****, so here i am going for A EE degree and you guys are saying that there is no future in the field? what the hell do i do now.
Do programming. I am not sure if there is no future in EE. My first year I made almost 90k so it pays pretty good. I am just worried about job security. All my bosses are pessimistic about the future and they have a lot more experience than me so I would tend to believe them.
I don't know, my friend graduated from NYU and will be starting at Quinn Emmanuel this summer. She'll be making a lot more than 140k. But, she graduated at the top of her class and Quinn is one of the top boutique firms in the country, so I'm sure the 120-140 range is probably more typical. Like others have said, where you go to school and how well you do can drastically effect your salary range. It can also effect the billable hours you'll be accountable for.
I am an EE working as an Embedded Software Engineer. The key to Engineering is acquiring skills and moving around. When you feel that your job might be ending, start looking for a new job. Move around get more skills, get more money.
Yeah, those boys get paid close to 6 figures and 2 day work from home. I would smack some of them too if I don't have to deal with them professionally anymore. J/K. BTW, I don't think moving to DC for a couple years starting in the mail room is a good idea for him.
Yes, 120 - 140 is a typical range. A competitive law school graduate should make around 130K at least. However, I think school only matters for like 5 years after one gets out. If you are good at what you are doing, you will be making big bucks once you get the experience no matter where you go to school. On the other hand, I have seen some NYU/Stanford/Columbia graduates struggle with what they are doing, mainly because they don't like the job much. One should never go to law school just because it sounds better and pays big, you gotta make sure you can handle this type of work. It ain't fun to deal with someone else's problems all day long. You work 2 hours for every billable hour you charge as an inexperienced lawyer, so there goes how much you have to work your way up in the beginning.
LSAT is still everything in admission I think. A science applicant might have a leg up when the LSAT is equal to a non-science person. I never worked in the admission, but seems like everywhere I applied was number snob.
To be honest, I wouldn't go to b-school even if they pay me. You are better off as an engineer than a manager if you worry about job security. My two cents.
My best friend was a Mechanical engineer for about 3 years and then did Oracle Database stuff for about 4 years before he worked at an IP law firm for about a year. After that he went to Case Western law school in Cleveland and just graduated. He said IP lawyers in the two firms he worked out did very well, like $200k. However, he said they all put in 70-80 hrs a week so it's a very demanding job. So you end up only making about $50/hr.
In my experience: 1. Quality of Work Experience (engineers do well here) 2. GPA/GMAT 2A. Essays 3. Interview 4. Recommendations I recommend shooting for a 700, but you can also get by with a 680 on the GMAT.
Wrong. Engineers go to b-school as career changers. Typically we go into i-banking, corporate finance, management consulting, or marketing.
Don't get me wrong. I just speak for myself. I have friends that go to top b-schools as well, their general consensus is that you have to go for the top 10 b-school, otherwise not worth it. I am not sure how true is that, but I have a colleague that finished b-school at USC and regretted it.
Usually you work two hours for every billable hour you charge, so it's a lot of work. Hourly rate wise, attorney's pay is not that good.
