Law School Quadruples the Chances of Depression is this real Forum

[jbagelboy]

I think the depression figures may be accurate but its impact and the comparison to other graduate programs remains flawed because of the deceptive control population. The issue is more that Americans are rejecting adulthood, because it's fucking terrible, and becoming "depressed" whenever they must face it - i.e., whenever they age a certain margin beyond college. There's float for this margin, and it might take longer for some folks to hit a depressed phase than others, and law school serves as a catalyst but it's probably not the driving depressive force in and of itself (just a path of least resistance). I bet excluding certain sub-groups (like the excessively wealthily and well socialized), depression skyrockets for most of our generation post-college. That happens to hit in law school, but its pretty shitty universally.

i feel like you're overthinking this one

sorry I wasn't trying to .. actually I'm more over-generalizing that life is just shitty after about age 23

[A. Nony Mouse]

wut.

[PepperJack]

In "normal" people, depression normally happens when either:

1.) One invests a lot of their self-concept and future in an anticipated outcome they expect to come to fruition that does not come to fruition.

2.) A drastic life change.

The depression rates would probably be higher for all graduate school students, but there are so many terrible schools with 300 people per year. Nobody plans to be 200k in debt with no job. The misinformed and special snowflakes are likely to become depressed. If you adopted their psyche (I will work hard and do well) then you would need to be insane not to be. If the market only supports jobs for 50% of students then there's a problem. The non-dischargeable debt would make it worse.

[Power_of_Facing]

I think the depression figures may be accurate but its impact and the comparison to other graduate programs remains flawed because of the deceptive control population. The issue is more that Americans are rejecting adulthood, because it's fucking terrible, and becoming "depressed" whenever they must face it - i.e., whenever they age a certain margin beyond college. There's float for this margin, and it might take longer for some folks to hit a depressed phase than others, and law school serves as a catalyst but it's probably not the driving depressive force in and of itself (just a path of least resistance). I bet excluding certain sub-groups (like the excessively wealthily and well socialized), depression skyrockets for most of our generation post-college. That happens to hit in law school, but its pretty shitty universally.

i feel like you're overthinking this one

sorry I wasn't trying to .. actually I'm more over-generalizing that life is just shitty after about age 23

http://www.economist.com/node/17722567

[jbagelboy]

I think the depression figures may be accurate but its impact and the comparison to other graduate programs remains flawed because of the deceptive control population. The issue is more that Americans are rejecting adulthood, because it's fucking terrible, and becoming "depressed" whenever they must face it - i.e., whenever they age a certain margin beyond college. There's float for this margin, and it might take longer for some folks to hit a depressed phase than others, and law school serves as a catalyst but it's probably not the driving depressive force in and of itself (just a path of least resistance). I bet excluding certain sub-groups (like the excessively wealthily and well socialized), depression skyrockets for most of our generation post-college. That happens to hit in law school, but its pretty shitty universally.

i feel like you're overthinking this one

sorry I wasn't trying to .. actually I'm more over-generalizing that life is just shitty after about age 23

http://www.economist.com/node/17722567

exactly. obviously post-retirement people feel improvements but I wasn't really considering that because I wasn't planning on living that long

[solitarymatch]

People on TLS have talked about that kind of shady/sociopathic gunner behavior at TTTs though. IDK if it's real, but every article like this seems to talk about LS in terms that sound more like Cooley than Columbia. Which maybe kinda makes sense given how many more TTTs than T14s there are and what a tiny percentage of students will actually find real legal jobs.

My undergrad is connected to a TTTT. Every lawyer or recent law school graduate (from said TTTT) has come off to me as shady and sociopathic. Avvo client reviews speak for themselves. "Cute and bubbly at first, but a real ditz in court. Lost evidence to be used as exhibits during trial, etc." I think this behavior is real. During undergrad, a good handful of TTTT law students thought they were doing me a favor when I was studying for my LSAT in the library. They would say they were scoring 175s, 177s, bullshit like that, on their PTs and when they finally took the real one, they got 151s to 153s. Not that there is anything wrong with this, but really, it's none of their business. They would seriously go on about the test being bullshit, etc. I don't like standardized testing either. I did shit on my SAT but with diligence I was able to do decently on the LSAT. I think several just went to law school because they couldn't find jobs with their master's degrees. To delay debt payments, I think.

I feel that taking a two year gap after undergrad has left me more depressed than if I had just gone to law school immediately. Granted, I took this break to resolve some personal issues and improve upon my research and writing skills, but at the same time I feel I haven't progressed. It's a good situation in that my employer knows I'm leaving next August should this application cycle go well, but thanks to her telling people about what my plans are, I've been given a lot of unsolicited advice. The first time I applied I was offered good money to a T20. I mention this to cut off the person asking me why I can't just go to local TTTT (which doesn't offer scholarship money). Person is usually a paralegal who has worked for years with someone and draws on experience and supposed debt of her employers as to why I shouldn't go. Person is usually presumptuous and builds upon her argument on my supposed $80,000 in student loans when I will be done paying off my debt this December (it was not that much).

Anyway, I pretend I'm not applying to law school at the moment. I'm just tired of people putting in their input when I didn't ask for it.