Things Suck in Iowa Too--Nando Could Have Told You So.

There is one thing I hate to hear when I tell non-lawyers how much the legal industry sucks in New York Shitty.... "Why don't you move to the midwest or some other state where there are fewer lawyers?"

Never mind the bar and admissions.  Usually, where there are less lawyers, there are less jobs for lawyers.  There are likely less jobs for everyone because there's less people.

What about Iowa?  Nando from Third TTTTier Toilet Drake (or is it fourth?  or is it second with the bullshit that the USNWR is pulling?) can give us all an earful on the state of the legal market in Iowa.  I also ran into an article about the horrid state of the job market in Iowa.  Thought it was worth mentioning here.

It starts off with an awesome quote:
The sad thing about lawyers is not that so many of them are stupid, but that so many of them are intelligent. The craft is a great devourer of good men; it sucks in and wastes almost as many as the monastic life consumed in the Middle Ages. -- H.L. Mencken (1880-1956).

A few weeks ago, I was representing a friend in a crazy civil case (she lent some money to another friend that didn't return it).  We were waiting for opposing counsel to come and she asked me how she looked.  I said, she's 40ish and has grey hair.  So, my friend proceeded to examine all of the lawyers who came in with grey hair.  After we finally located opposing counsel, my friend said, "Angel, you need to stop being a lawyer. All of the lawyers, men and women, look like death walking and I'm afraid for your future.  Please promise me you'll teach or something. ANYTHING, just get out of this profession."

I'd like to think that lawyers look old and used up, much like meth heads or prostitutes--not so much like monks.  But, you get the idea.  It's no wonder too. With the job stats that are out there... Back to the article:

...according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, jobs in all legal occupations from now to 2018 will be only 0.86 percent of all jobs nationwide, totaling less than 1.5 million. For lawyers the expected growth is only 12.9 percent, representing 240,000 new jobs. The largest growth area will be paralegals and legal assistants, at 28 percent. This estimate does not reflect the significant downturn in hiring over the recession of the last two years....

Yet law school tuition keeps climbing. According to the American Bar Association, average in-state public-school tuition and fees are increasing at 9 percent per year, resulting in a 2009 average of $16,836. Out-of-state tuition is growing at 7 percent to over $28,280. Average private-school tuition was $33,985, increasing at 6 percent per year.

That's inflation if I ever did hear it.  But a state like Iowa will surely weather the storm better than most, right?  With only 2 law schools, what do they have to fear?

UI, with a top-tier rating by U.S. News and World Report (26th), has been prominently mentioned as having significant tuition increases, implementing a 20 percent in-state increase and 13 percent out-of-state increase in 2009, double the norm. 

Wow.  That's some kind of an increase for a state university!  But, the Dean has an excuse for this:

Dean Carolyn Jones characterized the tuition increase as an "unusual situation" and necessary to "maintain our progress, reputation and the strength of our degrees." 

One would think the strength of your degrees would be maintained by NOT shackling the hands of your students so much so that they cannot find gainful employment in the state of Iowa.  Your graduates would probably love to work for pennies, but can't because of the monstrous student debts on their backs.  Have you ever heard of fathers that are obligated to pay so much child support that it's not worth it for them to work?  This is the same situation.  You should strengthen your degrees by dropping tuition drastically and going bare bones budget wise a la Chris Christie.  Trim, trim, trim.... I'm a little delirious right now, and this may not make sense to most people.  But a school is run like a small state, and the best way to run a small state is not off the backs of your "citizens" (i.e. graduates) but by cutting back on expenses.

Whatever.  I'm done with that.

Thought Nando would appreciate this this article mentions Drake as well.  But nothing we don't already know.  It's a bit cheaper than IU, but at the end of the day, graduates of either school are screwed:

Drake University law school graduates are carrying a median debt of $91,576; Iowa graduates $87,891, of government loans only. Even before the proposed tuition increases, Iowa graduates have more than $21,000 more in debt than the average student, not including undergraduate or private loans, or credit card debts. Including those amounts would result in real debt to our Iowa young people of $125,000 to $150,000, plus interest. A great devourer of good men and women, indeed.

Median Salary by Job - Bar Association: Iowa Bar Association (United States)

Compare your salary: Get a free Salary Report

For those of you who are in Iowa, how accurate is this chart?  Just wondering.

