Going back to school....?

In law and business, it can make ALL the difference. It is NOT just about the degree. Again, it is absolutely NOT just about the degree.

 

A friend of the family started at a community college, graduated from Geneva College in Beaver Falls and earned a master's from Robert Morris.

This is him before he left GE to run a European controls company. He started at GE by answering an ad in the classifieds.

http://people.forbes.com/profile/joseph-m-hogan/36148

Stay in shape, be willing to move and interview well he said are the keys to success in business.

 

OK, so you know an exception. There are always going to be exceptions. I'm sorry, but paying full price or near it to go to a low-ranked law or business school is an irresponsible risk. Again, 100 percent of the people going to a lower-ranked school think that they are going to be the exception. Almost every last one of them are wrong. Why not funnel all that piss and vinegar that everyone plans to have during their schooling into acing the GMAT or LSAT?

 

Don't know anything about the school, but if I was 22 years old again, that's exactly what I would do: Invest my time and education in online learnin'. Can't go wrong.

 

http://www.sportsjournalists.com/forum/threads/40941/

Not that it's totally practical, but there's some good information on this thread.

 

I'll have to agree with Waylon on this topic. After having spoken to Waylon about law school, and doing my own research, you'll be better off getting your law degree or MBA at a top-ranked school rather than obtaining either degree at your local community college just because it's cheaper. It's a low-risk, high reward deal. If you go to say a Michigan, Duke, Harvard, Stanford and obtain either degree there, you're going to rack up a lot of debt, but your chances of getting a $125,000 year job upon graduation is much better than if you got your degree at a small, low-ranked school.

 

Also, at those schools, it's worth mentioning that it's not really about "who you know," because they actually come to you in the form of on-campus interviewing. It's all about the GPA, which isn't a perfect system, either, but at least it's some sort of meritocracy.

 

I agree 100 percent with Waylon. There is probably no place where the name on your diploma means more toward getting your first job than law, except, perhaps, Fortune 500 businesses.

But that doesn't mean that people shouldn't consider other schools.

Going to one of those schools can be a recipe for the golden handcuffs. You rack up so much debt that you have to work for the kinds of law firms that chew up and spit out young attorneys while throwing hefty bags of money at them. Not everyone wants to work for the most preftigious law firm for $160,000 a year, to have no life and punch 80 hours a week into the time clock just to meet your billables.

Want to work in the interest of the public? Sorry. Want to work for a small firm in or near the small town you grew up in? Sorry.

For some people it makes sense to go to the lower ranked school that's offering a hefty scholarship, or that's near a good job for their significant other, etc., where they won't take out much debt. The scary thing is when people take out $100,000+ to get a degree from one of the lowest ranked schools and will have little to no chance of ever paying that back.

 

Frantic - That's definitely something I've touched on, the idea of scholarship money being available. I've tried to stress to people on here again and again to bust your ass on the GMAT or LSAT, because over the last few years, I've seen a steady stream of posts along the lines of, "It's no big deal, because I only want to go to School X."

Well, score 160-plus on that sucker, and School X may let you go for free or half-price. As I think I said on this thread or told someone in PM, when I applied to law schools, I was being offered outrageous scholarship money by schools that back in high school I was told were for "rich kids," etc., etc. My state school, a top 40 law school, offered me admission for like $7,000 a year. I don't think people grasp the irony when they claim they are going to go to a lower-ranked school and kill it, when they aren't even willing to put in the time and effort on LSAT prep which could go a long way in making a high-quality education very affordable. Of course, a big part of it is lack of knowledge. But I don't want to see any sports writers leave this profession without being completely unprepared for what comes next. Not if I can help it.

You may not make $160K a year, but you can leave with a good, solid degree and no or little debt beyond some living expenses, and a lot of freedom of choice. I chose to go for the best school I could get into, because I have a strong interest in teaching law some day, depending on how things fall, and you almost have to go to a top 10-caliber school to have a shot. In fact, if you don't go to Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Chicago or, to a lesser extent, Michigan, it's an uphill climb even with a high-caliber degree.

 

I talked to a business academic advisor at the local U today. Given my situation, she suggested I return for an associate's degree in biz administration to gain the fundamental concepts of the field or go for a Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Accounting (PBA). Most of my undergrad credits in the elective and gen ed areas transfer, so about all of my classes would be biz or accounting.

If I bust my ass this summer, I can get the associate's in two summer sessions. I'm seriously thinking about this....

 

I've been seriously thinking about going to grad school, but I'm not sure for what. I'm a casualty of the industry and haven't worked in two months, so I need to find a stable job before I can take action toward going to school. I definitely do not want anything to do with the newspaper business anymore.
It's tough trying to find another career to transition into. I get the feeling that I'm looked down upon because I covered sports.

 

I'm officially a community college student again. Majoring in network administration with an eye towards getting a bachelor's in Management Information Systems.