4 ms·

Nah, the real problem is just that other degrees, MBA, Law, etc, are just plain easier AND result in higher social status plus frequently more money. Maybe in-

by bh42222 15y ago

Nah, the real problem is just that other degrees, MBA, Law, etc, are just plain easier AND result in higher social status plus frequently more money. Maybe in-demand engineers make more than the average lawyer, not sure about that. Maybe an MBA isn't really that much easier? But I'd say higher social status, especially in the USA holds true.

jcdavis 15y ago
Can't speak much about new MBA grads, New grad lawyers are doing pretty awful these days (IANAL, but I have several friends who graduated from decent-but-not-amazing law schools this year, and had/are having a hard time getting fulltime jobs as supposed to temp/contact work.)
- a3camero 15y ago
  Things might not be so great right now or for the next couple years, but being a US lawyer is likely to continue to be an excellent job: http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos053.htm#earnings http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos053.htm#earnings. Even if median salaries drop by half from 2008, lawyer income will still be better than about 60% of the US population. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_income_in_the_United_States http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_income_in_the_United_S... And I doubt there'll be that kind of a bottoming out. That said, I'm a 3rd year Cdn law student and programmer looking at a career in law that at least in the next few years will probably be less lucrative than being a programmer. P.S: I also have a science degree so this post particularly caught my eye!
- rayiner 15y ago
  At the top 10-15 law schools, more than 50% the class will get a six figure job to start, and a big fraction of the remainder will have wanted to do public service to begin with. Even just a bit below that, at some of the top 30 schools like UIUC that drops to maybe 10%. At the same time, salaries aren't distributed normally, and the next mode is somewhere in the $50k range. Engineering is both less segregated (people at MIT aren't all making Google salaries and people at Penn State can get still top jobs) and less bimodal (the top jobs don't pay 3x as much as the median job, and even people who do poorly grades-wise can often find some sort of employment). So if you're looking at a top engineering program like Berkeley versus doing a bullshit humanities degree followed by a top law school, you'll likely come out ahead monetarily pursuing the latter option. On the other hand going to a decent state engineering school is probably a better bet than aforementioned humanities degree and a decent state law school. That being said, even someone who went to aforementioned state law school and is working in "small law" for $50k can make a lot of money if he can bring in business. And if you went to that big firm and can bring in business, you can get paid millions while still doing legal work. On the engineering side, you either have to go the startup route, get an MBA and go into management (which involves not being an engineer anymore), or be content hearing "we couldn't possibly pay an engineer as much as a manager!" It's changing a bit with the Google's and Facebook's of the world, but is still the basic reality for most non-software folks.
curt 15y ago
MBA is definitely much much easier than getting an engineering degree. Went out to the bars 4 nights a week during my MBA and only did the same once a week during my undergrad. Everything is softer, the said part was that they had to dumb down a lot of the data modeling, quant, finance, econ, etc because most of the class struggled with algebra let alone calculus. We never touched a diff eq in the MBA program.
klbarry 15y ago
http://www.payscale.com/best-colleges/degrees.asp http://www.payscale.com/best-colleges/degrees.asp Median starting and mid career salaries by undergrad major. Engineering dominates the top salaries.

by bh42222 15y ago

jcdavis 15y ago

Can't speak much about new MBA grads, New grad lawyers are doing pretty awful these days (IANAL, but I have several friends who graduated from decent-but-not-amazing law schools this year, and had/are having a hard time getting fulltime jobs as supposed to temp/contact work.)

a3camero 15y ago
Things might not be so great right now or for the next couple years, but being a US lawyer is likely to continue to be an excellent job: http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos053.htm#earnings http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos053.htm#earnings. Even if median salaries drop by half from 2008, lawyer income will still be better than about 60% of the US population. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_income_in_the_United_States http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_income_in_the_United_S... And I doubt there'll be that kind of a bottoming out. That said, I'm a 3rd year Cdn law student and programmer looking at a career in law that at least in the next few years will probably be less lucrative than being a programmer. P.S: I also have a science degree so this post particularly caught my eye!
rayiner 15y ago
At the top 10-15 law schools, more than 50% the class will get a six figure job to start, and a big fraction of the remainder will have wanted to do public service to begin with. Even just a bit below that, at some of the top 30 schools like UIUC that drops to maybe 10%. At the same time, salaries aren't distributed normally, and the next mode is somewhere in the $50k range. Engineering is both less segregated (people at MIT aren't all making Google salaries and people at Penn State can get still top jobs) and less bimodal (the top jobs don't pay 3x as much as the median job, and even people who do poorly grades-wise can often find some sort of employment). So if you're looking at a top engineering program like Berkeley versus doing a bullshit humanities degree followed by a top law school, you'll likely come out ahead monetarily pursuing the latter option. On the other hand going to a decent state engineering school is probably a better bet than aforementioned humanities degree and a decent state law school. That being said, even someone who went to aforementioned state law school and is working in "small law" for $50k can make a lot of money if he can bring in business. And if you went to that big firm and can bring in business, you can get paid millions while still doing legal work. On the engineering side, you either have to go the startup route, get an MBA and go into management (which involves not being an engineer anymore), or be content hearing "we couldn't possibly pay an engineer as much as a manager!" It's changing a bit with the Google's and Facebook's of the world, but is still the basic reality for most non-software folks.

curt 15y ago

MBA is definitely much much easier than getting an engineering degree. Went out to the bars 4 nights a week during my MBA and only did the same once a week during my undergrad. Everything is softer, the said part was that they had to dumb down a lot of the data modeling, quant, finance, econ, etc because most of the class struggled with algebra let alone calculus. We never touched a diff eq in the MBA program.

klbarry 15y ago

http://www.payscale.com/best-colleges/degrees.asp http://www.payscale.com/best-colleges/degrees.asp Median starting and mid career salaries by undergrad major. Engineering dominates the top salaries.