Academic

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Listening to Disgruntled Law Grads. Steven Martorelli is prepari?

By Glenn Reynolds

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Listening to Disgruntled Law Grads.

Steven Martorelli is preparing to graduate from UConn?s law school in December, and he?s currently interning at a firm in Waterbury. He is a part-time student who started a Meriden-based side business that provides credit card processing services to restaurants and other businesses.

Going to law school was a way to diversify his career options, and he?s not eager to join the ?scam blog? bandwagon. ?Law school was a hedge against my business and my business was a hedge against law school,? he said. ?There?s not a guarantee in life. You can?t rely on a school to provide your job.?

But many students do rely on their J.D. to put food on the table, according to the scam bloggers. And that?s why they question the salary and job placement figures trumpeted by law schools.

?Does babysitting count as employment?? queried a third-year UConn law student who asked to remain anonymous. UConn reported this year that 89.9 percent of its 2009 graduating class found employment, but that figure includes temporary jobs and positions outside of the legal industry. Other law schools, such as Quinnipiac and Western New England, also count those jobs toward employment figures.

The third-year student said ?it?s terrifying? to think where she and her classmates might end up after graduation next year. ?The competition for crappy jobs is amazing,? she said. ?The anxiety over getting jobs is palpable.?

And it reaches into the most prestigious schools.

?I have a friend from Harvard Law School who summered at a firm and didn?t get an offer last year,? she said. ?If Harvard isn?t a golden ticket, then there?s no golden ticket anymore.?

Read the whole thing. Don’t go into debt for your education. There are no golden tickets anymore. And maybe consider a big state school, though I don’t know if this study carries over to law.

Full post as published by Instapundit.com on September 15, 2010 (boomark / email).