Any hope?

[Newbadoob]

There definitely is not this distinction in the US. Your Step Scores play a large factor in gaining a good residency. That isn't to say you're not better off going to a 'good school' - just that it's still possible to go somewhere good for residency if you are a 'good' candidate. For the most part, an MD is an MD (maybe not Carib lol) and it's more about your skills as a doctor.

 

Law School is a whole different story. I remember seeing a graph of the starting salaries for the class of 2007. It was a bimodal distribution, one around 30k/yr and another around 130k or so. You do not need to worry about this in medicine.

 

In law, your salary will heavily depend on whether you graduate from a T4 or T14 school or not. In medicine, opthalmologists will make a lot of money matter where they went to school.

 

Awesome, my brother said the same thing. He just completed his medical school and is studying for the Steps exams. I had to verify some of the things he's told me because he tends to underemphasize the important and occasionally overemphasizes the unimportant. . THANK YOU though. This was my biggest worry. If this is the case, I'll go to any half decent school that will take me just so I can have a shot at the Steps.

 

 

What do you all know about the Caribbean? lol.

[Newbadoob]

You're right about the Law school name holding a lot of weight. It looks like someone was just talking out of their... ask them later.

 

Med school name in Canada hasn't nearly the same weight. Even in the States, where you go for your medical undergrad doesn't amount to too much except for possible connections through staff and alumni. But like a41 stated, where you get into residency matters much more (which is in the States is determined by your Step scores).

 

But be warned though, if you know about the DO vs MD debate that DO students have a bit of a harder time placing into the "good" residencies that are available to MDs. And yeah... Carib schools... whole other debate.

 

Funny you mention Caribbean.

[Prothrombin]

No my friend, for Law it's very clear. Top 14 schools in the US will have nearly all their graduates making decent to amazing money. Top 50 school students will have to be in the top 10% of their class to hav ea shot at a good firm. Top 100? Probably 5%. Tiers 2, 3, forgeta bout it if you don't want to work 100x harder than a T-14 student and still make less money. I know about Lawschool, it's this Medical stuff that I haven't researched enough yet.

 

I know that if you graduate from a top 10 law school you'll be making around $167,000 US starting salary for an intern lawyer at a big firm.

[Prothrombin]

You're right about the Law school name holding a lot of weight. It looks like someone was just talking out of their... ask them later.

 

Med school name in Canada hasn't nearly the same weight. Even in the States, where you go for your medical undergrad doesn't amount to too much except for possible connections through staff and alumni. But like a41 stated, where you get into residency matters much more (which is in the States is determined by your Step scores).

 

But be warned though, if you know about the DO vs MD debate that DO students have a bit of a harder time placing into the "good" residencies that are available to MDs. And yeah... Carib schools... whole other debate.

 

You can get into any residency that an MD can get into with a DO degree, you just have to have the marks. It's just as difficult to get into a competitive residency program with an MD degree if you don't have the sufficient grades and exam scores.

[a41]

I know that if you graduate from a top 10 law school you'll be making around $167,000 US starting salary for an intern lawyer at a big firm.

 

Yeah as has been mentioned, top 14 makes a big difference. Though these days, even people in top 14 schools are having trouble finding jobs. I read an article in the ny times yesterday mentioning that a lot of top law firms cancelled even their Yale interviews.

[tooty]

I know that if you graduate from a top 10 law school you'll be making around $167,000 US starting salary for an intern lawyer at a big firm.

 

support of claim? i heard otherwise, especially in today's times.

[Newbadoob]

support of claim? i heard otherwise, especially in today's times.

 

I'll look for an article but common sense would dictate if there were going to be cuts, it wouldn't start at the top schools. They would simply stop hiring lower tier graduates first. T-14 graduating classes total maybe what? 200/school? 3000 jobs? This is why I feel sorry for my friends who went to Tier 3 schools. It's pointless unless you are simply the best by a wide WIDE margin.

 

Getting into T-14 boils down to LSAT becuase 80% of the most index formulas rely on it. 3.4 175 is a lot better than 3.9 165. Plainly, I wouldn't worry about a job if I went to Virginia or Columbia.

 

Then again, I'd rather be a doctor making 200+ to start .

[a41]

I'll look for an article but common sense would dictate if there were going to be cuts, it wouldn't start at the top schools. They would simply stop hiring lower tier graduates first. T-14 graduating classes total maybe what? 200/school? 3000 jobs? This is why I feel sorry for my friends who went to Tier 3 schools. It's pointless unless you are simply the best by a wide WIDE margin.

 

Getting into T-14 boils down to LSAT becuase 80% of the most index formulas rely on it. 3.4 175 is a lot better than 3.9 165. Plainly, I wouldn't worry about a job if I went to Virginia or Columbia.