Fleeing the Country: From the Horse's Mouth

Lots of people have sent me emails and posted about fleeing the country.  One of the main issues on BIDER readers' minds is whether Fannie Mae knocks on your door when your home is on foreign soil.  Well, I finally heard from someone who did it.  He moved to Canada and he (or she) isn't coming back and is damn proud of his/her decision.   It's nice to hear about it from someone who did it, successfully.  Here goes:


Saw your blog post about bailing on America and thought I would give you my $0.02 worth.

From where I sit, the best thing for any smart-minded American to do is to leave the country.  Let's see here, $14T national debt with a $1T+ annual budget deficit that is being added to said debt. In the face of all this, Mr Hope and Change continues to fight the dual losing wars in Vietraq and Vietstan and punts on first down on reversing the asinine Bush tax cuts for the rich. And we haven't even started talking about $40T in unfunded Medicare/Medicaid liabilities.

As a more practical matter, the improbability of upward economic mobility in the Land of Opportunity is well documented on your blog and elsewhere. By all accounts, nine-plus percent official unemployment is going to become the new normal for the foreseeable future.  The real figure, which includes the long-term unemployed who have given up looking for work and the involuntarily underemployed, has been estimated to be as high as 25 percent.  And here again, Mr Hope and Change has nothing to offer except extensions of the failed Bush policies.  We haven't even started talking about so-called health care reform that is nothing more than a massive giveaway to the same rapacious insurance companies that caused the problem in the first place.

As you've probably guessed, I moved to Canada and am starting on my fourth year here. And I love it here. I frequently go back to the States to visit, but I breathe a sigh of relief when I cross that border back into the Civilised World. For starters, universal health care through the provincial Medical Services Plan means no worries about finding that elusive "job with benefits." Up here, benefits doesn't mean health insurance, eight paid holidays and 10 days of paid vacation a year. Since all of those are guaranteed by law, even a job at Tim Hortons (coffee chain (in)famous for "Always Fresh" reheated frozen doughnuts and tepid, truck stop-grade coffee) is a job with benefits. Here, benefits means employer-paid extended health insurance that covers dentists, head shrinkers (i.e., marriage and family therapists, psychologists and the like - MSP covers psychiatric care in full, infra, if you're really nuts), massage practitioners, quackopractors, nastyropaths, "doctors" of traditional Chinese medicine and the like. This is on top of MSP that covers all medically necessary services in full with no deductibles, co-payments or any other out-of-pocket expenditures of any kind. And everybody gets MSP - from the senior partner at one of the Seven Sisters right down to the lowest, most strung-out street derelict.

Of course, all of this has wrecked our economy, right? Wrong. Our unemployment rate is currently around 7.5%, a full two points lower than America's. Our resources sector is going great guns to produce enough fuel for the Hummers driven by American men with potency issues. Also, keep in mind that our rate is always 1.5% - 2% higher than America's because of how we calculate it.

There is also a lot of misinformation out there regarding the potential consequences of reneging on student loans and skipping the country. As student loan defaults are civil in nature, rather than criminal, it is absolutely not the case that a borrower will be arrested, imprisoned or extradited. Also, claims that "you'll never be able to return to America" are completely false. Any U.S. citizen has the absolute Constitutional right to freely enter and leave the country.  The U.S. Supreme Court has also ruled that the government has no power to involuntarily strip anyone's citizenship for any reason.  See Afroyim v. Rusk, 387 U.S. 253 (1967).

In fact, there is very little the government can do to collect defaulted student loans from a borrower who has left the country. Their usual tool - administrative wage garnishment, i.e., garnishment without due process of law - is not available.  Such an order would not be worth the paper it is printed on outside the U.S.  In order to collect, they would have to (1) sue in federal court, (2) take judgment against the borrower and (3) domesticate said judgment in the courts of whatever nation the borrower is living in.  The Department of Education's current policy is to not pursue litigation at all against borrowers living in foreign countries. I attach a copy of their litigation manual for your reference. Oh, and U.S. student loans are dischargeable in Canadian bankruptcy.

Bottom line - there are many, many people who, like me, feel they have done the right thing all of their lives.  We went to school, studied hard, started at the bottom and worked crap jobs for starvation wages.  We did this all in exchange for the promise of a better life down the road.  Those promises have turned out to be empty.  We now have nothing to show for it but massive amounts of debt with little to no hope of ever repaying.  We don't even have access to basic, affordable health care!  Since they haven't held up their end of the bargain, I don't see why I can't opt out of holding up mine.
--
Moving to Canada
movingtocanada@fastmail.fm

He/she even included his/her email in case you have any questions.
Look... I know it's a hard choice.  You may feel conflicted about abandoning ship.  However, everyone in this country (except for Native Americans) have it in your DNA to immigrate to greener pastures.  You may think it's scary, but how did you great grandpa feel when he left Ireland during the Potato Famine?  Or your mom and dad when they fled Vietnam via boat?  What about your great great great, etc. Grandfather who fled England because of religious persecution?  They did it, why can't you?  There's nothing unpatriotic about making your situation better. You will always be an American.

