Law Students Nationwide Hate Their Career Placement Office
Law.com reports on a comprehensive survey of law students. Among the findings were that “63 percent of students said they received scant support in job placement.” I am surprised that the number is so low; I could have seen this number being 100%. I find that students have a special enmity for their career placement offices, and this has been true at every law school I’ve been affiliated with. What’s ironic is that students often feel that their career placement office is uniquely bad (I felt that way when I was a student), instead of realizing that law students universally share this feeling.
One other stat caught my eye: “32 percent never have substantive discussions with faculty outside of class.” I’d like to know a little more about that statistic. Is it because faculty are unapproachable/too busy/never on campus? Because the student doesn’t really want those discussions to take place? Some other explanation? I wouldn’t immediately characterize this stat as a problem if a minority segment of the student population simply doesn’t value/want out-of-class contact.
I think the 32% figure is a problem for law schools in an era of increasing tuitition, because if students begin to think of the school as just a place to purchase a degree, then the school’s long-term relationship with alums will dwindle.