re: Life as a Lawyer Advice Needed

There are a lot of questions here, some explicit, some implicit.

1. As to the explicit question, as someone who took a full scholarship to LSU law, I've never regretted that decision for a second. The degree of financial freedom I had in my 20s and 30s was unparalleled compared to my peers who had significant loans from higher-ranked schools. This gave me a lot more opportunity to take the jobs I wanted, which is important because...

2. being a lawyer sucks. A lot of people hear this and put it down to whining or just shop talk but the objective numbers bear it out. It is a provably unpleasant profession as compared to its near-peer professions. And, although I have nothing to prove this part, I feel like this is more true of first-generation lawyers as opposed to people in the family business. I'm not going to rehash this discussion here but I would encourage you and your daughter to look into this. (Of course there are exceptions. Everyone thinks they'll be the exception, just like everyone thinks they'll draw a 6 sitting on 15.) Anyway, as a result,

3. A large number of law school grads don't end up practicing law, or do so for a very short period of time. I was *shocked* to arrive at my first LS reunion (5 years) and discover how many classmates were not actually attorneys, already. This was particularly true of the women but included several men as well. Law schools lie about this by the way. They spin it as showing how malleable law degrees can be, and how many options you'll have. That's not really what's going on.

4. LSU is provincial, but every law school is provincial. That being said hiring lawyers aren't idiots, and if you really do have top grades and law review from LSU (or almost any school) you'll be fine and your degree will be portable. The geographic limitations really weigh on people falling under the top ten percent.

5. I would often advise someone to paralegal or be a runner for a year. If you do that and still want to be a lawyer, Godspeed. I'm not sure that applies here as she has a full scholarship offer right now, and there's no guarantee that will carry over to next year. (Of course that cuts both ways, she could work a year or two, reapply, and end up getting better scholarship offers from UT or USC).

6. Why LSU? Why Louisiana? Has she ever even been to Baton Rouge? A scholarship is great but I'm not sure that, standing alone, is a sufficient reason for LSU.