I need some career advice...

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/31/education/law-schools-applications-fall-as-costs-rise-and-jobs-are-cut.html http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0465058779/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/ http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1480163686/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/ http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/17/business/law-school-economics-job-market-weakens-tuition-rises.htmlhttp://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0226923614/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/. The only people who should go to law school, in the current legal economy, are those who: (a) Really want to be lawyers; (b) Know what it means to be a lawyer; and (c) Can get into: (i) Harvard, Yale, or Stanford; (ii) Columbia, Chicago, or NYU with significant scholarship funding; or (iii) any of the other T-14 schools (Michigan, Berkeley, Duke, Cornell, Georgetown, Northwestern, Penn or UVA) with a full-ride. Going to law school other than under the conditions described above will saddle you with over $200,000 of non-dischargeable debt and no ability to pay it back. You will be screwed for life. In your case, you flunk (a) and (b). Generally most people who would satisfy (c) are people who know the difference between "peaked" and "piqued." (I'm deliberately being an asshole by pointing this out, but that's exactly the kind of nitpicking you can expect for your entire legal career).

Nthing-- get into the workforce for a year or two, and you can think about grad school after that. Key flags from your question: you're thinking about this choice in terms of "passions" and "interests"-- which basically boil down to your intellectual and emotional attraction to various fields. This is completely reasonable, since you're a recent undergrad who's spent the last four years relating to things in terms of purely theoretical undergrad coursework. Here's the thing, though: having a career in something is not like taking a course in it. The day-to-day work of law is nothing like the experience of learning about law or poli.sci. in your courses. Not speaking from experience, but I'm guessing the day-to-day experience of living as a working graphic artist is also very different from the experience of taking some art classes while fully supported in grad or undergrad school. Your decision to enter either one of these fields will have a hundred HUGE important consequences for your future quality of life, in terms of the kind (and amount) of work you do day-to-day, the shape of your workflow, how much you make (and therefore, what clothing you wear, how much you travel, what you eat, what you do or don't do for fun), who your colleagues and friends are, where you need to live, what options you have for relationships and children, what parts of your personality you cultivate and which parts you quash, the ongoing state of your mental health, etc., etc. Your academic experience to date gives you little or no insight into any of these considerations, and yet I guarantee you there will be many points in the future when one or more of these practical factors rises up to completely dwarf the impact of any initial abstract "passion" or "interest" you had in the field. At this point, you need to figure out what you want from your day-to-day working life, and a couple more years of coursework will not get you any closer to insight on that subject. Get a lowly job in one or the other field, and see how you like your life-- and how you like your colleagues' lives. Then, if you want, get a different job in some other field and see how you like your life there. Plenty of time to worry about the credentialling process once you've decided where you want to emerge on the other end.

I think the best thing for a confused grad to do is get out there in the work force. Apply for jobs that look interesting (does your college have a job/career office? be sure to use their resources), take one that feels like it might be a good fit, go from there. I would not suggest going to graduate school until you have a firmer grasp on what you might want to study; time spent working can help you narrow your focus.

The best career advice I have ever heard is three fold. Do something that you enjoy, that you are good at, and that you can make money doing. People (parents included) tend to ignore that third part. BUT, the third part is really important because once you fly the nest, things that you are going to want are going to cost more money than you would imagine. Not just the perks, but things like food, health insurance, transportation, and utilities. Both grad school and law school are expensive and usually do not provide substantial financial aid. As mentioned above, the market is also fully saturated with young lawyers. The last thing you want in this economy is to be entering a crummy job market with 60,000 more dollars of debt than you had after leaving undergrad. Reason being: it is super tough for young people to get jobs right now and I'll bet that as much as you love learning about your passion, you probably like not starving more. Nthing the people above who have suggested trying to get a job before continuing your education. This will hopefully allow you to move out (if you haven't already) and get a feel for how much it is going to cost to support yourself.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1480163686/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/. There are relatively few people for whom attending law school makes economic and personal sense. Based only on what you've written above, you are unlikely to be one of them. Read that book. Read more about the ongoing, worsening crisis in legal education and the legal job market. Make an educated decision based on what's best for you and your future.

If you don't have a BFA and a killer portfolio, I think that it's a little late in the game to decide you want a career as an artist. You could take some classes, but your competition will have had 4 years of doing nothing but art, and there aren't all that many jobs to begin with. My kid just graduated from a highly ranked art school, and every single person in her program has a reel or portfolio that are astonishing--and they have the connections and networks to get their collective footsies in the doors. Your passion is trumped by their actions. Just get a job. Your first gigs are all about learning how to go to work. I'm sorry if I sound harsh, but your intellectual interests aren't really as useful to an employer as your ability to be on time, follow directions, pay attention to details and work well with your colleagues. Seriously, don't dither around worrying about where the magic twinkling paths will lead--just get out there and get going. Your choice today can and will be a million miles away from where you end up in the future.

Don't go to law school. Anything but law school, in fact. As for graphic design school, take a very, very close look at the job market. Let's say I had to do it all over again, standing in my early twenties with a liberal arts degree. I'd get my ass right back to college for a BS or BA in a science of any kind, or find any masters program that would take me with a liberal arts BA. I sure wouldn't have gone to law school knowing what I know now.

I think you're looking for affirmation and it ain't gonna happen here. Seriously. What do you want to do, OP? And by the way, you shouldn't take on more debt to get a PhD. Really and truly - if you only get into an MA program, that is the universe's way of telling you not to go into academia. Especially in the humanities. Hard sciences, an MA might be worth it or necessary, but not for what you want to do. If you want to work in politics, get an MA on Poli Sci. That's what my (incredibly smart and hardworking) friend did. Most of his classmates were getting PhD's, though, and he felt really overlooked by his department heads and advisors. He started working in politics before going back to school, though, so he knew what he was getting into and that he'd use the degree. It sort of sounds like you have a lot of interests you haven't pursued much. And you know what? That's cool. I have an active mind. I like to do a lot of different things. But I haven't touched my guitar or my camera in a few months because I'm hustling for paid writing gigs and mostly unpaid acting gigs and various other boring gigs and there are only so many hours in each day. But there's a difference between having a curious mind and just sort of having a lot of vague ideas about cool jobs you would like to have. Do your homework. Get out into the world. Figure shit out. No matter what you start out with, I can pretty much guarantee that you'll end up doing something else. Something that suits you. That is the beauty of it. We can't tell you what to do.

Find a job. When you're working, you'll have less time for your passions, true. But that can actually help you clarify which of your passions you're most passionate about. Grad school/law school will be there next year, and the year after that, and the year after that.