Crossroads: Law School vs Flying Career

Jafari RastaMan said:
If you look at an average over a large enough pool of people you will find, 'Career QOL + Career Pay' is directly proportional to how much work you do to prepare for your job.

Philosophy requires very little work in College compared to Engineering and you can expect very little pay and/or QOL compared to an Engineer. If a Philosopher goes to Law School, he will probably come close to the amount of work an Engineer put into school, as a result he can expect an average 'Career QOL + Career Pay' similar to an Engineer.

Sure, there will be some in both categories that are outliers, but the average will be true. It is simple, more work = better pay + better QOL. I am also assuming the same effort is put forth after entering the workforce.
Click to expand...


Little work...LOL now that's funny. Yes, engineers work hard, but if you take your studies seriously most any solid field involves a lot of work. I busted my ass every semester deciphering very dense books and writing paper after paper.

I started as a hard science (biochem) major, and switched to philosophy halfway through my junior year because I realized that I didn't want to go to med school, and biochemists work in labs their whole career. I hated my labs, but I absolutely LOVED my philosophy classes, as that was my minor. So I changed majors, and emphasized in philosophy of science since I had a strong science and math background.

Anyway, my point is that I worked just as hard (if not harder since I was behind and had to catch up) after changing my major as I did before.

Again, your comment just reinforces that no one knows what majoring in philosophy is all about, and no one respects a well rounded education anymore. College has become all about vocation, not education. That's depressing, and says a lot about our society at large. No wonder 33% of our population doesn't understand evolution, and rejects science in general.
 
Also...

Law school grads do not have good QOL or pay anything close to engineering on average. There are a ton of law school grads out there... Paging @jtrain609

I guess I pretty much disagree with your whole premise above. There weren't many philosophy majors where I went to school (7 total), but most of my classmates were very successful. For a long time I was the least successful of them all (as a regional FO). Incidentally, most of them are in IT.
 
PhilosopherPilot said:
Little work...LOL now that's funny. Yes, engineers work hard, but if you take your studies seriously most any solid field involves a lot of work. I busted my ass every semester deciphering very dense books and writing paper after paper.

I started as a hard science (biochem) major, and switched to philosophy halfway through my junior year because I realized that I didn't want to go to med school, and biochemists work in labs their whole career. I hated my labs, but I absolutely LOVED my philosophy classes, as that was my minor. So I changed majors, and emphasized in philosophy of science since I had a strong science and math background.

Anyway, my point is that I worked just as hard (if not harder since I was behind and had to catch up) after changing my major as I did before.

Again, your comment just reinforces that no one knows what majoring in philosophy is all about, and no one respects a well rounded education anymore. College has become all about vocation, not education. That's depressing, and says a lot about our society at large. No wonder 33% of our population doesn't understand evolution, and rejects science in general.
Click to expand...

I think I got a D- in my first philosophy class, but I thought it was so interesting I took 18 credit hours of philosophy the next semester. I figured I was either going to fail out of undergrad, or figure it out.

I figured it out, but it's some of the hardest work I've done. My primary focus was on political philosophy and theory (political science minor), and I was STILL studying, and trying to figure out the nuances of Bentham well into law school. I think if (when?) I do a PhD, I'll focus my research on how changing culture influences the downfall of democratic societies from the standpoint of institutional degradation, which I think we're seeing the beginnings of in this country.

But, I mean, like, philosophy was totally stupid and easy. I just drank a lot of beer in college and like, thought about things.
 
PhilosopherPilot said:
Also...

Law school grads do not have good QOL or pay anything close to engineering on average. There are a ton of law school grads out there... Paging @jtrain609

I guess I pretty much disagree with your whole premise above. There weren't many philosophy majors where I went to school (7 total), but most of my classmates were very successful. For a long time I was the least successful of them all (as a regional FO). Incidentally, most of them are in IT.
Click to expand...

I don't believe you even need a 4 year degree to go into IT.

Maybe Liberal Arts majors don't understand a capitalistic society. I mean I like naked women, but that doesn't mean I look at porn all day long.
 
jtrain609 said:
I think I got a D- in my first philosophy class, but I thought it was so interesting I took 18 credit hours of philosophy the next semester. I figured I was either going to fail out of undergrad, or figure it out.

I figured it out, but it's some of the hardest work I've done. My primary focus was on political philosophy and theory (political science minor), and I was STILL studying, and trying to figure out the nuances of Bentham well into law school. I think if (when?) I do a PhD, I'll focus my research on how changing culture influences the downfall of democratic societies from the standpoint of institutional degradation, which I think we're seeing the beginnings of in this country.

But, I mean, like, philosophy was totally stupid and easy. I just drank a lot of beer in college and like, thought about things.
Click to expand...

I didn't study at all. I just smoked a lot of pot and hit on freshmen. It was awesome.
 
Jafari RastaMan said:
I don't believe you even need a 4 year degree to go into IT.

Maybe Liberal Arts majors don't understand a capitalistic society. I mean I like naked women, but that doesn't mean I look at porn all day long.
Click to expand...

My wife was a social science major, and has been supporting me and our kid through two regional airlines and a law degree.

She doesn't like naked women, but she does like money, of which she's always made more than me.
 
