At least things aren't this bad.

[pathstudent]

Anyone read this NYT article that they published about a week ago? A lot of the comments remind me of some of the stuff you read here but it is obviously 50 times worse for law school grads.

My favorite quote from the article is : law school is a pie-eating contest where the first prize is more pie. Hilarious.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/business/09law.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=general&src=me

Is Law School a Losing Game?
By DAVID SEGAL
Published: January 8, 2011

IF there is ever a class in how to remain calm while trapped beneath $250,000in loans, Michael Wallerstein ought to teach it.

Here he is, sitting one afternoon at a restaurant on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, a tall, sandy-haired, 27-year-old radiating a kind of surfer-dude serenity. His secret, if that’s the right word, is to pretty much ignore all the calls and letters that he receives every day from the dozen or so creditors now hounding him for cash.

“And I don’t open the e-mail alerts with my credit score,” he adds. “I can’t look at my credit score any more.”

Mr. Wallerstein, who can’t afford to pay down interest and thus watches the outstanding loan balance grow, is in roughly the same financial hell as people who bought more home than they could afford during the real estate boom. But creditors can’t foreclose on him because he didn’t spend the money on a house.

He spent it on a law degree. And from every angle, this now looks like a catastrophic investment.

Well, every angle except one: the view from law schools. To judge from data that law schools collect, and which is published in the closely parsed U.S. News and World Report annual rankings, the prospects of young doctors of jurisprudence are downright rosy. ......

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[gbwillner]

... At least we're not trying to repeal blasphemy laws in Pakistan.... See? There's always worse out there.

 

[2121115]

I read that. It rivals some of the comments on this board actually. Seriously though, did anyone really think that a 3rd or 4th tier law school which charges "private school" tuition was a good idea? Seriously.

 

[GoodNewsEvery1]

I read that. It rivals some of the comments on this board actually. Seriously though, did anyone really think that a 3rd or 4th tier law school which charges "private school" tuition was a good idea? Seriously.

It is like the people that think a history degree from a mega-expensive university (like 2 of my close friends) is a good idea.

Even for those at upper tier law schools are having a hard time. My future brother in law went to the 25th-ish ranked law school, and was awarded an award for the most successful recent graduate of the school, even though he was at the time unemployed. haha. He did find a nice firm job soon after though.

 

[LADoc00]

the difference between law schools and medical schools is that even the lowest tier US medical school is still a challenge to get into, it is NOT like this for law school.

some law schools can bring in every manner of degenerate drug addict/criminal, charge them tuition and feel good about it.

 

[KCShaw]

That's some funny ****.

What's really nice is the correction at the bottom, that some poor schmuck racked up debt in undergrad & grad school rather than law school as was originally reported.

I also like: “This idea of exceptionalism — I don’t know if it’s a thing with millennials, or what,” she says, referring to the generation now in its 20s. “Even if you tell them the bottom has fallen out of the legal market, they’re all convinced that none of the bad stuff will happen to them. It’s a serious, life-altering decision, going to law school, and you’re dealing with a lot of naïve students who have never had jobs, never paid real bills.” ..shortly followed by..“Bank bailouts, company bailouts — I don’t know, we’re the generation of bailouts,” he says in a hallway during a break from his Peak Discovery job. “And like, this debt of mine is just sort of, it’s a little illusory. I feel like at some point, I’ll negotiate it away, or they won’t collect it.”

Basically, people tend to be *****s and do dumb things until they have to actually live with the consequences, at which point they're sure it wasn't really their fault and they won't really have to deal with said consequences. Was the Woodstock generation this hash-headed..?

 

[LADoc00]

Exceptionalism is no1 threat to America IMO.

Its is so pervasive in some areas like academia and government, I almost feel like Im trapped in Inception. 9th layer of a dream or some crap.

 

[SaltySqueegee]

Exceptionalism is no1 threat to America IMO.

Its is so pervasive in some areas like academia and government, I almost feel like Im trapped in Inception. 9th layer of a dream or some crap.

I know what you mean. Although, I am fortunate those things won't ever effect me.

 

[oldfatman]

Exceptionalism is no1 threat to America IMO.

Its is so pervasive in some areas like academia and government, I almost feel like Im trapped in Inception. 9th layer of a dream or some crap.

LADoc00 for president! Or at least gubernor of California....

 

[LADoc00]

LADoc00 for president! Or at least gubernor of California....

haha! No way. I have a very pure LMOE-viewpoint of the world (for those who have read World War Z, last man on earth), I exist to survive, hopefully comfortably. I keep as low as a profile as I can.

In undergrad, I had the nickname of the Shadow, because I did all my undergrad Chem research in the dead of night with no prying eyes looking over me...

 

[gbwillner]

haha! No way. I have a very pure LMOE-viewpoint of the world (for those who have read World War Z, last man on earth), I exist to survive, hopefully comfortably. I keep as low as a profile as I can.

SO... which guy are you? The one that smuggled infected people into "clean" countries for a buck or the guy who developed the fake vaccine to the zombie virus?

 

[2121115]

In regard to the original post...

Who is to say it isn't that bad? Residents graduating from any of the numerous lower tier pathology residency programs probably have similar job prospects to the 4th tier law school grads. It is a world of have's and have-nots, in pathology as well as the legal field.

 

[Unty]

In regard to the original post...

Who is to say it isn't that bad? Residents graduating from any of the numerous lower tier pathology residency programs probably have similar job prospects to the 4th tier law school grads. It is a world of have's and have-nots, in pathology as well as the legal field.

Do you know someone from a lower tier pathology program that is unemployed?

 

[2121115]

Do you know someone from a lower tier pathology program that is unemployed?

Do read this board very much? Do a search. That is what half of the threads are about. Either it is true or 95% of the job market posts on this board are total crap.

To answer your question directly though, I know a resident at a lower tier program who graduated with no fellowship and no job. But that is the only one I know of, and it was several years ago.