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"While 45,000 law students graduate from law school each year, fewer than 30,000 attorney positions are available for these graduates." What a wasteful brain d
by y2002 17y ago
"While 45,000 law students graduate from law school each year, fewer than 30,000 attorney positions are available for these graduates."
What a wasteful brain drain. How much better off would our country be if more of those students went into engineering or became entrepreneurs?
- jrockway 17y agoDepends on the area of law. Divorce lawyers and corporate lawyers may be a waste, but what about prosecutors and defense lawyers? And, if engineering is so much more important than law, why not pay engineers more than lawyers?
- WarDekar 17y agoBecause engineers don't go to an extra 3-4 years of school and go into 200k of debt to get there. Someone has to prop up the "higher" education system.
- idoh 17y agoLaw School programs are all 3 years. Graduating with 200K of debt is really unusual.
- ibsulon 17y agoCount the undergraduate costs as well. It's certainly possible to do it on the cheap, but those eight clubs, 4.0, and volunteer work that help you make it into a top 10 school likely means you're not working with the lowly peons, especially if you're a product of the Ivy system.
- WarDekar 17y agoNot to mention the cost of living in addition to law school itself. And don't forget a lot of the top law schools (you did go to a top law school to "guarantee" a top salary (or you know, a job) when you got out, right?) aren't exactly in the boondocks.
- idoh 17y agoI don't want to belabor the point but it goes against evidence. For what it's worth I went to law school and graduated with less than 100K in debt, as did most of my peers. And this number is also in line with national averages if you cared to look it up.
- dschobel 17y agoNo, we just prop up the conference and technical publication markets. A conspiracy of some sort, no doubt.
- tel 17y agoThe value of money is at least in some ways derived from laws.
- jesselamb 17y agoLaw school and entrepreneurship aren't mutually exclusive. You learn transferable skills and knowledge. Beyond a gaining a familiarity with the basic legal landscape, in law school you hone your skills in dealing with big abstract frameworks. You also improve your writing and communication skills. With the right mindset a law degree can be great prep to tackle a startup. At least that's what I'm hoping. :) -a non-practicing attorney, soon-to-be entrepreneur
- y2002 17y agoYou definitely pick up some nice skill sets in law school. If you managed to get out without crushing student loans that forces you to work for BigLaw, you can definitely use your legal skills in many exciting fields. Congrats and good luck Jesse. :)
- jesselamb 17y agoThanks! My loans aren't too bad, [just] under $100K, all federal. I'll be out of debt in 5 or 6 years while maintaining a good standard of living.
- idoh 17y agoJesse, I'm curious as to what you're up to. Ping me at idoh@idoh.com. I'm also a non-practicing lawyer in tech.
- jesselamb 17y agoJust followed you on twitter. I'm @jesselamb. :)