HYPO: A gifted young woman graduates high school at 13. Currently 16, she's set to graduate college this semester. Crusty skeptics would say that a responsible law school interested in training professionals should not be in the business of enrolling a teenager who likely, by nature and through no fault of her own, lacks the maturity to practice in three years. So, which law school is going to tell all of those deflated scrotums to fuck themselves and offer admission?
TRICK QUESTION: The answer is at least ten! She's actually enrolling at SMU, which is currently ranked... prestigious... by the U.S. News rankings. It's where lots of good Texas lawyers went and isn't typically a recipient of angry spittle about being in the "third tier" or worse.
MATH: The "million dollar premium" was calculated based on a traditional K-JD all-star. A 16-year-old who graduates law school at 19 gains an additional 5-6 years at the front end of a high-earning career, which, by my bar napkin calculations, increases the earnings premium to 2 million easily (compound interest, etc.). The charlatans at the ABA and various accreditation offices are clearly robbing gifted students by keeping most of them from earning their six-figure potential at 20 years old. This is fundamental economics.
ADVICE: For any other minor considering a legal education, I would like to advise you that studying law is far more interesting than pretty much any other venture a teenager can involve themselves. Malls, cars, music, sex, drugs - all overrated products of immature vanity. In fact, fuck the idea of a social life alltogether - I've never met a teenager worth talking to, and boy have I tried! The adult world is where all the fun is at. Don't you want to look forward to co-workers gabbing about NO COLLUSION and their NCAA brackets? To get there, I can't think of a better detour than reading jurisprudential gems like Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1.
Shit, if she's a lawyer at 19 or 20, with the right ideological views she'll be in line for a district court gig while her age peers are just getting sworn in. The Million Dollar Express has an infinite supply of track, after all.
Interdisciplinary studies. Perfect!
ReplyDeleteI knew two people like that. One graduated from flagship state U at 17, year later enrolled at a law school that hovers around 20 on the You Ass News rankings. Has had an o.k. but not stellar not-big-law career mostly by working at firm started by spouse. In other words, the re was no advantage in being a prodigy once you got out of an academic environment.
ReplyDeleteOther one I didn't know nearly as well. Youngest ever to pass the bar exam in a large state. No big law or big corporate. Part of a two-lawyer firm and when partner embezzled money in firm trust account wound up in an institution.
One of the best teachers I ever had (in high school) explained about prodigies thus: A person develops on many different levels. Intellectual, social, sexual, emotional, spiritual and so on. He likened it to a group of people standing side-by-side in a line trying to run across a field. If one person is super strong and super fast and runs way out ahead the line will come apart or other people in the line will stumble or even fall flat on their faces.
I feel sorry for this young woman. The prodigies I have known whose parents would not let the schools skip them ahead all ended up more or less well balanced and happy.
Agreed. Often these "prodigies" may outperform early on, but eventually people often catch-up. It's like bragging that your 5 year old can read Dr. Seuss, only to find out that at 10 years old, everyone can (and understand it better, as well). What seemed like a major difference was actually not a difference at all.
DeleteAs for the "real" prodigies, advancing people beyond their maturity level is not all it's cracked-up to be in many cases. If they are talented, they will be talented - in the mean time, let's not neglect to whole person to focus on the one particular.
Long ago, when Old Guy was a small boy, a school that didn't know what to do with him proposed to move him ahead several years. This proposal was rejected for the obvious reason that it would not work well from a social point of view.
ReplyDeleteIt's a pity, if not a crime, that the schools organize Ejookayshun™ by age rather than providing what each child needs. But moving several years ahead is no solution.
This lady, I'm afraid, has been misled and manipulated. If she and her manipulators believe that she will impress employers with her alleged brilliance and superiority, they are quite naïve. I'm sorry to say that this little stunt will probably turn out badly for her.
I oppose the conventional "K–JD" plan for similar reasons. I can't imagine why any adult would accept legal advice from a person who had hardly lived outside the insular, juvenile world bounded by school and the parental residence. Certainly I would not.