From the Bottom to the Top and Back to the Bottom Again.

The following is a comment that was left on a recent post and I thought it was worth re-publishing a tail for the the weary:

I was denied my law license in Illinois for 7 years because I was unable to pay even the minimum payment for my student loans. I eventually enlisted the help (because I certainly couldn't pay his fees) of a solo practitioner who suggested I consistently make a payment to the loan holders and keep a record of those payments. Every six months or so I kept petitioning the Illinois Character and Fitness Committee to reconsider my application. I sat - alone - before a literal tribunal of attorneys, all physically seated higher than the chair reserved for the applicant, and was insultingly told I would never receive my license unless I could get some "rich relative" to pay my loans. What rich relative? My parents' home is valued at less than 1/2 what my student loans have risen to be. After 7 years of rejection, 7 years of falling behind on the compound interest, of being hounded by a rotating rogue's gallery of debt collectors, of watching my law school classmates pass me by, gaining experience while I languished in a legal editorship, I finally broke through to some sypathetic someone on the committee and got my license. Now 11 years later, I've worked my way up through the associate ranks of a mid-sized Chicago firm. I had been groomed for the last year as the next potential partner. My boss was telling me for a year how wonderful my prospects looked and to expect an invitation to sign on as a partner come the December 2010 reviews. Long story short: the partnership was pulled out from under me at the last possible second, not for the quality of my work, not for my aptitude, but because my long-fought troubles with student loans had somehow rendered me "financially unfit" to handle the Firm's multi-million dollar lawsuits. In other words, if I couldn't handle my own money, why should they trust me with the Firm finances? (Somehow the 6 years of killing myself to prove that I was worthy enough to consider for partnership wasn't enough.) Just weeks before the partnership determination was to be made, I received the second of 2 garnishments on my wages for my defaulted student loans. The default came to the attention of the Firm ironically through the collection counsel that the Firm uses to collect fees from delinquent clients. So, even though I had spent years dutifully paying at least something on my student loans, my career, such as it is, was once again derailed by the student loan anvil that I will apparently drag around after me for the rest of my life. I, once again, have little hope for the future. I work in "limbo" at the moment, never sure whether I will be bounced out on my ass as one of the partnership candidates who just didn't pan out. My Firm has a small army of such underlings who are all routinely treated with disdain and shoveled shit cases/files to discourage their continuing at the Firm. I want to leave, but honestly probably won't be able to secure another job anywhere nearby that might pay me the meager salary that I already do collect. Stupidly, I went trolling sites online that compared the salaries of 1st year associates in the Chicagoland area. Six years into my job at this Firm, I still don't make the 1st year salaries of most of the top-rated, top tier firms. I just don't know what to do.

I am not sure what you're supposed to do at this point.  In my opinion, if what you've told me is true, you've proven yourself to be a competent attorney--you may even be excellent.  It's a great accomplishment to be offered partnership.  I can't believe the partners at your firm reneged.  It's a shame that they can't see past your financial woes.  I wonder... What if one of the partners lost everything in a divorce because he was irresponsible and married his money-grubbing secretary without a pre-nuptual agreement.  What if a lawyer had a garnishment for child support?  Babies happen, yes--but isn't a child out of wedlock the epitome of irresponsibility?  What if a lawyer were sued as a result of a simple car accident?  Where is the line?  
Apparently, it's with student loans.  
The divine irony is that young people sign their lives away at about the same time they max out their first Discovery Card.  But, unlike the credit card debt, they can't shake the student loans.  Think long and hard before you pull out student loans.  It's not something you worry about later.  It's the gift that keeps giving, much like herpes.  Just when you think the flare ups are done, it comes back at the most inopportune times.  
Wait!  I have an idea.  Do your parents have any organs they can donate?  Do you?  Apparently, parents of an indebted college grad offered up their organs on craigslist for $200,000.00  (Thanks Tipster!) That's a real parental contribution that FAFSA doesn't take into account.  I remember, when times were good, reading about Indian people that sold their organs to marry off their daughters. The concept was so alien to me.  Not anymore.  It's right up there with selling eggs to infertile rich people--or the use of your womb for 9 months.  In other words, if there is a market for organs--American's will reconsider the utility of that other kidney in the very near future.

