http://hls.harvard.edu/dept/sfs/financial-aid-policy-overview/student-financial-aid-budget/
Tuition: As one would expect, the cost of admi$$ion is nothing short of outrageous. Specifically, full-time law students at Harvard Univer$ity will face a tuition bill of $61,650– for the 2017-2018 academic year. How egalitarian, huh? Essentially, this is a bold sign that says “Those of modest means need not apply.” If this price tag does not cause you to faint, then you clearly come from established wealth. Congratulations for “choosing” to come to the correct family.
Total Estimated Cost of Attendance: This same document lists the total budget – for one damn year – as $92,200. Who doesn’t have that amount of money laying around in their couch cushions? This is under the Nine Month Standard Student Budget. That means that all non-direct costs add up to $30,550. The line item for room/board/personal allowance alone tales up $23,158 of that figure.
A total of $1,575 is set aside for a travel allowance. That seems to be ridiculously low. I suppose that the eggheads at Harvard think that no one will incur auto repairs or vehicle maintenance costs at any point during the year. In the real world, many students will still have payments remaining on their car loans. Then again, perhaps these “educators” feel that everyone will travel by public transportation.
Seeing that actual law students will accumulate expenses over the full year – and not just when they are in class – we will prorate the following items: room, board, personal costs, and travel allowance. Doing so, we reach the following, more accurate total COA of $100,444. Again, this is for a single year, of a program that takes six semesters to complete.
https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-law-schools/law-rankings
Ranking: Since Harvard is often mocked for its perceived status as the ideal setting for ultra-wealthy students, one would expect HL$ to be among the best in$titution$ of “higher education” on earth. Well, it is rated as the 3rd greatest, most spectacular, and illustrious law school in the whole nation, by US “News” & World Report. While its gigantic first year class sizes have moved it out of the first or second slot, it does retain possession of 3rd place. Enjoy the bronze medal.
http://hls.harvard.edu/dept/ocs/recent-employment-data/
Employment Placement Data: Let’s review the school’s Class of 2016 Employment Report at 10 Months After Graduation. As you can see, there were 598 members of this big-ass graduating class. Of that amount, a total of 585 obtained full-time jobs within ten months of earning their law degrees. That is an effective placement rate of 98.3%, which is pretty remarkable, right? And only three of those were short-term gigs.
Well, take a closer look for a moment. Fully 25 of those positions – including the three short-term employees – were funded by the univer$ity or law school. Without those jobs included, the placement rate would have been 93.6 percent! That is a significant difference, and it speaks volumes that the third best law school in the country had to resort to these measures. But I’m sure the “scholars” did not do so, in order to artificially bolster their statistics. It must just be one of those coincidences that just happens to benefit the ABA-accredited in$titution of “higher learning.”
Scroll down to the next section, Employment Type. A total of 349 grads from this cohort reported working in private law firms – within 10 months of receiving their JDs. The bulk of these posts were in Biglaw – with 41 in offices of 251-500 lawyers and another 287 landing jobs in firms of more than 500 attorneys. These positions are the reason why most HL$ students enrolled there.
Furthermore, 137 members of this class were working in judicial clerkships. In fact, 122 of these men and women were in federal clerk positions. This means that a large portion of this cohort postponed Biglaw by a year. Another seven landed jobs in academia, however two of those were short-term. These are referred to as the law school winners. Now compare these outcomes to those facing graduates of your TTT alma maTTTer. Still liking your decision, Stupid?
https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-law-schools/grad-debt-rankings
Average Law Student Indebtedness:USN&WR lists the average law student indebtedness - for those members of the Harvard Law Class of 2016 who incurred debt for law school - as $153,172. In fact, 77% of this school’s 2016 graduating cohort took on such toxic debt. Remember, this amount does not include debt from undergrad, and it also doesn’t take accrued interest into consideration, while you are enrolled in school. Enoy seeing how quickly $165K becomes $189K, when you are not making any student loan payments.
Here is some excellent news: while Harvard Law $chool is ranked 3rd best in terms of overall quality, it only has the 18st highest amount of average law student debt. And we all know that means this constitutes a fantastic bargain for the student! Hell, that could qualify as a “windfall” to the pupils. Of course, the 23 percent of the class that did not incur a dime of student debt for a Harvard law degree could care less. By the way, have fun competing with these rich young men and women for the best legal jobs available to recent graduates. Their connected father – or federal magistrate uncle – can further secure their future with a few phone calls.
Conclusion: Harvard Law $chool costs a king’s ransom to attend, and that is for those who are smart enough to gain entry. But at least the name carries serious weight with pretty much every employer in a professional field. If you no longer want to practice law – or you get tossed from Biglaw in 3-5 years – then you can do something else for a living. In three years, you should be able to make at least a few decent connections with rich classmates. Whereas low-ranked toilets claim that a law degree is “versatile,” one from Harvard should actually open other doors for you. This is still a huge investment, and there are no guarantees.