There are some great programs ranked 11-20 as well. 11 University of California--Los Angeles (Anderson) Los Angeles, CA Score 83 2007-2008 Out-of-state tuition (full-time)$37,286 2007 Total graduate business enrollment (full-time)721 12 University of Michigan--Ann Arbor (Ross) Ann Arbor, MI Score 82 2007-2008 Out-of-state tuition (full-time)$43,100 2007 Total graduate business enrollment (full-time)838 13 Yale University New Haven, CT Score 80 2007-2008 Out-of-state tuition (full-time)$42,000 2007 Total graduate business enrollment (full-time)395 14 Cornell University (Johnson) Ithaca, NY Score 79 2007-2008 Out-of-state tuition (full-time)$42,700 2007 Total graduate business enrollment (full-time)609 14 Duke University (Fuqua) Durham, NC Score 79 2007-2008 Out-of-state tuition (full-time)$41,670 2007 Total graduate business enrollment (full-time)838 14 University of Virginia (Darden) Charlottesville, VA Score 79 2007-2008 Out-of-state tuition (full-time)$42,500 2007 Total graduate business enrollment (full-time)651 17 Carnegie Mellon University (Tepper) Pittsburgh, PA Score 77 2007-2008 Out-of-state tuition (full-time)$45,250 2007 Total graduate business enrollment (full-time)319 18 University of Texas--Austin (McCombs) Austin, TX Score 74 2007-2008 Out-of-state tuition (full-time)$37,222 2007 Total graduate business enrollment (full-time)517 19 University of North Carolina--Chapel Hill (Kenan-Flagler) Chapel Hill, NC Score 72 2007-2008 Out-of-state tuition (full-time)$36,749 2007 Total graduate business enrollment (full-time)568 20 Indiana University--Bloomington (Kelley) Bloomington, IN Score 71 2007-2008 Out-of-state tuition (full-time)$33,414 2007 Total graduate business enrollment (full-time)444
From what I've gathered, it does and it doesn't. The JD, more than just about any other degree follows you through your career. Some of my friends have told me stories about lawyers who are twenty, twenty five years into their career and still size each other up by the law school they attended (not totally mind you, but it sticks around WAY more than the undergrad degree). The most difficult thing about corporate law, especially if you're doing transactional work, is how to establish a reputation when you're just one gear in the machine. It's not like you're going into court and racking up wins everyone has to take notice of. I totally agree with you on the Ivy league kids not being a guarantee. They're used to being at the top of their class, being challenged, and engaging with interesting and dynamic subjects/material. Then they're chained to a desk and told to pour through reams of records that would require a substantial amount of LSD to be interesting. That's one of the reasons I decided to pass on acceptances to a few top of the top five law schools to get a masters' degree and then reapply. I'd much rather be a law professor and make a low six figures living the academic life than grind it out in a corporate firm, even if you're earning more than half a mill ten years down the road...
I didn't study IP law, but from what I understand, I wouldn't choose a law school primarily on their IP rankings. It's their general rankings/reputation that matters to employers. Probably more than any other professional school, school prestige matters. The general rule of thumb is to just go to the best ranked school (overall rankings) you can get into. If you can get into Yale, go there. After that the next "tier" is Stanford and Harvard. Then probably Columbia, Chicago and NYU. Assuming you don't have other obligations tying you to a particular place, you should probably have those schools in that general order on your list. Those overall rankings are much more important than specialty rankings. For example, imo, you'd be crazy to turn down Harvard for Boalt-Berkeley, just because Cal has a better IP ranking. Not only would you have just as good if not better IP job prospects coming from the higher ranked school, you might also change your mind about what area you want to practice in while in school. Within it's tier, law school also becomes regional. So lets say you are sure you want to stay in Texas after law school. You should still probably go to HYS, Columbia, Chicago, or NYU, if you get in to one of those. But after that, within the next few tier, geography should play a large factor in your choice. So among the tier of the top 5-15/20 ranked schools, Michigan or Georgetown, for example, might be higher ranked than UT-Austin, but if you want to work in Texas you'll likely have better job options if you go to UT. Likewise if you want to work in Houston after graduation, UH is a better option than probably any other tier 2 or lower school. I would probably say it's a better option than any non-top 25 school. Similarly, for Houston, South Texas School of Law is a better option than any tier 3 or 4 school.
Firms will factor in cost of living when setting salaries. So a firm in NYC will often have a 10-20% higher base salary than a comparable firm in a less expensive city.
Law school admission is probably generally 45% gpa/ 45% LSAT. At someplaces those number would be 100%. But law schools like well rounded classes. Almost everyone I knew in law school was a political science, history, social science, undergrad major including myself. If everything else in the application is equal, the applicant with the science, math or engineering background will get in before the government major. My Dad was a professor at UT law school and on their admissions committee, and when talking with undergraduates he used to tell them that if they wanted to go to law school, pre-law was probably the worse area to major in.
