Money

People who say, "Money doesn't matter," are part of one or more of these cohorts:

1) the delusional,
2) the rich,
3) the enlightened buddhas of this world,
4) the nuns,
5) other religious figures who have truly reached a state of peace,
6) other religious figures who secretly reel in the dough through their corrupt institutions,
7) indigenous tribes, or
8) other people who live within economic systems that don't use money (maybe they barter instead).


Note that, other than genuine religious figures or people of different economic systems, people who actually have no money are not listed.

Do homeless people beg you to have no money either, or for you to give them money (or things that money can buy, such as food, shelter, etc.)?

To my privileged classmates who have always had a roof over their head and a Beamer in their garage, it's cute that you criticize me for not being a 'true intellectual' because I am 'chickening out' and not pursuing the 'life of the mind.' I can very well give myself "mental masturbation" (in my professor's most erudite words) with Kant after a hard day's work. Like most people who are just as smart and usually more mature than you, I can't afford to do it all day for my goal, and that's my reality.

[That is, until you hit $75k/year. Then yeah, more money doesn't matter... kinda. Well, for me at least.]

/endrant

P.S. I'd love to compare happiness levels of countries later on. Fun tidbit from above article:

• "...Americans come out as a bit of a mixed lot: they're fifth in terms of happiness, 33rd in terms of smiling and 10th in terms of enjoyment. At the same time, they're the 89th biggest worriers, the 69th saddest and fifth most stressed people out of the 151 nations studied. Even so, perhaps because of the country's general wealth, they are in the top 10 citizenries where people feel their lives are going well, beaten out by such eternal optimists as the Canadians, New Zealanders and Scandinavians."

[addendum to part 2: depression in the law]

"...sometimes re-evaluating one's dream in the face of reality is a sign of maturity."

This comes from a comment of one of numerous people advising an aspiring law student to seriously reconsider his dream of being a lawyer (See the discussion here). At least for him, he is not one of the thousands of inexperienced, naive, and confused recent liberal arts grads. He actually has had quite a bit of experience in the legal field as a legal secretary and majored in legal studies. His dreamtalk and determination talk remind me of how my parents raised me: that if you work hard enough, you can achieve anything here in this country. Hell, that's how my family made it. We're one of the dime-a-dozen immigrant success stories, and yeah, it does inspire me to do great things when I reflect on my family's development here.


But back to this kid. He has a mediocre GPA and a poor LSAT score, even after several test attempts. He has anxiety problems, especially test-taking. Now, let's review these key points:
1) Law school admission is highly weighted on GPA and LSAT score, much like med schools with GPA and MCAT
2) In law school, the summation of your grade is determined by one or two cumulative closed-book, subjectively-graded exams per semester
3) Umm, debt?
4) Umm, terrible employment prospects for anyone outside (and even inside) T14?


And yet, he is dead-set on law school, ready to accept $100k+ in debt from a Tier 3 or 4 law school just so he can get into anything at all. Why is he posting on LawProf's blog and TLS (top-law-schools.com, frequented mostly by 0Ls, or aspiring law students; FYI 1Ls, 2Ls, and 3Ls are of course current law students in respective class years), then? He was just wondering whether he should settle for the Tier 4 or postpone his jump and study for the LSAT again in hopes of getting into Tier 3. 

And so I come back to the above-bolded comment. It's been taking a lot of strength for me to come to terms with myself.  Like this kid, I had often thought I would "win the lottery ticket" and "beat the odds" with my sheer determination. Throughout my life, my parents have taught this to me because we did beat the odds and have made it really well here in the U.S. And for me personally in my academic life, I have shown to beat the odds. Frankly, I didn't see why not study my ass off, save money, etcetera. All I would lose were some hours of sleep, social time. I had much better things to gain. The trade-off was worth it.


But are soaring debt and the prime years of my life worth the risk for an oftentimes depressing school experience and job (if I even get one)? By depression, I wish I were exaggerating. Studies have shown that on average, 9-10% of 0Ls are depressed (that is, overwhelmingly mentally healthy and optimistic), but by the end of the first year of law school, this figure goes up to 32%, and by third year, 40% . Furthermore, from a 2007 study by the American Bar Association, only 4 out of 10 lawyers said they would recommend the law to others, and less than 50% of lawyers reported having job satisfaction. We must consider that many of the people who come out depressed or dissatisfied must have been those who did not research enough into what they were getting themselves into. But still, these stats are something to bear in mind, along with the rest of the happy-happy-happy stats surrounding the current law market. 


Call me a dream killer, or call me a pragmatist. Unfortunately, times have been changing, and for recent grads who don't have $100k to throw around or aren't the children of a parent who owns a law firm (or have some other way of a secure attorney position), if you want to pursue law, you really need to think hard about it.


[Thankfully, the kid I mentioned earlier eventually did mention in the linked discussion that he will take some more time off to consider his future. I forgot to mention that he still has that job as a legal secretary making a decent $35k a year, so he's doing quite well in that regard compared to other yuppies. Good for him.]


And to close, I leave you with this gem that's far more succinct than me:


Eager law student (YouTube)

[and this happy picture]

Self-assessment, part 2: Law School?

