Phew. Good luck to all of them.

I was part of the crowd that used law school to avoid entering the job market on the tail end of the 2007 crisis. I actually really enjoyed law school itself; it's a good fit for people with brains that are a combination of analytical and philosophical. Of course, it's trite at this point to mention the reality that law school does not prepare you whatsoever for the job of being a lawyer. Imagine if med school classes were all about the 'idea' of medicine, the philosophy of medicine, that sort of thing, and actually practicing medicine was limited to electives and extracurriculars.

I went to a school that was T20 and on the cusp of being T14, so a good school. I had a half tuition scholarship on $40,000+/yr and still walked away with nearly $150k in student loans.

Law schools are extremely cheap for universities to run, but they can get away with charging astronomical tuition because everyone is convinced law school will make them rich. (It won't, unless you have a dedication to the work of being a biglaw attorney that most people don't have.) Universities love law schools because they can use them to pay for more expensive programs (science labs, etc.).

The idea of making multiple six figures is almost universally a myth that schools love to cultivate. You only really have a shot at this if you go to a T20 school (or are highly connected). And even if you do get this sort of job, it is soul sucking work; your job at that sort of firm is simply to maximize billings. Nothing of value is created. You will work 70/80 hour weeks creating nothing. I had many friends from school go to these sort of firms and, almost to a one, they have all quit the biglaw scene.

But what the law schools don't tell you is how oversaturated the legal employment market is, and oversaturation => depressed salaries. If you are not one of the few to go biglaw (or do not want biglaw), good luck. I worked as a criminal prosecutor because I found the work interesting. I started at $39k -- in a fairly major city, too. I know so many people with eye-wateringly expensive law degrees who are thrilled to be finding contract or temp work at $20 an hour.

As for me, it took me about six months to realize the practice of law wasn't for me and a total of six years to get out of it. I ended up rediscovering a love of programming I had had from when I was a kid, and spend 4 years self-studying CS/software dev. I transitioned to a software dev role going on 3 years ago now and feel like a new person. I can't really say I regret law school, firstly because I met my wife and many good friends there and in the legal profession generally, but secondly because there's a chance having the degree from a well known school could pay off down the road in some sort of management role. However, was it worth the cost? Almost certainly not.

I'll close by saying, if you are someone who loves building things, you will likely not do well with the law. It is mental work, yes, and logic is involved definitely, but the 'products' you will be creating are motions, briefs, and memos. If you are someone who has a love for collaborative problem solving, you will likely hate it. There is very little I found collaborative in law. Even in law school, absurdly competitive attitudes abound, and in the big firms themselves, the ones who will succeed are in constant 'cold war'-style competition for things like partner track. If your work is litigation, then by definition the work is the polar opposite of collaborative. This was what probably put me off the practice the most; I would be handling a criminal case and my brain would be aching for an easily available compromise, but being an advocate means fighting for your client (in my case, the "people").