

Open letter to BC Law School's dean to leave and get a refund - anirudh
http://eagleionline.com/2010/10/15/open-letter-to-interim-dean-brown/

======
jayzee
I have sympathy for this guy but look nobody promised you a job when you took
on those loans. It is basic risk reward. You took on a lot of loans to get a
law degree because lawyers get paid well. You took on risk and it did not work
out. Happens. Often too entrepreneurs.

~~~
jerf
People who take on risk for reward are still entitled to be upset at people
who have lied to them about the nature of the risk and reward. There's a
difference between taking on risk in an informed manner and getting conned
into taking the risk.

On occasion I think HN goes overboard on the reward side of entrepreneurship
too, and that's not right when that happens either. Tell the truth, let people
make up their minds. (And to be clear, I mean it just happens _sometimes_. On
the whole there's too many people doing it for real for raw cheerleading to go
unchallenged for long.)

People have been getting led on about the value of their degree for a while
now. The economic situation is bringing things to a head but it's not new.

Also, I doubt this is a serious call for a refund, in the sense that he has
even the remote expectation of one. This is a warning to others dressed up
with a rhetorical flourish.

------
gcheong
Maybe he should get a refund. Because if part of a law school education is
being able to construct a convincing argument based on the evidence you
present, then I think he has been shortchanged.

~~~
Dilpil
Of course maybe that realization was his ingenious motivation for writing the
letter. Which means he did learn to make a convincing arguement, in which case
he does not deserve his money back, and it was a dumb arguement to begin with.
Which means...

------
51Cards
I can't see how he expected this would be accepted. I do sympathize with his
situation but until someone invents a memory erasing machine to remove his
accrued knowledge, a 'time refund' for all people who invested in his being
there, and a method to magically transfer everything to the other person who
would have paid to sit in that seat for the last few years, you just can't
turn back time.

He would still walk away with knowledge, degree or not, and the school is out
the time and effort to have imparted that knowledge. It's like asking for a
refund if you don't achieve the degree. "I failed, I didn't get the degree, so
can I be refunded?"

------
radioactive21
When I thought about law school two years ago. I spoke to many lawyers and law
students. They all told me the same thing.

1) Do not get into law right now. It is experiencing an outsourcing much like
tech did in the early 2000s.

2) ONLY, and seriously ONLY, go if you truly love to study law. You will NOT
find a job, and most likely you will have to do crap work for awhile.

What made me decide to hold off law school was the fact that I would
accumulate too much debt and not be able to pay it off in a timely matter.

A LOT of law students that I spoke to had his grandiose dream and vision of a
top job making hundreds of thousands.

One friend told me up front, he chose not to listen, he thought that everyone
was just being pessimistic telling him not to get into law, he like most young
students, didnt realize how bad it was, no matter how many warnings they got.

------
grav1tas
I'm not sure about the loans you get to go to law school, or the loans he got,
but I was under the impression that student loans are something that you can't
get out of if you declare bankruptcy, just like alimony or something like
that. Asking for a refund is the only way out. Though I disagree with the idea
that a refund is fair. Schools aren't exactly flush with cash to be handing
back to students who leave or fail out...nor should they be. It's just another
reason to finish a degree to make yourself THAT much more marketable.

I fail to see how sticking it out and finishing something like a JD is somehow
worse in the long run (financially) than leaving with somewhere around 100k (I
assume) that you will have to pay back to creditors with interest.

~~~
sharms
The whole reason for the open letter is for a refund so he can immediately pay
off those debts

------
topherjaynes
This was pretty heavily reported (editorialized, in the Business sections non
the less) in this past Sunday NYTimes, enough that I blogged it. . .

NYTimes links

Is Law School a Losing Game?:
<http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/business/09law.html?_r=1>

I Want My Money Back (On Everything):
<http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/business/09law.html>

My thoughts: [http://jaynesyourway.blogspot.com/2011/01/hear-one-about-
law...](http://jaynesyourway.blogspot.com/2011/01/hear-one-about-lawyer.html)

------
LiveTheDream
The proposed "trade" is so mind-numbingly unbalanced that I am fully convinced
this is just a joke and commentary on the job market for law students.

------
brudgers
Salaries for Law School graduates are bimodal. Most people will over-estimate
the rewards:

[http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/legal_profession/2009/06/th...](http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/legal_profession/2009/06/the-
end-of-an-era-the-bi-modal-distribution-for-the-class-of-2008.html)

------
jrockway
Aren't you paying for your professor's time? It's like saying, "thanks for
making that website for me, but I don't think I'm going to make any money, so
I want my money back". Uh, too bad.

Just default on the loans and move to a deserted island if you don't want to
pay them.

------
Pyrodogg
just wait for that bubble to pop if this transitions from merely disgruntled
graduates to defaulting higher education graduates en masse. If you think it's
an unfair risk that you might not get a job _just_ because you have a J.D.
wait till it gets bad enough for the loan lenders recalculate their risks.
They'll tighten the belt on student loans across the board making them far
less accessible.

------
andrewljohnson
The guy could still go pass the bar and practice law. So maybe he shouldn't
get a full refund... that education is worth something.

------
psawaya
BC != BU.

~~~
lanstein
No kidding. I went to BU and taught at BC, and I'll be goddammed if I know who
to root for in hockey.

~~~
rradu
The 2010 national champions, of course!

------
lotusleaf1987
I like how he says "at the end of this semester", why not immediately?

