Scholarships for law school?

tomtownsend
Thu, 11 Nov 2021 17:39:39 +0000

Twoin18:

Average (or modestly above average) students borrowing money for education is a hugely risky endeavor, not limited to law school. For example, that supposedly stable job as a social worker doesn’t look so great when you have $300K in student loans: USC Pushed a $115,000 Online Degree. Graduates Got Low Salaries, Huge Debts. - WSJ

On the other hand tippy top students, especially (but not solely) those who attend elite colleges, may have more options open to them and their career objectives may be very different. That sort of star student can (as one example of a kid I know) go into tech sales for FAANG and earn $120K base out of college, even without studying a STEM subject. Or compete for a Rhodes scholarship then go work for McKinsey.

One of the challenges on this website is when the aspirations of a tippy top student (or one whose parents believe they are) to have a “meaningful” elite career are conflated with the aspirations of a student who simply wants a decently paying job, a house and a family, and can’t afford to be in debt.

This is all true. The schools are predatory, knowing the sticker price on their tuition likely cannot be serviced by the jobs their students obtain. The concept of a “Trap School” is relevant here. You may have a 3.5 or 3.7 and a 164 LSAT. That is dangerous territory. You know Cooley, Thomas Jefferson, and Florida Coastal are scams, even if they make it “free” to go on a conditional scholarship. You may not know Fordham, USC, BC, and GW are highly risky endeavors that will more likely ruin your life with debt than provide an upper middle-class existence (which most incoming law students want, whether they state it or not). Less than half of these students will get the 180k big law salary, almost none will get “midlaw” (since that is mostly comprised of laterals), so you have tons of students servicing six figure debt loads on 40-60k, basically below the poverty line. Here is the Paul Campos article, he is a law professor and an expert on student finances (Inside the Law School Scam: Trap schools)

Regarding tippy top students, yes they should take the FAANG job or go work at McKinsey. It will be more lucrative and interesting., You can also aavoid three years of schooling. .To a large extent, the good students at Ivy League colleges have shunned law school. Before the political 2016-2020 bump in law applications, the numbers had plummeted from top 20 undergraduate schools, leaving Yale and Harvard slots open to sociology and English majors from lesser institutions.