Should I attend law school?

NYULawyer
Thu, 29 Nov 2012 00:21:35 +0000

NYUlawyer, let me give you an example of what I mean by a ‘control group’. Right now, millions of people who know how to read and write nevertheless can’t find jobs and are stuck in poverty. So does that mean that developing basic literacy skills is a terrible idea, and people shouldn’t even bother to learn how to read and write? Think about all the time you would save in your youth by not having to spend the time to learn how to read and thereby could devote towards other tasks!

I think we can all agree that even if there are millions of people who can read and write yet are stuck in poverty, the control group comparison comprised of people who don’t even know how to read at all are even worse off. I doubt that anybody prefers to be illiterate.

And that’s the fundamental objection I have to your entire logic stream. However dire the economic problems college graduates may be, the non-graduates suffer from an even more dire fate.

You even indicated yourself that it is relatively easy - indeed, probably too easy - for nearly anybody to obtain a college. I completely agree. But that only means that if you don’t have a degree, you’ve signaled to the labor market that you can’t even complete a task that is, by your own admission, relatively easy.



Truth is inconvenient. Yes, I believe that some people are indeed better off not bothering with college at all.

Central to my point, again, is this analogy: what’s worse: being stuck in a retail job with a high school diploma, or with a college diploma? I would argue latter, due to heavy financial & opportunity costs incurred.

Re your example about poor people pursuing education to improve their economic status - what’s worse: being poor only with basic education, or being POORER after unnecessary, non-marketable education, after 4 years of tuition money and opportunity costs incurred?

Let me give you another example. Nowadays, due to severe lack of jobs in legal sector, many students are given advice not to bother with law school unless they can get into a top 14 law school. However, many students object this proposal, citing the usual: “but I can’t get a job with my useless BA in political science/ biology/ history, so if not law school, what should I do instead?”

To answer that question, one needs to know the obvious: what’s worse? Having no job with a BA in poli sci, or having no job with a BA in poli sci + a useless JD + 150-200k law school debt?

The answer should be crystal clear.