The (perhaps running) quitting journalism and going to law school thread

Not as I understand. In fact, I've often heard the opposite, that corporations prefer that MBA grads' undergrad degree NOT also be in a business/econ type area, because the subject matter repeats itself to a significant degree. They prefer MBA grads with a different undergrad degree that broadens their areas of knowledge/expertise. The only issue is you might have trouble with parts of the GMAT if you've only been taking liberal arts type classes, but there are plenty of study guides to help get past that problem.

 

Good news, I only need seven foundation courses, not eight. :

 

I seem to recall this from my own interest in an MBA degree. I believe I had to take several courses, and in succession, to be approved for the MBA program. If I were an agate monkey, though, I would take them with a smile.

 

It was in the top 14 when I attended.

Look very hard at those numbers posted too, they are only for the top NY firms, which represent less than 1% of all attorney positions. Once again, if you look at the job as merely making $$, I suggest you go do something else, like arbitrage or real estate investing, more $$ less headaches.

Clever, good luck.

 

I wouldn't do it for the money. It's never been my thing. But I thought other people might like to see them. I'll delete the post if it's misleading.

 

i just graduated from law school. i am now studying to take the florida bar. it's a fucking nightmare. when it's over this two and a half month period of studying for the bar will seem like it's no big deal but i wake up every day wishing i'd never gone to law school. i'm exagerating a little when i say that i regret the whole thing but studying for the bar is fucking miserable.

my advice for anyone considering law school is to go to the best rated law school that offers you the most money. just like someone posted above that there are a lot of shitty b-schools, there are also a ton of crap law schools out there. some of the crap ones are fine if you're content to stay in that specific area where the school is located. but if the school doesn't have a high bar passage rate among its students, then stay far, far away. and if you're in california, don't even consider going to one of those unacreddited law schools. it's a total waste of time and money.

 

I think that's the key right there. Find something you enjoy doing and the rest will work itself out.

 

CU, I actually out of curiosity mentioned a couple of your numbers to my attorney buddy and it literally drew a moment of laughter. Maybe in NYC but definately not here (here being a midwestern city) was the gist of his response. The response from actual attorneys here makes me a bit curious what the source of that stat was?

 

You can find those numbers in a lot of places - they are Biglaw firm starting salaries, and they're accurate. New York, Chicago, L.A. and probably Bay law firms pay the highest. Maybe Dallas or Atlanta, too? Mid-sized cities like St. Louis or Indianapolis are more in the $90K range for Biglaw starting salaries.

You pretty much have to go to one of those Top 14 schools to land one of those jobs - Stanford, Yale, Harvard, UChicago, Columbia, Penn, etc., etc.

But the problem is that everyone goes in expecting to be the exception.

 

With all respect, Inky, I think this is the crux of the problem. Presumably we are sports journalists because we love journalism and could combine that with sports. But it hasn't worked itself out – insanely low pay, hours that are not family-friendly, corporate insecurity, etc. – so we're forced to look at other options.

 

That's very utopian, and it's the kind of mantra that guilts people into staying with something like journalism or teaching or whatever it is long past when they should. There are simply more talented creative people out there than there are well-paying, upwardly mobile jobs available for talented creative people.

 

I really do believe that if you find your true love, you can make it work. And that applies to relationships, jobs or places you want to live. But only if you're willing to make sacrifices.

The problem is too many people don't want to compromise. They want to be sports writers, but only if they're covering this sport and living in this part of the nation. I took a $10,000 per year pay cut to go from the corporate world to journalism. I was being groomed for upper management in the company by one of the VPs. But the day I walked into the newspaper, I was happier than I every was at the corporate level. It wasn't easy taking that pay cut. I lost several friends because suddenly I couldn't afford to do the things we used to do together.

Sure, there's instability in our jobs. But there's instability out there as well. The company I worked for was sold twice when I was there. You've not seen employee angst until you've been on the receiving end of a hostile takeover and rumors the company HQ was moving 1,500 miles away.

Yes, the pay isn't that good. No, the hours aren't perfect. Same could be said for cops, firefighters, nurses, teachers and even a lot of attorneys.