The high cost of higher education

Now I don't want to beat a dead horse but for those of you who have been following my blog for a while you might remember that I have mentioned (or bitterly dwelled on all the money I owe) that I went to law school.  Right now I am (very close to six figures) in student loan debt and working a job that pays $8.55 an hour so if you do the math you will see that my life is obviously right on track!   I will call my law school the Lautener School of Law (in an attempt to protect the innocent) but I will mention that the school has a campus in Delaware and a campus in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania so if you are curious you should be able to use superior detective skills to figure it out what school I'm talking about.  On my way out to work a few weeks ago I noticed the Lautener School of  Law magazine had arrived in the mail and the issue had a cover story called 'The Many Faces of a J.D"--the basic idea of the story was discussing the many different career options that are available to law school graduates and touting the idea that "a law degree is still worth it."--even if you decide not to be a practicing attorney.  First off--in an effort to be fair and objective--let me just say that the article made some interesting and valid points about the value of a legal education...but as I was walking out the door on my way to work, glancing down at my cashier uniform and dreading having to work another midnight shift I also couldn't help thinking that the article was incredibly one-sided and obviously self-serving.  Of course, the Lautener Law School magazine would want to convince (or assure) its readers that having a J.D would create new and exciting job opportunities.  It basically says to alumni, "Hey guys--even if you aren't working as a lawyer or even if you graduated and you haven't been able to find a job because the job market is flooded with lawyers aren't you glad you gave us all that money?"  And it says to potential students considering law school who are reading the article, "Hey guys--law school is totally worth it!  (even if you're not a lawyer when you're done).  The article was one-sided because it talked about the success stories of Lautener graduates who have never practiced law.  I think it's great that the people featured in this article have achieved such success and it's obvious they have worked really hard for everything they earned...but what the article doesn't talk about is that this path can be difficult and it makes no mention of the financial cost of law school (three years of law school can cost $100,000).  There's a whole class of graduates coming out of school (either college or graduate school) with student loan debt and if they can't find a job in their chosen profession that pays enough to support themselves that debt can be absolutely crippling!  What the hell are they/I supposed to do?  Also, as a read the article I had an incredible sense of way too little, way too late.  I graduated years ago and now you want offer me employment advice?  And now you are concerned about graduates getting job?  Because let me tell you--your Career Development office sure as hell didn't care while I was a student there!  As I was entering my second year of law school I actually went to the career services office.  I scheduled an appointment to meet with Karen, the Director of Career Development because I had been working to draft my first legal resume and was hoping to get feedback about the format and possibly some general advice about ways to improve the content.  When I asked her about my resume she glanced at it for literally a total of 2 seconds handed it right back to me and said, "Oh, it's fine."  That was it!  Wow!  Holy shit!  What a brilliant professional analysis!  Maybe she looked at the resume and thought it was hopeless or that I didn't have nearly enough experience.  And that's fine--just say something so that I can do something about it.  Well I wanted the meeting to be as productive as possible so at that point I thought it might be best to change topics.  I took a deep breath and mentioned that I also wanted to discuss the what types of resources might be best to use when you were looking for a job in the legal field.  I asked her where I might be able to start looking for legal jobs that I might be qualified for.  She said, (and I quote) "Oh well, I don't know.  I mean most law firms don't advertise in the paper."  What?  Seriously?  You get paid for this type of career guidance and advice?  At this point I was trying hard to maintain my composure and hold on to what was left of my patience because I was about to lose it.  I didn't expect this woman to find me a job but at least point me in the right direction...I mean that is what she was there for, isn't it?  So now when Lautener writes articles about its concern for finding students jobs after graduation it all seems very disingenuous to me. 

Of course I don't necessarily mean to single out law school or the legal profession--I just chose to talk about that because that's what I have personal experience with but it's a problem in higher education in general.  Higher education has become big business--a highly lucrative industry and it's done at the expense of the students who have all been told if you want to go be successful going to college is the thing to do.  Also I don't want to sound like a bitter and disgruntled Lautener Alum--whining, "Oh I can't find a job and it's all the schools fault."  There's still a part of me that believes my law school education was a valuable experience.  I just think the system of going into tremendous debt to pay for higher education for kids just starting out seems to be unethical.  Families and students all across the country are facing the consequences of student loan debt and if newly graduated students are unable to find a job after graduating that can seem insurmountable--right from the start these graduates are placed in a hole they can't dig out of.