TOW #7- Non-Fiction: The Law School Debt Crisis

Maxwell Holyoke-Hirsch

In this day in age, money revolves around the world and the world revolves around money. As high schoolers flood into college searching for a prominent career opportunity, many are disappointed to find that the jobs they put so much time into pursuing, in an attempt to either help the world or fill their pockets, are actually putting them deep into debt. Among these careers, the one draining students of their time and money the most is law. In a recent editorial issued by The New York Times, an American daily newspaper with the second highest circulation overall in the United States, the company's editorial board looked into universities and the true cost of students pursuing law. The board speaks predominantly to anyone interested in the pursuit of law in an attempt to unveil the major flaw in U.S. university preparation of students for careers in law through the use of statistics and demonizing diction to prove this ongoing problem striking America. The board is able to successfully achieve their purpose by sticking to the facts. The editorial explains that though students apply for loans covering their full tuition, this application is made with the confidence that the school they are applying to will give them the tools they need to pass their LSAT and go onto a career in law. The problem is that most of these students end up not passing these tests and as of "..2012, the average law graduates debt was $140,000". Students are now unable to pay off their loans, unable to pass the bar exam and most "..students are leaving law school with a degree they can’t use..." These statistics help guide the reader into understanding the rut many students studying to be lawyers face, it helps the message become clear, concise and easily a major problem. As the editorial describes these universities draining student of thousands, they create a menacing villain for what are American universities involved in this. The board claims this application to college and failure receive career in the end is a scam run by the universities, even claiming that many schools "...have been vacuuming up hordes of young people, charging them outrageously high tuition and, after many of the students fail to become lawyers, sticking taxpayers with the tab for their loan defaults." Describing the colleges in this way evokes a certain degree of caution, fear and anger in the reader as it makes them feel like these schools are essentially tricking students into over paying for nothing. This editorial was successful in its attempt to show the reader the horrors behind the current law school system and how to help end it. It not only helps rally the readers concerned, but it also states the horrifying truth existing right beneath American noses costing them a fortune.