Please stop your brother from making a huge mistake that will affect the rest of his life. I was 22 and starry-eyed when I went to law school. My husband was 28 when he started law school but had no idea what he was signing up for (in terms of the debt). Add both our law degrees and his ill-advised masters degree together and you have over $300k of debt ... that is just sitting there for the time being because we can only afford to pay the interest. That will change in the next couple of years, but we are 35 and will be paying down these loans for a good long while. We chose to go ahead with our lives and buy a home and have a family because we didn't want the debt to keep us from living our lives ... but we will always have financial consequences from that decision. Maybe we could have put our kids through college if we hadn't had the debt or made different choices in our 20s. We certainly would have a bigger house and wouldn't be just now starting to get to the point where we don't live paycheck to paycheck. As others have noted, debt is a huge drag on quality of life, and it can limit your career choices and otherwise make you f-ing miserable. I have a very happy life, but it would be happier without the debt. He needs to think about his future priorities. Does he want to own a home, have a family, save for retirement, etc. These are the things that will be more difficult or impossible with massive debt.

Anonymous wrote:

Gerry Spence from Univ. of Wyoming is one and he didn't even pass the bar his first try.

Um, try to keep up. Gerry Spence graduated from law school in the 1950s. His experience isn't relevant to today's prospective law students in any way, and that's what many posters are trying to convey -- the legal market has suffered unprecedcented contraction in the past three years, while law schools graduate more and more lawyers with unheard of debt loads.

Anonymous wrote:

This is the kind of nonsense you hear ONLY in this area. Personally, I know four lawyers who went to their state university law school and are hugely succesful in their home state. As for your question, unless his heart is really into this, then I would think no he shouldn't go to law school. There are a lot of unemployed lawyers from "top tier" law schools. He might do better getting a Masters in something that will be a better fit for public policy. In any case $90,000 is a lot of debt to start out one's working life and I would pay that off before getting deeper in debt..

You hear this here because this area is so saturated with lawyers, and employers have their pick and will cross prospects off the list if they did not attend a top tier school. Perhaps in Idaho there aren't a whole lot of Harvard Law grads vying for legal jobs there, so state schools will suffice, but not here.

Your friends who are doing well with JDs from state universities - how did they do in law school? Law review & top of the class, or just average, middle-of-the-pack? And which states are you referring to? Someone would really need to be a superstar coming out of U of Miami to get a good job in any major market right now, and I'm not sure OP's brother is going to be that kind of a superstar.

Gerry Spence from Univ. of Wyoming is one and he didn't even pass the bar his first try.

To the PP with an MS in Legal Studies (whatever that is): I've been a lawyer for 20 years, and have worked at 2 very well known Big Law firms, and am now a partner. Your description of a paralegal "career" exists in Fairyland. Most of our best paralegals are bright young college grads who are trying to decide whether to go to law school (or are wisely saving up to do so). 200K a year? Advising clients? Hardly.

This is the kind of nonsense you hear ONLY in this area. Personally, I know four lawyers who went to their state university law school and are hugely succesful in their home state. As for your question, unless his heart is really into this, then I would think no he shouldn't go to law school. There are a lot of unemployed lawyers from "top tier" law schools. He might do better getting a Masters in something that will be a better fit for public policy. In any case $90,000 is a lot of debt to start out one's working life and I would pay that off before getting deeper in debt..

You hear this here because this area is so saturated with lawyers, and employers have their pick and will cross prospects off the list if they did not attend a top tier school. Perhaps in Idaho there aren't a whole lot of Harvard Law grads vying for legal jobs there, so state schools will suffice, but not here.

Your friends who are doing well with JDs from state universities - how did they do in law school? Law review & top of the class, or just average, middle-of-the-pack? And which states are you referring to? Someone would really need to be a superstar coming out of U of Miami to get a good job in any major market right now, and I'm not sure OP's brother is going to be that kind of a superstar.

http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/a_record_low_for_2010_law_grads_only_68_have_jobs_requiring_bar_passage/

one more

http://www.lawjobs.com/newsandviews/LawArticle.jsp?id=1202499447433&More_bad_news_for_law_grads_Theyre_earning_less&slreturn=1&hbxlogin=1

Another article

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/business/09law.html?pagewanted=all


I think he needs to read this article.

Anonymous wrote:No. Unless you go to a top tier law school, it isnt worth it. Espedcially if he intends on practicing law around here.

This is the kind of nonsense you hear ONLY in this area. Personally, I know four lawyers who went to their state university law school and are hugely succesful in their home state. As for your question, unless his heart is really into this, then I would think no he shouldn't go to law school. There are a lot of unemployed lawyers from "top tier" law schools. He might do better getting a Masters in something that will be a better fit for public policy. In any case $90,000 is a lot of debt to start out one's working life and I would pay that off before getting deeper in debt..

Nope - not right now - Law of supply and demand - there is an oversupply and an under-demand. Law School is EXPENSIVE - and there are no guarantees, even for grads of the Ivy League. Unless it's his dream to be an attorney and he doesn't care about declaring bankruptcy or not being able to own a home or afford to have children down the line, I'd tell him to skip it.

Please show him this thread, and also show him charts about how interest compounds and how a loan amortizes. Debt is easy to get into , hard to get out of.

$90K is already PLENTY of debt and U-Miami isn't going to improve his prospects, in fact judging from other posters here (such as the $370k poster), the law degree may make his prospects worse.

He'd have trouble affording the interest on all that debt, even if hit the lottery and got a $160K job. It simply wouldn't be enough. And that would be the best case scenario, which is extremely unlikely.

Not for him, no.

I graduated with only $24,000 of student loans for both college and law school, and started out making $85,000 a year. For me, it was worth it.

to 14:37 please tell me how they can find jobs? Where should they be looking that isn't obvious? My sister has been looking desperately and applying to many jobs. No calls back. I am the poster who mentioned her sis from a top 10 and half the class is still unemployed.

Anonymous wrote:There are absolutely jobs out there for attorneys...maybe not big law job, in DC, but there are jobs for ambitious hard working eager applicants. New grads can't find jobs because of their own lack of enterprise...so many young new grads except to be handed a job...it's ridiculous. So, if your brother is entitled/arrogant/spoiled- I would talk him off the cliff. But if he is ambitious/hardworking/humble- tell him to go for it. He definetly should NOT expect to pay off his loans right away though...it will take years.

oh, and my opinion is based on my very recent personal experience.

your opinion is certainly not based on reality or statistics.

There are absolutely jobs out there for attorneys...maybe not big law job, in DC, but there are jobs for ambitious hard working eager applicants. New grads can't find jobs because of their own lack of enterprise...so many young new grads except to be handed a job...it's ridiculous. So, if your brother is entitled/arrogant/spoiled- I would talk him off the cliff. But if he is ambitious/hardworking/humble- tell him to go for it. He definetly should NOT expect to pay off his loans right away though...it will take years.

oh, and my opinion is based on my very recent personal experience.