I completely agree, although if I were to choose again I would still make the same choice. With my chosen career path, prestige matters. I'm happy I went to law school, happy with where my career is headed (I'm not a huge fan of what I'm doing now, but I'm headed on for bigger and better things), and I knew going into it that I would have loan debt hanging over my head and a low salary. I totally accept that.BruceWayne wrote:I just want to point something out to all the 0Ls and 1Ls. Have you guys noticed, that even amongst posters who are all very different and definitely didn't see eye to eye in the past, that ALL of us who have actually graduated and gotten out into the real world concur about a lot of things? Like how these schools (yes even the top ones) really aren't worth the debt. And how unlikely you are to actually make these massive payments every month on your loans and to get rid of that 300K debt in lol 5 years. Or how we all agree that the likelihood of you actually staying in these big firm jobs is awful. But no just go ahead and keep thinking you know everything about these issues and we're just exaggerating. I mean damn DesertFox actually pulled off what's supposed to be the best case outcome if you have sticker debt and EVEN he is telling you it's not a good idea. And straight LOL at the living off $2K a month in NYC while working at a big firm is no big deal. I'm having a hard ass time living off a little less than that in a market with a COL half of NYC.
I really do find it kind of amazing that so many of us who entered at the same time have almost all come out with very similar stances on what things are like. It says a lot about what this profession is really like at the moment. Almost every post that I've read from WorldTraveler, Desert, Rad, and rayiner sounds like what I've experienced or what other people who I graduated with experienced as well. We were all bamboozled by these schools and this field.
But I really wouldn't recommend this path to many people. I get to do what I want to do and most people don't. For anyone except the extremely dedicated, I would 100% say don't go to an elite school, take on debt, and think you're going to do international law. 95% chance you won't succeed or even if you do, it will not be what you thought. Even if you make it, you will either do similar work to big law, and sit in a boring office in DC or NY, or do field work in a shithole country where it's next to impossible to have a family or any kind of security and likely end up with an alcohol addiction or seriously destructive tendencies.
So yeah, with those caveats I would say it is remarkable that virtually every law grad on this forum says it's not worth it.