Saturday, March 9, 2013

“It’s Always Instructive to Look at a Disaster, Especially if You Want to Avoid One.” (More weekend news stories for the interested readers)


Word is out in publications far outside the scamblog circuit.  Yes, the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, among other major publications, recently reported on the huge drop off in new applications.  Yesterday, the Times reported on the new trend of sub-T-14 law schools that will open non-profit “firms” to employ more students after graduation and to keep employment numbers from spiraling further into the abyss in this new era where straight up lying is less effective and technically against ABA policy.


More interestingly, in Barron’s today, the president of an IT company discusses a recent interview with T-20 law graduate who has abandoned his unsuccessful search for a legal job to take an entry level IT position for $20/hour, using skills that he taught himself in high school.  It is an excellent representative anecdote about the common reality of this generation of college graduates—particularly law graduates.  The jobs that most of us end up obtaining require high school level skills.  Most practical skills, like learning a programming language, web design, or even public speaking, develop from personal interest and life experience, not expensive college courses taught by disinterested professors.


Yes, we keep hearing the same noise from Obama and the others about how we are becoming a more sophisticated society with greater educational needs, etc.  We hear the politicians discuss this frequently, especially the abstract idea that we need substantially more math and science training (although no one ever really tells us which jobs these skills would help to fill).  We also hear about how people with college degrees have a higher employment rate—yes, a college degree does make a person more attractive for working as a cashier at Starbucks and Gap—and higher total lifetime earnings, which never accounts for how the majority of those extra earnings get sucked into the black hole of immense debt payments. 


11 comments:

  1. Yawn, first.

    This isn't even that difficult these days; Paintroach has already chased away most of your commenters.

    Tell me, moderator, are you proud of your decision to not block his posts? Was it worth all those readers that you lost?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Not as easy as you think on the Blogger platform - what is gained in convenience (and reader privacy) is lost in tools to protect the blog. We don't track your IP addresses, and blocking certain users takes a little more work than you might expect.

      That said, I've been working on it for a while, and hopefully the blocker is up and running now.

      I'm sorry this blog isn't run to your liking. You're welcome to venture over to Leiter's world of IP tracking, ID-revealing, and creepy cyberstalking. Me? I'm happy deleting Painter's posts once in a while if it means that we don't collect identifying information about anyone who posts here.

      The Painter problem should be solved.

      Delete
    2. How very funny. Of course, when you go from 70 comments on a post to 5 comments, MY "liking" isn't really the issue, is it?

      Good luck with your problem. And if you actually think you are going to strike some kind of "grand bargain" to prevent the hijacking of your blog, you should email Paul Campos and ask how that worked out for him.

      Delete
    3. Here's something to chew on, you ass:

      http://www.chetson.com/2013/03/is-brian-leiter-guilty-of-cyber-stalking/

      Delete
    4. To the clown at 7:51 -

      Fuck off Leiter.

      It's easy to stand there and complain about the efforts that other people are putting into things on your behalf. Do you know how many hours these people have put in to setting this new blog up? I would bet that it is collectively in the hundreds, with all the writing, the articles each day, etc.

      If you can do better, then do it. Otherwise, STFU and help.

      Of course it's not perfect. It's a week old. And the 14000+ hits in that week isn't bad at all.

      As the mod explained (and as I know from running a blog elsewhere), it is hard to block users from Blogspot blogs because you do not have access to the underlying code. And with turds like Leiter stalking people who read these blogs, it's a GOOD thing that IP data is not collected. Especially good for assholes like you who spend their time complaining in anonymity without fear of having their IP address cross-referenced against posts here and on other blogs.

      I guess it's like free speech. Everyone "gets the idea" and lives with it perfectly well, but there's always one or two cocks like you and Painter who decide that the freedom you have been given is an opportunity for you to try and stir up trouble.

      And low comments today and yesterday? IT'S THE WEEKEND, EINSTEIN! People have lives and things to get on with other than trolling the internet.

      Delete
    5. @639,

      So you have MORE time to comment on blogs during the work week, rather than less? Maybe you should consider getting a job, then. You could at least fill that time LOOKING for one. It sounds to me like your whole life must be an extended weekend.

      "Free speech," you say? Clearly you have no clue what you are talking about. Do you at least understand the difference between someone moderating his own blog and an armed government doing it for him? Maybe you are the one person in America who actually SHOULD go (back?) to law school. Actually, scratch that; they teach that idea at most middle schools. Enroll there instead.

      Delete
  2. Digging the news stories.

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  3. New project: teaching myself high school level IT skills. $20/hr is nothing to sneeze at--well, maybe in a high COL area, and I imagine the poor T20 grad probably expected to make twice that, but even so, without at all taking away from the fact that law school is a total waste for most, even in the upper echelons, I think he'll at least have the chance to put that behind him.

    Um, to be clear, he did *get* the job right? Right?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Set up a Google News search, something like "law schools" and click within last 24 hours under the advanced tab. You'll see several articles, some of which you can comment on to warn the 0Ls away from applying. Repeat each day. Of course, application season is winding down even though MANY scammy schools will extend their deadlines right up until school starts. But there could be college juniors reading who might see your comment and get the message that law school us a bad bet. Parents and undergrad profs might get the message and stop encouraging kids to go to law school.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We are on it. Expect to start seeing this feature on a regular basis.

      Delete
  5. Thought this was good: they don't seem to know how many people will show up or how much those students will pay. I guess the answer to the latter is "what the market will bear."

    I had to read it in the google cache and for whatever reason, was not able to post the whole text here. Perhaps the admin here can do so.

    http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/sunday-commentary/20130308-qa-does-dallas-need-a-new-law-school-in-this-climate.ece

    Q&A: Does Dallas need a new law school in this climate?
    Published: 08 March 2013 04:20 PM

    ReplyDelete