@Consolation:
“You know, there are lawyers all over the country making $150K+ per year who did NOT go to HYS and have a very nice life without working incredible hours for Wall Street law firms as associates.”
And when did they start out?
If you’ve noticed, the law market has changed quite a bit in recent years.
I actually know someone who fits your description perfectly, but if she was graduating from (her not very elite) law school now rather than a decade ago (as was the case), I would not lay good odds on her ending up where she is now.
These days, almost no law school (or PhD program) is worth spending 6 figures on. The only reason I exempted YHS is because those schools may provide their grads with opportunities outside of law (like consulting or startups, though that may not be the greatest path to those fields, so I’m close to writing off almost all law schools).
BTW, I didn’t say that only STEM is acceptable; I did say that only free (or close to it) is acceptable. There are actually some funded humanities PhD programs (and more funded social science PhD programs) as well as some JD programs where you can get full-tuition/full-ride scholarships. Get in to one of those, and at worst, you lose only your time/opportunity cost. Pay a lot or go in to a lot of debt for a PhD/JD program, and you may lose a lot more.