# I need some advice badly: Law School or Nursing School? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 23, 2009, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-some-advice-badly-law-school-or-nursing-school/490436 "2009-03-23T06:13:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![anu-la1979](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/47e85d/32.png) [@anu-la1979](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anu-la1979)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2009, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-some-advice-badly-law-school-or-nursing-school/490436/21 "2009-03-23T16:47:24Z")
And I should add “or unless the world economic system decides to collapse around you, in which case most everyone else is fucked as well so why worry about the joblessness rate in law?” ---
**Author:** ![hellpaso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ecae2f/32.png) [@hellpaso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hellpaso)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2009, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-some-advice-badly-law-school-or-nursing-school/490436/22 "2009-03-23T16:47:34Z")
> [@Dangerosa](#): > > I don’t know. As I said, I know a lot of out of work lawyers. I also know a lot of nurses, some who make six figures. > > You can make a LOT of money at the top of the legal profession - but its like being an MBA, there is a steep curve between the top and the bottom - and the top usually takes work, luck and contacts to reach. The salaries for R.N.s are much more level - you’ll never make half a million a year as a nurse, but you can do pretty well as a CRNA or in Administration with some additional school. Uh, yes you can make half a million as a CRNA. It all depends on where you are willing to work and how hard you want to work.😉 ---
**Author:** ![anu-la1979](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/47e85d/32.png) [@anu-la1979](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anu-la1979)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2009, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-some-advice-badly-law-school-or-nursing-school/490436/23 "2009-03-23T16:58:39Z")
I don’t want to bring the wrath of nurses down on my head but you might also consider the social aspect of how nurses are viewed and treated vis-a-vis how attorneys and viewed and treated (okay, society considers us scum, but I’m talking about the workplace) and decide if you’re comfortable with the differences in the pecking order. Nursing is a very valuable job but it seems like unless you have another advanced degree and have moved into administration, at the end of the day you may still be under the authority of a young douchebag resident. I would find this very difficult to deal with-I’ve dated a lot of young douchebag residents, working for them would be intolerable. OTOH in law the chances are higher that you will be subjected to volumes and mountains of rejection. In fact, you’ll be able to wallpaper your apartment with them. And those douchebags will be your colleagues and like with all douchebags you’ll find they have both their good and bad sides but in school they’ll be your colleagues and not your boss, which goes a long way. Also, after school you might be subject to the authority of a douchebag partner but the path to eventually become that (douchebag) partner exists as an option. Or you can elect a public sector job where people are a little more laid back. I’m not saying this is right. It’s just that I know myself and I feel that I would have a very hard time being talked down to by a 20-something doctor if I had been practicing as a nurse for several years. ---
**Author:** ![MichaelQReilly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@MichaelQReilly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelQReilly)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2009, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-some-advice-badly-law-school-or-nursing-school/490436/24 "2009-03-23T16:59:32Z")
My friend just got her master’s in nursing up here in CT and started with the VA for 85k plus overtime. Plus she had so many offers that she was able to pick exactly where she wanted to work. I’m a lawyer. Most people graduating from law school in the next couple of years aren’t going to be in nearly as good of a position as my friend in nursing. ---
**Author:** ![lavenderviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/cdc98d/32.png) [@lavenderviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lavenderviolet)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2009, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-some-advice-badly-law-school-or-nursing-school/490436/25 "2009-03-23T17:04:14Z")
> [@anu-la1979](#): > > Also, if you have a B.S. and considering a career like law, why don’t you want to consider medical school instead? My sister is a psychiatrist at Boston University and she seems very happy with it (she went to Northwestern for medical school). That is a pretty long road before getting to reap the rewards though. This person would most likely have to go back to school to take pre-med classes (whereas as a lot of nursing schools have special programs for people who already have bachelor degrees to merge into nursing). The odds are very high that he would have to relocate and sell his house to attend medical school. Then he’d be looking at four years of student loan debt (probably in the neighborhood of $100,000-$250,000 depending on which school he winds up at) during medical school. The first three years of medical school are quite stressful and time consuming. For someone whose main interest is psychiatry, a lot of the other topics covered in medical school would be dreadfully dull. The final year may or may not be difficult academically, but it involves a lot of stress with trying to find a residency position. Then he’d need to do another four years (for psychiatrists) of making about $40,000 as a resident (which doesn’t go all that far since in residency you have to start repaying the student loans) THEN he might be making good money, but probably questioning if it was really worth it. When I was debating whether to go into nursing or medical school, everyone advised me to go to med school just because I had the academic talent to be _able_ to do it, and hey, becoming a doctor sounds so cool! Looking back now, though, I have to admit that in many ways, being a doctor really isn’t worth all the trouble it requires. If I had known then what I know now, I would have just become an RN, even if other people though that I wasn’t “living up to my full potential” by becoming a nurse. :rolleyes: If I were a nurse, I’d be able to help patients, I’d have been making an income over the last four years instead of racking up debt, and as a nurse it is way easier to switch into working in a different specialty if you decide you’re tired of your job than it is for a doctor (as a doctor, you need to do another residency, with the accompanying low resident pay, to switch fields). More education isn’t always the answer to finding a good career that will really make you happy. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2009, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-some-advice-badly-law-school-or-nursing-school/490436/26 "2009-03-23T17:05:17Z")
> [@hellpaso](#): > > Uh, yes you can make half a million as a CRNA. It all depends on where you are willing to work and how hard you want to work.😉 CRNAs have it good. My BIL is a CRNA at a rural hospital. Even if you aren’t willing to work hard and are picky about where you live, its a pretty lucrative job for the effort involved (but you might work 20 hours straight). It does take a master’s degree. My brother in law works three weeks on and three weeks off - and makes six figures. On his off weeks he augments a darn nice salary by traveling to middle-of-nowhere Montana or South Dakota to work two weeks. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2009, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-some-advice-badly-law-school-or-nursing-school/490436/27 "2009-03-23T17:34:04Z")
Nursing strikes me as a heck of a lot more physically demanding. Few lawyers are on their feet all day. What type of law do your brothers practice? Does that appeal to you? How much are they pulling down? ---
**Author:** ![jeredc1983](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ed8c4c/32.png) [@jeredc1983](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jeredc1983)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2009, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-some-advice-badly-law-school-or-nursing-school/490436/28 "2009-03-23T18:36:49Z")
Thanks for all the feedback guys. I’ll get back to you with some more information, but for now it is off to work! ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2009, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-some-advice-badly-law-school-or-nursing-school/490436/29 "2009-03-24T14:38:39Z")
Go to nursing school. We’ve got too damn many lawyers and not enough good nurses. ---
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2009, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-some-advice-badly-law-school-or-nursing-school/490436/30 "2009-03-24T22:23:34Z")
I worked in a nursing staffing firm for a few months in between jobs. The pay is great and you can find a job extremely easily. But the actual work can be very hard. I saw nurses come into our office completely exhausted after a twelve hour shift. Nurses earn that wage. Then again the work can be also be extremely rewarding emotionally. I still send thank you cards each year to the wonderfully calm angelic labor and delivery nurse who patiently helped guide me to a gloriously satisfying med free birth. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-some-advice-badly-law-school-or-nursing-school/490436.md?page=1)