best strategy for T14ers who graduate jobless w/ 200k+ debt? Forum

[T14_Scholly]

There's really no need to worry about post-grad employment. After all, as reported by US News, most of the top law schools employed 95% or more of their graduates in 2009.

[fornicator]

Just goes to show that the ability to score well on exams does not correlate to financial intelligence. Too bad you didn't get a subprime mortgage to go along with your other debt - at least you could have walked away from that.

What a fine country we live in.

Yeah, fuck you. If you said that in person, even if I weren't the addressee, I'd have to restrain myself to not punch you full force in the face. All reliable sources available at the time that most of us enrolled indicated that a good law school was a good investment.

How adorable. Another guy screwed over by glossy brochures wants to take it out on others. Do some real due diligence before diving into an education costing you $180k and you might not have to comiserate about your mountains of debt.

And punching someone in the face, however noble it might seem to you, would probably end up just adding on more debt to the pile. And it's not like law school even trained you how to defend yourself in court.

Wait a minute - where's all of the TLS'ers with the "you're just making up the debt problems / the legal market is fine / I love law school" responses? I actually believe the OP is telling the truth, and I think the problem is far more endemic than most of the people around here would even admit.

FWIW, I did plenty of diligence, sought financial counseling, etc. The fact of the matter was, that when I entered law school, if you went to a T14, you got six figures at graduation; and the salary trends were in fact going up at that point. Nothing suggested that there was any possibility of decline. When the recession hit and all the layoffs started, I was too indebted to jump ship, and career services assured everyone that top half would still be fine. Turned out to be wrong, but I had no reason to distrust them at the time; after all, they claimed to have great insider information about the firms hiring at OCI. Know your fucking audience before characterizing them as being won over by glossy brochurers, you insolent little wad of shit.

[Always Credited]

Just goes to show that the ability to score well on exams does not correlate to financial intelligence. Too bad you didn't get a subprime mortgage to go along with your other debt - at least you could have walked away from that.

What a fine country we live in.

Yeah, fuck you. If you said that in person, even if I weren't the addressee, I'd have to restrain myself to not punch you full force in the face. All reliable sources available at the time that most of us enrolled indicated that a good law school was a good investment.

How adorable. Another guy screwed over by glossy brochures wants to take it out on others. Do some real due diligence before diving into an education costing you $180k and you might not have to comiserate about your mountains of debt.

And punching someone in the face, however noble it might seem to you, would probably end up just adding on more debt to the pile. And it's not like law school even trained you how to defend yourself in court.

Wait a minute - where's all of the TLS'ers with the "you're just making up the debt problems / the legal market is fine / I love law school" responses? I actually believe the OP is telling the truth, and I think the problem is far more endemic than most of the people around here would even admit.

[Z3RO]

ITT: Swester makes fun of people for taking advantage of opportunities he was never afforded.

[bk1]

Then apparently you haven't visited any of the other sub-forums on this site. It's only here, on legal employment (or, more appropriately, unemployment), that more realistic reports surface.

Having read the other subforums, I disagree with that, but it would be impossible to bring any sort of evidence to bear and the only possible creditable source would be somebody with a large post count.

[swester]

Just goes to show that the ability to score well on exams does not correlate to financial intelligence. Too bad you didn't get a subprime mortgage to go along with your other debt - at least you could have walked away from that.

What a fine country we live in.

Yeah, fuck you. If you said that in person, even if I weren't the addressee, I'd have to restrain myself to not punch you full force in the face. All reliable sources available at the time that most of us enrolled indicated that a good law school was a good investment.

How adorable. Another guy screwed over by glossy brochures wants to take it out on others. Do some real due diligence before diving into an education costing you $180k and you might not have to comiserate about your mountains of debt.

And punching someone in the face, however noble it might seem to you, would probably end up just adding on more debt to the pile. And it's not like law school even trained you how to defend yourself in court.

Wait a minute - where's all of the TLS'ers with the "you're just making up the debt problems / the legal market is fine / I love law school" responses? I actually believe the OP is telling the truth, and I think the problem is far more endemic than most of the people around here would even admit.

