But, his summer could barely hold a candle to Faber's. She estimated that the Los Angeles firm she worked for spent $100,000 for each of its 21 clerks. Faber was treated to $100 lunches, theater theatre tickets, unlimited baseball tickets, and three rock concerts including Katrina and the Waves.

The best part of Faber's summer, however, she said was not restricted to the summer associate program, but rather the fact that the firm which was paying her going salary in Los Angeles, also did public interest work.

According to Thompson, many public interest jobs do not pay at all, and very few pay the private firm rate of $600-$900 a week. "Nobody [in private firms] is starving."

Although Lois T. Murphy '84 wasn't starving, she certainly didn't rake in the type of money that some of her classmates did.

Murphy worked for Students for Public Interest, a group that defends tenants against eviction and rent increases. Murphy was one of two students providing this free service to Cambridge and Boston residents.

Instead of working in a large firm, Murphy decided she would "rather make a reasonable amount of money and be happy."

But public service jobs sometimes don't even pay a reasonable salary. In fact, said Faber, "Usually you have a choice of being poor with the poor, or rich with the rich."

Although Harvard Law School does provide some financial support for students doing public interest work, it can't cover the cost of attending law school.

And, as Faber said, in addition to needing to repay loans, "It's very hard to [choose to] make a difference in people's lives instead of driving a Mercedes or going to Australia for Christmas."