Is Law School a Losing Game? Article - Page 3

if i had never exposed my age you all would just assume i was an asshole. the immature bit is only introduced because you're aware of my age. my opinions aren't immature, they're just dickish. there's a difference.

Iowa is T30ish (closer to the ish end of things) - BigLaw out of there is tough as hell. You could make a way worse investment of $60k, though. Still, if you are willing to spend $60k and your ambition IS BigLaw, you should consider trying to get into a better school. $60k will be like $500/month in loan payments which ends up being quite a bit for someone making $50k/year (on top of rent, car payment, etc.)

No, people would then just think you are an idiot.

Yeah, same as UGA. I don't think you could go to either school and expect biglaw. But as long as you do decently well, you can assume that you'll find something and that if you work hard and make some smart lateral moves, you'll end up doing okay in the long term. Maybe I'm being optimistic, but I'd say you could easily get a positive NPV out of a law degree from Iowa at 60k in (assuming you're young/you're not leaving a decent position to go to school). The problem, I think, for students who get liberal arts degrees (and I think this is the fundamental problem with all of this law school stuff) is that you can make your $40-50k/year but there's little to no potential for growth in most of those positions.

sure. same stuff.

Correct, Iowa is ranked 26. I agree, the liberal arts degree isn't ideal but I've enjoyed it a lot. Conne, $60k isn't chump change but it's no where near $250k in debt. I have a couple of options that I can fall back on if I do graduate and somehow fail to gain decent employment (read at least 50k). -Edit, I am young, I haven't finished UG yet. I'm honestly not sure if I want to do BigLaw or not? Haven't had enough insights from others or experiences to decide for myself. There are other law schools I could get admittance to but I'm hoping for a scholarship at Iowa. If I did and it turned to $0 debt then it'd take a good T14 gig to sway me from Iowa.

If BigLaw is ultimately what you want, for sure, then Iowa isn't the place for you. In 2009 they placed 19% of their class in the top 250 (by size) law firms. Only 9 schools placed 50% or more, fwiw.

Thanks for the info, I'll have to do some more reading on Biglaw and decide what exactly I want.

I would not go to law school unless it was Yale, Harvard, or Stanford, or I had a family member or friend *guaranteeing* me a job after graduation. Sadly, I am a law student anyways.

anyone going to law school outside of tier 1 (real tier 1 ie top 5) is foolish and deserves to be an indebted barista

That's extreme. Also, which of Chicago, NYU, and Columbia are you leaving out of the 'real tier 1?'

columbia was in my tier 1 but i could be wrong. i mean real real tier 1 is prob harvard and yale, below that anything is a step down - the only relevant attribute of a law school is its prestige.

You obviously mean Yale, Harvard, and Stanford. Are you a law student? Your replies seem pretty off-base for someone who went through the process of getting into law school.

yea stanford is just part of that left coast thing ... it doesnt have the same name rec on the east coast

LOL @ it doesn't have the same name rec on the East Coast. Maybe not to your mom and her mahjong partners but to law firms it carries a ton of prestige, be it in NYC, Chicago or in San Francisco.