Regret Attending Law School?

NYULawyer
Fri, 21 Dec 2012 17:49:47 +0000

Making over 50k a year to start in an entry level job after college isn’t anywhere close to unheard of, as you seem to imply.

Several friends of mine that majored in liberal arts back in college are now doing IT-related work at firms such as Accenture or Deloitte, as IT consultants. Their starting comp was 65-70k a year, not including bonus. I know some others working in back-office jobs at banks, namely operations. They make decent money, too.

Some jobs pay over 100k for people fresh out of school, namely I-banking or strategy consulting. My I-banking friends tell me that over 90% of their job is to do data entry into pre-made excel templates (aka excel “modeling”) or making powerpoint slide decks for pitching to potential clients. Bottom line is that these jobs require very little intellectual horsepower, nor any real skills/ experience, yet they pay very handsomely. Again, the hard part is actually getting the job in the first place.

Also, quite frankly, it isn’t that hard to make 50k a year even without a college degree. Some people who manage retail branches make six figures. Heck, many of plumbers, auto repair mechanics, or electricians make more than 50k a year.

Agreed with your point that more education =/= monetary or career success. I believe that a huge chunk of students are better off not attending college in the first place. If someone isn’t very talented academically, and the best (s)he can do is to attend a no-name state school and major in a non-marketable subject such as political science or biology, that person is facing a tremendous uphill battle to land a decent job that would lead to a career.

I say that there is a huge problem in this society, encouraging everyone to attend a college, and the fact that too many colleges exist in the first place. There are 17 million college grads in the U.S. that work in dead-end retail jobs. Think about all the resources, time, money, and efforts wasted in pursuing education that didn’t return any returns, for such a large number of people. People need to take the equation of supply vs demand more seriously.