law or med school

Parents Forum
1

<p>Two articles from today’s Inside Higher Education
[News:</a> Objecting to More Lawyers - Inside Higher Ed](<a href=“http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/06/21/law_schools_shrink_enrollments_in_face_of_poor_job_market_fewer_applications]News:”>http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/06/21/law_schools_shrink_enrollments_in_face_of_poor_job_market_fewer_applications)
Objecting to More Lawyers
June 21, 2011
While many pundits argue that law schools are doing a disservice to their students and graduates by training more lawyers than ever before for a job market that has taken a nosedive in recent years, a handful of colleges are taking steps in the opposite direction.</p>

<p>[Quick</a> Takes: June 21, 2011 - Inside Higher Ed](<a href=“http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/06/21/qt#262968]Quick”>http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/06/21/qt#262968)<br>
Med School Enrollments Projected to Increase
First-year enrollment in M.D. programs is projected to increase 2 percent this year, according to a report by the American Association of Medical Colleges, which said that medical schools are currently on track to increase first-year enrollments by 27.6 percent beyond 2002 levels by 2015. The association had set a goal of a 30 percent increase by that time. Despite the progress, the AAMC noted that a growing number of medical colleges are reporting concerns about their ability to continue enrollment increases in light of tight budgets.
Osteopathic medical schools are projecting 5,716 first-year matriculants in fall 2011, up 8.5 percent, according to the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine.</p>

2

<p>As America ages we will need more and more medical professionals. </p>

<p>Then again, when my still unemployed math teacher daughter entered college back in '05 there was a math teacher shortage forecast…</p>

3

<p>With a math degree, couldn’t she get a job in finance or actuarial work?</p>

4

<p>Two pieces of good news, as far as I’m concerned.</p>

5

<p>I don’t know how things are in the rest of the country, but around here it’s hard to get things done without legal representation. Case in point (pun intended) … the local public school rebuilt athletic fields in the late '90s. With no erosion barriers in place, run off began filling the neighboring lake. Neighbor called school officials and got stonewalled. Neighbor filed lawsuit … school district resisted. By the time the lawsuit got to court the lake was unusable (for recreation purposes) and the school district was out several hundred thousand dollars. It used to be that an aggrieved neighbor could pick up the phone and get a reasoned response. No more … at least around here.</p>

6

<p>If I recall correctly by 2020 there willbe a need for an additional 90 thousand doctors. Partly because of the aging baby boomers as patients but also because of the retiring boomer physicians. However, it is still important to run the numbers and see how one would handle the 200K + debt from med school plus whatever is being carried forward from undergraduate school. What is most uncertain is the state of American health care delivery in the future and how that will impact physician training, physician pay and hospital closings. Despite all of this, I think short term, medicine will have more job opportunities than law, especially allied health fields such as physician assistants, nurse practitioners, etc.</p>