Is Pepperdine Worth It?

[salve5]

I'm having an extremely hard time deciding whether or not Pepperdine is a worthwhile investment.  After paying interest on all my debts I'll be paying back $250,000 over ten years.  Are there any current Pepperdine students or recent alums out there who can offer some realistic insight?

Jeff

[Jwebony956]

Jeff, don't do it. Please don't.

[salve5]

Why do you say that Jwebony956?

[bigs5068]

Pepperdine is a beautiful campus and a well respected school in L.A., which I happen to be from. 250K is a lot of money, but Malibu is a highly desirable place to live and Pepperdine is a nice enough school that they can charge a lot of money. I know several graduates from Pepperdine that are doing fine for themselves. Law school is a huge investment of time and money, but so any form of higher education. It will take time to pay off the debt, but if you want to be a lawyer and live in L.A. then Pepperdine will help you achieve that goal.

[FalconJimmy]

Why do you say that Jwebony956?

If she really looks like the picture, my guess is that she's just used to saying that to every man she meets.

[BikePilot]

I'm not a pepperdine student or alum, but I'm pretty familiar with the legal job market.  I'll second that Pepper is a really nice school, great faculty and reputedly a great student body.  The job market kinda sucks though and you definitely can't count on biglaw employment out of Pepperdine just yet.  Whether its worth it really depends on your alternatives.  When I was making a similar decision 4 years ago, before I applied to schools, I decided that I wouldn't go into serious debt to go to a school outside the top 3 and wouldn't go at all if I didn't get one of my four choice schools (lowest ranked of which was UVA). I had a decent job as an economist with a think tank and had the opportunity to move to consulting and work modest hours for about half what a first year in biglaw makes (market).  As it happened things went well for the lsat and I ended up going into debt to go to a great school, loved it there and am now in big law working on paying down the debt.  My standard of living now is about the same as before law school and certainly worse than if I hadn't gone at all, but the future is bright and I'm perfectly happy with my choice.  Obviously now the job market is way worse both for legal and non-legal employment than when I was making this decision. 

If I didn't have a great job before law school in a career field i liked just fine, I'd have been less picky I'm sure. I'm pretty indifferent to working as an economist or lawyer - both suit me fine. 

If you absolutely want to be a lawyer and don't care if your standard of living is crap for 10+ years after school definitely go, you'll manage to pay the loans off one way or another.  If you are making $80k now in a cushy job you love don't go.

 

[BikePilot]

Oh, contrary to big's assertaion, all graduate education isn't a big investment of time and money.  Most do require a lot of time, but many PhD programs range from free to modestly lucrative.  I've known plenty of PhD students who had sufficient stipends and grants that they made more than most non-big-law lawyers as students and huge debts are pretty unheard of out side of vocational schools (i.e., law, medicine, business, etc).

[salve5]

Thanks BikePilot.  I'm 22 and a senior in my undergrad so at the moment I have no cushy super lucrative job to speak of.  And just to add to your comment, my older brother is pursuing a PhD in astronomy at Colorado free of charge.  In fact, I think he makes something like $40,000 per year while he's there for doing research and stuff like that.

[bigs5068]

Bikepilot is absolutley right. If you want a big law career or are in a sweet job right now then going to a decent program like Pepperdine and paying 250k might not be a good decision. If Biglaw is your ultimate goal then only attend a T14 school. There are many lawyers that are not Big Law associates, but the pay is not nearly as good. If you are going to law school for the money and nothing else then it is T14 or bust. If your goal is to be a lawyer then any ABA school will do, but don't expect to be riding around in Rolls Royces. You will pay off the loans more than likely from any ABA school, but as BikePilot said it may take 10 years or so. If you had no real desire to be a lawyer and you spend 3+ years of rigorous school to end up paying loans of for 10 years it is probably not the best choice. If being a lawyer is something you really wanted to do then it is probably the right decision. As a sidenote there are a lot worse places to spend 3 years of your life than Malibu.