<p>(Disclaimer: This is a long post, and I will probably come off as an entitled ******bag at various points throughout it)</p>
<p>I'm from a lower-middle class family, and all my childhood, I was raised to believe that if only I did well in school and went to an elite college, then I'd have a nice life handed to me on a silver platter. This is not turning out to be the case.</p>
<p>I graduated this spring from an Ivy League school with a degree in political science. During interview season last fall (when all the Wall Street recruiters come calling on campus), I didn't get any offers, due to limited internship experience in the field, a lack of relevant coursework, and a 2.9 GPA. I believed the solution to my problem was just to go to law school, like all of my other friends who had difficulty getting jobs through OCI. I quickly got some letters of recommendation, took the LSAT and performed more-or-less adequately (169), and fired off my applications. I did not get into any T-14 schools, which is to be expected with a 2.9/169, but I managed to secure half-tuition scholarships at several T-20 schools. Then, my parents informed me that I would be on my own if I wanted to pursue any further education. This means (following the suggested student budgets set forth by these law schools) that I would have to take out about $130k in loans over the course of three years.</p>
<p>So, I deferred my admission from one of the aforementioned T-20 schools, picking one that is more-or-less in the region that I would like to practice in, and decided to go look for a job. If I could find a nice job, one that I could call a career, then I would stick with it and not go to law school. If not, I'd go, since I don't see what choice I have, and do my best to get biglaw. (Aside: I would also be interested in the JAG corps, but I am not in particularly good shape and have terrible vision - this may disqualify me, but I'm not sure.)</p>
<p>Anyways, it has it been difficult for me. There are a limited amount of employers who place value on the unskilled Ivy League graduate and will hire us straight out of college, often paying us $70K+ to boot. These employers are the ones who conduct OCI, are only interested in current seniors, and hire a "class" of students at the same time each year. (I think this is similar to the biglaw model). Outside of these employers, opportunities for white-collar jobs are rather more difficult to come by. I've applied to oodles of jobs since graduating, and the only offers of full-time employment I've gotten so far are to be a commission-only insurance salesman. Unappetizing. For now, I live at home, teaching SAT/ACT prep on the side while I continue to look for a job. But time ticks by, and I need to make a decision about law school in the near future.</p>
<p>There are, perhaps, jobs I'd rather be doing, but don't want to do for reasons relating to pride.</p>
<p>Reason type 1: I've been a "smart" kid all my life, and I don't want to be seen doing something any Tom, Dick, or Harry could do.</p>
<p>Jobs falling under this category: private school teacher, policeman, retail store assistant manager.</p>
<p>Reason type 2: The job in question is in a technical-type field that I could've easily gotten into had I gone to any lousy state school, but I now have no background in this area. (These are mostly jobs that my parents are suggesting to me, and I'm indifferent to them, but they sound okay). So now you're telling me that I went through the dog and pony show of getting into an Ivy League school, and I have to go back to undergraduate school, take 30 hours of coursework in this area, and then go get a master's degree in the field, all while the dullards who got a 24 on their ACT and went to State are out there working and advancing? The appeal of law school stems from the fact that no one goes into law school knowing much about lawyering, so we all start on even footing; no Joe from a school offering a math minor just for completing multivariable calculus/linear algebra will have 2-3 years on me.</p>
<p>Jobs falling under this category: Accounting/auditing, information technology, actuarial science (insurance).</p>
<p>One thing that I really wanted to do, and could swallow my pride on, was be a college admissions officer. These jobs only hire during the summer (because the cycle begins in the fall and ends in the spring). This summer, I applied to openings at over 80 college admissions offices across the country, and got maybe 2-3 phone interviews. So it looks like that door is closed.</p>
<p>My friends tell me that I should go to law school anyways, but it's easy for them to say, because a) they're mostly at Columbia Law, and b) their parents are paying. Their advice is just to buy a bunch of E&Es and horn books now and (law)school myself so that I can make sure that I make Law Review after 1L and be headed for those coveted biglaw associate salaries (which I will sorely need to pay off $130k of debt). I have no particular affinity for the legal profession, but I had no particular love for finance/consulting either, and I am also massively apathetic about any of the other careers that are being suggested to me. I'm really just looking for a clearly defined path to an upper-middle class life. Hopefully these things still exist. I know that such aspirations are frequently said to be the wrong reasons for going to law school... but then what should I be pursuing? Do you know of better options for someone like me, who just wants to live up to his Ivy League degree? I fear I am headed for a life of being scorned and pitied by my former classmates, and I would like to avoid this outcome at all costs.</p>