It's been a busy year and we'll have more retrospective posts later this week. But for right now, it's time to turn off the computer and spend a little time with family and friends, or just crack open the booze/drugs and slump in front of the TV. Whatever gets you through Christmas.
Indiana Tech Law School had a "Treat Tree" this year, from under which students could take delicious free food to sustain them through their pre-exam studies. But from the school's Facebook page, it looks like there's just a half-eaten box of crackers. And I'm sure in a year or two when the school is showing off its "Employment Outcomes", there'll be little more than the career equivalent of a half-eaten box of crackers too.
I hope you all have a happy 25th. Remember, even Santa is underemployed and works just one day each year. Probably still paying his student loans from centuries ago too.
Indiana Tech Law School had a "Treat Tree" this year, from under which students could take delicious free food to sustain them through their pre-exam studies. But from the school's Facebook page, it looks like there's just a half-eaten box of crackers. And I'm sure in a year or two when the school is showing off its "Employment Outcomes", there'll be little more than the career equivalent of a half-eaten box of crackers too.
I hope you all have a happy 25th. Remember, even Santa is underemployed and works just one day each year. Probably still paying his student loans from centuries ago too.
Rumor has it that Mr. Infinity, a.k.a. The World Traveling Law Student, got angry with the scamblogs and destroyed Nando and his sheep when he saw that the scambloggers spent Christmas being fools on the internet instead of spending time with their families. I can't blame him. :)
ReplyDelete^ How sad that (1) Painter is still posting here, and (2) it's the day before Christmas and he's writing about "Mr. Infinity." Obsess much?
DeleteI guess it must not be possible to completely remove Painter from this blog. He's like the AIDS virus - once he settles in, there's no getting rid of him. Surprised he hasn't demanded a big-ass ransom in exchange for going away.
Shut up, Knorps.
Deletehttp://thirdtierreality.blogspot.com/2013/11/christopher-knorps-douche-bag-calling.html
DeleteDec. 24, 2013 @10:51AM is not Painter. Many other comments on this blog and on it's namesake Campos blog were not by painter either.
DeleteBut no one would believe him.
And happy holidays to the team at Outside. You guys have done a superlative job this year, as have Nando and Campos and all the other scambloggers. You should be very proud.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy the time off.
To those exposing the law school pigs,
ReplyDeleteHave a happy new year! We'll continue to drop kick the swine in their face, snout and balls in 2014.
In light of past controversy from the ghosties of Christmas Past, Present and Future:
ReplyDeleteMele Kalikimaka is the thing to say
On a bright Hawaiian Christmas day
That's the island greeting that we send to you
From the land where palm trees sway
Yes, my friends, Mele Kalikimaka to everyone.
DeleteThere's nothing wrong with being from Hawaii. Best wishes to Nancy Leong and Kaimipono Wenger.
Represent. Break out the chainsaws and the machetes. Looks like Twitter will be the next battlefield.
ReplyDeleteThank you bloggers. You give faith to the proletariat
ReplyDeleteJust a reminder to any law professors reading this blog:
ReplyDeleteIf you haven't finished grading your final exams yet, Christmas should be another work day for you. Your students need to find out what their grades are, and ought to be able to relax and enjoy their holidays. If their grades are poor, they need to know that before they sign the loan documents for another semester. They may be considering transfers to other institutions, and if your school has poor or misleading employment statistics, they absolutely need to transfer or drop out within a matter of days.
Step up and do the job you get paid to do, lawprofs.
Just a reminder to any law professors reading this blog:
ReplyDeleteIf you haven't turned in the grades for your final exams yet, Christmas should just be another work day for you. Your students have important decisions to make, and if you can't help them do that you have no cause to celebrate.
It's absolutely shocking how rude, lazy, and indifferent you people can be sometimes. It's time for you to earn a fraction of your grossly inflated salaries.
Rude, lazy, and indifferent: someone who lives with his parents and refuses to get a job - telling the employed to work on Christmas day.