 

Then again, I'd rather be a doctor making 200+ to start .

 

Yeah it isn't so great at even T-14 these days. You're pretty much screwed in T2/T3/T4

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/26/business/26lawyers.html?_r=1

 

Here's that article I mentioned.

[tooty]

Source

The poster is some random guy, but he sounds like he knows what he's talking about. Disregard the poker talk, obv.

 

in attorney world class actions are like big tourns. You score one and you're set for life. Google some of the numbers these guys are doing. Owning a large firm is serious baller cash as well. Think about it like this, if you graduate from a top 15 law school ur garaunteed $165k/year starting salary before you even pass the bar.

This is LOL. Top 14 does not guarantee a 165k salary. In this economy several students from the top 14 who aren't in the top quarter percentile aren't getting hired; and many of those who have been hired the year before are getting laid off this year. Most kids don't make it to the top 14; in this case one needs to be in the top 5% to even hope for a shot at BIGLAW--which pays that now dwindling 165k salary. If you make it to MIDLAW you're making 95-105k tops; and if you're well below the median in the top 14 the most you can hope for is ****LAW making 15 an hour while being stuck under a mountain of debt. The risk/reward factor for law school is ridiculous, in that you are risking 160k in student debt to have slim chances of actually making 165k a year in BIGLAW, in which many very intelligent students burn out within the first two years and subsequently move down to MIDLAW and make only 95-105k. Making 2500-3000 billable hours a year is brutal and rivals that of a mid-stakes grinder.

 

The lawyers that make multimillion dollar settlements are few and far in between. For most lawyers, their peak is to make partner in BIGLAW, which perhaps surprisingly makes a peak of 1-2 million per year. Not bad, but these lawyers have little to no freedom and still work 70-100 hours a week at age 50. The freedom acquired through poker is much more desirable in my opinion, which explains why several winning poker players are former BIGLAW associates.

 

Owning one's own firm is not easy nor easy money; intelligence, aggressive networking, plus a ****ton of social capital are required to acquire and maintain clients much less keep the business afloat. And those 40 million dollar cases usually go to celebrity lawyers or BIGLAW, which are then handled by only the most elite of partners, most of whom are in their 40s-50s.

[Rayven]

You can get into any residency that an MD can get into with a DO degree, you just have to have the marks. It's just as difficult to get into a competitive residency program with an MD degree if you don't have the sufficient grades and exam scores.

From what I hear it's a bit harder for DOs since DOs have their own residency program. I imagine if it was easy to jump to the MD residency bandwagon then most DOs would opt to go with the MD residencies simply because they're more acknowledged.

[a41]

From what I hear it's a bit harder for DOs since DOs have their own residency program. I imagine if it was easy to jump to the MD residency bandwagon then most DOs would opt to go with the MD residencies simply because they're more acknowledged.

 

Yeah...the DOs that you do see in regular programs are almost exclusively in primary care/emerg.

[Newbadoob]

Yeah it isn't so great at even T-14 these days. You're pretty much screwed in T2/T3/T4

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/26/business/26lawyers.html?_r=1

 

Here's that article I mentioned.

 

Tha'ts interesting. I only skimmed it but does it say where she stands in her class (The UPenn girl)? I'd like to know that. Pennsylvania is ranked around 7th in the country so if they can't find jobs for higher ranked students, that'd be quite shocking. A lot of times newspaper articles do tend to leave out little details. Hmm...I'd still take my chances with Harvard Stanford or NYU though.

[Prothrombin]

From what I hear it's a bit harder for DOs since DOs have their own residency program. I imagine if it was easy to jump to the MD residency bandwagon then most DOs would opt to go with the MD residencies simply because they're more acknowledged.

 

It is harder yes, but its not impossible. All it takes is a little bit of work, but what's a little bit of work when you've been working your ass off for the past 10 years of your life?

[Prothrombin]

support of claim? i heard otherwise, especially in today's times.

Depends where you want to practice law. You'll have an easier time getting an intern position in a big city. My cousin has a few friends in Los Angeles who all were recent graduates from top 10 law schools, and all were successful at getting a very comfortable job at a big law firm. Now i'm not saying everyone will get a job straight out of law school, but if you graduate from a top 10 law school you will get one.

[Rayven]

It is harder yes, but its not impossible. All it takes is a little bit of work, but what's a little bit of work when you've been working your ass off for the past 10 years of your life?

Heh... before you were saying it was just as hard.

 

But anyways, realistically, just how much harder is it?

 

If it was all just based on hard work, then many of us would seriously consider the Caribbean med schools given that admissions is just about guaranteed for anyone with a 3.0 GPA... and $200,000. And DO residency programs would all but close up since most DOs would opt to "work harder" to get into the MD residencies.