<p>I have a cousin who lives in Virginia, but who wants to go to USC and double-major by earning a BA in political science and a BFA in film and television production. He then wants to go to law school to earn a his JD. His number-one goal and dream in life is to become an independent filmmaker (he loves Stanley Kubrick, Paul Thomas Anderson, David Fincher, the Coens, Martin Scorsese, etc.). At the same time, he recognizes that film school is useless except for forming connections and learning technology. Yet he also has an interest in politics and the Constitution, so he thinks it would be a good idea to earn a JD so that he won't be unemployable. I attended USC, but I still wanted to know if this is a good means of working towards his dreams.</p>
<p>I don’t see the logic in it myself.
Unless for some reason he wants to make television shows and movies that are 100% realistic to the court room experience, I don’t see any reason to do it.
To me at least, it seems like the equivalent of getting a Phd in Nuclear Physics for the purpose of being a stencil artist. </p>
<p>Yes, but it isn’t possible to jump right into film and television production. It takes time, effort, and a great many connections. If he doesn’t want to spend his post-college years without work, he might as well pursue a degree in something else he is interested in (law and politics), until he can actually pursue the career he truly wants.</p>
<p>It’s another 3-4 years of school, and another 3-4 years of tuition. Unless he plans on doing things unrelated to Film in order to payback the tuition for a long period of time, a period of time long enough to possibly make him lose focus on his overall career ambitions, a JD just isn’t worth it. Trying to go through law school and get a job in the law field while also making film and trying to focus on film, it just seems like too much. Chances are he’s better double majoring in film and something employable. If he wants a JD for the sake of having a JD, he should be prepared to do work in his JD for a long period of time. Working in the film industry takes a long, long period of time to get money, so he may have to sacrifice his film career in order to pay for the JD.
tl;dr If wants to be lawyer and focus on that for long periods of time, get the JD. If he doesn’t want to be a lawyer or do something in that field, it’s probably a waste of time, money and potential. </p>
<p>Honestly, the job prospects for new jds right now are absolutely awful. Like, really really awful.
From a 2011 ny times article- approximately 6200 people passed the bar in california in 2009, and there were an estimated 3300 job openings for lawyers in 2010 in CA. So counting on getting into law school, graduating without tons of debt like most lawyers do, and getting a law job- not a very safe bet. Basically, your cousin wants to pay lots of money to go into a competitive field with crappy job prospects… As a safety.
Imo, he needs to consider his options. Sit down, look at the cost, look at the job prospects.
Ofc, I’m not an expert. If his #1 passion was law, that might be a reason to go. But lots of smart, talented kids who actually want to go to law school to be lawyers are being discouraged from it because of the current job market, so I think he should reconsider.</p>