Categories: Public Interest/Pro Bono, Scholarships
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This is a Law School Expert exclusive! If you are committed to working in the public interest and you want to attend a law school that supports that endeavor with innovative programs, proactive placement in job opportunities, and a generous scholarship, my alma mater (The University of Miami School of Law) might be the perfect place for you.
The program includes mentoring sessions with upper-class scholars and public interest lawyers, monthly meetings, and individualized course advising and career planning. In addition, Miami Scholars are awarded a partial (significant!) scholarship. Marni Lennon, Assistant Dean for Public Interest and Pro Bono, Lecturer in Law, runs the program and told me this morning that they are looking for dedicated public interest folks with top academic credentials.
“Our Miami Scholars are top students from across the nation who bring with them extraordinary experiences and a passion for advocacy and justice. They are leaders in and out of the classroom and are supported by a team of four lawyers at the HOPE Public Interest Resource Center, which was named the ABA Public Interest Program of the year in 2011. ” said Dean Lennon.
While the Miami Law Scholars website says the deadline officially passed on January 6th, we have an extension for Law School Expert readers. THE EXTENDED DEADLINE IS FEBRUARY 1 and Miami is offering a fee waiver to the first ten people who apply based on this blog post! To get the fee waiver, email Therese Lambert, Director of Student Recruiting, at tlambert at law.miami.edu and mention the Law School Expert blog. You can read more about this opportunity at the Miami Scholars website.
Categories: Advice, Law School Admission Trends, Law School Location, Law School Location; Law School Rankings, Law School Rankings, Scholarships, Yale Law School
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Your go-to source for straightforward answers to law school admission questions brings you a new tool for your journey. Law School Expert has teamed up with FindTheBest to bring you all the need-to-know information to compare law schools and find the best one for you. Just as the Law School Expert blog provides you the best advice and seeks to empower and educate you in making the best law school admission and law school decision choices, the FindTheBest team is dedicated to providing information stripped of marketing influence. FindTheBest has created an unbiased, data driven comparison tool that presents facts in easy-to-use tables with smart filters so you can make informed decisions. Whether you are deciding on schools, or still wondering if law school is for you, this law school comparison is a powerful tool you can use to make an informed decision. Check it out in the Resources section of lawschoolexpert.com, and please let us know what you think!
Oh, and while you’re at it, Law School Expert finally has a page on Facebook! Don’t miss any news, updates, or useful information! “Like” Law School Expert today!
Categories: Financing a Legal Education, Scholarships
Tags: cost of law school, cost of MBA, is law school worth it, law school debt, law school loans
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Forgive me, but I was almost happy to see this article today on CNN.com talking about how MBA students are taking on too much debt before finding there are no 6-figure jobs waiting for them. Yay, law schools are not the only evil graduate program accused of bilking poor, innocent ambitious students and forcing them to forgo financial security and quality of life for the next 25 years.
Ok, I’m being a bit overly dramatic. But you have to understand: I’ve spent the last 8 months exploring whether law school is worth the cost anymore, whether lawyers regret their careers, and what advice they offer to the next generation following in their footsteps given what they know about the current economy. Next month, my new book is coming out. It’s called: The Law School Decision Game: The Prospective Lawyer’s Playbook.” As part of my research for this book, I surveyed and interviewed 300 lawyers in order to pass their advice onto those of you (1) considering law school and (2) already in law school who are trying to build careers as lawyers. After reading the CNN article this morning (before my coffee) I felt I shouldn’t hold out on you – it’s important to share one of the many facts I learned while writing the book:
Although prospective lawyers believe the rank of a law school is more important than the cost of attendance, ACTUAL PRACTICING LAWYERS BELIEVE THE COST OF ATTENDANCE IS THE MOST IMPORTANT FACTOR IN CHOOSING A LAW SCHOOL.
As you move forward to create your schools list for this year, I urge you to include schools where you will be in scholarship range or that will be cheaper to attend because of cost of living, in-state tuition, etc. You don’t have to make the choice about where to attend right now, but please at least give yourself the option because you might have a change of heart about spending the money when it comes time to make the decision. Loans can feel like play money, but it’s not fun anymore when you are paying them back.
For more information read these previous blog posts about Financing a Legal Education and listen to my Law School Expert Blog Talk Radio Show where I interview Derek Roberti, PhD, JD, about his book: Should I Go To Law School? The $100,000 Gamble.
