Law Degree Burns
I'm sorry I haven't posted much lately. I've been pretty busy for the past two months but hope to start blogging again soon.
Anyway, enjoy watching this rather bittersweet video that implicitly protests the overproduction of college graduates. What would happen if angry JDs banded together to burn their law school diplomas in front of the ABA's headquarters as a publicity stunt?
16 comments:
that stunt would work, and most of them could be anonymous.
I wish said stunt would work, but it will not, for a few reasons at least:
1.) The law "schools" and the ABA are only out to make money off of naive students;
2.) There will be no public uproar for the reason the public HATES lawyers and the legal profession, so no empathy there.
3.) The 0L lemmings are still convinced it will not be them someday.
The entire phenomenon of this law/grad school educational bubble will be with us until the last of the Boomer generation of parents, which still clings to formal education as the be-all and end-all of life's successes, is off the stage.
Also, JD's would talk about it for days, form a committee, and then setup up some arbitrary form of self-government in order to get this done.
A co-worker pointed out that the law degree went up quick, while the undergraduate degree died a slow death. I know a few people who have tossed their JDs in the trash.
I don't think the public hates lawyers, but the way law is practiced in the U.S.
Moderator, shouldn't that be "censorship" instead of "censureship'? Anonymous 9:42, in view of public hatred for lawyers, the only way to get public sympathy for debt-saddled young lawyers is to convince them that the new generation of lawyers will reform what people hate about lawyers. If that isn't true, though, if that is an empty promise, then the public will hate the new generation of lawyers as much as the old. They won't sympathize with financially strapped young lawyers, they'll be glad they're poor.
I ripped up my degree from Touro about 6 or 7 years ago. Maybe 8.
It was after a long period of financial hardship, and one day, after two telephone interviews with the headquarters in Chicago, and and having passed a sort of IQ exam in the local office with a 50% pass rate, Allstate told me on the afternoon before my final interview that I was "Overqualified" because of the JD for the position of Claims Examiner in their Commercial division.
My ex-wife was in tears.
Thye student loan debt terrorized the marriage.
Wouldn't you have torn up your T4 diploma at that point also?
Dec. 18 @9:42 has a great point. The baby boomers cannot comprehend the situation at all. The "Higher Education" they once thought so valuable is now completely worthless and life destroying for many people.
The only people getting rich are the Law Schools, the Banks, and the collection agencies, and maybe some politicians.
I am tempted to do a copycat video.
Wait, don't burn the CompSci ... that can get you a job.
I used to own rental real estate in a college town. I saw plenty of students who majored in a subject, then whined that there were no jobs. Forestry was common. As was Art and Music. So now JD is added to the list. I don't feel sorry for people who invest so much time and money in something without doing any research about what their return will be.
I think I put more time in researching what Bass boat to buy than most of you spent in checking out what you would do once you got your JD.
I have children in a range from 5th grade to a sophamore in college. One of the things we discussed was the availabilty of jobs in their career choice. And how much that job pays. I pointed out that if they want to have a lifestyle near my level they had better get into a field that pays well.
In closing, "How is a lawyer like a 12 inch pizza?" Neither one can feed a family of 4.
Or "What did the lawyer say to the Accountant?" Do you want fries with that?
If out of work alumni would come back at the start of the school year to picket in front of their various law schools, that would let first year students know what they are in for when they still have time to withdraw. Everyone could picket on one of the first days of school. It could be a national movement or just for one school. This would be very effective. I am sure that many first years would change their minds on about attending on the spot. Lives would be changed/saved.
I dedicate this law school recruitment video to you and your blog. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RtHywad7Vo
The posters have called this a "stunt." In my opinion, a childish one. Why don't you ask yourselves the reason you went to law school in the first place? If all you wanted was money, then you should have gotten a finance degree opened your own business.
Do you really think that you are entitled to make big $ just by having a law degree? News flash - no one is entitled to ANYTHING.
Why don't you step to the plate, work your ass off, and utilize some critical thinking skills that you were taught in law school and find a way? It's called creative innovation folks, America was like, built on it.
Maybe none of you have the life skills required to understand the power of the legal skills that were passed on to you.
Oh yea, I went to a 3rd tier school with a strict curve and graduated in the botton 10% of my class. I am five years out and feel that I have unlimited potential for future jobs and earnings.
G. B.
Hey — couldnt find your email on your blog so commenting here — I’m reaching out because I stumbled across your blog (linked from http://thirdtierreality.blogspot.com) and I just launched a legal community called jdOasis.com.
Based on what you write, I thought you might find a post from one of our users interesting since it is about how US News Rankings are inherently flawed due to the fact that schools are allowed to count Business and re-hire their own graduates to skew their employment score and ultimate ranking.
Here it is: http://www.jdoasis.com/law-school-usnews-rankings-flawedheres-why
Hope all is well,
Patrick
@12:54:
You'll probably never read this, but people do research most of it is false. If someone re-wrote all the science textbooks tomorrow and then somehow managed to wipe everyone's memory about it, how long do you think it would take science to figure it out?
A long time, if it ever is. You can't research everything yourself. You can look at statistics. You can look at what the schools put out, what the ABA puts out, talk to some other practicing attorneys and the like.
And, until these scam blogs started showing up about 2-3 years ago, all you'd hear was how great a law degree was and how versatile it is.
The problem is the fraud the higher education scam perpetrates on people. If you buy a house or a car and you find out somebody lied to you, you can sue them and you'd get your money back plus damages usually. Not so with an education. You are stuck with it.
Just think why the bankruptcy rules were written the way they were. It's because it's concentrated within the government, they wanted to do this to people.
If you have advanced degrees, as well as an undergrad one in Comp Sci and cannot find a job, its not the degrees, its your attitude thats getting in your way.
Professional qualifications are less than 25% of the equation.
Chances are no degrees can fix your problems, but yourself.
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