Should I Go to Law School? 4 Questions to Consider.
“Should I go to law school?” is a question that many college graduates wrestle with. Law school can lead to a fulfilling, lucrative, and prestigious career, but that’s not always the outcome. Other graduates leave with a mountain of debt and the crushing prospects of a low salary, long hours, and boring work. In this article, we’ll ask four critical questions to determine whether law school is right for you.
What law schools can you get into?
In some majors, such as business or programming, your college might not make a big difference. Some employers just want to see that you’ve earned a degree and can do the job. This is not the case with law school, where your school choice is critical. To explain why, we’ll need to give some background.
Law school may have once been a golden ticked to wealth, but that is no longer the case. The amount of law school graduates in the Unites States has significantly outpaced job growth, leaving new graduates on the losing end of the supply-demand curve. For renowned law schools, this isn’t a significant issue. There will always be good law jobs out there for the graduates of Harvard and Yale. At the other end of the spectrum are poorly-ranked for-profit law schools, which charge a premium and fail to prepare their students to pass the bar! Since you have to pass the bar to practice law, this is a big deal. Even for students who manage to pass the bar, finding a job in law may prove elusive, as there are more graduates than job openings.
This article by The Atlantic, boldly entitled “The Law School Scam”, outlines the dangers of taking on a high debt load at one of these less prestigious universities.
Thankfully, the American Bar Association requires approved law schools to submit statistics including bar passage rate, job placement and more. You can view these statistics here on the ABA required disclosures site. Another helpful resource is U.S. News’ ranking of law schools. The top 14 of these law schools have high bar passage rates and very solid employment prospects, with good chances of working in big law. Other law schools in the top 50 may have good reputations within their own states and/or regions. Personally, if I had a friend considering a law school outside the top 50, even with a full tuition scholarship, I would encourage him or her to choose a different school or a different career path. The differences in job prospects are just that stark.
What is your expected debt?
Crunching some numbers to estimate your expected debt after law school can be a very sobering experience. Consider your tuition, fees, and living expenses in the estimation, and then work on a rough plan for paying it off.
If you’re depending on a big law job, you should consider the big law placement percentage for your particular school. Big law is not guaranteed, and law jobs outside of big law often have much lower pay. Even if you made it into Yale where your big law chances are very high, I’d recommend reading up on the big law work-life balance (or lack thereof). There’s a reason these guys are getting paid the big bucks.
There are some very well-respected schools that give a lot of full-tuition scholarships (Washington University of Saint Louis, for instance). If you’re fortunate enough to earn one of these scholarships, the financial equation becomes much more manageable. The ABA’s required disclosures site also has statistics on the number and size of each school’s scholarships—a valuable resource!
What is Your LSAT Score?
At this point you may be asking, “How am I supposed to know whether law school is a good idea for me? I have no idea where I’ll go or if I can get a scholarship.” Well, we’ve got you covered. Thankfully, there is one way you can get a pretty accurate of view of what schools will accept you and how big their scholarship offers will be. Some graduate programs—MBA programs for instance—often consider all aspects of your application package. In law school however, your undergraduate GPA and your LSAT score will vastly outweigh the other parts of your application! As long as you don’t totally bomb the rest of your application, you can predict what schools will accept you based almost entirely on these two numbers (uGPA and LSAT). There are actually a handful of sites including this one where you can check your admission probability. If you are an under-represented minority, this will also play a role in your acceptance and scholarship offers.
All this to say, your undergraduate GPA and LSAT score can basically tell you whether law school is a good idea for you, especially since LSAT scores and bar passage have a fairly strong correlation. Of course, LSAT scores can be improved. I personally was able to bump my score by 20 points over three months of study, and I’ve written several articles on how to study for a better score.
Are You Just Doing Law for the Money?
Hey, I’m not here to judge you, I’m just asking. And I’m asking because frankly, there are better options to wealth than law school. If you don’t believe me, read a few of these thoughts from lawyers who tell their friends not to follow them into law. If you still want to be a lawyer after reading this article and doing your research, then great! If you’re just looking to work hard and make bank, then I don’t recommend law school. Between the opportunity cost, lack of work-life balance, and average salary for graduates, there’s a lot going against law students these days. Specifically considering the power of compound interest, the financial cost and opportunity cost of law school are tough pills to swallow.
Whatever you decide, I wish you the best in your education, career, and future. I hope you’ll find our resources here at College Guidepost to be valuable tools in your journey.