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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Discourage your kids from going to law school. Most lawyers do not make enough money to merit the cost, especially at a lower ranked school. And the type of work that does offer a high enough salary to justify the cost of law school is really not for most people. This is a major reason so many lawyers are unhappy. If they are making decent money, they are often very unhappy in their jobs. If they are happy in their jobs, they are probably struggling under the weight of their debt.

Law school is a bad deal and we should probably totally overhaul legal education in this system. It should be a one year masters program with a required apprenticeship after which you take the bar to fully qualify. This is much closer to what they do in the UK and other countries and it makes more sense. Our current system treats all law students like future corporate attorneys even though only a very small number actually go this route, and even among those that do, the number that will stay in corporate law long enough to justify 100k+ in loans is even smaller.

Also, if your kid is interested in medicine, I highly recommend investigating whether they could be happy as a nurse practitioner or similar. The training is shorter and less expensive, and you can still make very good money while helping people. I think people should only become doctors if they have a very strong motivation to practice in a specific specialty or to specific things that only a doctor can do (like if you want to be a surgeon or go into certain kinds of medical research). The training is incredibly long and if your ultimate goal is simply to have a medical career, there are lots of other options.[/quote]

I would disagree. That's a serious over generalization. The vast majority of lawyers are either small or mid-sized firms and not in big law or non-profits/low pay. Most make decent livings, though not the big law money that makes its way onto this forum with such frequency. That said, I did have about $80K in law school loans that I spent nearly 10 years paying back. Of course, I did take 2-3 years off to start my own practice/have kids, but now I have a solo and make decent enough money. I would not recommend law to those individuals who go slave away for huge firms. Likewise, I would not recommend that anyone go to an expensive private law school UNLESS it is a top 10 name recognition school. Go public and pay less money. I would recommend law school to those who can set up their own shop and make their own way. It is so liberating.

but to OP, my law school/grad was paid through loans mostly and concurrent employment at law firms. I think most people do that combo with grad school. [/quote]

There's public and then there's public. Law school at UVA, Michigan, and UCLA is almost as expensive as Yale. W&M, GMU, UMD--more affordable.[/quote]

Scalia School of Law is now $52,600 in-state and almost $68,000 OOS.[/quote]

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