Law school or nursing school?

If you are getting a full-ride scholarship, going to a top 10 law school, or are independently wealthy, then getting a law degree is a fine idea. I was one of those. It still wasn't a good idea. I didn't like feeling like a servant. I know that with law you'll run into bad apples, but it seems to be more acceptable to say if you talk to me like that, I'm out. Ha! As an attorney, you are constantly taking shit from people. Partners, clients, judges, opposing counsel...the list goes on and on.

I am a third year law student at a T14 school, about to graduate, starting my dream job (I mean, I've had actual dreams about how awesome this job is) in the fall, with a plan to be debt free in 10 years. I am delighted that I went to law school (though, ask me again in a year!). But I am an anomaly. A lot of my classmates shouldn't have gone and are very unhappy. You've gotten the standard "the profession of law is dying and most of the people are assholes and you work a million hours a day and the work is mostly boring paperwork and it costs $300k" (yes, $300k is a pretty standard amount to owe if you take out full tuition and cost of living in a major metro area and accrue interest throughout school.) It's all true. Take that advice seriously. But I'd also ask you: you say you want to go into law, but you don't say anything specific about why it's your "passion." There are tons of different kinds of law and tons of ways to practice. I have friends who have never been to court, and friends who go every day. I have friends who make business deals and friends who do nothing other than sit in their offices all day going over the fine print in contracts with a literal magnifying glass. I have friends who are mediators. I have friends who are fearsome litigators who, if they ever cross examined you, you might wet your pants. I have friends who sue the government for hurting people, and I have friends who defend the government when other people come after it, and I have friends who use the power of the government to make other people do good things. I have friends who write the laws, and I have friends who teach their clients how to find the loopholes in the laws so that they can get around them. I have friends who have 10,000 fellow lawyers in 25 offices on 5 continents in their firms, and I have friends who are solo practitioners. I have a friend whose job is that whenever someone at their tech company comes across photos on their servers that the person thinks might be illegal kiddie porn, he has to go look at it and decide whether to report it to the FBI, because he's their criminal compliance lawyer. So what kind of law do you envision practicing? Like, okay, 5 years from now, you're a lawyer. What does your life, in your fantasy world, look like at that point. When you walk into your office in the morning, you sit down at your desk and do what? And then what? What are the tasks you do? Who do you work with, and how often do you work alone vs. in groups? Do you go to court? How often, and for what purpose? How many hours do you work in the average day, and how many days in the average week? Because to me, it sounds as though you're choosing between "nursing" and "not-nursing," and you've slotted law into the spot for "not-nursing." Other than "feels like my calling," all of the points you've made in favor of law are things that are actually about "not-nursing." So I think you need to explore, either in this thread with us so that we can talk about them, or on your own with actual lawyers and your friends, what it is about law that "calls" to you, and whether the thing that calls you actually bears any resemblance to a job you'd likely get after completing your $300k education. So, what kind of lawyer were you thinking about being? I think that you can only really answer your bigger question if you give us a sense of what you mean when you say "law," other than just "go to law school and then get a lawyer-y job."

I know nothing about law or law school, but I am a nurse. People are really, really underestimating the current climate of nursing. First of all: the job market for new graduates of nursing school, even those with a BSN, is atrocious. It's not just "challenging" or "tight," it's non-existent. New grad training programs dried up during the recession and they are not back yet, so hospitals are not hiring nurses who need a lot of training to practice safely in an acute care environment. The only quote-unquote new grad training program I've heard of recently requires the unemployed new grad to pay the hospital a few thousand dollars for a three-month opportunity to be mentored on one of the floors, with no guarantee of a job when they finish. I spend a lot of time at my job in San Francisco training student nurses, and NOT ONE of them found a job in a hospital locally when they graduated. They had to move to get a job in a hospital, and not just to a different town close by. They left their family and friends behind and moved to places like Cheyenne, Wyoming, which culturally speaking is basically another planet to someone who grew up in the Bay Area. They'll be there for at least a year, probably two, getting the bedside experience they need to get a similar job back home. Some of my students found jobs as new grads in long-term care facilities like nursing homes, and others in places like plastic surgery offices. If you go to nursing school and are OK with making (much) less money to do non-hospital work when you graduate, great. But if you want an acute care hospital job, be prepared to relocate to the rural middle of the country for a couple of years before you'll find work in your chosen city. The bottom line here is that unless nursing is really your passion--a career you couldn't possibly live without and the only thing with which you want to fill your working days--and unless you're willing to relocate to find your first job, now is not the time to be a new grad. And I'll echo http://ask.metafilter.com/238366/Law-school-or-nursing-school#3456305: if you don't like paperwork or being nice to people who are treating you poorly, dear God almighty you should not be a nurse. Finally: any doctor who looks at a nurse as a "junior" partner in patient care is old-fashioned, behaving in a way that is actively detrimental to patient safety, and definitely forgetting the many, MANY times a nurse saved his or her ass as a resident. Uncool.

