$$$ Question

[Ryckman_Boy]

Used textbooks? The Student bar association sells some, but I don't think they have very many. I don't know anyone who actually managed to get any used books, which really sucks because one section paid over $600 for their first semester books last year. Ouch.

[mt]

To sum up:
1) Study hard.  Then when you think you're doing that, study harder.
2) Get good enough grades to get in the top 10%.
3) Make Law Review.

If you accomplish all of the above, don't f*&^ing worry about any of this crap.

[Ryckman_Boy]

Listen to MT, he/she is wicked smaat.

[Andrew]

A couple points:

(1) Used books.  I'm big on selling and buying used books.  The problem in law school is that they never announce what book you need until very close to the semester starting - and it's really hard not to buy the book before the class starts (because you're going to need to read stuff).  I recommend half.com.  lawswap.com looks good, but I've never heard of anyone having success.  You can also sell books on this board - I've been successful at that (just start a new thread announcing you books and price).  Finally, the SBA does have some good books.  Staight ahead and a little to the left as you walk in the building.  I've picked up a couple deals in there (and I have one book in there to sell - it's also listed on half.com).

(2) Salary stats:
I'm sure the CDO didn't alter the stats, but notice that they choose median instead of average, and that they divide by sector.  All that $125k tells us is that, of the people that got private sector jobs, at least half of them were at big firms.  Remember that you don't get to just say "I'll be working inthe private sector" and put yourself in that pool.  The statistics could be read to say that big firms are the only private sector job anyone is capable of getting!  Also, remember that they're always going to be outdated, and I don't know if the list accounts for those that are unemployed. (ie What if only 3 people got jobs at all, and two of them were at big firms - you'd have the same 125k median private sector salary, but it would a huge error to interpret this as giving you a good shot at 125k.)

One final note: even if you're become one of those 125k people, it doesn't mean you had your pick of firms.  I know plenty of people that only got one offer - and I know even more that didn't get any offers.

I'm not trying to scare anyone or be negative, but be analytical about the meaning of those stats.

[squidz]

SEARCHING FOR THE TRUTH: Don't take it personally. 2Ls and 3Ls ARE omnipotent -- you'll learn how to smite people during your second semester of civil procedure. They'll teach you to walk through walls in torts.

Nobody said that a person who wants to make money is an evil whore; nobody said that pursuit of a high paying legal job is bad; nobody made any character judgments at all: they just said that a legal career is intense and that IF money your sole motivation, then you might be happier in a less stressful career. That's all. There are a lot of good things about law school too . . .  

MT: Is THAT the secret? And here I was wasting all of my time walking through walls.

 

[Shoelace78]

And looking at numbers I am going to hypothesize that AT LEAST 80% of that 50% were not in the top 10%.

[So_bored]

No school can guarantee you a high-paying job.  No matter where you go, you gotta hustle.  I had a friend who went to Columbia and graduated during the economic boom.  I don't know where he fell in the class, but I do know that he felt that he had been basically promised that with a Columbia degree, people would be rolling out the red carpet and beating down his door to get him.  Guess what?  It aint so.  He absolutely could not get a big firm job right off the bat.  He totally scrambled, and at the last minute, he got some low-paying job in the midwest, where he had to prove himself for two years before he landed a big firm job back east.
Oh, and BTW, I was NEVER humiliated by a professor in front of the class, nor were virtually any of the other students.

[l u s h y]

[...] All of a sudden money doesn't matter and those who consider it, or even worse publicly express concerns about it, are corrupted materialistic whores drawn to law school, like the moth to the flame, as the answer to their dreams of riches. [...] 

Law students (and lawyers) are not the corrupted materialistic whores one would think they are ... in fact they are pretty lame compared to, say, doctors. Maternity hospitals, for instance, will regularly charge for "extras" such as a cesarean or for a father to attend the birth. Usually there is a sliding scale of under-the-table payment for surgery up to $1,000. It is common for doctors to refuse to treat a patient without payment, leaving little choice but to cough up. The medical sector is the most corrupt -- after the traffic police, with gifts in cash or kind being common after treatment.

[oscarsonthepond]

I go to a lower T1 (currently ranked 40-50).  I know one guy who was not top 10% and got a job at a V10 and I know another guy who was not top 10% that got a job at a V15.  I also know multiple people (in the top 10% I assume) who got offers from Cravath.