Alternatives to law school

[Anonymous]

DD is a college sophomore. Currently a poly sci major with previous intentions of going to law school after undergrad. After speaking to attorneys and learning about the rigors of law school and the pressure of having a high gpa, studying for lsat etc as well as the high costs associated with lsat prep, law school, bar exam etc she is not keen on going to law school anymore. She is a very bright, personable girl. Not stem oriented at all and not artistic. She is not interested in changing majors to business as she is not a fan of accounting, finance etc classes that are prerequisites for the major. What do you recommend for a high paying but fulfilling career that won’t saddle her up in debt or drain her well being. She loves the concept of being a lawyer like arguing, talking with people, etc but just don’t want to go through 3 years after undergrad. She goes to a college in nyc so I know internships there are plenty but is also undecided of what kind of companies to apply to intern in if she is so undecided about her future.

[Anonymous]

What about working on the Hill? That's an obvious match to a poly sci major. It's not high paying at all for the first few years, but then you can consult or move up to run your own shop or work for a company's GA team.

[Anonymous]

Business. Any high paying job will have something undesirable including prerequisites.

[Anonymous]

What about recruiting?

[Anonymous]

Two recent grads I know have poli sci/govt majors. One is working in a federal job and one is working in a private company. It's a viable major--have her get some internships--maybe one in govt and one in private so she knows what she prefers. She may also pick up a minor or even just do some specialization in something like project management, data science, or such. Political science majors have good analytic skills, learn economics and have some quantitative coursework. These are generally useful skills. The quality of the undergraduate institution matters though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What about working on the Hill? That's an obvious match to a poly sci major. It's not high paying at all for the first few years, but then you can consult or move up to run your own shop or work for a company's GA team.

+1 I would suggest working on the Hill for a couple of years at least.

[Anonymous]

She nees to be looking for an internship. With her major, focus on policy, legislative affairs, nonprofit, NGO etc. Anything that gets her foot in the door someplace.

My anthropology (former pre-med) major has an internship with a nonprofit in development/fundraising and absolutely loves it.

My DS was pre-law but now thinking he is wants to take a break after college and work so he can really know what he wants to do before pursuing more school. He has a public policy internship now and is applying to other similar roles for next summer, along with intern roles in the FBI and CIA. Who knows where life will take him.

My point is that internships for for exploring, they don't expect you to know for sure what you want to do at this stage. She should definitely make use of her career services department as well.

[Anonymous]

Medical device sales ?

[Anonymous]

You can sort of do whatever you want with a law degree. If she wants to become a policy expert and work for the federal government, lawyers are taken a bit more seriously than non-lawyers.

Tell her to go into the federal government and get the feds to pay for her law degree. So many people do that here in DC via part-time programs at George Mason, AU, GW, etc.

If she gains some regulatory experience in the federal government, she can still end up transitioning to Big Law later in life and making really good $$$. It's just an alternative path.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DD is a college sophomore. Currently a poly sci major with previous intentions of going to law school after undergrad. After speaking to attorneys and learning about the rigors of law school and the pressure of having a high gpa, studying for lsat etc as well as the high costs associated with lsat prep, law school, bar exam etc she is not keen on going to law school anymore. She is a very bright, personable girl. Not stem oriented at all and not artistic. She is not interested in changing majors to business as she is not a fan of accounting, finance etc classes that are prerequisites for the major. What do you recommend for a high paying but fulfilling career that won’t saddle her up in debt or drain her well being. She loves the concept of being a lawyer like arguing, talking with people, etc but just don’t want to go through 3 years after undergrad. She goes to a college in nyc so I know internships there are plenty but is also undecided of what kind of companies to apply to intern in if she is so undecided about her future.

What ever she decides. do not go to law school unless top 10 full stop. I practised law for 19 years and it is not worth it if you will not graduate from the top 10. Most likely top 7. We will need maybe half as many lawyers and paralegals in the near future.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can sort of do whatever you want with a law degree. If she wants to become a policy expert and work for the federal government, lawyers are taken a bit more seriously than non-lawyers.

Tell her to go into the federal government and get the feds to pay for her law degree. So many people do that here in DC via part-time programs at George Mason, AU, GW, etc.

If she gains some regulatory experience in the federal government, she can still end up transitioning to Big Law later in life and making really good $$$. It's just an alternative path.

I am a lawyer and not aware of any programs where the federal govt will pay tuition. That’s doesn’t seem real.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can sort of do whatever you want with a law degree. If she wants to become a policy expert and work for the federal government, lawyers are taken a bit more seriously than non-lawyers.

Tell her to go into the federal government and get the feds to pay for her law degree. So many people do that here in DC via part-time programs at George Mason, AU, GW, etc.

If she gains some regulatory experience in the federal government, she can still end up transitioning to Big Law later in life and making really good $$$. It's just an alternative path.

If she is already, pre-application process, saying law school is too much work, I really don't recommend she apply. It's not the most difficult thing a person can do, but it is tedious and if she is already lukewarm on it, it's a ton of debt and effort for something she doesn't want that badly. There are other careers for someone public policy-oriented. She can always go to law school after working for a few years but she can't undo going into debt for her degree. I was a PP who suggested the Hill.

- Lawyer who is not usually in the business of talking people out of going to law school

[Anonymous]

She can go into consulting. Her college’s career office can tell her if Booze/Deloitte/Accenture are looking at their grads or have summer opportunities. Lots of young, personable, poli sci types do that, eventually get an MBA, work for government clients in DC

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can sort of do whatever you want with a law degree. If she wants to become a policy expert and work for the federal government, lawyers are taken a bit more seriously than non-lawyers.

Tell her to go into the federal government and get the feds to pay for her law degree. So many people do that here in DC via part-time programs at George Mason, AU, GW, etc.

If she gains some regulatory experience in the federal government, she can still end up transitioning to Big Law later in life and making really good $$$. It's just an alternative path.

I am a lawyer and not aware of any programs where the federal govt will pay tuition. That’s doesn’t seem real.

It's not real at all. Maybe, MAYBE you can get some minor student loan repayment. But the government is not paying someone to go get a JD.

[Anonymous]

It's not extremely high paying, but it does pay UMC (normal UMC, not DCUM inflated UMC).

I have a friend who graduated with a similar degree and she went to the state department as an FSO. I know several folks who went to State and enjoyed it. But it does require a bit of traveling out of the country. You get more salary bumps and bonuses if you go to the less desirable nations, but for some, it is worth it.