Washington and Lee Salaries

[moosemeatpie]

Ok, so I just got an offer of admission from Washington and Lee with money. And I'd really like to go. But the problem is that I have an obligation I need to first perform for the next two, two and a half years. If W&L will let me defer, it's wonderful, but this is highly unlikely as I was a WL admit.
Under any circumstance, I was looking at W&L's median salaries and..... it's pretty low. First, only 49% of graduates seem to go into private sector, and even then, the median salary is $85,000. And job placement rate at graduation is like, 75%???
What's up with this? Other schools in the neighborhood don't seem to suffer this badly. Is W&L's #22 ranking completely undeserved? I mean I really like the school, I would love being in Lexington, but I definitely want to have a future that I planned on having, especially if I am going to be attending law school and failing to perform my duties and completely disappoint/desert my family. A six figure paycheck would mitigate the situation very much. But that doesn't seem likely at W&L.

[Fred Hits]

i had the same problem so i can prob offer you my 2 cents

first off the employed at graduation number is pretty consistent with other 'not in the city schools'- look at ND for example- even BC is close to WL---i emailed the career services person regardless adn she said the rate for the most recent class was 88%  (seems like economy plays a big role)

Salaries are also consistent with the other 'southern' law schools  (save for vandy) such as WM Emory and UNC.  I have done a good amount of research on this and it seems that these low figures are due more to col adjustments more then anything- in fact i took those 4 southern schools and compared them to gw, bc, bu, fordham with col taken into consideration and found them virtually identical- also their avg last year was 100k so the 88 this year seems to be the bad market (all schools had a bit of a down year) so i would say a normal year would b earound 100 avg- now W&L definately does not have a great amount of oci from big paying firms but its a quality over quantity thing (the school is  so small)

[HippieLawChick]

Doesn't "median" salary mean that many people make more than $85?  I think that you are underestimating what $85,000 a year means as far as quality of living if your 4 bedroom house only costs you $1,000 a month. 

(I agree with Fred Hits on this one)

[wongsb]

Doesn't "median" salary mean that many people make more than $85?  I think that you are underestimating what $85,000 a year means as far as quality of living if your 4 bedroom house only costs you $1,000 a month. 

(I agree with Fred Hits on this one)

And at $85K.. if you are pulling 55-60h weeks rather than 85+h weeks, hour-by-hour, you're making and saving comparable to if not more than a New York first-year asssociate. 

[moosemeatpie]

but 33% of graduates get work in "MidAtlantic" (NY, NJ, PA) and DC/NVa regions.... so shouldn't the salaries still be somewhat competitive? and what of the 49% private practice numbers? Is it just harder to get a biglaw job out of W&L? or are W&L folk generally more averse to biglaw jobs than most other schools in the range?

[moosemeatpie]

Also, Emory's private sector median is 95k despite placing heavily in GA. Even W&M was 94k.

so y'all think if my goal ultimately is to work in DC/Boston, it isn't a good idea to go to W&L?

[michaelduke]

southern schools?  Well, Duke's median is $125,000.

i had the same problem so i can prob offer you my 2 cents

first off the employed at graduation number is pretty consistent with other 'not in the city schools'- look at ND for example- even BC is close to WL---i emailed the career services person regardless adn she said the rate for the most recent class was 88%  (seems like economy plays a big role)

Salaries are also consistent with the other 'southern' law schools  (save for vandy) such as WM Emory and UNC.  I have done a good amount of research on this and it seems that these low figures are due more to col adjustments more then anything- in fact i took those 4 southern schools and compared them to gw, bc, bu, fordham with col taken into consideration and found them virtually identical- also their avg last year was 100k so the 88 this year seems to be the bad market (all schools had a bit of a down year) so i would say a normal year would b earound 100 avg- now W&L definately does not have a great amount of oci from big paying firms but its a quality over quantity thing (the school is  so small)

[moosemeatpie]

southern schools?  Well, Duke's median is $125,000.

congratulations on not having my problem 

[Fred Hits]

allrite i'll try and give my 3 cents

mrduke- duke doesnt count you know that- t14's are a bird of a different feather (that's why i make no mention of uva either)

midatlantic jobs- i really don't know where you got 33% from- its more like 15ish- tho it is steadily getting higher

wm/emory- 94/95/88 isnt really much of a difference at all---even if you think it is there are 3 things to consider
-wl is really small so getting a year to year average to be the same is going to be difficult- 1 person can scew things one way or another
-emory is in atlanta so its gonna have a stranglehold on those jobs
-im not 100% on this but i think the williamsburg area has a higher col/salary level then the richmond type area- in va it seems both schools put people more in their areas and the wm area is more built up

i don't see why the practice % bugs you that much- the school does great with clerkships which makes for fewer people going immediately into the private sector- this can be both good and bad depending- its bad becuz the students as a whole are a bit less likely to go immediately into big firms but good becuz i think you will get a better 'education' so to speak w/o sacrificing the biglaw opp

dc/boston- thats 2 big differences- if you want boston dont go to wl- if dc is your goal then wl is a great choice- i did a martindale search and while you don't find many wl grads (partially of course becuz there isnt many) you'll see that the ones you find are pretty well off (high partners per person ratio)

[Ace]

check out http://ir.wlu.edu/studata/ and then scroll towards the bottom of the page where it says "Law School post graduate employment statistics."  Some of the earlier statistics have me a little worried.  Granted 1998 was 7 years ago, but a $60k private salary median is still pretty low.