Imagine you were a fanatical Marvel Comic fan and anxiously wait in anticipation for the premiere of Captain America—the red, white, and blue musculature taking on the malevolent Red Skull. Good guy American super-warrior against evil organization. Simple premise.
With soggy butter-drenched popcorn in right hand and over-priced ticket in the left you meandered to your seat with the knowledge that the next ninety minutes will be filled with a nationalistic plotline coupled with more than a smattering of CGI. The lights dim, the music commences, and on the screen enters the blue protagonist.
Except rather than Captain America, you find Papa Smurf. In 3-D.
No, no. You did not just enter the wrong movie theater. This is the film you will be seeing regardless of your intention.
While a fictional hypothetical, this premise too often becomes the reality for ambitious over-achievers willing to take on massive student loan debt. The student only realizes he is in the wrong movie and cannot get out until it is way too late.
It is not uncommon for law students to take out over $150,000.00 to pay their tuition. The schools justify this rate by advertising that the “average” starting salary can be well over $100,000.00 with many first year associates beginning at $160,000.00. Even accepting the notion that every law student will graduate with the highest paying firm job, paying off this debt is not easily within reach to all.
For instance, the places with these high salaries correspond with the highest costs of living: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. Now because of the tax bracket, the government automatically takes forty percent or sixty four thousand. This leaves nearly $100,000.00 in disposable income, which is an impressive amount of money.
For arguments sake, it is exceedingly possible for an attorney to have expenses of $45,000.00 (i.e. $1,800/month for rent, $1500/month for cable, food, metro card, etc., and a $5,000 for trips, travels, weddings and gifts). This leaves $55,000.00 to pay off loans, which could theoretically be paid off in three years—if you budget accordingly, i.e. taking it easy on the destination hen nights and stag parties.
The problem, though, is that it often does not reflect the reality for most young attorneys. First, one must also take into account that most attorneys fortunate enough to enter Big Law do not stay very long. Second, most law students fail to obtain these jobs in the first place. For example, at Georgetown’s law school, ranked in the top 14, only 38% of their graduates landed employment at the nation’s largest firms, which paid the highest salaries. The other 62% inevitable took jobs that received wages much lower. Furthermore, interest starts accruing from graduation whether you are ready to pay or not. Therefore, one might need to pay back $150,000 when only receiving a $50,000 salary working for the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, which is an incredibly prestigious and difficult position to attain.
As a toddler, Hefty Smurf’s brawn and charisma with the ladies (or lady) appealed to my tot sensibilities. Upon entering grade school, my tastes became more sophisticated (or at least relatively so) as this country’s great nationalistic comic characters penetrated my mind and imparted in me its ideals. My only hope is that before obtaining a significant amount of debt that cannot be discharged through bankrtupcy, young attorneys make decisions that will not financially cripple them; and therefore, uphold the American Dream that Captain America fought so hard to preserve. Student debt works for some, but certainly not all.
