Is it smart to go to law school if you are facing $50k+ in debt from an undergraduate degree?

It's a bad idea if you plan to incur more debt. I'm all for following your dreams and getting an excellent education. Getting out of debt and staying out of debt are more important, though. I encourage you to put your undergrad degree to work, pay off that $50k and work your way through law school in cash. You'll have significantly less risk and stress on the back end by doing it that way and you won't be trapped into a way of life where you work just to pay off your student loans.  You'll have financial freedom.

In more normal times, it would be a good idea if you had strong interest in learning the law and being a lawyer.  But because of the way  a number of factors have coincided over the last few years, now is a terrible time to go to law school.  Law schools and students are in a genuine crisis because of the lack of legal jobs.  Going to law school is a bad decision absent a credible, specific strategy that somehow excepts you from the general trend – such as the idea suggested by Alex Cohen, above, for people with degrees in STEM fields.  http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/median_starting_pay_for_associates_is_no_longer_in_the_six_figures_figure_d/

It depends. Why do you want to be a lawyer?  How badly do you want it? If you want to be a lawyer to make money, I'd say the debt burden is too steep.  Law school can easily cost over $120,000 if you factor in books, living expenses and tuition.  Further, the legal job market is tough.  Many new grads are not making salaries high enough to aggressively pay down their debt. If you want to be a lawyer, because of another reason and you want it badly.  Go for it! Asking questions is the right thing to do right now.  You should know what you are getting into before making such a huge investment.

If the law school is Harvard, go for it. Otherwise the odds are that you will join the long list of unemployed/underemployed lawyers in the US. If your degree is in a STEM field. Go to law school in the DC area; work for the Patent Office and forget line2 of this answer.

If going to law school will defer your student loan payments, I say go for it.  Just be smart about your money when you become a lawyer and make paying off the debt a priority.

The lawyer's answer: “It depends” You mention you have the grades to get in, however with the prevalence of law schools throughout the country it is not difficult to get in to a law school if your standards are not high.  Unlike medical school there are any number of schools that are willing to take your money and let you in no matter what your grades are.  That being said, if your grades are high enough you may be able to get into a reputable public school or may qualify for a scholarship.  If you are interested in pursuing a career in law it may be worth it to study for the LSAT, apply, and see what your options are before putting your dream on the back burner.

Yes, it's a good idea.  You want to get all of your education as early in life as possible, because education increases earnings.   The younger you complete your education, the more years you'll have of higher earnings and the fewer years you'll have of low earnings. The advantage of debt is that you don't have to pay it all back right away.  You can stretch out federal student loans over 25 years. The value of a law degree in increased earnings typically exceeds the costs by a wide margin, even after including financing costs, especially if you go relatively early in life.  Read http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2250585 http://leiterlawschool.typepad.com/leiter/guest-blogger-michael-simkovic/ Law Students also have much lower student loan default rates than average, so you'll be facing less risk than with just a bachelor's.

There was an article in the NY Times recently about how there are fewer and fewer jobs for lawyers in the U.S., making it very difficult for recent law graduates to pay back their loans. I would read that well-researched article before deciding on taking loans to go to law school.  It also shows how law schools have misled students about the prospects for jobs upon graduation. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/business/09law.html