Hello, everyone. Sorry to be so silent recently. I'm trying to get out of town and so I have to double down on other stuff. I'll be gone through the month but back to post again in August.
In the meantime, enjoy:
The entire article is one giant money quote. Have fun.
There should be a lot to cover once enrollment numbers are finalized in August.
ReplyDeleteAargh!
ReplyDeleteThe NYT article --from the Fashion and Style section, no less--clearly reflects why Law School still holds luster in the eyes of potential students.
Strike a pose!
Law School's a fantastically challenging, incredibly difficult endeavor that is undertaken by hard-charging, incredibly focused strivers. These are modern-day Sir Edmund Hillaries climbing Mount Everest. “This is two and a half months of sustained stress.”
Look at me: I'm stressed, working hard and playing hard. Doing it in style, too.
Finding a spot to study on Jamaica's 7-Mile Beach; relaxing on the beach in Thailand by practicing Muay Thai; enjoying the view in Capri... all to rejuvenate for "the high-stakes bar exam." And the article didn't even mention the tradition of a post-Bar trip as a reward for all that supreme effort.
The hype surrounding law school can be like that. It IS stressful, and you DO work very hard, and you DO feel you've earned the right to enjoy some of the Good Life. R & R. You're young, you're fit and ripped, and the world's your oyster.
Remainds me of the movie 'Gallipoli' about 2 Australians going off to fight in World War I in 1915. Mel Gibson was in it.
The two young friends (both track stars of sorts) have all sorts of adventures and endure hardships while traveling to the big city (Perth) to enlist. Once in the Army, they have another series of adventures and interesting experiences while they are training in Egypt at an army training camp that's far, far away from the front lines. There's comradeship, adventure, challenging new conditions, and even some relatively unrealistic military training which is bothersome because it's done in the desert, but still exciting because your doing it with your mates.
They're young, enjoying themselves, and taking it in stride. It's an adventure. Lovely.
The deal is ... the whole experience leads to Gallipoli, which is a battle in which British and Aussie infantry land on a beach in Turkey and assault --bravely attempt to assault-- fixed Turkish fortifications. Turkey was Germany's ally in WWI. The Turks are well dug-in in forts which have mounted machine guns. The Aussies are expected to go up, "over the top" of their own trenches and make a running assault --on foot carrying rifles-- against the Turkish fortifications... the ones with the fixed machine guns I mentioned. The Aussies very bravely and courageously do just that, with truly disasterous consequences to themselves. The casualty rate is absolutely stunning. Read about it on Wikipedia if you're unfamiliar ... or ask most any Aussie.
Yeah, law school's challenging and a great adventure for young strivers. The problem is the maelstrom into which it leads.
Gallipoli. The Final wave:
Deletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0Ankn-AzC4
I saw it in the theater in 1981.
that was painful to read.
ReplyDeleteSeriously. I don't wish bar prep on anybody, but give me a break on how "stressful" it is. Holding down a job (and a mortgage and kids, for some) while paying student loans and trying to stay afloat in the legal arena...that's stressful.
DeleteAbsolutely right. I had to work WHILE prepping for the bar, and was right back at the office the next Monday.
DeleteWhat the hell is wrong with us that we think we need a vacation after studying, especially if we can't afford it?
Nice analogy 7.43 :) I'm Australian too.
ReplyDeleteBut the system of Bar Exams there in America, its a strange one. I think to practice law in each state you have to pass the bar for that state. But bar exams are only available for a very short time. 2-4 times each year, each only lasting only 2 days or so. A tiny window of opportunity.
This is a system which seems to have evolved in the 19th century, but no longer makes sense. You can appreciate the state bars wanting to limit the number of lawyers in each state, but doing so after so many kids have been suckered into attending overpriced law schools just seems cruel.
Actually, they are available two times a year but that is not necessarily a bad thing. It is keyed to two things. First is that people finish law school either in May or December so the exam comes a couple of months after graduation. Second is the fact that 48 states use the multi-state bar exam and to prevent cheating (giving your friend in another state the questions) that has to be administered on the same date nationwide.
DeleteAdmission to the bar is controlled by the courts and they care not about how many people are admitted. The issue isn't how many people become lawyers, it is how there is not enough paying work to keep all the lawyers employed.
Very apt analogy, 7:43.
ReplyDeleteI had this general impression that none of these young people actually had legal jobs lined up either. These barcations were funded either by mum & dad or student loans.
So naive.
What's most amazing to me is that these little snowflakes all seemed to treat passing the bar exam as some sort of massive accomplishment. It's not. You just study for it and take it. I put in a decent 50 hours per week and did fine. It certainly doesn't mean you're going to be a good lawyer.
ReplyDeleteIn my day you didn't go off on vacation to study. Vacation was something you earned AFTER you graduated and passed the bar exam. I'm glad it appeared in the NYT style section at least. Here in flyover country most people hate the NYT and everything about articles like that.
I wish we had compulsory national service. These little snowflakes will probably live in a bubble for the rest of their lives, not realzing the concerns and trials of normal people.
Half of them will realize the concerns and trials of normal people quite quickly, when they are unable to find jobs as lawyers.
DeleteWhy do you keep calling people snowflakes? It's really creepy....
DeleteIt's stories like these that make people lose sympathy for us. All these kids 150K in debt, about to be jobless or making 45K, and yet here they are "relaxing" and planning their several thousand dollar "bar trips." It's not even a particularly hard exam- try studying for med school boars, the FSA, or actuarial exams.
ReplyDeleteI never understood this whole "bar trip" thing. Seems to me these indolent flakes should be automatically barred from the bar.
DeleteIn the past month there was an article on a law school grad from St Thomas (Minn.) who couldn't get a job and so joined the Army, in the process relieving himself of $100k in debt. I'm not sure how this works, but maybe it is a future trend: go to law school, pass the bar, join the Army, go to Boot Camp, get sent off to Afghanistan for 4 years - and if you survive, voila, no more law school debt!
ReplyDeletePerhaps also in the future law schools should teach IED detection and defusal.