Professor Elam

Friday Dec 27 2013

Here is yet another story of a disappointed law school grad. There is  link to his and another law school disappointed grad's blog. I also suspect part of the problem is the reluctance of grads to move, they are disappointed they did not get a dream position rather than a plain ole starting job.

In Texas there are as best aI can tell about 60,000 CPAs and about 68,000 lawyers. I am guessing in the northeastern states where this grad is likely located there are more lawyers than CPAs. 

Television, movies, and novelists like Grisham glamorize the law profession. This never happens to the CPA profession. In reviewing movies for the ethics class I have only found one that even featured someone playing an accountant. That was Jack GIlford in 1975's Save the Tiger. But I digress…

Law schools  have expanded their enrollment in great numbers. It is a cash cow, easy to find instructors, not expensive labs, even the libraries are cheaper now that they are all digital. And hey what's a humanities major to do, no job, hey go to law school!  And so they do. 

In Texs the recent pass rates for the Law Bar Exam range from Baylor at 95% to St Mary's at  82% to Texas Southern at 68%. You can check out CPA pass rates here.  AS you will see, the highest pass rates are about 60-65% an then only at UT Austin and A & M College Station. All A & M grads get a paid for Becker class the last semester by the way. From there the passrates drop quickly below 50%. 

So the bar exam is a relatively easy pass compared to the CPA exam. I suspect the lawyers are wishing they had taken the harder road.  Now law schools are having to cut back on enrollments. 

The CPA exam will be the hardest  rite of passage you ever undertake. Did anyone check out the Gleim books over the holidays to study for the exam, just wondering.