The Official BLSD "What Are My Chances?/Where Should I Apply?" Thread

[A.]

Indeed.  I know this girl who just graduated from a T4 with hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt.  According to her facebook status updates, she's just praying for a waitressing job at this point.  And if/when she does get a legal job, it certainly won't be paying $100k+.  But, she's a lawyer!

Sadly, I also know several recent grads of top state/regional schools, and a even a few t14 grads, who are similarly resigning themselves to whatever non-legal job they can find.  But ex ante, the potential reward still might equal or outweigh the risk of unemployment at those schools.

[bigs5068]

I know with a bachelor's degree who has never had a job period. Education is a risk I hope it is not news to anybody, but that is the way it is. No school has your back at the end of the day if your a Harvard Grad and you fail the bar your not getting your tuition money back same things applies at Cooley. It is a tough profession to get into and it may or may not work out.  You someone on facebook with a law degree is looking for a waitress job wow I know a guy who recently graduated from GGU making 200,000 a year right now. Those are both extreme examples and for the majority of people it will be somewhere in the middle they will probably find a job making 50K or 60k at the beginning and as you get more experience like in any field your pay will increase that is the general rule in any business.

Yes the loans will be a female dog to pay off. You can do income-based repayment, defer your loans, etc. It is a huge financial risk and not something you should take lightly, but at the end of the day you are learning a skill that you will have for 40 years the rest of your life actually. This girl working as a waitress will probably find a legal job at some point. That is why I say that a degree lasts your entire life getting yoru foot in the door in any industry is hard.

[bigs5068]

Indeed.  I know this girl who just graduated from a T4 with hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt.  According to her facebook status updates, she's just praying for a waitressing job at this point.  And if/when she does get a legal job, it certainly won't be paying $100k+.  But, she's a lawyer!

Sadly, I also know several recent grads of top state/regional schools, and a even a few t14 grads, who are similarly resigning themselves to whatever non-legal job they can find.  But ex ante, the potential reward still might equal or outweigh the risk of unemployment at those schools.

I do love the whole a guy analogy that everybody seems to talk out of their ass about. I go to a tier 4 school I can talk about it personally I know more than one person. Harvard, Yale, Stanford do not have 100% bar passage rates or employment and in fact I know two girls that have not passed the bar after two attempts that went to Hastings and have no job. No Hastings is terrible don't go two people did not succeeds although hundreds of other people did. Two did not and that is f'ing life I am so sick of people talking out of their ass as if they know anything about how a tier 4 works if you did not go to one.

[A.]

I go to a tier 4 school I can talk about it personally I know more than one person.

Ah I see.  Then yes, stay optimistic.  I wish you the best.

[bigs5068]

Thank you and we will see what happens I may never pass the bar or get a job.  If I don't though I will blame myself before I blame my school. That is what bugs me is that people on sites like JDunderground never once say they could have done something different it is completely their schools fault. That is just b.s. man I don't understand how nobody takes any accountability. I did not get 5 within awards or even staright A's I even got a C+ in Torts first semester because I did not study as hard for it as other classes. At the end of the day any education experience depends on what YOU make of it.

[10101010]

UGPA (3.16, Stanford and the University of Miami), 160 LSAT. AA male over 40 years of age  with 15+ years of investment experience(UCLA MBA).
 Prospects for Howard acceptance with full tuition scholarship?
Thanks

[bigs5068]

Look on law school numbers it is the best site for those kind of questions.

[A.]

UGPA (3.16, Stanford and the University of Miami), 160 LSAT. AA male over 40 years of age  with 15+ years of investment experience(UCLA MBA).
 Prospects for Howard acceptance with full tuition scholarship?
Thanks

I'd say pretty good, but I don't know very much about Howard admissions. (actually, I'm not sure that they even give scholarships...but if they do, you'd probably be positioned well for it)

[Jamie Stringer]

Look on law school numbers it is the best site for those kind of questions.

No, actually, it's not. That's the whole point of this thread. There are so few numbers on there for URM candidates, particularly African American applicants, that people ask here instead of looking at the tiny sample size on LSN.

I know with a bachelor's degree who has never had a job period. Education is a risk I hope it is not news to anybody, but that is the way it is. No school has your back at the end of the day if your a Harvard Grad and you fail the bar your not getting your tuition money back same things applies at Cooley. It is a tough profession to get into and it may or may not work out.  You someone on facebook with a law degree is looking for a waitress job wow I know a guy who recently graduated from GGU making 200,000 a year right now. Those are both extreme examples and for the majority of people it will be somewhere in the middle they will probably find a job making 50K or 60k at the beginning and as you get more experience like in any field your pay will increase that is the general rule in any business.

That's the point. Law is not like other fields. Your first job will, for the overwhelming majority of people, determine the rest of your career. It's not like people get hired as contract attorneys or at some small dog-bites-man law firm, and then they get scooped up as a partner in a large firm. It just doesn't happen. Being a lawyer and making 50K is not the same as being a middle manager for a company and making 50K.

Yes the loans will be a female dog to pay off. You can do income-based repayment, defer your loans, etc. It is a huge financial risk and not something you should take lightly, but at the end of the day you are learning a skill that you will have for 40 years the rest of your life actually. This girl working as a waitress will probably find a legal job at some point. That is why I say that a degree lasts your entire life getting yoru foot in the door in any industry is hard.

The girl working as a waitress *might* find a legal job at some point. Or she could have soundly f*cked her career up because she may not ever be able to find a law job and then other employers won't want to hire her because they think she 1) will leave at any moment for a legal position, or 2) is "overeducated." It's a screwed up system, but that's the way it is.

I understand that you want to be optimistic. That's great and I certainly encourage you to do so. But to overly optimistically advise 0Ls about their prospects of a job after law school, in an economy where legal jobs have contracted (and may not ever return to pre-ITE numbers) is not right, IMO.

[bigs5068]

Alright your right go jump off a bridge when life gets hard maybe she did f*** her career up who knows. Go to law school if you want to be a lawyer I don't how else to say it are their risks? Hell yes there are and in fact if you want to accomplish anything there will be a risk. 

I put basically my entire life into becoming a basketball player I mean probably 18 years gave it everything I had.  I spent a lot of time I did get some rewards, but you know what in the end it didn't work out for me. However, I tried and that is all you can say I don't regret any of  it.  You have 70-80 years on this rock before you die and if being a lawyer is something you really want to do then go for it. Why play it safe as a middle manager that is awful. I would rather put myself out there and fail miserably oppose to being a coward  never taking a risk and dying wishing I would have taken a few risks. That is just me though.