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Comment by fnayr | Hacker News Reader

This is part of the reason why I decided not to apply for law school despite scoring well on the LSAT (176). I couldn't commit to working 80 hours a week at a big law firm to pay off 250K of debt unless I was sure I loved the work.

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With a 176 LSAT you probably would've gotten some rich scholarships barring unusual circumstances.

My 50% scholarship at a top 15 school (one of the cheaper ones too) still left me looking at a 40K per year bill with COL. You might be able to get a close to full ride if you are willing to go to a less prestigious school, but most aren't, since law is such a prestige obsessed world. It doesn't make much sense, given that there isn't really any difference in education quality or breadth between the schools. Law firms might as well just look at undergrad LSAT and GPA's, since that's about the extent of the filter "which law school you went to" applies.

It would save everyone a lot of money and cut out the middle man if all employers could just look at SAT scores and LSAT scores along with high school GPA. There would be no more need for academia as we now know it.

If high SAT scores meant that someone had learned the equivalent of a 4-year CS degree, sure, I'd be willing to consider them equivalent when hiring for a technical position. But high SAT scores just mean that you know basic, high-school-level arithmetic and reading comprehension, which is not quite the same thing.

It would be interesting to have some kind of exam showing equivalent knowledge, but I haven't seen attempts in that direction that aren't worse assessments than the degree/GPA. For example, as weird as law-school is, the bar exam is even weirder (deliberately so), and generally a terrible model to follow.

Some states allow legal apprentices (paralegals) to sit for the bar without going to law school, if their mentor approves.

At least in undergraduate programs there is variability in what is taught, the classes you take, the quality and type of instruction. There is almost none of that in law school.

Want to help me co-found a new college? We have one entrance requirement: you get a 2100 on the (3-part) SAT. That is also the graduation requirement.

If you don't mind me asking what were your stats? I suspect a 176 LSAT would've netted you a better-than-50% scholarship at the top 15s. Did you have a low GPA?

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