Younger readers, you may have noticed a quiet conspiracy among Foreign Policy writers to discourage you from pursuing the career of your dreams. In February, I cautioned those interested in White House jobs that the path to becoming a political appointee is opaque, arbitrary, and nepotistic, and Nicholas Kralev inveighed against the State Department, where professional development is "largely non-existent" and younger diplomats consequently "don't really know what is going on around them." Meanwhile, Tom Ricks's blog has for months been intermittently given over to the complaints of junior military officers, who assert that the military is rigid, anti-intellectual, and un-family-friendly. Then there's Dan Drezner, who on April 15 warned that most international studies Ph.D. candidates are unlikely to make it all the way through grad school, and the job market for those few who survive is "brutal" and "abysmal."
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What's left?
Law school, of course! Well, how about it: Should you consider going to law school?
Maybe.
I've taught law since 1997, with various detours along the way, and I've seen almost 15 years of law students graduate and struggle to find jobs that satisfy them. So here's the good, the bad, and the ugly. And since law professors are renowned for taking perfectly simple things and turning them upside down, I'll take those in reverse order.
Here's the ugly:
You probably know this already, but I'll say it again. America has too many law schools charging too much tuition and turning out too many lawyers. This has three consequences.
First, some of those so-called "law schools" are so mediocre that they'd bring a blush to the cheeks of even to the most shameless diploma-mill operator. Don't go to an unaccredited law school -- really, don't. The sole exception to this? Every now and then, a very reputable and distinguished university that lacks a law school decides to start one, and there will inevitably be a short period before that new school can gain full accreditation. But if an unaccredited law school is a stand-alone enterprise or affiliated with an equally dubious "university," avoid it like the plague. Your degree will be close to worthless.
The same is true, unfortunately, for many accredited but crummy law schools, and here in the land of the free, crummy (but decidedly un-free) law schools abound. How do you know if a law school is worth your time? Do some research. What's the first time bar passage rate? If it's routinely under 60 percent, be afraid. How many graduates have full-time jobs 9 months out? More important, what are they doing?
If they don't have jobs as lawyers, this in itself is not a reason for concern: Lots of law students (you too, maybe) aren't interested in becoming lawyers, but instead see law school as providing the training and credentials that will pave the way for interesting business, policy, or advocacy jobs. Georgetown Law, for instance, where I teach, produces plenty of high-powered non-lawyers, including career ambassadors, senators, and media moguls. US News and World Report doesn't give law schools any credit for their graduates in such non-legal jobs, but you should -- as long as those jobs are good jobs in and of themselves. Thus, if a law school's graduates seem to go into banking or tech companies or NGO jobs as much as (or more than) legal jobs, don't panic -- this might be a neutral thing or even a very good thing. But if they're all working at McDonalds, run like the wind.
Ask law schools about average and median salaries of graduates one year and five years out. If they're low, compare them to the law school's tuition and graduates' average debt load. Ask about loan forgiveness programs. Ask about the kinds of jobs top students get -- and also ask about the job prospects for those who graduate in the bottom half of the class. Ask for names as well as numbers: The best way to understand a law school's culture is to talk to students and recent graduates. They're a lot more likely to tell you the truth than admissions office employees. And in the career field you're interested in, also speak to professionals in the city or state where you hope to work: What do local lawyers say about the reputation of the law school you're considering? Do they hire its graduates? Do they know any of its graduates? Do they snicker when you mention the school's name?
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