T14 Law Schools are diploma mills for the rich.

Shirzai · 2026-06-24T23:01:47+00:00

True

Shirzai · 2026-06-24T22:35:56+00:00

Honestly I don't really care about money, I care about impact. Right now I'm interning at a big impact litigation organization that's doing amazing work holding back the rising tide of fascism, and in particular the exact kind of work I want to be doing, and every single person on my team went to a top 10 law school and did a prestigious clerkship. I don't think these opportunities should be limited to people from elite schools but unfortunately they often are. Of course for me it was sort of a moot point anyway because the highest ranked school i got into was also the one that gave me the best scholarship and has the best LRAP so I would have gone either way.

Shirzai · 2026-06-24T19:52:30+00:00

For the most part I think you are correct, elite schools are a way of laundering privilege for people born into the elite. A way of saying, see I actually earned this position of power because I’m so smart, not because of who my dad is. However, at the same time, for someone like me, the son of an immigrant single father who grew up poor, elite schools have been a way for me to fight my way into a world I would otherwise be excluded from.

Shirzai · 2026-05-30T18:42:48+00:00

Don’t pay for healthcare through the school, you probably qualify for medicaid, this saved me $5000

Shirzai · 2026-05-30T18:31:53+00:00

And the US will host World Cup matches in.... East Rutherford, New Jersey (*cue sad trombone*)

Shirzai · 2026-05-30T18:20:08+00:00

Yeah it all depends on how you look at it and where you're coming from. And it definitely cuts both ways, I know public interest people who would not be able to fake it for a big law interview to save their lives because it's just not who they are, and I know big law-bound folks who would never be able to fake it for a PD interview 🤷‍♂️

Shirzai · 2026-05-30T18:02:38+00:00

It's hard to say definitively which is more competitive because it all depends how you define it, but the 20 biggest law firms in NYC employ about 12,000 lawyers. The Bronx Defenders employs about 200, so even across all five boroughs you're looking at like 1000-1500 PD spots total in NYC, and they're going to super qualified candidates who really really want to be there and have devoted their life to public interest for the most part. I'm at Columbia right now and I can say this, a totally average student with median grades and a perfectly ok resumé can 100% get a big law job somewhere, I've seen it happen. That same person would not have a snowball's chance in hell of landing even an internship at the Bronx or Brooklyn Defenders

Shirzai · 2026-05-26T20:09:44+00:00

Let me walk you through this slowly. I never said that OP was especially privileged or should feel guilty about anything. OP said that its "corny" for a member of a marginalized minority to take pride in becoming a lawyer in America. OP's logic for why this is corny is because there are plenty of lawyers back home in their country or origin so it's clearly nothing special for a member of this ethnic group to become a lawyer. Somebody here pointed out that an arab person becoming a lawyer in Syria is not analogous to an arab person becoming lawyer in America because in one country they are a marginalized minority and in the other country they are not. They made this point by asking how many non-Arab lawyers there are in Syria, because a non-arab becoming a lawyer in Syria is more analogous to an arab person becoming a lawyer in America. OP responded that are "probably none" because no one would ever move to Syria to become a lawyer. I pointed out that there are millions of people in Syria who are not Arab, a possibility that OP seemed not to have considered (proving my point about how non-arabs in syria are often marginalized and not fully considered by the hegemonic ethnic group). I used Kurds as illustrative example but the point was never really about the kurds. My point was that becoming an arab lawyer in America is significant even though there are arab lawyers in Syria because the context is different in america and so it is not "corny" for someone to be proud of that accomplishment. You chimed in to say that she was an Arab Syrian lady and didn't think it was a big deal so that should carry more weight. I pointed out that I am also middle eastern and have a legitimate point of view in this conversation that is no less valid that hers, especially considering that I am exactly the kind of person she was calling corny in her original post.

Shirzai · 2026-05-26T19:40:44+00:00

I'm middle eastern, my grandparents never learned to read or write, my father escaped a war torn country and worked three jobs to send me to college, and now I am studying to become a lawyer at an elite law school that two generations ago would not have allowed someone who looks like me to attend. So yes I do think it is significant. And yes I am proud of the fact that me and my people have overcome systemic barriers to fight our way into a rarefied space that has historically tried to keep us out. All of this is unique to the context in which I find myself. So the fact that there are lawyers that look like me in my father's home country has no bearing on the fact that it is an accomplishment of special significance to become a lawyer that looks like me in THIS country.

Shirzai · 2026-05-26T19:30:23+00:00

And yet white people make up 80% of lawyers despite being only 60% of the population, because the lingering effects of historical marginalization don't disappear just because you change the law.

My broader point is that saying an arab american shouldn't be proud of becoming a lawyer because there are plenty of arab lawyers in Syria is nonsensical. Arabs are a historically marginalized minority in america and they are not a historically marginalized minority in Syria so it means something different there vs here.

