<p>Same for radiology. Due to the economy, many older radiologists are not retiring, forcing many residents to have to do a second 1-year fellowship (at a 60k salary) instead of working as an attending. Jobs in desirable cities (Chicago, NYC, Boston, etc.) are hard to come by. </p>
<p>That’s why it’s important to do something that you truly enjoy. Things like salary, job availability, etc. are difficult to predict. But, a tough job market is easier to stomach when you like your job. Even knowing that my salary will be cut by 1/4 down the line, I still wouldn’t pick any other field.</p>
<p>Interesting conversations here, but I wanted to say something else.</p>
<p>I just submitted my app at 11:56 PM (supplement at 11:53). I wrote my supplement in the car on my way home. I didn’t make it very Cornell-specific (even though I wrote it only for Cornell) because I honestly didn’t know much about the Engineering departments. I just know I really liked the campus and atmosphere.</p>
<p>I probably won’t get accepted, but it still feels good to get $75 and the stress of my last application off my chest. It’s sad that I waited this long to apply to what is probably my top choice. I’m a procrastinator of the worst kind.</p>
<p>I totally agree with your viewpoint. It is unfortunate that lawyers are some of the most miserable people out there, and lawyers always rank as the profession with highest rate of depression, lowest job satisfaction, and higher-than-average suicide rate, not to mention high turnover rate of BigLaw.</p>
<p>Honestly, law sucks and only thing that keeps law doable for majority of people who are in the industry is the money. If you take $$$ out of equation, then law becomes horrible. That is kind of what has been happening in recent years. So many lawyers are jobless, and many of even T14 law grads graduate unemployed…</p>
<p>I kind of know that I won’t like law that much as a career, but attending a top 6 law school and having that BigLaw corporate M&A experience at a top NYC law firm will help me get where I want to go. (I-banking or restructuring in finance) Also, if I do corporate law at a top law firm for several years, then I will have skipped those brutal years of I-banking analyst stint and I can come in as a senior associate or VP into I-banking. That prospect is a huge part of the reason I am willing to incur all that debt to attend law school. (I couldn’t care less about becoming a lawyer, because being a lawyer sucks)</p>
<p>I wasn’t going to jump in to this thread again because this thread is no longer what it was intended to be. But since there are young people who are reading this, I am going to say that if IB and restructuring in finance is what you are looking for there is no need in incurring 250K of debt to do that. I was doing all of that at age 25-28 with a bachelors degree. I had partners and senior associates from law firms “working” for me, and I was just an associate at one of those white shoe IB firms. Those lawyers worked just as long hours as I did, except they had to work later than me after I have given them the deal structure. I had no problem in calling them at home early in the morning if their draft was incorrect. As an associate at one of those Wall Street law firm, hours were just as bad, if not worst, than the analyst or assoicate at IB. </p>
<p>I lived that life for 10+ years until my younger daughter was born (I was fortunate to be able to move to a different area to have more time for my family). I worked with most of those what’s been refer to here as the “BigLaw” in NYC. There were few lawyers who made the move to IB, and not every case was seamless. There is an issue of “fit” again. What makes a good lawyer is not always what makes a good investment banker, sales, or trading. D1 talked to me and a lot of my friends in the business trying to figure out what would be best for her - kind of job within IB and which IB to work for. She is going to be working on a desk which will give her a good balance of work and life. Unless something really changes in the next few years, there would be no need for her to back to school to get a MBA.</p>
<p>Lazykid - if M&A is what you are looking for, you should have just gone into it straight out of college. My sister and her husband like being lawyers and have done very well financially. D2 will be doing some internship at some law firms before she makes her decision. I don’t think I would be supportive of her using law as a stepping stone to another profession. If I were you, I would do your analyst gig for 2 years, get a MBA at a top notch school, then apply for an associate position at an IB. I wouldn’t waste 3 years to get a law degree.</p>
<p>This is not necessarily true. Yes, poor people, in general, suffer many roadblocks in this country; no need to rehash them here. But, poor whites have always had one avenue to success that poor blacks don’t (or, don’t to the same degree): marrying middle-class members of their own race. Overall, marrying well still trumps getting an Ivy League degree, in terms of life-changing events.</p>
