Monday, May 14, 2007

ABA Law School Tuition Gouging

With the help of the inflation calculator http://www.westegg.com/inflation/, here is concrete proof of some of the massive tuition gouging that has been going on during the last 9 years at some ABA approved NY area law schools:

1997 Tuition / '97 Tuition in '06 $'s / Actual 2006 Tuition

Albany: $18,905 / $23,489 / $35,079
Brooklyn: $20,640 / $25,645 / $37,525
Buffalo: $7,350 / $9,132 / $12,170
Cardozo: $19,780 / $24,576 / $36,900
CUNY: $4,840 / $6,014 / $8,900
Columbia: $25,128 / $31,221 / $40,024
Cornell: $23,100 / $28,701 / $39,690
Fordham: $22,600 / $28,080 / $36,670
Hofstra: $21,182 / $26,318 / $35,260
NYLS: $20,770 / $25,807 / $40,478
NYU: $24,740 / $30,739 / $38,980
St. John's: $21,000 / $26,092 / $35,900
Syracuse: $21,136 / $26,261 / $35,120
Touro: $19,150 / $23,793 / $32,300

Tuition gouging increases student debt loads, which will only help to proliferate the growth of vicious biglaw temporary sweatshops:

"Or maybe what attracts employers to college {and law school} grads is the scent of desperation. Unless your parents are rich and doting, you will walk away from commencement with a debt averaging $20,000 {$150,000 - law school} and no health insurance. Employers {Lily, Anita, Youngwood, Piggy, etc.} can safely bet that you will not be a trouble-maker, a whistle-blower or any other form of non-'team-player.' You will do anything. You will grovel."
http://ehrenreich.blogs.com/barbaras_blog/2007/04/the_higher_educ.html

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

In other news, another stressed-out associate bites the dust:

Stressed-Out Associate's Death Ruled an Accident (?)

New York Lawyer, May 15, 2007

An associate at the London headquarters of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer who fell to his death at the city's famed Tate Modern gallery was suffering from cannabis-induced depression, the Evening Standard report. That conclusion was reached in a coroner's finding that the death of George Matthew Courtney, 27, after falling from his perch on a bannister while using his Blackberry PDA, was accidental. But the associate lifestyle may have played a part, as Courtney was one of several associates who had reportedly approached firm management about the stress of grinding out 14 hour days to hit billable targets in the weeks before his death in February and had also discussed the problems he was having with his long hours and sleeplessness to his psychologist.

Cannabis-induced depression, what the hell?

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

NYLS is crazy. What an overpriced toilet.

Anonymous said...

of course tuition gouging will only get worse with the recent raise to $160k in the big markets

Anonymous said...

And how many Hofstra grads end up making $160? 2, maybe 3? These toilet schools are complete scams. The economics will catch up with these schools and they will eventually collapse. Before then, however, many people will find themselves entrapped under a life time of crushing debt.

Anonymous said...

horse whisperer: been out of pad, at the place where purple people live; call you when I get phone.

Anonymous said...

Tom, the bloated healthcare and education sectors of the economy are killing this country. It is time to start the revolution!!!

Anonymous said...

If law students would just band together and refuse to attend class, this tuition gouging would stop. Pre-law school publications and the 1L experience teach you, however, to be suspicious and competitive towards your classmates. Add this to the fact that the law schools bury students under mounds of pointless medieval property law, Shelly's law, and stupid Pepetuities puzzles, and you have a recipe for total student obedience.

Anonymous said...

Not to mention the browbeating brought on by the socratic method, school rank anxiety and cheesy antics like book stealing.

Law school (generally) invites the worst type of student and creates monsters.

Anonymous said...

"And how many Hofstra grads end up making $160? 2, maybe 3?"

how many other enrollees will end up earning that much, or hope to, within and outside the list of NY schools the OP posted? when in two years you have a sudden, drastic 28%(1) bump in a guaranteed starting salary for market rate firms, you have a hell of an incentive to gouge students even more for tuition.

Anonymous said...

Law school doesn't teach you anything of value. What is important (and what really is of value to corporate america) is the incessant brainwashing and the uncompromising obedience, paranoia, and insecurity that these schools instill in students.

These are just the kind of people that the Enrons and murderous pharmaceutical companies are looking for; desperate, debt-ridden drones brainwashed in sociopath generating training camps >> a.k.a law school.

Anonymous said...

welcome to the new america. a j.d. is quickly becoming as fungible and vocationally worthless as an m.a. and similarly, it won't be long before we start joking about barred attorneys working at starbucks or barnes and noble.

Anonymous said...

Law school is a three year mind fuck.

Anonymous said...

Right, look at law professors.

Propaganda (1L and the Paper Chase) dictate that law professors are supposed to be arrogant, callous assholes.

Anonymous said...

"desperate, debt-ridden drones brainwashed in sociopath generating training camps >> a.k.a law school."

Who else can be counted on to be over inclusive in privileging those smoking guns that prove that grandma was fleeced by a megabank, or killed by a defective product? A pot-smoking, tree hugging, sociology graduate with no debt?