Hypothetical law school question
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Anonymous
| DH is considering going to law school. He is in his 30's and has a graduate degree in another field. He used to teach LSAT prep for one of the big test prep companies and scored 171 on the exam. Undergrad GPA was 3.85. We have a toddler and I have a fed job. Would you advise going to a good but lower ranked school like Notre Dame if they offered money, or going into a lot of debt for a HYP level school? |
Anonymous
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Why does he want to be a lawyer? Where does he intend to practice? What type of law? How many lawyers has he done informational interviews with to learn about the profession and the current state of the job market?
Can you support your family if he is in the bottom half of his class after 1l year, is unemployed for 6 months after taking the bar and then gets a job at a small firm for $50k a year? |
Anonymous
| Debt for HYS |
Anonymous
| Highest ranked school he can get into - the legal market is crazy and its MUCH MUCH harder to get good legal jobs from lower ranked schools. |
Anonymous
| As long as he's in any first tier law school and can get high grades plus do law review he'd be fine. |
Anonymous
Then make sure he goes to The University of Lake Woebegone Law School. Because someone graduates last in the class, even at Harvard. With a kid to support OPs husband needs to make sure this makes sense even if he does not get top grades. |
Anonymous
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Only go if he can go to a pedigree school --
But why at his age? And married with kids?!? He'll be competing with all the gunners with no spouse (and def no kids) to study and be the top of his class. Remember the bulk of law school classes are kids stright out of college (or 1-2 years out), with no responsibilities outside of studying. That was me-- young and nothing to do but study. I cannot imagine having a spouse (much less a child!!!) while in law school. Crazy talk. As a complete aside, and take from this what you will (I am a long-married, and have no dog in this fight)...but should tell you that: I went to a top-5 school and every marriage in my 1L class divorced. Every single one. I have no idea if it was the pressure or temptation. But not a single marriage survived. Knowing what I know- I would say hell no. But that's just me. |
Anonymous
I knew at least 8 married students at my top 5 and not only are they still married almost a decade later, but, across the board, they also did a lot better than students who were single because they were focused. No time wasted hooking up after happy hours or trying to date while they were supposed to be studying. OP, a lot comes down to your ability to support the family if your husband's law school jaunt doesn't work out. HYS with excellent grades puts him in an ideal position, but HYS with okay grades might mean he cannot get the big law job he needs to pay off that debt. I tend to think that six figure debt is a young man's game and people who have children should be more risk averse. I suggest scholarship at Notre Dame because a guy smart enough to get top grades at HYS will be top of his class at Notre Dame and land big law, but if he cannot get top grades, then at least he will not be coming out with ruinous debt. Also, if he does not have ruinous debt, he will be able to take advantage of lower paying, but excellent options such as clerking for a year or DOJ Honors, for instance. |
Anonymous
| There are 14 law schools which are considered the elite. You can find them on Google. I'd only recommend doing it if he could get into one of those. Otherwise, getting a job is murder these days. I went to Cornell which has a particularly young student body because people with working spouses and children don't move to Ithaca. I had done the Peace Corps and a masters and was 27 by the time I started law school and was considered quite old in my class. I only remember one married couple, a male student with a wife who had a job in the placement office. They had no children but I can't imagine doing it with children. |
Anonymous
| Really dumb idea. |
Anonymous
i would pay whatever it takes if i got into PRINCETON LAW |
Anonymous
Are you planning to found a law school at Princeton? |
Anonymous
I'm assuming OP meant Penn Law, but, yeah, it's HYS. |
Anonymous
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OP, someone posted another law school thread the other day in which the husband is thinking of going to law school and they have a toddler. Slightly different facts, but you might find some of the discussion, especially related to school rank, interesting.
http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/460886.page |
Anonymous
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Yeah OP, you need to think this through. Would you quit your fed job in order to move to Notre Dame? That sounds like a bad idea.
Law school is EXPENSIVE, and law jobs are by and large stressful and time consuming. And the problem is that you don't necessarily have the choice to find a less demanding job. Public interest starter jobs are incredibly demanding and low-paying (eg public defender) OR actually required a high level of prestige (eg ACLU fellowship). Government jobs are highly sought after, and also tend to take the cream of the crop -- or experienced lawyers who have already paid their dues at BIGLAW. As for BIGLAW, just read any of the countless threads here on DCUM about how difficult it is to make BIGLAW work for parents, unless you are prepared for and happy to be the default parent. I am a lawyer and I actually really enjoy it (mostly) and think it was a good career choice. But I started law school 10 years before kids, so by the time I had a kid I had already worked my way into a (mostly) gratifying and family-friendly position. If you're willing to sacrifice your husband for 10 years, then considering it. Otherwise, it seems like a poorly thought out idea. As for student loan debt: Even if he gets a seemingly good scholarship for over 50% of tuition and ends up only say $45,000 in debt, you're still looking at a $500+ monthly student loan payment for 10 years. (Hopefully, your DH would not go all the way through law school only to end up on an income-based repayment plan due to financial hardship!) If he goes full freight to a top-11 school (or whatever the kids are calling it these days) with a total debt of $150,000 then he's talking a payment of $1700 MONTHLY. |