Angel,
I hope you are doing well. I am writing to update because I sent you a letter you posted on your blog. I asked for advice for dealing with my immigrant mother who desperately wanted me to go to law school. After taking the LSAT and researching schools, I found the scam blogs and decided against law school. Instead, I found a new job and I will start in a couple of weeks. My new employer offers a higher salary than my old job, better benefits and will fully fund my education if I decide to pursue a degree at night. I have a couple of friends taking the law school plunge this fall, but I am glad I will not be joining them. They will leave jobs in order to pursue JD's at second tier schools in the hopes their career paths will be much betterafter obtaining a JD. I sincerely hope it works out for them, but knowing that they're taking out 60k+ in loans at least within the next few years, I am not envious of their position.
In my previous e-mail I mentioned my cousin who just graduated from a third tier school and how my mother was convinced she would have a great career after graduation. My cousin is now working at a small law firm and only gets paid when there are cases for her to work on. She goes weeks with any paychecks and has to quickly learn how to drum up business to stay afloat. After learning about this situation my mother has quieted down a bit about my decision to skip law school.
I want to give a thank you to the scam bloggers for getting the word there. I'm sure that pursuing a J.D. is a great thing for people who end up having great luck, but as for me, I consider myself lucky to have a job with a decent salary, minimal debt and the prospect of a free graduate degree if I decide to pursue one in the future.
Best of luck to you,
Anonymous
Best of luck to you BIDER reader. You, unlike me, certainly did do everything right and I'm sure you will shine in your industry and rise to the top. Maybe you should take me out to dinner when you're in my area, since I sure as hell can't afford to treat you!!!
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I wish I were in her shoes.
ReplyDeleteStories like that are the only reason why I started my blog.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations. That is fantastic news.
ReplyDeleteThree cheers for the scambloggers.
You guys are heroes. You saved that girl from a deeply-in-debt, future-less life. She'll now go on to be happy, get married, have kids, buy a house, and retire comfortably. One down, about 10,000 more to go.
ReplyDeleteThis really warms my heart. Congratulations to this young lady for making the right decision.
ReplyDeleteIn the gloom & doom of the scam blogs, it's wonderful to see a good story. Best of luck to her.
ReplyDeleteThe reader's decision to bypass law school should be commended as both a sound and courageous act. I am sure her mother wanted the best for her and mistakenly believed that a legal career would enable her to live well and be successful. It would be easy to dismiss these scambusting blogs as rantings of bitter law graduates. I am not buying that. It is clear to me that most of these blogs speak the truth and there is a sincere concern in preventing other folks in falling for the law school ruse. I wish the reader a successful career that will be less stressful without Auntie Sallie breathing down her back.
ReplyDeleteThis is why we do the work we do on this blog and others. I love to get these kind of letters from our readers! Good job, Angel.
ReplyDeleteThat's what makes it all worth it. I think you guys must be having an effect on many more people, who are silent about it.
ReplyDeleteWe can call that a real mitzvah.
Glad to see someone dodge an economic bullet. Just to add someone whose young with children asked me about law school. I sent her a list of these blogs months ago, her response "I can't believe it's so bad" and "I didn't know." From her response and my statement, you have no excuse with all this informaiton out there, I believe she has abandoned the idea of law school.
ReplyDeleteGood for you!
ReplyDeleteThe amount of info that non-attorneys know about the legal profession would fill a thimble, yet, they always have great career advice for me. They probably want to knock me for being a defeatist, and I can see the frustration in their faces when I simply don't parlay that magical feat of passing the bar on the first try into a lucrative career at a white shoe firm, but its interesting that I somehow manage to run into other defeatist attorneys everywhere I go.
Great job, BIDER! And great choice, reader!
ReplyDeleteYou're not an angel, you're a guardian angel! Good work! Keep saving these kids from a horrible future!
ReplyDeleteJust wanted to drop you a line to let you know that I've been enjoying your blog, and this post made my day!
ReplyDeleteSorry to rain on your patting yourself in the back parade, but for every one person you "save," you've just screwed over another entirely new person.
ReplyDeleteThe law schools won't run out of people to fill their seats. Period.
In effect, what you're doing is akin to when a small squad of heroic soldiers charges a larger enemy force in order to save a captured fellow soldier. They save the person, but at the expense of sacrificing another soldier in the process. And I'm not saying those missions shouldn't be undertaken. There's always the chance that everyone on your team comes out of it alive. But there's no such chance when you law guys. For every one person you dissuade, another person on a waiting list somewhere who otherwise wouldn't have gone to law school is now sucked into the process.
I'm not saying that your intentions are bad. I'm saying that your results are neutral at best. There's no victory here. I don't really know how there ever will be.
@3:40 p.m.
ReplyDeleteAngel and Hardknocks aren't the ones screwing law students over, the Law Schools and loan companies are doing that.
@1:02
ReplyDeleteFunny. I guess if Mr. Smith pushes you in front of a speeding train, Smith didn't kill you, the speeding train did.
To be real, I'll use language that perhaps a lawyer would encounter. The magical "but for." But for Angel/HK pushing this one person out of the way and arguably saving that first person, there would not be a free space that opened up in law school to allow a completely different person to take the first person's place.
I know one (or both) of the bloggers enjoys the tv show with Al Bundy in it. I've only watched maybe like a half episode and maybe a couple minutes of a couple other episodes.
However, my favorite quote from that show is: Some people say that if you're not helping, you're hurting. I disagree. I think you can do both simultaneously.
That is exactly what is happening here. You are helping on person and hurting another. Now, of course that first person should be grateful. But the second person, well...
But I only care to help people that are seeking it out. In other words, if someone is suspicious or questioning whether or not law school is an intelligent decision, and they search the web and find our blog... that person is our aim. If someone is a lemming who doesn't want to hear the truth, they aren't worth saving. Eventually though, the message will reach everyone and even those who end up going will be forewarned. Then, they are educated consumers and deserve to be screwed. Some people aren't worth helping.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I think we both love Modern Family. It's awesome!