what if law school cost the same as community college?

[If law school cost 1500 instead of 40000 I would....]

If law school cost 1500 instead of 40000 I would....

Go to the highest ranked school I got into.

Go to the highest ranked school I got into that was also in a place where I want to live.

Go to the law school down the street no matter its ranking.

Do something completely different

Go to the school where I felt I would best learn to be a lawyer

[cisforcookie]

eh?

[UnoriginalAndrew]

If it was that cheap, why would you not go to the best possible school?  It'd probably be a lot more competitive, too, since people who aren't quite so sure they want to be lawyers wouldn't lose as much if they decided to try out law school for a little while.

Put it this way -- take my situation, where some schools would be very cheap b/c of scholarships or in-state tuition.  Yet, out of my current batch of choices, I will likely choose to attend Boston College -- a much more expensive school.  It's a tough choice though, as the cheaper schools are tempting options.  But if all schools were the same price -- and that price was low -- I'd go to BC without thinking twice.

[TurboGirl]

What if you make the same salary coming out of law school as someone coming out of community college?
If money is important, you may not really be making as wise a financial decision as it seems initially.

[HippieLawChick]

If  this were the case, I could not lose sleep over having a public interest career.  That would be awesome.  Despite the CCRAA, it still worries me that I will have to work for 10 full years as a public interest attorney to get loan forgiveness.

[cisforcookie]

Well, if law school didn't have the financial risks, and this caused more people to sign up, what would be the harm in that? Since none of them would be coming out with 150k in debt, I think there would be an explosion in small law firm startups. You would also see a very large number of people with law degrees decide not to practice law.

I imagine that the competition for the best paying but least fun jobs would diminish significantly. The impact this might have on large law firm hiring and culture would certainly be earthshaking. I've always gotten the impression that people are much more concerned with money when they're in debt than when they're in the clear. Probly would drive hours billed down significantly. Can you honestly say that you would turn down a job paying 90k that required 1400 hours billed for a job paying 160k and a 2100 hours billed requirement? I think that alot of people would begin to take the first job over the second if they weren't concerned about debt.

I am always amused when my friends in law schools argue that the only way to get a good job that has nothing to do with a large firm is to work at a large firm because it's assumed that if you had any talent you went to work for a large firm. I think in the poll hypothetical that this echo chamber effect would be significantly reduced.

[Yak Herder]

If LS cost the same as community college, it would mean we were living in Canada or Europe.

[john jacob]

Tail wagging the dog. It is very possible for law school to cost the same as community college, in a world where a law degree was worth the same as an associates degree. However, that is not the case.