Whether or not it's worth going into financial debt for law school is open to question. Law school tuition continues to rise and fewer jobs with good pay are available. In spite of these realities, law schools saw skyrocketing enrollment as the recession wore on and today a legion of freshly minted, hungry lawyers are seeking work.
Law school debt overwhelms lawyer salaries
Between 2007 and 2009, 20 percent more individuals started taking the LSAT. But this year a growing number of law students and law school graduate students are unemployed, underemployed and deeply in student loan debt. An average of $71,436 in financial debt was taken out for public law school students that graduated in 2008, Annie Lowery at Slate reports. It had been about $91,506 for private law graduates. Lowery writes that a starting salary that would make law school a good investment is about $65,000. Most jobs available to law school graduates pay from $45,000 to $60,000.
Return on investment for attorneys good with less
Vanderbilt law professor Herwig Schlunk published a study in 2009 about investing in law school titled “Mamas, Do not Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be … Attorneys.” Lighthearted title aside, Schlunk raises serious questions about whether investing in law school will ever pay off for most students. The record discusses some of the opportunity cost of lost income while going to school. The high student loan debt is discussed also. Schlunk concludes that investing in law school will only pay off for a small minority of “hot prospects.".
Making a decision against law too far gone
A law student at the Boston College Law school has learned Schlunk’s lessons the hard way. Tuition is over $40,000 a year at BC law which is why the student wrote a letter to the dean, AFP accounts. The student, deep in debt, was about to become a father and had little hope of finding a job when he graduates in 2011. He said that it was a win-win situation for BC Law to give him a refund on tuition if he just quit law school instead. He could provide for his family once again teaching. The financial debt wouldn't crush him either. The US News and World Report, which publishes U.S. law school rankings, wouldn't have to have reported to them his future joblessness for BC Law. His offer was not accepted by BC Law.
Articles cited
Washington Post
washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/30/AR2010103004638.html
Morningstar
news.morningstar.com/articlenet/article.aspx?id=357051
AFP
google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hB_oEndpokUpUn4qaCEJ2GweXW0Q?docId=CNG.5a8fb2fbd292773edd5b18a29f896aaa.7f1
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