The 6Question Surveys: Law Student Edition (Results)

Last week, we launched the first of our six-question surveys with a survey for law students. And the response has been phenomenal, with more than seventeen hundred students providing their responses..Before proceeding, it is necessary to point out that the total sample size was 1,774 students. At a fraction of the estimated 100,000 law graduates that are churned out every year, this sample size may not be the most accurate. Having said that, the findings by themselves are certainly worth a deeper look..Question 1: Are there any lawyers in your family?.A staggering 76% answered in the negative; more than three out of every four students then have no family background in law. This, by itself, is an extremely interesting finding given the fact that the legal profession is widely considered to be an extremely close-knit one. .Question 2: Have you taken an educational loan?.Around eighteen months back, we had run a story highlighting the average fees being charged by a national law university. At close to two lacs a year, the average NLU student will end up paying close to ten lacs for the five year course. Of course, not all the students who participated in the survey were studying at an NLU but a large percentage for..At roughly 15% of all students surveyed, the proportion of loan takers is certainly a sizeable one. What will be interesting to see is whether and how these loans exercise an influence over the student’s career choices, an aspect we had briefly highlighted in our recruitment report..Question 3: Did you utilise the services of a coaching institute before enrolling for the law course?.Now one of the criticisms of the unpredictable nature of the CLAT is that it indirectly benefits CLAT coaching institutes, something that NALSAR’s Prof. Mustafa has alluded in a recent interview he gave us..The results of this survey, however, do indicate that this may not quite be the case. With almost half of all students choosing to self-study their way through the entrance exam, one could argue that coaching centers are not essential for making it through to a national law university. .Question 4: Why did you choose to study law? .This question, along with the one that followed, provided some of the most diverse range of answers. When it comes to choosing the study of law, a resounding 63% said that they had a genuine interest in law. Around one-sixth (16%) of those surveyed, chose to study law simply because they did not want to study engineering or medicine, and around 9% said that they simply wanted to make money..Of course, it was the “Other” option that really provided some diverse views including “to bring order to society”, “add degree with CS profile”, “just some kind of a hunch” and “parental pressure”. My personal favourite though was “[Because I am a] Lazy f**k.”.Question 5: What career choice will you make after you graduate?.It would appear that litigation has a slight edge over a career in corporate law, with 34% opting for litigation over the 29% who opted for a law firm or in-house role. Given that our recruitment report indicated that roughly 10.6% opt for higher studies, the fact that 20% replied in the affirmative is surprising..Again, it was the “Other” option that really allowed students to share their views. Some have decided to join the armed forces, others the civil services, and some the judiciary. In all, these added up to 16% of those surveyed..Needless to add, given that we did not ask which year the student was in, the answer to this question may well change over time..The last question was related to the institute in which the student was studying in, and the responses were varied. Students took the survey from seventy-nine different universities across twenty different States in the country..So what does this all mean?.Well, if one could hazard a guess, the law student of today is likely to be a first-generation lawyer of tomorrow, be it in court litigation or corporate transactions. In fact, the law student of today could well be the legal academician of tomorrow. .The law student of today then is increasingly certain of why she wants to study law and what she expects to do once she graduates. For those interested in the direction of legal education in the country, there are some exciting times ahead.