DeleteYou can't make this stuff up.
Shut up, Knorps. No one cares about you and your stupid feud with JDPainterGuy.
DeleteYou're going to fail the bar exam again in February.
http://thirdtierreality.blogspot.com/2013/11/christopher-knorps-douche-bag-calling.html
Wrong, wrong, and wrong.
DeleteAnd "employed" means "working," not just drawing another "research stipend" in the Caribbean.
Nice try, law professor at 6:38...
DeleteYou know darn well that there are employed people working on Christmas day. Many convenience stores and gas stations were open today, and Jack in the Box is always open on Christmas. Fire stations, police stations and hospitals were open today. Those people are employed, and work a lot harder than you. You just prefer to ignore them because you think you're better than them. You're not.
Great job on this blog. You truly have done a lot of good for a lot of people. As you work on your year-end reviews, I want to draw your attention to a possible scenario:
ReplyDeleteLaw school applications are dropping. It is not outside the realm of possibility that fewer than 30,000 first years might enroll next year. Suppose the size of the first year class settles at roughly 27,000 over the next few years. Assuming 20,000 of them get legal jobs (which requires the further assumption that few to none of the passed over from previous years get any of those entry level slots), they will have a 74% chance of getting a legal job. The typical lemming will take that bet on any day that ends in y.
This brings up several questions. Will the law schools reinflate their classes 5-10 years from now, when they can show better employment results for the smaller classes entering now? We need to continue focusing attention on how much students are paying for their degrees, and how poor their return on investment is, even if they get jobs. (Simkovic and McIntyre notwithstanding, someone getting a $40-50,000 per year legal job has essentially received no income premium over what they could make as a college graduate, or even a high school graduate working as a bartender.)
Finally, even if 70-80% of law students are getting legal jobs, what about the 20-30% who miss the boat? Their life plans will still be ruined. Our work will not be done until there are fewer than 20,000 students entering law school every year, and paying a vastly reduced cost.
I think markets tend to overcorrect, and that enrollment could hit 20,000 before it stabilizes at 27,000 to 30,000. It's fascinating to watch, and we'll see what happens.
DeleteFewer law graduates in the future will certainly improve the currently dismal employment stats, but any upturn would take at least 3, maybe 5 years to even get started. Then the usual suspects--Harvard, Columbia, NYU, Georgetown, UCLA--will raise their enrollments, burdening the market again.
I do see most of the bottom-tier and for-profit schools closing, merging, or undergoing radical surgery. That particular bubble appears to be bursting. No one really believes any more that corporate schools are more efficient at legal education, or that John Marshall and Golden Gate are somehow closer to their communities.
There will probably always be enough lemmings to keep the current system ticking along, even if the law schools have to sacrifice a little. A better question is how long will the federal government continue to pour virtually unlimited loan money down the law school's insatiable gullet?
Delete2:55 has it right. Studying market forces is of somewhat limited value because the market is skewed by the student loans. Even if 75% of graduates get jobs how many of them, long term, will make enough to pay off $140,000.00 without it ruining their life? You want to see market forces at work? Cap the amount students can borrow and then watch the schools slash tuition to avoid the faculty having to get jobs and work for a living.
DeleteAlso, there should be meaningful minimum standards, both for admission and for graduation. When people are admitted with LSAT scores deep in the 130s, the requirement to take the LSAT has lost its significance. Ditto when people graduate—as happens even at the "best" law schools—without being able to write worth a tinker's damn.
DeleteHeeeelp! Theres a huuuuge "Yule Log" clogging up the office toilet! And there are no seton hall law graduates around to clean it! theyre all off for the holiday!
ReplyDeleteJust use a Christmas tree to cover up the smell, and be back in the office Monday morning.
DeleteLaw is kinda like the first Christmas.
ReplyDeleteNo room in the inn. You end up with some asses in a manger.
And at most toilet law schools, there's no hope of finding three wise men and a virgin!