http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/business/09law.html?pagewanted=all
I still plan on going to law school, but it's given me some pause in going to the kind of place where my law school debt is going to be this big- especially considering that it's not just 3rd tier or even 2nd tier JDs that are posting angry blogs or selling their law degrees on Ebay.
Any thoughts?
1 comment:
I also thought of you when I read that article yesterday. As I read it, the article indicated that (1) going into $250,000 of debt creates some real financial stresses after graduation; (2) attending a 4th Tier law school does not speak well for your chances of employment after graduation; (3) ergo, going into $250,000 of debt to attend a 4th Tier Law is probably lunacy. I couldn't agree more.
That being said, I have some additional comments about law school debt. My total law school debt upon graduation was a fraction of the amount cited in the article. Mr. Wallerstein was clearly irresponsible about the amount of debt he chose to take out, as demonstrated by the fact that he considered making a down payment on a house with his loans. Seriously? My financial aid office repeatedly advised us to live like students now so we wouldn't have to live like students later.
The article also notes further down that "studies show that law school graduates need to earn roughly $65,000 a year to get the upper hand on their loans." This isn't an unreasonable salary to expect for a law school graduate - as long as you do well in school and have the sort of resume that will be attractive to employers. I know I made less than that as a federal clerk, and still managed to make some headway on my loans by careful spending.
So my takeaway from the article was that it actually don't have much to say about whatever choice you would make. Based on our conversations, you don't intend to enroll at a less-than-stellar school in any case, but certainly not unless they paid your tuition (in which case there would be no concern about debt.) And if you do intend to pay your own way through a more prestigious institution, you will be conscientious about the amount you spend and not expect or depend on the possibility of making a huge salary upon graduation (since you dind't want to work in Big Law anyway.) A reasonable amount of student debt isn't that difficult to pay off, assuming that you live a reasonably frugal lifestyle.
Bottom line - people make foolish choices about law school, in particular getting into more debt that is reasonable for anyone with the unrealistic expectation that a mediocre resume will land them a high paying job. I don't see you making that choice.
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