PhilosopherPilot said:
I didn't study at all. I just smoked a lot of pot and hit on freshmen. It was awesome.
Click to expand...

I mean I'll admit, I drank some fantastic beer (http://bellsbeer.com/) and played a lot of drums in undergraduate, and maybe you can say that my real major was in marching band, but my bookshelf isn't filled with Descartes and Plato because it makes me look cool, nor can you say because it was easy to understand.

You haven't studied until a professor hands you a terrible translation of Descartes and says, "I'd like a paper on this tomorrow." Trying to decipher bad Latin and French translations was a way of life for me in undergraduate.
 
jtrain609 said:
I mean I'll admit, I drank some fantastic beer (http://bellsbeer.com/) and played a lot of drums in undergraduate, and maybe you can say that my real major was in marching band, but my bookshelf isn't filled with Descartes and Plato because it makes me look cool, nor can you say because it was easy to understand.

You haven't studied until a professor hands you a terrible translation of Descartes and says, "I'd like a paper on this tomorrow." Trying to decipher bad Latin and French translations was a way of life for me in undergraduate.
Click to expand...

You know it's a bad day when you get assigned a 4 page reading assignment and the professor says, "be sure to give yourself time to get through this."

I was in the band too, btw. THAT'S where I learned to drink. :)
 
flyinguitar said:
No it's not. Just take a year of gen chem and you're ready for O-chem. And most med schools do not require advanced biology.
Click to expand...

Maybe it's just where I went to school then...

O-chem was labelled "Dream Crusher" and would not even be attempted by non Chem/bio/Chem-Eng/Pre Med types.
 
So with all if these reading assignments and papers, we are saying Philosophy is just as difficult as Engineering? But it pays less on average?
 
Jafari RastaMan said:
So with all if these reading assignments and papers, we are saying Philosophy is just as difficult as Engineering? But it pays less on average?
Click to expand...

I don't think you can really make that comparison. Philosophy is not easy, but it's a different difficulty than engineering.

And I'm not sure that I agree with the "difficult equals high pay" argument either. I know a chemist who works hard to bring down $60,000. That's good money, but not commensurate with the effort required to get her PhD. I'm sure there are other examples.

Here's an interesting website. Sure engineering is high on the list, but that's not surprising. Notice that they aren't really listed in "difficulty" order.

http://www.payscale.com/college-salary-report-2013/majors-that-pay-you-back
 
Last edited:
FlyinSol0 said:
On the topic of medical school and undergrad majors;

I have two sisters who are ER doctors. The eldest (31) has a bachelors in French, and makes 350k a year.

The younger (29) actually doesn't even have an undergrad degree, she got into medical school after 3 years at University. She is receiving similar offers in regards to compensation.

I have no idea what their scores or grades were. Very good I assume. They are both osteopathic doctors, as opposed to medical doctors.
Click to expand...
DOs are for the most part just as good doctors as MDs, but getting into school is easier and getting a residency is much harder. There are significantly more DOs than MDs that fail to match into a residency. I'm not convinced it's anything other than politics but it's a reality to be familiar with if you're considering a DO school.
 
jtrain609 said:
... and played a lot of drums in undergraduate, and maybe you can say that my real major was in marching band...
Click to expand...

PhilosopherPilot said:
I was in the band too, btw. THAT'S where I learned to drink. :)
Click to expand...


Another plus 1 for the band, here. It's amazing how many of us there are out there.

It's amazing where time will take you.

I majored in Music and Criminal Justice, and I never had any intention of doing anything with the Criminal Justice Degree. I loved music but I've wanted to fly since I was 2 years old, so I was just ready to get on with it. I remember being on this board years ago and all I wanted to do was fly, and feeling like college and everything else was just getting in the way of that. Members here told me to stick with it and finish college, it'll be worthwhile. So I did. I got a job with an airline on the side as a gate agent and worked there for 3 years. You would think that was enough to turn me off from the airline industry. We put up with sooooo much crap from the company...to the point where I and a lot of others ended up resigning. But even still, I loved that job because I got to be around airplanes all day (Not to mention the flight benefits, which I used excessively). I didn't really know what to do after that. I didn't want to get a regular job, but I couldn't afford flight school. I was really into Music recording and production, so I moved out to LA on a whim. Literally on a whim...I decided I was going to try to work at a big studio on a Sunday, and by Thursday I was in LA. I stayed in LA for a little over two years and got to accomplish things I never in a million years thought I would be able to do. I got to work with artists and musicians that I looked up to forever...and on some of my favorite music...even a Grammy award. I was able to do so many things that I wanted to do, that there's no way I would have been able to do if I had just started flight training all those years ago when I wanted to. Not to mention, there's no way I would have been able to afford flight school now if I hadn't gone to LA, lol. Yea, I lost some years of seniority, but I'm so glad I got to experience other things in life before coming into this crazy profession. I've had plenty of people tell me I'm crazy to leave my position in LA, where so many people work their entire lives to get to and never make it, to come fly. Ultimately, though...I love flying, and I always knew at some point I would be doing this.

I think there are people that, no matter what they're doing, or how much they're getting paid to do it, will never be truly happy unless they're flying. I would even say, most of the people who are crazy enough to put up with this profession are people like that. I'm one of those people. And you, OP, probably know whether or not you are one of those people, too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top