Getting Paid To Attend Law School

[Lucky]

Once in a world far, far away, and in a time that seems so remote as to have never been, I went to law school. It was hard work, but I graduated without getting a dime in aid. How did I do it? I worked full-time while I went to school. Lucky for me I had a job that allowed me time to study.

Nowadays I see that law schools are begging for students. A few years ago, a former law school dean told me that law schools were seeing a rush of students because when people graduated from college, they couldn't find jobs, so they went to law school. But now law school graduates cannot find jobs and the law schools are fighting for students.

Fighting so hard that they are paying students to attend their schools. And I am not talking about the small schools. Big universities are offering to be competitive with other schools that might have accepted an applicant. Every student at the University of Illinois College of Law's class of 2014 received a scholarship.This cost the school $3.6 million.

That's paying kids to attend. The American Bar Association reports that scholarship dollars awarded to students has tripled in the last ten years. To be fair, tuition costs are also up, averaging $22,000 a year. I paid a hell of a lot less than that. But students are now in a position to bargain with schools. One student claimed to have been wait-listed at another school, so the original school accepting him doubled his scholarship offer.

While some schools are even extending deadlines to apply, others are trying to hold fast to the older traditions. They are either not offering scholarships, or are refusing to negotiate the offers. But, if I didn't already have a law degree, I might be tempted to get paid to go to law school. Or I could be a teacher, teaching students who didn't pay for their education and probably feel less invested in it.

An article in today's Wall Street Journal provided much of the information here: http://online.wsj.co...J_WSJ_US_News_6

[JKane]

Finding jobs, pshaw, are they even allowed to pass the bar when they graduate? I've been told the bar on "THE Bar" seems to capriciously move in California and with the current lack of demand it's nigh-impossible...?