What Do College Students Really Want - And Can They Get It From Law School - Part 4

In Part 1 of this series, we discussed how most college students really deep down want a personal balance of four things - 1) Money, 2) Job Security, 3) Appealing Job, and 4) Free Time.  But can working as a lawyer really provide these things?  In Part 2, we took a look at the Money factor and determined that it was unlikely that working as a lawyer would be able to provide the amount of money that most law students expect at this time.  In Part 3, we took a look at the Job Security factor and determined that a job as a lawyer is not very secure.  In this post, let's take a look at the Appealing Job factor.

When Is A Default Not A Default?

AboveTheLaw (ATL) had a post today entitled "The Student Loan Bubble: Only Stupid People Will Be Surprised When It Bursts".  The post derives from this Huffington Post article that details the massive and sudden increase in student loan debt from from 440 B to 550 B since 2008 - a 25% increase over three years.  I would also be really remiss if I did not point out that LawSchoolTuitionBubble (LSTB) has been calling attention to this for some time and his most recent post on it suggests that the total numbers may be even greater.

Overvaluing a Law Degree

Matt over at The Law School Tuition Bubble does a good job with research and analysis.  In a recent post entitled "Another Day, Another Study Overvaluing A Law Degree" he reviews a publication entitled "The College Payoff" from Georgetown University's Center on Education and Workforce.  Georgetown suggests that with a law degree your lifetime earnings will be 4,032,000 - far in excess of the lifetime earnings of those with a bachelor's degree (2,268,000) and an associate's degree (1,727,000).

What Do College Students Really Want - And Can They Get It From Law School? - Part 3

In Part 1 and Part 2, we discussed how most college students really deep down want a personal balance of four things - 1) Money, 2) Job Security, 3) Appealing Job, and 4) Free Time.  But can working as a lawyer really provide these things?  In Part 2, we took a look at the Money factor and determined that it was unlikely that working as a lawyer would be able to provide the amount of money that most law students expect at this time.  But what about the rest of the factors?  Let's take a look at Job Security.

A Tier 1 Law Professor Admits Law Schools Are Scamming Students

As reported by AboveTheLaw and appearing on InsideTheLawSchoolScam a Tier 1 Law Professor has decided to rise to the highest of ethical standards (you know, the kind that law schools are supposed to teach and abide by) and A Tier 1 Law Professor Admits Law Schools Are Scamming Students.

The Professor has about eight posts so far - and man are they good.  He really comes out swinging.  Let's look at them below.

The New Data That The ABA Is Asking For Is Good, But Not Great.

I previously discussed this here. Also, here's a new and even more in-depth article outlining some of the loopholes to watch out for/additional data that should be required from law schools.

NALP Objects To The New ABA Employment Data Rules, But Then Makes Up

First, the NALP was riled by the ABA plan to collect better employment date for law students because it seemed to be cutting NALP out of the loop - NALP even threatened to sue the ABA.  NALP obviously felt threatened because the ABA now wanted employment data reported directly to the ABA rather than to NALP - effectively cutting NALP out of the loop.  However, they then agreed to work together.

Cooley and NYLS Get Sued

Cooley and NYLS got sued
This brings the total number of law schools that have been sued to three including Thomas Jefferson School of Law.  At issue is whether the law schools concealed or misrepresented their employment numbers in order to induce students to pay them tuition.  I am not involved in the cases, but the contentions echo those I have heard repeated often.  Regardless of whether the allegations are true, the fact that a law school can now be sued over such matters must now be impacting on the consciousness of many law school Deans and Professors.
More coverage.  Even more coverage.

Also - there have been a lot of developments lately, so I am going to do a bunch of little posts.

What Do College Students Really Want - And Can They Get It From Law School? - Part 2

In the previous post, we discussed how most college students really deep down want a personal balance of four things - 1) Money, 2) Job Security, 3) Appealing Job, and 4) Free Time.  College students often become potential law students when they come to the belief that "working as a lawyer" is a way to achieve these four factors - and law school is the modality to obtain the state of "working as a lawyer."  However, the potential law student's evaluation of the balance of the four factors is often flawed because they are typically only able to get solid data with regard to the Money factor and the students often fill in self-serving "soft data" for the rest of the factors to justify the hard data Money analysis.  We are going to take a look at each of the four factors that students really want and then compare them to what law school and a career as a lawyer can actually provide at this time.  In this post, we will look at the Money factor.

What Do College Students Really Want - And Can They Get It From Law School? - Part 1

When I talk to people considering going to law school, I usually try to figure out what they really want from it.  Not the BS, surface reasons like - "law is my passion" (really?  REALLY?) or "I like to help people" (you don't need to spend $200K to do that - get any job at a charity, you will probably be better off than going to law school) - but the real reasons.  The deep down reasons.  The reasons that aren't so nice or so PC.  The reasons that they don't even want to admit to themselves - because it is only through the filter of their conscious minds that they can rectify their unconscious need for that they really want with what they have been told (or told themselves) is appropriate.  The reasons that they have been taught that (although true and accurate in the purest sense) will bring condemnation from society if spoken frankly.

In short, I try to get a glimpse of who they really are and what they really want.  For a few, they are a good match for law school - but most of the others often want something that law school - or even a law career - can't provide.  Let's take a look at the most common things that the people that I meet really want - and whether they can get it from law school.

No More Subsidized Stafford Loans - Debt Bill

I just wanted to call attention to this aspect that was part of the Debt Ceiling Bill that has now been signed into law - and as reported by AboveTheLaw - no more subsidized interest for grad student loans after July 2012.
For law students, the big one here is probably the Subsidized Stafford Loan - which usually makes up $8,500/year of the typical loan package.  You used to have the interest subsidized while you were in school - and for 6 months afterword.  Now the interest subsidization is gone, gone gone.

What's the impact going to be on law students?  Well, the Stafford Loan rate is currently 6.8%, and loan disbursements take place at the start of the year.  Consequently, by the September after graduation, the accumulated principal and interest would be: 8.5K *(1.068)^3 + 8.5K *(1.068)^2 + 8.5K *(1.068) = 10355+9695+9078= $29,128.  Subtracting out the $25,500 in principle, we get $3,628

Consequently, for almost all students, law school just got $3,628 more expensive.

Here's another thing that is interesting and illustrates the declining support for education in the U.S. (before the subsidized interest loan was eliminated) the $8,500 limit had remained unchanged since at least 1995 - I still remember $8,500 being my subsidized amount at that time.  This is in spite of the cost of going to law school literally TRIPLING (taking inflation into account) over that time period.  Thus, the subsidized part has become a lesser and lesser percentage of the loan burden over that time.

If it wasn't already apparent, going to law school AT THIS TIME is a truly rotten deal for almost all law students.  Only about 1 in 20 really make it work.  It used to be a pretty decent deal, but the economics of the situation have truly changed.  It may change back some day, but it won't for at least several years.

New Associate Hiring - 2010 Survey and 2011 Projection

American Lawyer is now confirming what just about everyone already knew - job offers for summer associates were way down in 2010 as compared to 2009 (about 33%).  American Lawyer bases this on the results reported from the 59 firms that participate in their Summer Hiring Survey. Let's dig into the 2010 numbers and also make a projection of what the 2011 summer associate offer rate will be.

Best and Worst States To Make A Living

MoneyRates has a pair of interesting articles - the 10 best states to make a living - and - the 10 worst states to make a living. To calculate the lists, they took into account the following and then calculated an adjusted-average income for each state:

• Average state wages
• State unemployment rate
• State tax rate
• State cost of living

Guess which state is the best to make a living?