Anyone know where I can sign up for Cairo style protests?  We're long overdue.

The Bottom Falls Out: Welcome to World of Robo Lawyer

Everyone knows that there is a hierarchy of legal jobs.  Big Law is at the top of the pyramid as the aspirational goal for many attorneys.  Mid-sized firms, public interest and government work is mixed in the middle.  Near the bottom is Shit Law Solo Work--which can be gratifying, but hardly pays the bills.   Somewhere below that is contract work--the last resort for many attorneys.  The gigs pay less than they used to, the work is mind numbing and repetitive, and the hours are horrendous... but it is the fall back when there is nothing else out there to do.  Like now, for example.  I actually worked on two contract gigs before becoming a Solo, and I swore I would rather be homeless than have another bout of the flu--brought on by the close, germy, dirty, tight and stuffy work environment.  I actually got the flu 3 times in a 4  month period: stomach, regular, regular.

Thousand of attorneys in New York Shitty live off of contract gigs, hoping to hide out until the economy improves.   Some have made careers of it.  Actually, to many, it seemed like the only healthy part of the legal industry--since Big Law was favoring contract attorneys over first year associates to do the grunt work of document review.  Then the ABA OK'd Indian Lawyers doing the same work for pennies on the dollar.  We thought that gutted the industry.  But now, contract work stands to be eliminated altogether with  the advent of a new discovery software that actually analyzes legal documents.  Yes, it thinks like a lawyer--batteries not included.  The article is short, so here it is:

When five television studios became entangled in a Justice Department antitrust lawsuit against CBS, the cost was immense. As part of the obscure task of “discovery” — providing documents relevant to a lawsuit — the studios examined six million documents at a cost of more than $2.2 million, much of it to pay for a platoon of lawyers and paralegals who worked for months at high hourly rates.

But that was in 1978. Now, thanks to advances in artificial intelligence, “e-discovery” software can analyze documents in a fraction of the time for a fraction of the cost. In January, for example, Blackstone Discovery of Palo Alto, Calif., helped analyze 1.5 million documents for less than $100,000.

Some programs go beyond just finding documents with relevant terms at computer speeds. They can extract relevant concepts — like documents relevant to social protest in the Middle East — even in the absence of specific terms, and deduce patterns of behavior that would have eluded lawyers examining millions of documents.

“From a legal staffing viewpoint, it means that a lot of people who used to be allocated to conduct document review are no longer able to be billed out,” said Bill Herr, who as a lawyer at a major chemical company used to muster auditoriums of lawyers to read documents for weeks on end. “People get bored, people get headaches. Computers don’t.”

Yes, lawyers are the grocery store cashiers of the 00's, the bank tellers of the 90's and the factory workers of the 80's...  We're being replaced by computers.  Could this be the first white collar job to fall to new and innovative technology?  And we thought the service sector was safe.  Terminator is becoming more real to me every day.

Thanks for the tip, Reader!

Double Header: WashPo is Kaplan's Bitch and Pychology's Explanation for Top Law Schools

Aussies have been reading BIDER and the discussion of the scam blogs and the legal industry spurred this discussion.  Kudos to Donna Gordon for putting a name of the "affliction" suffered by many lemmings, as evidenced by discussion at Top Law Schools.

	elnoobocompo writes... Real problem is employers expecting some initiative (work experience or the likes for real world experience) and  graduates only offering a degree then searching for months for a job whilst the kid who had work experience  because the employer knew there's no way (unless they attended Uni earlier) the student could have any and  is thus showing initiative and willing to work hard. I'll use your statement to put across my 2c, again. Blaming individual students for not getting jobs is a bit silly. There are simply not enough jobs (as lawyers,  that people actually want when they start a law degree) to go around.
	O.P. this post was edited dzhay writes... Blaming individual students for not getting jobs is a bit silly. There are simply not enough jobs (as lawyers, that people actually want when they start a law degree) to go around. I agree. I think that some people here need to understand the meaning of "Fundamental attribution error". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamental_attribution_error In social psychology, the fundamental attribution error (also known as correspondence bias or  attribution effect) describes the tendency to over-value dispositional or personality-based  explanations for the observed behaviors of others while under-valuing situational explanations for those behaviors. The fundamental attribution error is most visible when people explain the behavior of others. It does not explain interpretations of one's own behavior—where situational factors are  often taken into consideration. This discrepancy is called the actor– observer bias. As a simple example, if Alice saw Bob trip over a rock and fall, Alice might consider Bob to be  clumsy or careless (dispositional). If Alice later tripped over the same rock herself, she would  be more likely to blame the placement of the rock (situational).