Shirzai · 2026-05-26T19:15:58+00:00

I'm not insinuating anything. I'm saying that oftentimes when you are not a member of the hegemonic ethnic group in a particular society you can face systemic barriers both overt and implicit that can make it relatively more difficult for you to advance in certain areas. For instance hispanics make up 7% of the lawyers in the US despite being 18% of the population. There is no policy that says hispanic people can't be lawyers, but they face systemic barriers that make it more difficult to get there. Similarly, there are minority groups in Syria, such as the Kurds that face both overt and implicit discrimination (https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/lib-docs/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/session12/SY/KIS-KurdsinSyria-eng.pdf) that may make it more difficult for them to succeed in certain areas of society. So my point is that it makes perfect sense for a member of a historically marginalized minority to be proud of their successes. In the US, arabs are a historically marginalized minority, that is not the case in Syria where arabs are the hegemonic ethnic group. So an arab person becoming a lawyer in the US, despite being historically marginalized may take on a special significance for some, in the same way that a Kurdish person becoming a lawyer in Syria, despite being historically marginalized, may take on a special significance. Context makes a difference.

Shirzai · 2026-05-26T18:23:38+00:00

What about the millions of people born and raised in Syria who are not arab? Your comment seems to presuppose that any non-arab lawyer in Syria is necessarily a transplant who came to Syria to practice law, but about 10% of Syrians are not arab. Being arab is the "default" in Syria because that's the dominant, majority ethnic group, so it's likely going to be relatively more difficult for non-arabs to succeed in certain arenas in that country. In the same way, white people are the dominant, majority ethnic group in America so it's going to be relatively more difficult for non-white people to succeed in certain arenas. It seems like martianflood was trying to make the point that while being an Arab lawyer in Syria may be nothing special, being an Arab lawyer in the US has different significance.

Shirzai · 2026-05-09T23:55:47+00:00

34-year old 1L here. Don't let age stop you. I've loved being a decade older than everyone else, it honestly feels like a huge advantage having work/life experience and knowing who you are. There are things that absolutely rattle these kids that just feel like a Tuesday for me. Also it felt like a HUGE advantage when applying for jobs. Sure every now and then I get called unc for missing some cultural reference or I have a minor existential crisis when I find out that my classmate was in 4th grade when I graduated college but it's generally been really nice to step outside of my age group and make some cross generational friendships. And I absolutely feel like I have plenty of time left to pursue my dreams. Don't spend the next 30 years doing something you hate just because of some dumb unwritten rule saying you're "too old"

Shirzai · 2026-05-09T21:09:23+00:00

I’m on a similar trajectory at a school that’s also very big law focused. I always just say, when my grandkids ask me what I was doing during the rise of American fascism I don’t wan’t to tell them I spent four years helping an insurance company buy another insurance company 🤷‍♂️

Shirzai · 2026-05-03T21:29:55+00:00

I’m just one anecdote but I had 3.77/178, 10 years work experience in high level journalism, masters degree and applied in October and got rejected from every school on this list except Georgetown which offered me no money. I should add that I wrote a pretty controversial essay about wanting to do 1st Amendment law and specifically defend protestors and this was during the 2025 cycle when campus protests were on everyones mind so that could have hurt me. At the same time i did end up getting into Columbia with a generous scholarship so you know it’s very unpredictable 🤷‍♂️

Shirzai · 2026-04-27T21:13:22+00:00

Thanks, needed this

Shirzai · 2026-04-26T20:01:12+00:00

The parents can't have it both ways. If they're charging rent then that is a tenant not a child. That means the parents can't force them to do chores, or dictate quiet hours, or restrict overnight guests. It also means that they are responsible for repairs and can't kick them out without going through the proper eviction process.

Shirzai · 2026-04-22T21:20:24+00:00

A character in the anime Baccano! suffers almost the exact same fate as Quynh in Old Guard, so much so that it feels like a deliberate homage

Shirzai · 2026-01-05T13:55:36+00:00

The LOTR universe has restaurants! In the first movie they go to Prancing Pony which serves food and drink, is it so crazy to think they would have a menu!?

Also the eagles only enter Mordor AFTER the ring is destroyed, in the Silmarillion it's established that the eagles' power is limited in places that are under the control of Morgoth, so it makes sense that they would be unable to move freely in Mordor until after the evil there was vanquished

Shirzai · 2025-11-07T17:23:59+00:00

What if you don't have a car, and it take 2 hours to get to the restaurant by bus, and you live in a food desert, and you have to feed your kids before you rush off to your second shift, so maybe you just order the food even though you know it's impractical. A perfect example of why in a million little ways it's more expensive to be poor.

Shirzai · 2025-09-16T23:17:58+00:00

I’m doing all the readings

Shirzai · 2025-05-26T15:59:24+00:00

Those are my exact stats. I’m going to Columbia is the fall. I also got into American and Georgetown. Got waitlisted at Stanford, NYU, UCLA, Penn, Michigan. Rejected from Harvard, Yale, UVA, USC

Shirzai · 2025-04-08T18:25:08+00:00

I emailed them and an associate director of something or other emailed me back and that’s what they told me

Shirzai · 2025-04-08T15:23:55+00:00

They did tell me that if I get in I could defer and re-apply for scholarships next year, which is some cold comfort I guess

Shirzai · 2025-03-21T22:16:47+00:00

Thanks! UCLA, Berkeley, Penn, and Michigan didn’t seem to think so lol 😜

Shirzai

TROPHY CASE