I promise to share more little tid-bits from the book in the coming weeks.
Categories: Financing a Legal Education, LRAP Programs, Public Interest/Pro Bono, Reasons for Going to Law School, Scholarships
Tags: Blog Talk Radio
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In the next month, I’ll be hosting two Blog Talk Radio shows dealing with the price of law school and how it should factor into your decision to attend.
First, on March 30th at noon EST/9 a.m. PST, I’ll be speaking with Derek Roberti, PhD, JD, author of “Should I Go To Law School? The $100,000 Gamble” about “The Law School Decision.“ We will discuss all of the personal and financial questions you should be asking yourself as you contemplate law school. Derek, a 2001 graduate of Stanford Law School, will inspire you to think critically about your decision so you can be sure you’re making the right one. Here is the link to the show information on Blog Talk Radio.
 Author Derek Roberti, PhD, JD Then, on April 14th at noon EST/9 a.m. PST, I’ll be hosting a show addressing Financial Aid considerations for law students. I will be speaking with Heather Jarvis, JD, a former capital criminal defense attorney who now helps people deal with crushing school loan debt. She will share pitfalls to watch out for and will give you information that will help you decide where to go to law school and how much to spend.
I will take live questions via chat during each of these shows, and if you can’t listen live, they will be available on the iTunes Ann Levine podcast library.
Categories: Financing a Legal Education, Scholarships
9 Comments »
You MUST read this article from the New York Times about the real situation with law school loans and employment prospects. It does not just apply to fourth tier schools (although the article certainly makes Thomas Jefferson School of Law the center of its piece). I think one thing I’ve noticed that coincides with this article is the perception that people applying to law school today just “believe” everything will work out beautifully for them, no matter how terrible they work out for others similarly situated.
I think people with lower LSAT scores who won’t be eligible for scholarships, and who may (honestly) have difficulty passing the bar, should seriously consider what they are getting themselves into before taking on significant student loans. And those of you with strong LSAT scores should seriously consider schools that offer you significant scholarships.
Thanks to Noah at ManhattanLSAT for pointing this article out to me…
Categories: Advice, Financing a Legal Education, Salary Trends, Scholarships
Tags: cost of law school, financial aid for law school, law school debt, law school tuition
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I know this isn’t my usual style post, but I have a brilliant idea – not for law applicants, but for the law school administrator who may be secretly reading this blog.
Lower Tuition.
If you’re a private school with a considerable endowment and you’ve been trying to break into the top 50 or top 20 or top 10 for a while, seriously discount tuition.
Applications would flood in. Rankings would soar. Students would be fighting to get in, and wouldn’t be negotiating scholarships. You could actually avoid playing the rankings game and still benefit from the rankings game. You’d get better students knocking on your door. People submitting deposits would be more likely to actually attend. Students would be less disgruntled, and might actually have warm and fuzzy feelings about the school upon becoming alumni.
To the law school applicants out there – to me, more than ever, choosing a law school is about money. It’s a financial decision, and one that will impact a law student’s life for years and years and years to come. I’m 35 and I make a very nice living, but it’s still a 5-year goal for me to pay off my student loans. I chose a private school (and one I felt offered a fantastic education, by the way) instead of a public school. I’m able to pay my loans, and 10 years post-graduation I really don’t feel the payments, but that wasn’t always the case.
I was in line for BigLaw jobs, and clerked for BigLaw, but BigLaw didn’t agree with me. Instead, I took a job offering $35,000/year. A year later my salary doubled, and it continually grew from there. I share this information with my readers because I want you to remember that the $160,000 or even $100,000/year job probably isn’t going to be there for you when you graduate from law school. You need to make decisions right now that prepare you to start making $50,000 and then going up from there. It will go up, and you will have to hustle for every salary increase and bonus, but being a lawyer is hard work. Know that going into it.
Someone gave me sage advice (too late) when I was in law school: “If you live like you’re a lawyer while you’re in law school, you’ll live like a student when you get out.”
Some helpful and interesting links:
The Financial Aid Blog at CUA
The Law School Debt Trap
Loan Thread
Tuition Secret: It Pays to Be Above Average (read the comments on this one!)
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Ann K. Levine, Esq., former director of law school admissions for two ABA approved law schools, is a law school admission consultant and owner of Law School Expert,
