I'm considering going to law school to get my JD, and I was hoping to gain some perspective on different schools. I live in Florida, so my three regional options are mainly UF, FSU, and Stetson. I've heard that Stetson isn't a very good school in many respects, and I've heard that UF and FSU are very "regional". Meaning that a law degree from UF isn't very prestigious outside of Florida and is almost worthless outside of the South East. Does anybody here know how accurate that statement is?

The problem isn't so much about prestige, it's just that the bulk of legal recruiting is regional. Even at a very highly-ranked state school, most of the job postings I see are in-state. This makes sense; a law firm in, say, Oregon isn't going to seek out law students from UF or FSU when it has plenty of similarly qualified students much closer to home. I can't imagine a UF law degree would ever be worthless, but I think you'd really have to put in extra effort to go somewhere outside the Southeast, because those jobs generally won't come to you and your career services office probably won't have as many connections outside the region.

Just don't go to Texas... I hear all of the law students there are total jerkasses.

Yeah, that too.

My Uncle is a lawyer I think he went to Western New England College.. id have to double check...

but hes pretty successful they have a nice house a boat and a pool.

I recently heard that the job market for lawyers is relatively poor.

Then again, the entire job market is relatively poor right now!

There are certain areas that are looking for people... the problem is they all want experience... like the IT field... took me a long time to find my current job with United Health Group but it was worth the wait with all the benifits I get. but all the job postings on dice, craigslist, and moster wanted 5-10 years expereince

I stopped looking for jobs on craigslist once I saw that they all wanted college degrees, experience, and a good attitude for $8/hr.

For law school, I'm just keeping my options open. I decided to double major and not graduate early, so I've got until 2012 to make up my mind. I'd really like to go to Columbia and I think I could get in, but I don't know if I'd want to move to New York for 3 years.

From what I've heard, there are so many lawyers. And not enough jobs.

The "general" salary distribution data that I've seen for lawyers is weird and is unlike that, say, of some engineering field. It's either, you make it big or don't. The middle ground is depressed.

Is that really true out there in the world of law? I'm not a law student, but I'm curious. I just have hard time imagining the amount of money some people are willing to pay to attend private law schools (and without scholarships too).

Well, with Columbia law, tuition is ~$45,000 a year but the median starting salary for graduates fresh out of school is $160,000, and over 99% of them get jobs within a few months. It's also the third best school in the country.

With UF, graduates were looking at starting salaries of ~$90 thousand working for private companies and around $45,000 working for the government. I don't know how the job outlook for schools of that caliber is right now, however.

Edit: According to http://www.ilrg.com/rankings/law/view.php/121 employment prospects for UF grads are still looking pretty good. Salary is lower than I thought, but still more than enough to do well for yourself (in Florida, at any rate).

I had to post it

Really? And I don't mean that sarcastically. $160,000 out of school median salary?

I'm not refuting Columbia is an elite school. Congrats big time if you can get it. I've just heard so many horror stories when it comes to law school, especially in today's market. But like I've said before, I never went into law.

I'd also want to know the standard deviation and average age of graduating students. But yes, that's good!

When I went back for my high school reunion (5 years), a bunch of people were going to law school, but they couldn't seem to clearly articulate WHY or what field of law they'd like to enter. Which I interpret as just wanting to make big bucks in a tried and true way.