[wmil]

Actually some schools are facing class action lawsuits for inflating reported JD salaries and placement rates.

But Biglaw/MBA Consulting pay so much because the firms are oligopolies with gentlemen's agreements not to compete on price.

That's not going to happen in a field with mesurable results.

[geebee]

I've heard about these lawsuits, and I don't doubt that there is some inflation of job placement data. However, these accusations tend to happen more at the mid-rated schools, and we are talking about the "elite" here (ie., top 5 or so).

While there does seem to be some basis for questioning the data, I do think that the employment reports support the notion that the average starting salary for someone out of a "Top 5" law school greatly exceeds the pay for an MS or PhD grad of a top engineering school.

Is this something you'd disagree with? - ie., do you think that the job placement reports from the various grad schools at UC Berkeley and other top institutions are so unreliable that we can't draw general conclusions from the numbers?

I also completely agree with you about biglaw and consulting. Law actually does resemble a cartel in many ways, and oligopolies certainly exist in consulting and drive up pay. But to me, that's beside the point. If smart people can make gobs of money in other fields (never mind why, the important thing is that they can), why should we be surprised that they won't become programmers for 80K a year?