<p>Yeah that guaranteed transfer thing is pretty iffy. But in the end, GPA matters when you want your degree to matter - they would have to have the intellectual capacity to do well in Cornell in order for their degree to matter. If they don’t, well - they can be our curve and make our lives easier. We need those people for us to do well too, you know.</p>
<p>If they’re gunning for a field in which GPA doesn’t matter, then there’s a lot of different ways for them to get that knowledge anyways (HES, online classes, for example…) it doesn’t have to be Cornell. If they do choose Cornell, then they’re paying a huge amount for something they don’t need to pay for. Their choice.</p>
<p>GPA isn’t everything… Sure, having a high GPA will help you land interviews from finance or consulting much easier, but outside that you can still land a good job with networking and knowing right people despite a mediocre GPA and lackluster academic credentials. </p>
<p>For job placement, networking >>> GPA.</p>
<p>In the end, some people shouldn’t be at Cornell to begin with… Let Cornell admit people who are more deserving in larger quantity and let it trim those subsets of students who can barely crack 3.0 GPA at Cornell. In all, I really wish that Cornell will change its senior leadership in admissions. I don’t see Cornell stepping up its admissions game anytime soon, unless those changes in leadership are deemed to be necessary by Cornell officials.</p>
<p>That’s like saying, Bobby Brown married well; and, we know how ridiculous that statement would be. ;)</p>
<p>Actually, that brings up an interesting point because what you’re really saying (and, have been saying repeatedly in various fora) isthat we have become a nation of credentials, where it doesn’t even matter whether you possess any real skills. It’s a sad commentary when it’s easier to get into Harvard than it is to have a successful marraige in this country.</p>
<p>Well, K-Federline was a no-name back-dancer. He got lucky and hooked up with Spears and married her. Where I would agree is that Spears isn’t that good of a wife material, but then again, neither is a guy like Federline an ideal husband for any woman. He had no career, lacks education, and this guy was caught cheating on Spears in Spears’ own bedroom, several times.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, K-Fed got a lot of dough, fame, and now he divorced Spears and drives around Orange County sporting a Lamborghini and rocks a huge mansion in LA, all with Spears’ money… </p>
<p>I am sure many of poor white guys would literally give their soul to have a chance like this… Sure, maybe your marriage with this type of girl won’t last very long, but at least you are very well compensated for it. </p>
<p>And, yes, I agree that for certain professions (namely law or I-banking), your credentials matter far more than your ‘real skills’. You could be the most capable lawyer out there, but if you come from a tier two law school, it is highly unlikely you will ever sniff an ounce of air inside an office of Skadden, Weil, or Cravath. On the other hand, in good economy, anybody and his brother with a pulse can get a job at a large, fancy corporate law firm if he comes from Harvard Law as long as that individual in question knows not to drool and not smell like a garbage man during interviews.</p>
<p>This brings to the original point that: admissions to top schools, such as MBA, top colleges, law school, or medical school, can change one’s life and career. As such, it is no doubt very important process. And, people have every right to be asking if that process is being executed fairly and rationally. I just don’t see how being black or hispanic, for example, automatically qualifies you for that golden ticket at Harvard Law.</p>
<p>Admissions officer at a top law school said at an info session I attended last year that their law school (a top ten school) gives ~10 point boost on LSAT if an applicant is black or hispanic.</p>
<p>What that means is that a black guy with 164 on LSAT can get into Harvard Law, when a white guy with such credentials will get laughed out of any of top 20 law schools. In fact, if a white guy with such a LSAT score applies to Harvard or Columbia Law, that guy’s application and resume paper will likely end up being used as a toilet paper…</p>
<p>The boost that URM receives at top schools, including top colleges, top law schools, top MBA, or top medical schools is ridiculous. I could maybe agree with the policy that gives small extra boost to someone who is black or hispanic for whatever reason, but it is ridiculous that the admissions people hold such a drastically differing standards for URM vs. White/Asian applicants.</p>