Time has revealed to the masses, that in order to be successful, you need to be educated. College has become a main priority for newly graduated students, and for many adults that never had the opportunity to attend school after graduating from high school. Knowing what the benefits are of going to one school over the next is important.
One career that offers a wide array of promises is law. Choosing to study law is a big decision to make. Law school is relatively time-consuming and expensive. However, the skills that you can obtain from pursuing this realm of study can be used in a plethora of careers. Coincidentally, most people that choose to go to law school do so, so that they can eventually practice law. But, one thing that many people neglect to realize is that the skills that an individual can learn from studying in this caliber can also be used to benefit other types of careers.
With everything that you will do in your adult life, it is important to weigh the pros and cons of your decision. While, there are many benefits that go along with choosing to attend law school, there are also a few drawbacks as well. Determining if the benefits take precedence over the drawbacks is going to be a decision that you will need to be able to make on your own.
Weighing The Pros And Cons of Attending Law School
Pro: Individuals that choose to go to law school will have the versatility to choose what type of career path that they would like to follow. Having a general understanding of law and the way that it works can be helpful in various types of careers. If you elect to use your law degree for other things, a part from practicing law, you can easily set yourself apart from the competitive labour markets.
Con: When applying for careers that do not require you to have a law degree, recruiters may gain their own opinions about you. Many recruiters will look at your credentials and assume that you chose to go to law school, because you were not certain about what you would like to do in your life, going forward. Typically, explaining to the recruiters that the reason that you made your choice to attend law school, was to gain valuable skills that could assist, in other career paths, is a great way to combat their questions, and to eliminate getting the “over qualified” rejection.
Pro: Attending law school will give you a broad set of skills that can benefit you in the future. Graduates from law schools, will have a thorough understanding of logical reasoning skills, legal practices, analysis, and critical thinking. The skills that are gained by going to a law school can be helpful in everyday life circumstances. Even if you choose not to use your law degree to help you pursue a career as a lawyer, the skills gained, can be used to benefit your everyday existence.
Con: Law degrees are accompanied by steep price tags. While the skills that you will gain from obtaining a law degree are invaluable, it is important that you determine if obtaining these skills is going to be worth the costs that are associated with earning this type of degree. There are various scholarship and aid programs that are available that can help to offset the high price of gaining an education, but not everyone who applies for aid is going to qualify.
Have Law Degrees Lost Their Value?
Before making the decision to attend university to help you attain a law degree, you need to mentally prepare yourself for the journey you are about to embark upon. It takes roughly seven years to graduate with a degree in law. During the time that you are attending university, you need to be able to focus your attention on school. Any outside distractions can detour you away from completing the task at hand.
This will leave you in debt, with no job to be able to help you eliminate the financial burden that you placed upon yourself. The degrees have not lost their value. The problem that many people have that choose to pursue these types of degrees, is they start going to school, with the best intentions. Then, life throws several curveballs their way, and instead of pushing those curveballs aside, and continuing on with their education, they stop.
Having a law degree is a coveted thing to own. It not only shows employers that you are well-educated, but it also shows that you are determined, and have the ability to do something for an elongated frame of time, without going astray. Law degrees are not given to everybody; it takes one special type of person to be able to finish with this type of qualification.