Carey's Playground

Law School

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February 26, 2008:

One thing I forgot to mention in my month recap was that I've been applying to the part-time law school programs in Houston.  There are two: the University of Houston Law Center and South Texas College of Law.  There is a third law school, the Thurgood Marshall College of Law, but they don't have a part time program and they only have like a 65% BAR passage rate (compared to 86% state-wide).

Just today the Law School Data Assembly Service (LSDAS) got my last letters of recommendation.  It's now official, I'm completely applied.  Nothing left to do but wait.

I may be fully applied, but I'm not fully committed yet.  I've really been struggling over whether this is what I really want to do.  Since I'm going part-time, it will basically be like holding down two jobs for 4 years.  While I'm sure I can do it and that I am sure I will enjoy the work, I'm not sure it's worth it, in terms of a time-cost analysis.

I've heard that you have to spend 3 hours of studying per hour of class in order to get an A, and it's very important to get all As your first year.  I will be taking between 6 and 10 hours a semester.  That translates to 24 to 40 hours of class and study every week.  So that's 3 hours every weeknight and between 9 and 25 hours on the weekend.  The part-time program has class all summer, so assuming I'll have 40 weeks of class per year total, I will have spent 3,840 and 6,400 hours of my life getting my law degree.

The estimated cost per year (tuition+fees only) for the part time program is approximately $15k for University of Houston and $20k for South Texas College of Law.  The county may reimburse up to half of that, but it isn't guaranteed.  So for the sake of argument, I'll assume I'm paying the whole thing.  We're looking at between $60k and $80k to complete the program, or between $1,250 and $1,666 a month.

There were three main reasons I wanted to go to law school, so I have to weigh the time-cost of it it against these:

  1. It will be easier (on both of us) and cheaper when we have kids if Pam didn't have to work.  It will be cheaper because I'll be making as much as both of us are now combined (hopefully!), but we won't have expenses like childcare.
  2. I will enjoy my job more because I will be doing more reasoning and writing, which also makes the day go by faster.
  3. I will get paid more.  The average UHLC grad makes about $80,000 a year.  The average new assistant county attorney makes between $40-$55k (from what I'm told), but I'd have to pay $0 for benefits and only has to work 9-5.  But this figure still conflicts with #1.  The $80k figure was put out by UHLC itself, so I don't know how reliable that figure is either.
I guess the bottom line is: if I do this, I will have an easier rest of my life.  If I stay where I am, I will have an easier time presently, but things will be a little more difficult as I get older.  Since I'm a procrastinator by nature, it's a tough decision for me.  My brain says it's the smart thing to do, but my nature just says 'meh.'

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Comments

Carey on February 26, 2008 at 07:28AM PST:

My dad just mentioned to me that should I add up how much extra money I'll be making over the course of my career, it will come out to about $1.5 million.

Carey on February 29, 2008 at 11:03AM PST:

I'm wondering if I should of written this blog entry in case law school admissions people see that I'm not fully committed. If they happen to read this, just know that I like to complain in private, but I will be going to U of H if accepted. I wouldn't of applied otherwise.

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2008-05-28 - May Update
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2008-03-01 - Texas Independence Day 5k Run
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2008-02-26 - Law School
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2008-01-08 - Road trip to Florida

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