Though I won’t be curing AIDS, designing cheaper solar panels, or searching for the Higgs Boson, seeing as I haven’t chosen a career in the sciences, I am preparing for law school which should put me in a career that fairly well optimizes my income, while giving me a chance to use some of the rational argument skills on this site. Also, I live in Kansas, which, if I prove good enough at law, could provide me good opportunities to be on the front line against religious ignorance and bigotry here in the states. It would be a dream of mine to be in court against Fred Phelps and others like him, or to argue a case dealing with creationism being taught in schools. If not, there is sure to be some very interesting cases dealing with bioethics, cryonics, AI, or genetic engineering, fought in American courts in the coming decades. Or, without going to much into politics, since this isn’t really the place for that, just do some civil liberties work, since I think most of us can agree that rationality and police states don’t tend to work well together.
I am preparing for law school which should put me in a career that fairly well optimizes my income, while giving me a chance to use some of the rational argument skills on this site.
Honestly, I’m not that sure. I knew that there have been issues for law graduates to find jobs, but with the state of the economy the way it is, there are problems for graduates across the board, not just in law school. I’ll be graduating this spring with degrees in political science and history. So, I can try and find a job now when the market for college graduates in general is similarly bad, and I’ll likely end up working a low paying hourly office job, like customer support, or do some graduate work, like law school or a masters or phd program in one of my fields. Though there is a glut of graduates and paucity of jobs for masters and phd graduates in my fields as well. Eventually, the economic situation will sort out, and jobs will return, and historically, law has been fairly lucrative. Hopefully, this will happen in the next three years, but if I have to wait a few more years after graduation to start making big money, that’s acceptable to increase the long-term odds that I will have a well-paying job.
Though I won’t be curing AIDS, designing cheaper solar panels, or searching for the Higgs Boson, seeing as I haven’t chosen a career in the sciences, I am preparing for law school which should put me in a career that fairly well optimizes my income, while giving me a chance to use some of the rational argument skills on this site. Also, I live in Kansas, which, if I prove good enough at law, could provide me good opportunities to be on the front line against religious ignorance and bigotry here in the states. It would be a dream of mine to be in court against Fred Phelps and others like him, or to argue a case dealing with creationism being taught in schools. If not, there is sure to be some very interesting cases dealing with bioethics, cryonics, AI, or genetic engineering, fought in American courts in the coming decades. Or, without going to much into politics, since this isn’t really the place for that, just do some civil liberties work, since I think most of us can agree that rationality and police states don’t tend to work well together.
How sure are you of said optimization?
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/01/you-know-the-legal-job-market-must-be-bad/68852/
http://www.economist.com/node/17461573?story_id=17461573
http://lawyerist.com/law-school-admissions-bubble/
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/business/09law.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/05/business/global/05legal.html
http://www.calicocat.com/2004/08/law-school-big-lie.html
http://abovethelaw.com/2010/01/ivy-league-law-school-graduate-begs-for-work-on-craigslist/
EDIT: an 11% drop in applications in 2011: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704396504576204692878631986.html
Honestly, I’m not that sure. I knew that there have been issues for law graduates to find jobs, but with the state of the economy the way it is, there are problems for graduates across the board, not just in law school. I’ll be graduating this spring with degrees in political science and history. So, I can try and find a job now when the market for college graduates in general is similarly bad, and I’ll likely end up working a low paying hourly office job, like customer support, or do some graduate work, like law school or a masters or phd program in one of my fields. Though there is a glut of graduates and paucity of jobs for masters and phd graduates in my fields as well. Eventually, the economic situation will sort out, and jobs will return, and historically, law has been fairly lucrative. Hopefully, this will happen in the next three years, but if I have to wait a few more years after graduation to start making big money, that’s acceptable to increase the long-term odds that I will have a well-paying job.