Tell me that doesn't describe lemmings to a tee.  It's not us, it's the legal industry.  Stop trying to blame the "victim" and see for a second that you can be in the same situation as all of the unemployed and underemployed attorneys out there.

*****************
A reporter from Washington Post called me for an article that was published last Sunday.  What a loser article.  When the article was first published, it said that the founders of Law School Transparency were Villanova students--this mistake has since been fixed as they are in fact students at Vanderbilt.  The article is tepid at best, saying that the ABA passed a resolution requesting that the law schools be more truthful.  No mention of Villanova's recent scandal:

Villanova University School of Law “knowingly reported” inaccurate admissions information to the American Bar Association for years leading up to a new dean’s arrival in 2010, the school’s dean said Monday.

My biggest problem with the article is that she spoke to ME and didn't mention our interview or BIDER, but instead chose to cite Esq Never.  Although Esq Never was a great blog, it has been defunct since August 8, 2010--although recently updated with one post (literally explaining Esq Never's absence).  Way to go, Washington Post! I can only hypothesize, but the reporter's reluctance to tell the real story may be related to Kaplan's ownership of Washington  Post.  You don't want to trash the boss' business.  I expected a story at least as fair as Washington Post's story on Kaplan opening a law school in D.C.
Washington Post, try publishing a real story next time. Also, don't bother calling me unless you're going to quote me or one of my contemporaries.

F*ck You Gunner!

I love this video!  This is an effective use of Law School time!

These are by farrrrrrrrrrrr, the most lovable law students I've seen in forever!

Jobs at Law Schools - JDs Not Wanted

Most scam bloggers and our unemployed and underemployed readers would drop to our knees and thank the heavens if we found a full-time job with benefits in the $40k range. A job in the $40k range at a top ten university or law school? At the very least we would no longer have to hide under a rock in shame at the next family gathering. We would still be under massive stress to pay off our law school debt, but we could hold our head up high and tell our relatives that we found a job in academia or at a T14 law school. We could prove to acquaintances on a very superficial level that spending 7+ years in higher education didn't go to complete waste.

Realistically, any full-time job in this economy would be a blessing for the millions of unemployed with a BA, JD, or PhD. Over the years, Angel and I have received emails and testimonials from law students eager to flush down the last remains of their dignity to clean toilets as long as it was a 9-5 job that gave them health benefits and allowed them to put food on the table. That is the tragic reality for the victims of this economic depression. Last week, The New York Time's Paul Krugman wrote briefly on the failure of many college graduates to find employment:

Here’s the question: of college graduates with a bachelor’s degree who aren’t enrolled in further schooling, how many have full-time jobs?

In December 2007, on the eve of recession, the answer was 9083 percent.

By December 2009, it was down to 72 percent.

As of December 2010, it had recovered only slightly, to 74 percent.

To me, that’s a tale of young lives blighted, not just in the short run but perhaps permanently: failing to get a job when you get out of school colors your whole career. And it’s still happening.

Yet unemployment has virtually dropped off the political agenda.

Of the 74 percent of graduates with jobs, plenty of them - and I know a few - are out there working as bartenders, fast food workers, or waiters. People with graduate school degrees who are unemployed are even worse off as we are older and have fewer years to get back on track before we're completely cast off as old and damaged goods.

The irony of all this is that there are jobs out there, even under our noses at the same institutions we graduated from, only we are over-educated to even be considered. Take for instance these two job openings at T10 schools Columbia and NYU:

Columbia University Law School
Job Title: Development Assistant
Salary Range: $43,000-$48,000
Minimum Qualifications: High school diploma and/or its equivalent, plus three years of relevant work experience required, or the equivalent combination of education and experience. College degree strongly preferred. Strong interest in fund-raising and some fundraising experience preferred. Must have excellent verbal and written communications skills and ability to handle highly sensitive and confidential prospect information discreetly. Must be detail oriented, self-motivated, and able to work independently and manage multiple responsibilities simultaneously and meet deadlines in a high-volume environment. Must be able to work a flexible schedule including some evenings and weekends. Proficiency in, Microsoft Word/Excel required, Raiser's Edge preferred.
Quick Link: jobs.columbia.edu/applicants/Central?quickFind=123270


New York University School of Law
Job Position: The Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law is seeking two full-time Research Associates for the Center’s Democracy Program. The Democracy Program seeks to change the ways in which citizens participate in their government by fixing the systems that discourage voting, hinder competition and promote the interests of the few over the rights of the many.
Salary Range: $35,000-40,000
Qualifications: Initiative, drive, and commitment; excellent research, analytic, and writing skills; computer skills; professionalism, reliability, flexibility, and attention to detail. Candidates must be willing to do administrative and clerical work. Experience with democracy issues a plus. Paralegal experience or experience in statistical analysis preferred, but not required.
This is an entry level position; lawyers and individuals with advanced degrees should not apply.

