Where You Don’t Want To Go To School

Law school.

Too many JDs. Too few jobs.

By a roughly 2:1 margin.

This from a law professor.

http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2012/09/deborah-jones-merritt-.html

Figure law school will add a hundred grand to your student loans.

Better idea: Petroleum engineering.

 

True. I tell people all the time, unless you are 100% absolutely positively sure you want to be an attorney (and few people are), do not go to law school. It's not a thing to do half-assed.

 

Engineering

Or medicine.

Or welfare.

 

There's a lot of gambling in this field, as well. A few years back people many of my friends were concentrating their efforts into real estate law, and now all of those same people are asking me how to break into the criminal law practice area.

Yet another reason why so many people have bad experiences with their attorneys...they will see that someone has been practicing law for twenty years and think that he or she is the best person for their marijuana or DUI case, never realizing that they only jumped over into criminal law.

 

You really can't be all things to all people anymore. It's become too technical. It's funny to watch the judges and other parties roll their eyes and sigh when we get a "once-ler" in my practice field, some guy who's not a "regular" but is just coming in thinking they can make a quick buck.

But I guess, in tough economic times, people are willing to "stretch" their expertise a little, to try to get by.

 

A JD is about as useful as a degree in sociology.

 

Well, without a law license, I think it's less useful.

 

are you a criminal defense lawyer??

 

Actually, it can be very useful even if one does not practice law.

A JD or even a LL.M. degree helps develop critical thinking skills, which is lacking in most general business and liberal arts degrees. Scientific degrees such as medicine or engineering are now field specific and most of that learning comes with on the job training. These are also useful but hardly can allow one to move from one specialty to another.

 

Follow your passion will lead to success.

 

Yes, but states and bar associations are now starting to have certifications with those specialities as well as the date when that person does become board specialized. However, in some instances, some law is interrelated. For instance, I have a friend whose law practice is about 50% criminal, 25% family, and 25% other. In many cases, the clients who hire my friend for family law practice will eventually use my friend's criminal practice for defense, usually DUI or drug possession.

 

I do not have words to express how much I wish people would stop saying this.

Let me be clear: Unless you absolutely, positively, 100% want to work in the practice of law for the remainder of your natural life, upwards of 50 hours a week, DO. NOT. GO. TO. LAW. SCHOOL. Under any circumstances.

The critical thinking and analytical skills you talk about can be had MUCH more cheaply than a quarter million dollars in law school costs.

 

Government is full of JDs who never passed a bar exam.

 

But the return on investment for these people is low, if not negative.

Take the $700 a month in loan payments (at least) out of their paycheck, and was it worth it? No.

 

I would disagree. I am not advocating everybody go to law school, but simply stating that going to a second tier law school, which would cost about $150k, would be more beneficial than going to a second tier programs to obtain an advanced business degree or liberal arts degree.

 

We have less than 1% of the world's population and more than 70% of the world's lawyers. And then we're dumb enough to let the lawyers do the legislation. We deserve what we get.

 

For the most part, you are correct. I am a paralegal in a government department that has 3000 lawyers. Apart from the civil litigators and prosecutors, they usually work standard 40h weeks. They don't pay to run their office or their bar fees and have staff provided. That also means that they don't live in multi-million dollar homes and drive $100K cars.

That being said, I wonder what percentage corporate/government in-house lawyers make up in the population of those called to the bar.

 

Based upon what?

 

Should I tell you the jokes about obtaining an MBA?

 

An MBA has far broader use than a JD. It is also far less expensive in most cases.

A JD is a highly technical, highly specialized degree.

And I'm saying this as someone with a JD.

 

To an extent yes, though at some point you'd have to compromise. Someone may really want a philosophy degree but they're more likely to wind up working at McDonald's with $1000s of student loan debt, meaning they'd have been financially better of had they not gone to college at all and just grabbed an entry level job.

 

Or: Nano-Engineer. My wife has two B.A.s in Mathematics and Physics, a M.S. in Physics, and is working on her PhD in Nano-engineering. "Huge" demand for Nano-Engineers.

I am in my final semester in a B.A. program. I will have my English degree in December and plan on going into Technical Writing. Scientists and Engineers might now how to do many things, but writing so the lay person can understand them is NOT something they know.

 

MBA degrees no longer offer the "first class" ticket to higher salaries and more employment opportunities. In fact, most businesses I know, especially large corps, shy away from MBA candidates. They prefer more specialized degrees like MS in accounting or MS in economics. Second, there are several hard truths now about MBA degrees which does include that some skills cannot be taught in busienss school environment, pressure to succeed has eroded the overall program, and the lack of critical thinking with most MBA programs.

What is happening now in business is that more knowledge and skills is being placed upon entry and middle level managers where specialized training and degrees are more beneficial. For instance, with HR managers, taking several classes in labor law would develop specialized skills in that field since businesses will use corporate lawyers for less routine proeceedures as labor management.

 

I just want to say congrats to you for obtaining your degree. A job well done even though it may be a bit premature.

 

It might fool you how well engineers can write.