Guest Post from a Recent Graduate

To the class of 2011:

It was not so long ago that you and I were among the over 40,000 graduates of the class of 2011.  In fact it has been about 9 months and I, like most of you, recently received an email from my CSO office asking me to complete the post graduate employment survey.  I remembered back to a presentation my CSO director gave first year stating our school's median graduate salary was $63,000 and that we boasted an impressive 86% rate of employment upon graduation.  During the presentation, I noticed a footnote on the bottom of the Power Point stating the stats were based on a 35% response rate.  I raised my hands, pointed it out, was brushed off and the footnote was removed from the document in the Symplicity library.

This was my first indication something was wrong.  Soon, I discovered blogs like this one and began to spread the word to other law students and 0L's.  As I read this blog and others, I learned that the rosy picture law schools paint about employment is affected by the low response rate to the graduate employment surveys and the fact that the "winners" of the law school game are more likely to report their salaries. (according to Law School Transparency, my schools response rate looks to be under 20% last year)  Also, since there are few winners, CSO may contact them more aggressively then the grads tending bar and serving lattes.

What if we all, bad, worse and ugly, reported our employment situation in detail to our CSO offices?

If you are a graduate of 2011 or know one, please ask them to complete the survey below and email it to their career services offices IMMEDIATELY!

Are you employed
Where?
How many hours per week?
How much money do you bring home in a month?
What are your monthly student loan payments?
What payment plan are you on? (standard, extended, graduated, IBR)
Are your loans in deferment, forbearance or default?  (If yes Which)
Is your job temporary or permanent? (If temporary when will it end)
Does your job provide health insurance?
Does your job require a J.D?
What do you actually do for work?  (i.e. Skadden litigator or sandwich artist)


Best of luck to you all, I know as you do that it's rough out there.

RedJ.D.

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I'd like to run my own little tally of where May 2011 grads are today.  Drop a note as to what you are doing currently in the comments section.  Other scambloggers are doing the same, maybe we can come up with our own sample survey results.  Make sure to answer the above questions and post anonymously!
Thanks,
Angel