The anti-law school pile on is overly harsh. 2. You will always be able to create income as a lawyer, literally after passing the Bar, without the need of an employer. You cannot do that as a nurse. No, it is not. Right now, American law schools are churning out two law graduates for every one legal job. Not good legal jobs, just legal jobs such as hourly document review and due diligence. The legal market hemorrhaged quite a few jobs during the last recession, and I do not believe it will ever bounce back to its previous levels. Google "law school scam" and you will never run out of reading material. I will not encourage my children to become a lawyer like Dad. (don't get me wrong - I am one of the blessed ones in a good job with a firm full of people I like. Most are not so blessed.) And, a JD is not a sampo that churns out money. Lawyers need clients. The best type of clients are those who pay on time and are always in trouble. I am lucky to have some of those clients. No clients, no money. And now, to a more general piece of career advice that I have stated here before. The current cultural idea is that the highest form of self-actualization is through one's job. I think this idea is terribly wrong. My job is not who I am; it is the unpleasant thing I do to provide for my family that takes me away from them. In very few cases will your job have a bearing on who you are. Please bear that in mind as you consider your options.

2. You will always be able to create income as a lawyer, literally after passing the Bar, without the need of an employer. You cannot do that as a nurse. I laugh at this idea from painful experience. Do not assume that you can make money on your own with a law license. It is really, really hard to do this.

The anti-law school pile on is overly harsh. I assure you it is not. If anything it is pulling punches. If you are still considering law school, read this book: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1480163686/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/. Fundamentally, there are four categories of people for whom law school makes some kind of sense: (1) People who get into Harvard, Yale, and Stanford. Those three schools are still placing pretty much all of their students. Literally everyone else is starting to struggle or are struggling. (2) People who get full scholarships to good schools. Outside of HYS, taking on debt to go to law school is a terrible idea unless you fall into the next category. (3) People who are guaranteed a job (that can pay off their law school debt) through family connections or the like. (4) People who are wealthy enough that they can pay cash without batting an eye. http://insidethelawschoolscam.blogspot.com/2011/09/bad-reasons-for-going-to-law-school.html. And http://insidethelawschoolscam.blogspot.com/2012/12/applications-to-law-school-are.html.

The following is anecdata, and should be taken as such. As with all anecdata, YMMV. I am a lawyer in a six-month old solo practice. By gatorae's assessment above, I am probably the stupidest person on earth. I did not go to a T14 school. I started law school when I was 40. I took out a lot of loans. And I graduated in the class of 2011, whose graduates show the worst employment numbers in 15 years. Why did I do this? Because, like you, I had a calling. I wanted to help people, particularly people who couldn't afford traditional legal services, and I wanted to think for a living. I also had a near-20-year employment history in low-paying administrative sales work, and was just plain burned out on working with people who assumed that I was still an admin because I was too dumb to do anything else, or to be promoted. So I went to law school, graduated, passed the bar, and discovered -- rapidly -- that the jobs I wanted weren't available, and the jobs I could find made me want to run screaming from the room. Ultimately I chose to go solo. It's very, very satisfying, but it's also very, very tough, in the way that all startup businesses that aren't funded by big VC bucks are tough. I have to hustle for new business while still providing professional and dedicated service to my current clients. Some months are flush, but most of them are lean, and probably will be lean for at least the next two years. I am in a constant state of adaption and reevaluation, learning what I need to do and what I can't afford to do. If all of the above sounds stressful, it is. But I live with the stress, and with the marketing and shmoozing craziness, and with the keeping of my own books, because I love being a lawyer. I love advocating for my clients. I particularly love the challenge of working in an adversarial system without being an asshole. It can be done! But I'm not making a whole lot of money doing it, and I might never make a whole lot of money doing it. Bottom line: If the scenario I've described horrifies you, then law school is not for you. If it doesn't, then law school might be for you.

Is going to law school an absolutely dumb idea at this point? Yes. Just Google "law school" and "job market." You will find your answer there.

feels like my calling You answered your own question right there. I was a lawyer. It was not my calling. Now I am a teacher, and much happier. But I know a hell of a lot of lawyers -- including my wife -- who love what they do and don't regret their decision for a minute. And I don't regret law school or my brief legal career, either. Anyway, my point is, you're going to get a lot of answers from people who say they know lawyers who are unhappy. Just remember that those lawyers are not you.