Open letter to BC Law School's dean to leave and get a refund

I have sympathy for this guy but look nobody promised you a job when you took on those loans. It is basic risk reward. You took on a lot of loans to get a law degree because lawyers get paid well. You took on risk and it did not work out. Happens. Often too entrepreneurs.

Maybe he should get a refund. Because if part of a law school education is being able to construct a convincing argument based on the evidence you present, then I think he has been shortchanged.

I can't see how he expected this would be accepted. I do sympathize with his situation but until someone invents a memory erasing machine to remove his accrued knowledge, a 'time refund' for all people who invested in his being there, and a method to magically transfer everything to the other person who would have paid to sit in that seat for the last few years, you just can't turn back time.<p>He would still walk away with knowledge, degree or not, and the school is out the time and effort to have imparted that knowledge. It's like asking for a refund if you don't achieve the degree. "I failed, I didn't get the degree, so can I be refunded?"

When I thought about law school two years ago. I spoke to many lawyers and law students. They all told me the same thing.<p>1) Do not get into law right now. It is experiencing an outsourcing much like tech did in the early 2000s.<p>2) ONLY, and seriously ONLY, go if you truly love to study law. You will NOT find a job, and most likely you will have to do crap work for awhile.<p>What made me decide to hold off law school was the fact that I would accumulate too much debt and not be able to pay it off in a timely matter.<p>A LOT of law students that I spoke to had his grandiose dream and vision of a top job making hundreds of thousands.<p>One friend told me up front, he chose not to listen, he thought that everyone was just being pessimistic telling him not to get into law, he like most young students, didnt realize how bad it was, no matter how many warnings they got.

I'm not sure about the loans you get to go to law school, or the loans he got, but I was under the impression that student loans are something that you can't get out of if you declare bankruptcy, just like alimony or something like that. Asking for a refund is the only way out. Though I disagree with the idea that a refund is fair. Schools aren't exactly flush with cash to be handing back to students who leave or fail out...nor should they be. It's just another reason to finish a degree to make yourself THAT much more marketable.<p>I fail to see how sticking it out and finishing something like a JD is somehow worse in the long run (financially) than leaving with somewhere around 100k (I assume) that you will have to pay back to creditors with interest.

This was pretty heavily reported (editorialized, in the Business sections non the less) in this past Sunday NYTimes, enough that I blogged it. . .<p>NYTimes links<p>Is Law School a Losing Game?: <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/business/09law.html?_r=1" rel="nofollow">http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/business/09law.html?_r=1</a><p>I Want My Money Back (On Everything): <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/business/09law.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/business/09law.html</a><p>My thoughts: <a href="http://jaynesyourway.blogspot.com/2011/01/hear-one-about-lawyer.html" rel="nofollow">http://jaynesyourway.blogspot.com/2011/01/hear-one-about-law...</a>

The proposed "trade" is so mind-numbingly unbalanced that I am fully convinced this is just a joke and commentary on the job market for law students.

Salaries for Law School graduates are bimodal. Most people will over-estimate the rewards:<p><a href="http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/legal_profession/2009/06/the-end-of-an-era-the-bi-modal-distribution-for-the-class-of-2008.html" rel="nofollow">http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/legal_profession/2009/06/th...</a>

Aren't you paying for your professor's time? It's like saying, "thanks for making that website for me, but I don't think I'm going to make any money, so I want my money back". Uh, too bad.<p>Just default on the loans and move to a deserted island if you don't want to pay them.

just wait for that bubble to pop if this transitions from merely disgruntled graduates to defaulting higher education graduates en masse. If you think it's an unfair risk that you might not get a job _just_ because you have a J.D. wait till it gets bad enough for the loan lenders recalculate their risks. They'll tighten the belt on student loans across the board making them far less accessible.

The guy could still go pass the bar and practice law. So maybe he shouldn't get a full refund... that education is worth something.

BC != BU.

I like how he says "at the end of this semester", why not immediately?