get into an entry level job and work for 3-4 years, but you probably won't do that.

[sanjola]

Degree stacking makes it seem like you are a good student, but not a potentially good worker.

[jms2788]

SOOO I guess the consensus seems that work experience is valued more than getting a master's degree I'll definitely take this into consideration before applying to law school. But this makes me worried because I'm in social science. And from what I've been told it's nearly impossible to get a decent full time job if one is in humanities or social science, which is why I regretted for past 3-4 years for not going into business or engineering. With that being said, is ANY form of full time work experience is considered valued?

Just throwing it out there, the cost (including living expenses) of the MA degree would be somewhere between 10-15k at most(even less as I am 80% sure that I'll be getting some sort of grant) and it will be a year long instead of two. And my undergrad deb will be around 20-25k by the time I graduate. Would it matter if I do get my master's degree at Oxford or somewhere prestigious?

Don't be 80% sure you'll get funding if you go to Oxford to do a Bphil(Oxford's M.A).

Read: http://www.campaign.ox.ac.uk/

Not all Oxford graduate students are funded. Only 40% of humanities and social science grad students are funded at all. And International students cannot apply for grants from the UK's research councils (AHRC, ESRC, etc). There use to be ORSAS which had scholarships to make up the difference between home fees and international fees for international students in the UK, but that's gone now.

So, if you're a US citizen (which I'm assuming you are), don't count on getting jack from Oxford for social sciences or humanities. You would need to get external funding, which is difficult. If you do not get funding(and sorry to say, this is a good possibility), you're looking at a lot more than 10-15K a year.

Don't go to graduate school unless you have a strong interest in doing so. I'm in grad school and I love what I'm doing, but if I was doing it to get a law school bump, I think I would have dropped out. I think if you try to force yourself through a grad program just to get a bump(which may or may not exist-I'll stay out of that conversation because I don't know about it) you'll be pretty miserable. If you are interested in going, look for programs that offer good funding.