Fewer students across the country want to become lawyers.

According to the Law School Admissions Council, applications slid by 15 percent this year. Young attorneys in the Tampa Bay area say their job prospects are so bad, they may never pay back their massive loans.

Jessica Ramm is one of them. She always had a dream of becoming a lawyer.

"It would kind of be that dream you see in the '80s movies, where you have the montage where you get a new car, a nice office, you get to do what you want to do,'' Ramm said. "That’s not the case at all."

Instead of a six-figure salary, she’s buried in more than $100,000 of debt. And the starting salary for some lawyers isn’t what it used to be.

"The salary they pay their incoming attorneys is pretty poor," Ramm said. "Around $40,000. They can do it because young attorneys are out of work."

The bleak job prospects could be impacting how many people are applying to law schools. Stetson University School of Law is following national trends. Applications are down, so admissions officials extended the deadline.

Laura Ward, president of the Young Lawyers Division in the Hillsborough County Bar Association, says Ramm’s story isn’t the exception right now. It’s the rule.

"The days of graduating from law school and being assured of a six-figure job are probably well in the past," she said.

Ward said many students could be thinking twice about becoming a lawyer because of the debt.

"You can’t afford to live," Ramm said. "I have friends including myself who owe six to eight thousand dollars a month in private loans. It’s like I bought a house, and I burned it to the ground. And I’m still paying for it. I burned the house to the ground, and I’m still paying my mortgage."

Ramm recently opened her own law firm in hope of bringing in more money. It’s something many of her friends are doing because starting salaries at larger firms aren’t enough to make ends meet.

Still, she wouldn’t turn back time, she says. But she does warn potential law students that being an attorney isn’t what it used to be.

"It’s incredibly stressful," she said. "There are nights when I can’t sleep. There are nights when I have a breakdown because I think about how much I owe."