Another track I am considering for myself is law school. I have done lots of online research and read some books, notably The Law School Admission Game and Should You Really Be a Lawyer?: The Guide to Smart Career Choices Before, During & After Law School. What my research lacks, compared to my grad school research, is talking with real practicing and non-practicing lawyers, law students, and other people in the legal field. And the most helpful bit of research to see if law school is right for me is to actually get my feet wet in the legal field itself.

As with grad school, there's a plethora of material out there that warns people not to go law school these days.

• Exposing the Law School Scam: quite extensive blog. A collaborative project.
• Inside the Law School Scam: a clean, unpretentious, articulate blog written by a law professor. Law schools and their professors, as you can see from my links, are often blamed for encouraging law school to students in order to rake in more money, but it seems this current professor strays from the flock.
• When Law School Becomes a Bad Investment: from the Washington Post.
• Is Law School a Bad Investment?: from Business Insider.
• Law School: As Bad As You've Heard: and always read comments from articles. Notably this one: "Graduated in the top 3% of class, top 20 school, law review, 5 years of biglaw, unemployed for 18 months, losing the house, and wife leaving.
• Think you’re safe? I did too." Okay, hope the wife wasn't leaving because of no paycheck, but damn. And he's not the only one with bad news.
• The Girl's Guide to Law School: this is written by a Columbia '06 grad who did get into BigLaw (six figures, work-crazy life) and other things. She started this rather extensive and beautiful site as a guide for women to get the most out of law school, along with several myths she (and numerous other sites) debunks. She also uses the right it's and its and has a smart, simply-designed layout, which all make me quite happy. It's useful to note these myths:

1. Lawyers Make a Lot of Money
2. Student Loan Debt is “Good Debt”
3. Law School Gives You Three More Years to Decide What to Do With Your Life
4. Life as a Lawyer is Exciting and Intellectually Challenging
5. Getting a Law Degree Opens Lots of Doors
6. You Can Trust a Law School’s Employment Numbers

To summarize: "the prospects for those legions of new lawyers have been grim, a fact hardly unbeknownst to them...in the past few years, young lawyers faced a glut of competition from other legal professionals; plummeting wages; a reduction in openings in and offers at big law firms; and cripplingly high student-loan debts. When the recession hit, thousands of young lawyers suddenly found themselves trying to work off six figures of debt in pay-per-hour assistant gigs. Granted, things are looking better. But the National Association of Legal-Career Professionals still cautions that "entry-level recruiting volumes have not returned to anything like the levels measured before the recession." 
(Source: slate.com)


It seems this material has affected the number of applications to go down in the past years, which I think is great.


And despite all of these sources, I'm still intrigued. As I said in the beginning, I must extend my research by talking to more people involved in the legal field itself.


I feel that my set of skills and interests (writing, research, analysis, reading, attention to detail, logical and deductive reasoning, argumentation, strong work ethic, etc.) align well with what it takes to be a lawyer. But what about my values? I'm not just talking about the moral skepticism of certain cases I might be forced to undertake. I'm also talking about... well, it's the same deal with my largest concern that stops me from going to grad school, which I'll cover in part 3.


In any case, I'll be talking with more legal folks, and I have been researching being a paralegal so that I can get my feet wet into the legal field without throwing away three years of my life and $100k+ of my parents' and my own money (and instead saving money and gaining valuable experience). This is the mistake that thousands of law students make. One of the books I mentioned earlier makes a great analogy to this ridiculous problem: would you buy a $30,000 car without first test-driving it? Would you put an investment in a $100-400,000 house without first stepping foot inside? Nonetheless, many students decide to go to law school because

• they have no idea what else to do with their liberal arts degree that's not "prestigious" or "respectable" or earns lots of money (lulz)
• their loved ones, especially their parents, expect them to and/or want a lawyer in the family as much as they want a doctor or an engineer (but too bad, you were too dumb to not major in the sciences)
• these loved ones, as sincere as they are, insist that their child is apt to be a lawyer based on only some obscure notions (e.g., Law and Order, John Grisham novels) of what it means to be a lawyer
• the students themselves have those obscure notions without ever setting foot in a law firm
• as with grad school, they want to ride out the economic recession by staying in school another three years (completely ignoring the mounds of student loans; fellowships are non-existent for law students and scholarships are hard to get)
• the myths outlined above by Alison

With spiky hair and blowing wind in an indoor court room!

...and so on. I pick these specific yet common reasons because they also apply to my initial reasons for considering law school, though I'd have to replace John Grisham and Law and Order with the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney video game. :3 "OBJECTION!" "HOLD IT!" and my favorite, "TAKE THAT!"

But like I said, different from grad school, I'm not completely giving up on law school altogether. I want to try being a paralegal or legal secretary first. I've also reasoned that, should I like the legal field after some experience, I can maximize my chances of "success" by getting a high LSAT score and going to a T14 school. I already have the GPA and recommendation letters set, and I'm sure I can write a good personal statement. 

At the same time, who knows? Even if I do like law, get in the top of my class at a top law school, and land a respectable job, will this lifestyle be conducive to my happiness? 

This all comes down to what makes me happiest, and consistently. And after much reflection this semester, from both my academic and social lives, I've come to realize... [HOLD IT!]

Part 3 awaits.