<p>I feel torn as to which route to pursue. I have often thought about going to law school and becoming a lawyer. On the other hand, I am very interested in getting a PhD in history or political science and becoming a professor. I feel compelled to make a decision of one or the other now only because I feel like I need to study for the GRE or the LSAT with the intent to take one at senior year. I hope I could get some suggestions as to which one to take. </p>
<p>ABOUT ME:
I am a junior history major at an Ivy League college with interests in politics, political philosophy and political history. </p>
<p>I love history and reading about it, so much in fact that I do a lot of historical fiction writing and I spent the down time in my recent summer internship scrolling through Wikipedia articles about various historical things (nevertheless I got my work done). I have done well in all my history classes and I have good relations with all my professors. I have thought that being a professor would be a good job as I would be able to be surrounded by my passion and live in a university setting, while having some spare time to write fiction or political editorials like Eric Foner. I also like the idea of being able to mold several generations of minds and remaining in contact with past students. The downside I see to being a professor is the incarceration within the ivory tower- being removed from the real world and limited in opportunities and even perspectives.</p>
<p>Law has also been of interest to me as it seems like a great training of the mind and it opens so many doors to opportunities, including those in politics and business which are still of some interest to me. The money is also tantalizing, and I think I would like practicing law. However, I do not look forward to being a legal associate and giving up my life for a number of years. I worry that if I stayed on with a firm, I could end up unhappy like so many other lawyers. I have also thought about becoming a law professor as well, but I have mixed feelings about that. </p>
<p>What do you think?</p>
<p>PS- I have a good GPA and I am skeptical about getting a JD/PhD.</p>
<p>Do your research very carefully and fully before you go into megadebt. Here’s some reading for starters. There is a law school forum here with some interesting reading.</p>
<p>[Northwest</a> History: Open Letter to My Students: No, You Cannot be a Professor](<a href=“http://northwesthistory.blogspot.com/2011/11/open-letter-to-my-students-no-you.html]Northwest”>Northwest History: Open Letter to My Students: No, You Cannot be a Professor)
[Law</a> School Salaries Charts | WEAKONOMICS](<a href=“Weakonomics.com”>Weakonomics.com)</p>
<p>There is probably going to be a shake-out among the law schools. The number of seats in law schools rose dramatically over the last 20 years. For good reasons, the numbers of students applying to law schools is falling. </p>
<p>There are too many law schools, and some of the bad ones will need to close and the average ones are going to shrink. Temple U. in Phila is a respected law school, but they announced last year they are going to shrink their classes in order to maintain quality. Penn State is having trouble keeping both of their law school campuses full.</p>
<p>Those trends don’t open up too many opportunities for law school profs.</p>
<p>Both of these careers are options for me as well, but I’m not applying during my senior year. I also love my coursework, but can’t do more immediately after this! I would worry, particularly, about someone who describes the ivory tower as a potential “incarceration” going straight through to graduate school. I don’t know if I can, but I want to spend time after graduation working as a paralegal or some other sort of law-firm assistant, to see if the atmosphere of legal work in practice, rather than the super-fictional version I watch on my procedurals on TV, actually appeals to me. I haven’t done it yet, so I don’t know how it will work, but I hope getting out of the classroom for a year or two will give me clearer sight to choose what’s right for me. An option to consider for you, too.</p>
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<p>You get one life and your career should be something that matters to you and that you’re good at. The above Northwest History link is spot on, though, you will not become a History Professor. There are other ways to teach History, however, such as Community College, High School, Prep School, etc, and maybe you should look into some of those possibilities.</p>
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<p>I know a couple of people who made this choice. They work 60-80 hours per week and don’t really like their jobs, but they drive nice cars.</p>
<p>Loving to read about history and learn about it is very very different than liking historical scholarship. I also love history - I like watching boring historical shows and reading and writing historical fiction, and I read Wikipedia history articles for fun. But I would never want to do scholarship on history. I have quite a few friends in history PhD programs and I would not want to do what they do.</p>
<p>However, I will say that the idea of academics being “incarcerated” in the ivory tower is false, even the very busy ones. My advisor, a very busy associate professor at an Ivy League institution, takes spin classes 3 times a week and discusses the TV show Scandal with me and tells me to take off on my birthday. My other advisor hosts parties at his apartment. I know a lot of other professors here with children and hobbies and things they love to do outside of academia and work. And that’s even at a very top university. Professors at smaller places without as much research pressure have more time to pursue interests, especially after tenure. And you can develop other perspectives and interests, if you give them the time.</p>
<p>Don’t go to law school unless you want to be a lawyer. Don’t use it as an entree to politics or business, because there are politicians and businesspeople with degrees in a million other fields. You don’t actually sound like you want to be a lawyer.</p>
<p>You should take time off after school and figure out what you really like.</p>