Transitioning from Law to other fields

STEMsupport
Wed, 17 Jun 2015 22:46:45 +0000

Every aspirational law student confidently assumes he or she will make a lot of money in the profession, but for the vast majority of J.D.s that ends up not being the case, especially taking into account the hefty student loan debt. So be careful with that assumption. Also be wary of “grass is greener” thinking – many lawyers would probably assume that professional engineers have greater earning potential.

Generally it’s a bad idea to go to law school unless you are 100% sure you want to work as a lawyer or at least be identified as “a lawyer” for the rest of your career. J.D.'s often get pigeonholed, usuaully as unqualified for mid-level non-legal work or overqualified for entry-level non-legal work.

I would recommend taking a few years after undergrad exploring the job market before deciding on any graduate program. And there are a lot of graduate school options outside of more engineering or law school. I was lucky enough to get a job healthcare/research compliance as a J.D.; had I been aware of some of the M.P.H. and M.S. programs that are out there (but not hyper-marketed like law schools), I would not have gone the law school route.