And recognize that there is no gate-keeping at the undergrad level for Law School. There is no “committee letter” from faculty endorsing a kid’s application for law school. Kid scores poorly on the LSAT and has middling grades? The law school advisor (if there is one at this particular U) will likely tell the kid that Yale and Chicago aren’t happening, but here’s a list of 5 law schools which aren’t huge reaches/waste of an application fee.
Not so with med school. At some undergrad U’s, if a kid can’t get endorsed by the committee, nobody is going to stop the kid from applying but it is a huge red flag that med school is going to be a bridge too far.
The key to understanding why this is so is that med school education is relatively flat. Which is why the joke is “what do you call the guy who graduated last in med school class?-- Doctor”. Obviously there is gatekeeping along the way… and board certification, obtaining a residency, a fellowship in certain fields, etc. But there are many law schools with abysmal bar exam pass rates, abysmal employment outcomes (grads who can’t pass the bar often end up as paralegals- a field which does not require a 3 year JD degree), etc.
So law school is a caveat emptor situation- everyone needs to do their homework before considering that path. Med school is less risky- if you get in to a US med school and don’t flunk out, you are likely to end up as a doctor. Maybe not dermatology or interventional cardiology… but an MD gainfully employed. Having a JD does NOT mean you’ve got a career as a lawyer ahead of you. There’s more to it.
And folks who don’t understand legal hiring often say “I don’t need to be a partner in a BigLaw firm. I’m OK getting a job as a federal prosecutor”. These jobs are HARDER to get- and more prestige conscious- than many other jobs in the legal profession!