The Average Law Student

Web Editor

The results of our annual OCI Survey don’t only provided some insights into the recruitment process, they also give us a picture of you, the archetypal UT Law Student.

Resist the urge to turn away in despair. Here you are, UT, in all your quintessence:

average-law-student

 

You’re a Plain Jane Juris Doctor student who knows that nobody’s impressed by some know-it-all with a useless mouthful degree. Forget all that JD-MBA-MPP-ABC-123-U-N-ME business. Everyone knows that outside reading leads to deviance, which is why you eschewed all those pricey combined degree programs.

Although you were an intolerable overachiever during your undergraduate degree, at law school you’ve never veered far from the middle of the pack. You never got any HHs or As, but you haven’t suffered any LPs or Cs either.

average-law-student-debt

You’re a white woman, whose classmates are most commonly also white women.

You come from an upper-middle-class household with an income approaching six-figures (you think). But don’t gloat. Most of your classmates are as privileged as you, and many grew up much more well off, while very few are substantially poorer.

Despite your charmed backstory, after doing your time here you’ll be coming away owing almost $100,000. Even mommy and daddy won’t be able to save you from the university’s debt collectors, although you may want to keep in touch with the one-fifth of your classmates who will graduate entirely debt-free.

handshakes

Although you came to the OCI process with little or no experience doing job interviews, you schemed and strategized, played favourites, went to the firm dinner, and managed (just barely) to sneak away with a job. You didn’t lie and pretend you had more than one first choice. And needless to say you didn’t apply to any government offices because we all know civil service is for creeps.

You had better luck landing a job than your classmates with graduate degrees (including that weird old guy in your seminar who handwrites his notes and is always arguing with the professor). But be gracious, because nearly half of your classmates weren’t as lucky as you—and some of those may be the debt-free 20% who you were going to keep on your good side.

You ignored Ultra Vires’s warnings and chose to waste your precious youth volunteering for a journal (which doesn’t set you apart when so many of your classmates do it too). You made use of CDO services, because god damn you paid for it! And on balance you found them to be useful.

Through this whole traumatic experience you held it together and didn’t shed tears (at least you wouldn’t admit it to some lifeless computer interrogator). When asked about your motivations, you throw around words like “summer job,” “employment,” “money,” “debt,” and “corporate law.”

*Those wishing to object to our improper use of the mathematic concept of “average” are invited to send your comments to Dean Moran.

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