There are so many unemployed law grads out there that any job associated with the law now has to have a disclaimer warning unemployed JDs not to apply. But they will gladly consider your application if you have a GED with job experience. It is very likely your alma mater would rather employ a high school or community college graduate with work experience over you. Why? Because they know that work experience counts a hell of a lot more than someone who was duped into buying one of their worthless degrees but lacks any real world job skills.

Go to Shit Law Jobs on any given day and you will find jobs like these:

Temporary attorney job in D.C. area for recent grad

Thanks to the reader who submitted this:
We are currently seeking (2) additional recent college graduate or JD to work a contract assignment in a Legal Department in a Reston, VA organization through April. Will be reviewing/editing legal agreements. Must be proficient in Mircosoft Word. If interested and qualified please send a resume in a Word Document. Pay is 14/an hour. This is not negotiable.
Location: Reston, VA
Compensation: 14/hour
http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/nva/lgl/2207544154.html

Unpaid internship in NYC for recent law school grad

We are a new law firm in Downtown/ Financial District looking for an intern to assist in legal research, writing as well as administrative duties. This is an unpaid internship position that could lead to permanent position in the future open to law students and recent law graduates. Speaking Spanish and/or website construction knowledge is a plus.
http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/lgl/2203980528.html

Again, work experience will almost always trump a useless graduate degree unless you are one of the few lucky people to get a job in academia, biglaw, Wall Street, or consulting. The great majority of graduates will be left out in the cold, either unemployed, underemployed, or in entry-level jobs they could have gotten without the degree and a lot less debt.

Here is a personal example of how work experience trumps education. I am dating someone at the moment around 5 years older. He went to a non-elite university and graduated with less than $15k in student debt. He has no plans to ever attend graduate school. He became interested in computers during high school in the 90s when he began learning on his own about web application frameworks, design, and other computer science subjects which I know nothing about. He did freelance work while he was in school and built up connections, knowledge, and experience on his own. No help from alumni services, career services, or professors. The college degree is merely dressing on his resume as almost all of the skills he acquired outside of school would have been enough for him to do well as a web developer.

He now works in web development in a management role. He has no debt, owns a house, has health benefits, vacation time, and makes a very good salary. The irony is that if the average person met us on the street, I would be considered more accomplished because of a useless JD and the academic prestige of attending a top 14 school. Even my boyfriend believes I'm the smarter one for getting into a top university. If only they knew the real fool is me for believing the hype, taking out massive loans that will take me years to pay back, and probably spending the next decade trying to match what my bf makes today.

The higher education business has successfully brainwashed the public into believing that someone with an advanced degree deserves more respect, is smarter, and automatically more accomplished. With help from their friends in Washington, they have convinced millions of Americans that spending $100k or more for a degree with no guarantee of a good job is a good investment. That the best years of your life are better spent paying a fortune to attend their school than being out in the world making money or starting a family.

As Angel said so well last week, stop listening to politicians and crooks in bed with the student loan companies, banks, and higher education industry. They tell you that education is key to the success of our country then turn around and slash Pell Grants for needy students. Follow Angel's advice. Whether you decide to go to college or graduate school or go out into the work force straight out of high school, be entrepreneurial and learn skills on your own outside of your useless liberal arts major that will help you find a job - any job - if you happen to find yourself without a good job offer. One of my friends works as a bartender in New York and makes a decent living. She has a college degree and never knew that her part-time job at a bar in her college town would someday save her from being homeless or moving back in with her parents.

Lastly, don't spend 4-8 years in school without being in the driver's seat of your own life. Don't put your future in the hands of career services and depend on your adviser to help you find a job. View higher education as dressing. The essential ingredients to finding a job depends on you being equipped with real world skills and connections outside of school. The administration is only there to take care of daily operations and take your money. Once they hand you a degree and shove you out the door, you won't be hearing from anyone other than a lemming calling you for a donation.