So, we've got the following themes covered:
- Lawyers are narcissists. The reason why they do not heed our advise is because they always say, "That may have been what happened to you, but I will work harder and that won't happen to me." or "Somehow, I'm different, better, smarter than you are--so I will find a job." They are such narcissists that individual law students are willing to say that people who are similarly situated will end up in a vastly different position than themselves. This is an irrational, pompous attitude--that has no relation to real life. If you jump of a bridge and die, can I expect to fly if I do the same thing?
- The Educational Industrial Complex pays for newspaper articles and reputable press such as "Market Watch" publish these articles without so much as a disclaimer. Kaplan is not a law school expert--but a profiteer of college graduates' misfortunes. They perch like eagles outside of college graduation ceremonies and offer students who majored in enjoyable, but useless, topics like literature and sociology a "great way to become marketable." Hogwash. I wouldn't trust an article put out by Pro-Lifers about how happy mothers are to have had a baby. Nor would I believe the accuracy of an article put out by NOW about how women who choice to have an abortion were so much better off without a child. The irony is, if a reputable publication decided to put out one of the above articles, it would lose its' credibility. It would be considered one-sided. But somehow, the Educational Industrial Complex is given different treatment. It's okay to put out lies that fool the most vulnerable of our society, the young, into being shackled with a lifetime of debt. Look at this prize quote: "If given the choice of submitting as part of their law school application a perfect 180 on the LSAT, a perfect 4.0 GPA or a letter of recommendation from a Supreme Court justice, 80% would opt for a perfect LSAT score." This can also be read as follow: "Take Kaplan so you can score a perfect LSAT score." Or, it can read as follows: "You can still go to law school although you had nothing close to a perfect GPA." OR, "You can be a no one and know nobody and go to great law school." BULL! You must have an excellent GPA, a great LSAT and know someone of importance in the legal industry to make it as a lawyer. Anything short of that, will park you in your parents' basement until you're 35.
- Most pro-law school press has no real facts regarding the legal industry. This article is filled with great little tidbits of hope for future law students that causes them to heard into TTThird TTTier TTToilets like cattle such as: "Pre-law students' attitudes are in keeping with research showing that students aged 18-29 are more optimistic about their economic future -- despite a sluggish job market -- than past generations." It also states: "52% report that they are 'very confident' that they will find a job in the legal field after graduating law school and passing the bar..." Of course, what the article fails to state, which seems to be standard modus operandi, is what the reality of the legal job market is. It even alludes to finding a non-legal job. Why aren't there any cold and hard numbers relating to the post-law school job search instead of what a bunch of lemmings think, feel and hope. Am I the only person that finds it ironic that people would attend law school to not work in the law? Would I go through the trouble of medical school to be in HR?
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Too many 0Ls suffer from delusional optimism. They often dismiss the stories of unemployment and depression from attorneys and JDs. Because, they - with their 3.4 GPA in Feminist Literature - WILL excel in law school, right?!
ReplyDeleteKaplan is just another garbage vendor of the law school industy. I have yet to give these swine the proper TTR treatment!
You should totally call them out... I would love to see their stats. All they do is administer tests that should be available to the general public. I learned nothing in their class, and just sat in the "lab" at the time--taking LSAT after LSAT. Has that changed?
ReplyDeleteI took an LSAT class with Kaplan. None of the teachers were law students or planning to go to law school. That seemed a bit fishy. I thought, if they are scoring so well on the LSAT, why are they working full-time teaching the LSAT rather than going to a top 14 law school? Once I found the scam blogs, I realized why they don't go to law school. They probably know law school is a scam and can make more money from teaching the LSAT at 20+/hr than by going to law school. Smart on their part, bad for their students who will end up in debt with poor career prospects.
ReplyDelete"students aged 18-29 are more optimistic about their economic future -- despite a sluggish job market -- than past generations."
ReplyDeleteWhy not, they have never really had to compete for anything to win a trophy. Gen X watched people's careers get killed from a young age. The boomers have protected Gen Y to their own detriment. Is it possible that most people under 30 are narcissists?
A high GPA is pretty much everything to get an opportunity when you don't have connections. Unfortunately getting a high GPA is usually more about what advantages you have over other students, including cheating, as well as how good your memorization skills are. Pretty much all of school is just memorization.
ReplyDeleteSometimes people want to pretend it isn't, and use obviously stupid examples. My only answer to that is that these are either falsified examples or students at T14s 10 years ago were all morons, or maybe still are. It's obvious that you'll want to use the relevant portions of what you've memorized.
Even in science and math all you really do is figure out which equation to use and just plug in numbers, if you have all the equations memorized or you've seen the problem before it's pretty simple. The hard part is of course memorizing all of these equations and/or getting access to previous exams. Before anybody gets mad I was a science major in undergrad and have been kicking myself for years for not going to medical school...which is mostly just memorization too.
Ironically, the LSAT is not a memorization test. Either is the SAT or most standardized tests really. That is probably a purposely designed false impression of law school, they like to claim it is a "thinking" profession when in reality all you do is copy and paste stuff, which again, you'll do well in if you've memorized. A lot of people do pretty well on the LSAT, right now a 170 gets you into the bottom of the T14. It's not going to erase a low GPA.