MIAC trying to force out St Thomas

[Vet70]

Or you could just start your own practice. Start by doing public work. This idea you have to be someones bitch is old thinking

That is not really the point. Start your own practice after you graduate from #20 Minnesota or UND which is ranked somewhere between 146-192. Who do you think is going to have the best connections to bring in higher paying clients?

[HerdBot]

That is not really the point. Start your own practice after you graduate from #20 Minnesota or UND which is ranked somewhere between 146-192. Who do you think is going to have the best connections to bring in higher paying clients?

I would give the edge to the new graduate who doenst have to pay back a full student loan and instead can invest the money into a business where you keep 100% of the revenue vs making someone else rich. You dont need high profile clients when you keep all the money

[ByeSonBusiness]

I would give the edge to the new graduate who doenst have to pay back a full student loan and instead can invest the money into a business where you keep 100% of the revenue vs making someone else rich. You dont need high profile clients when you keep all the money

I'm not a lawyer so I might be wrong..but I don't think that's how it generally goes.

It doesnt help that a bunch of students at some schools cant even pass the BAR.

[HerdBot]

I'm not a lawyer so I might be wrong..but I don't think that's how it generally goes.

It doesnt help that a bunch of students at some schools cant even pass the BAR.

Anyone can start their own law firm if you pass the bar and are an attorney. All you need is an office, a computer, and some good marketing and business skills. I'm sure a Minnesota grad will get a slightly better education but it's not the main indicator of success. Although working for someone will teach you how to run a business

[Vet70]

I would give the edge to the new graduate who doenst have to pay back a full student loan and instead can invest the money into a business where you keep 100% of the revenue vs making someone else rich. You dont need high profile clients when you keep all the money

Anyone can start their own law firm if you pass the bar and are an attorney. All you need is an office, a computer, and some good marketing and business skills. I'm sure a Minnesota grad will get a slightly better education but it's not the main indicator of success. Although working for someone will teach you how to run a business

You're wrong, but I only worked in this area for almost 30 years so what the hell do I know.

[HerdBot]

You're wrong, but I only worked in this area for almost 30 years so what the hell do I know.

So you weren't able to do your own thing? I have a much younger cousin who owns his own small firm. I think he worked for someone for a while and now hes way better off

[ByeSonBusiness]

So you weren't able to do your own thing? I have a much younger cousin who owns his own small firm. I think he worked for someone for a while and now hes way better off

So you mean he got an opportunity to network and learn from more experienced attorneys?

[Vet70]

So you weren't able to do your own thing? I have a much younger cousin who owns his own small firm

I never said I was a lawyer, only that I worked in this area for almost 30 years. I know the ends and outs of the legal profession and what goes into making lawyers successful. A graduate from Minnesota will get more than a "slightly better education" than a UND graduate and a better education is a major factor in overall success, loans or no loans. Take it or leave it.

[HerdBot]

So you mean he got an opportunity to network and learn from more experienced attorneys?

He took his first job with a small place for a few years to learn but he wasnt there long. He said he didn't get paid much as a newbie but he he paid attention to how they ran the place and now he is is killing it. He drove much of his business online. Now he has more business than he wants. Unfortunately he went to UND but started at NDSU.

[IndyBison]

I would give the edge to the new graduate who doenst have to pay back a full student loan and instead can invest the money into a business where you keep 100% of the revenue vs making someone else rich. You dont need high profile clients when you keep all the money

If your goal is to have a small practice of your own then you are absolutely correct. But if you have different ambitions then you need to have a different strategy. Just because someone goes to a top school doesn't mean they are given an easy pass. They still have to work to take advantage of the opportunity. If I'm willing to do that work regardless of where I go, I'm likely better off going to the better school that has more connection especially in the field I'm interested or in the market that helps me. There will be a cost benefit analysis though. If the significantly more advantageous is a lot more expensive, then it may not be worth it. If one is a free ride and the other will be $50k/year it will take a lot of advantages for me to overcome that $200k of debt/investment.

My son probably could have had some decent scholarships to mostly pay for his college, but there were two challenges. First, how do you know until you apply and get the results? You can't apply to 200 schools and see if there are any that will do that. You can apply to a bunch of likely ones, but until they make their merit decisions you don't know. And by then it's too late to go back and apply to others that would consider you for full ride scholarships. It would be nice if the academic programs went out and sought full rides and recruited them as such like sports programs do. Second, you may not have any interest in going to the the school willing to offer you that. My son worked hard especially the last 2 years because he wanted to go to a school known for high academics. He wasn't quite in the Ivy League level or even Stanford, Northwestern, Duke, but he's in the tier right below that. He ultimately did get 3 very good offers with 2 of them providing decent scholarship offers. But he's still looking at $22-$35k/year. He could go to the $22k school (Big 10) but it's not known for his area of interest. He could definitely make the most of it because it's an excellent school overall, but if he puts that same effort into the other two schools, he'll have many more opportunities opened up to him either from a work standpoint or grad school. Connections and reputation at both will be critical. But that first job or 2 or grad school will be a critical part of it. Even if he starts $10-$15k higher because of the school he chooses that's a big head start because you will only grow from that.

There are many paths to success here and they don't all involve a 4-year degree. Each person needs to choose their path and make the most of it.