Privileged Poverty
Law School, Poverty, Compassion
Lawyers — an allegedly intelligent group of individuals. To get admitted into the lowest-ranked law schools, an individual must score better than 50% of the college graduates who take the LSAT exam. To get accepted into the top 50% of law schools, an individual must score above 70% of college graduates taking the LSAT.
However, prospective lawyers make a tremendous financial sacrifice to earn their JD only to find that their annual salary will be one-half to one-third of the debt they accumulated to get their JD. Perhaps not the wisest investment. Perhaps we’re not as intelligent as the LSAT leads us to believe.
But prospective lawyers are often idealistic to a fault. In my case, I faced injustice in the legal system, where I was punished in family courts for the crimes of another. I chose to sacrifice a high-paying career to make a difference that I might not be able to make.
Do I regret my decision? No, but I do sometimes feel guilt and fear as my credit score dropped from the mid-700s to the mid-500s, and my debt piled up as I’ve used credit cards to pay for living expenses.
However, my financial situation gives me a new perspective that I hope will one day make me a more empathetic lawyer.