FWIW, I did plenty of diligence, sought financial counseling, etc. The fact of the matter was, that when I entered law school, if you went to a T14, you got six figures at graduation; and the salary trends were in fact going up at that point. Nothing suggested that there was any possibility of decline. When the recession hit and all the layoffs started, I was too indebted to jump ship, and career services assured everyone that top half would still be fine. Turned out to be wrong, but I had no reason to distrust them at the time; after all, they claimed to have great insider information about the firms hiring at OCI. Know your fucking audience before characterizing them as being won over by glossy brochurers, you insolent little wad of shit.

Good work with the name calling, btw. Probably picked it up from some of your T-14 buddies working in shitlaw right now.

Look, I don't mean to entirely blame you for the decision. The schools do a very very good job of hiding reality. Even in those "glory days", not everyone was pulling in $160k/yr either. Those are distorted numbers, skewed based on responses received and whatnot. They were never wholly true. It's sad that it takes a major recession for this to come to light.

You'll get through it all, no doubt, just like everyone else. Things will turn around. But the best you can do is to talk anyone you know out of throwing away the money on law school loans. 'Tis a lose-lose. Law school once costed a fraction of what it does today, and the field was far far less crowded as well. It's a bitch.

[General Tso]

Good work with the name calling, btw. Probably picked it up from some of your T-14 buddies working in shitlaw right now.

Look, I don't mean to entirely blame you for the decision. The schools do a very very good job of hiding reality. Even in those "glory days", not everyone was pulling in $160k/yr either. Those are distorted numbers, skewed based on responses received and whatnot. They were never wholly true. It's sad that it takes a major recession for this to come to light.

You'll get through it all, no doubt, just like everyone else. Things will turn around. But the best you can do is to talk anyone you know out of throwing away the money on law school loans. 'Tis a lose-lose. Law school once costed a fraction of what it does today, and the field was far far less crowded as well. It's a bitch.

From reading your posts, one would think that law school is the single worst field of study to pursue, and that only new lawyers are suffering in the job market right now. News flash -- new graduates in every field are struggling (except maybe medical fields, but even some hospitals are laying people off right now). Stories like OP's are a tragedy and I don't think you accomplish much by mocking him for things beyond his control.

Young people have been disproportionately shafted by this recession. People graduating from school right now have more debt than at any time in history, and face worse job prospects and more competition than in recent decades. We need to be supporting each other, not mocking those who have fallen through the cracks...have some class solidarity for once in your life.

[SteelReserve]

Young people have been disproportionately shafted by this recession. People graduating from school right now have more debt than at any time in history, and face worse job prospects and more competition than in recent decades. We need to be supporting each other, not mocking those who have fallen through the cracks...have some class solidarity for once in your life.

Credited. And the greatest irony of all is that the natural move for such college grads will be to take on more debt to go to law school to "ride out the recession" and hope for the best.

[vanwinkle]

Wait a minute - where's all of the TLS'ers with the "you're just making up the debt problems / the legal market is fine / I love law school" responses? I actually believe the OP is telling the truth, and I think the problem is far more endemic than most of the people around here would even admit.

This really doesn't seem to be the consensus of TLS...

That's because it's not, and above poster is full of shit. If anything the typical consensus on TLS is "either go to a T14 or go debt-free, if you want to be responsible at all". People are harsh on paying sticker at T2s here, just a couple threads ago I saw someone use a noose to symbolize how much sense paying sticker at AU makes. Hell, some people aren't doing well even at T14s, and that gets talked about here. I love the idea that some dude with 40 posts shows up and declares that the consensus on here is "you're just making up the debt problems". Yeah, whatever, dude.

[lawduder]

personally, I'd hide in the wilderness

[sawwaverunner]

Thanks. Education's so expensive in this country, particularly due to the interest. I went to the T5 on a half scholarship and am in law school on a sizable scholarship which I'm in line to maintain. Going to college is 200k now for the four years and 180-200 for some T14's. My professor told me he attended a T14 law school for 100/semester thirty years ago and went to undergrad for free.

You think you're in pain? Try having 400k in overall debt upon graduating, with only 275 under IBR (T5 undergrad business degree/T14 JD) + failed business due to recession in between undergrad and law school. Hope the economy picks up as I'm only a 1L.

That's a fuckin' bummer, man. Good luck and godspeed.

I think I would hate that professor.