<p>As far as I'm aware, life hasn't been easy (student loan-wise, at least) for young couples for quite a while now. My husband and I had over $200,000 in student loans to pay off (almost $150,000 of that was mine). I suppose that's why it's always amusing to me when folks assume that lawyers are "rich". Even though our student loans are finally paid off now, all of the years of paying off our loans means that we are hardly as wealthy as our current income would seem to indicate.</p>
<p>I know some of you know this, but as a headhunter for lawyers, I cannot emphasize enough how bad it is out there now. Layoffs are piling up every day. Everyone is fighting over the few jobs out there. I spoke to a young derivatives attorney today who has been looking since August, when he was laid off from a top New York firm. Having said that, when things do come back, there will not be enough associates to handle the work in many areas. The issue is timing. When the real estate market bottomed out in the early 90s, the firms didn't hire real estate associates for a few years. Then when the business came back, we couldn't find enough people to meet the needs. Associates switched from litigation to real estate. It will cycle but some practices are gone for good this time. It's not good news that I am spending a lot of time right now trying to fill several bankruptcy jobs.</p>
<p>Several of my schoolmates went into the interviewing program hosted here at my law school* with trepidation, worrying that their prospects would be seriously affected. Invariably, each of them came back telling me: "Wow, I should not have been worried." Flyback weekends went much the same way: fear and trepidation, and then pleasant surprise.</p>
<p>In contrast, however, many of us keep close ties with students at a school just one spot down in the rankings -- still an excellent, world-class school -- and they have been telling us that they have been seeing their prospects affected considerably. They're not in trouble per se, but they report getting fewer interviews and offers than their students traditionally expect. I'd imagine that another couple spots down, and you might start seeing students whose fears are coming to pass.</p>
<p>Now, the important caveat was that this process all happened a couple of months ago, so things may have gotten seriously worse even since then. Nonetheless, my school doesn't seem to be feeling it at all. This is a sad statement about the nature of law firm hiring, I think... but those of us here are mostly pretty relieved, and grateful. The point which appears to have unfortunately have been made is that ranking does seem to matter, even to the point of one rank making a noticeable (if not gigantic) difference.</p>
<p>*I attended Duke for undergrad; I'm not in school there now.</p>
<p>There have been some interesting articles about this on Above</a> the Law - A Legal Tabloid - News, Gossip, and Colorful Commentary on Law Firms and the Legal Profession. Reports from the trenches, so to speak. Most of them were back in October, I think--or just do a search.</p>
<p>saw a reference to this article on TLS- thought it might be of interest. </p>
<p>Law</a> School Almanac: Figuring out Financial Aid</p>
<p>I remembered this discussion- so I thought it was a good time to bring it back and link up the article. There was also a poll done on TLS
Harvard vs. Mich with Darrow award (I love throwing terms around that I'm not too sure of- but I'll assume it's the BIG scolarship to U mich.)</p>
<p>based on this anecdotal/unscientific poll-- U mich is winning with scolarship 58%
to Harvard 27% with 13% unsure.</p>
<p>Parentstwo- has your d decided on which school to attend? It's pretty hard to turn an acceptance from Harvard down- but it's certainly understandable if a large scholarship is offered.</p>
<p>D has not made a decision yet, but thanks for asking Marny. Good offer from Columbia now must be weighed in the balance. Not their full-ride scholarship but half of the tuition. She's going to give them a good hard look. Lots to consider. </p>
<p>I'm glad this thread came back to life, because it still has so much pertinent information about the loan forgiveness programs.</p>
<p>That's fantastic. -- In the long run, I just cannot imagine that opportunities for Columbia law grads are that much different than Harvard grads.</p>
<p>You got no bad choices!! Congrats.</p>
<p>we're sorta in the pre-serious mode. Next cycle of applications become available around 8/09- so hopefully d will start thinking about application and personal statement etc. during the next few months. And all info about LRAP and financial aid is beginning to become a bit more important to us too. </p>
<p>I thought the info from law school almanac put alot of the info in one place including the websites for fafsa and need access. Seems he also updated info re LRAP and what type of loans were covered under LRAP. So I just wanted to pass this info along.</p>