Evening Law School | Part-Time Law Student

hey guys welcome back in today's video we're talking all about being an evening student what there is to know the strategies the approaches what to expect tips and advice and to help us wade through all of this craziness is bree schulich she is a biotechnologist and well-preneur so during the day she works full-time for a biotechnology company in business development and at night she's a rising 2l at the george washington university school of law so brie thank you so much for being with us yes thank you angela i'm so happy to be here so let's go ahead and dive in and talk about an overview of what an evening student's life sort of looks like from the academic end so how many classes are you taking what days of the week do you have class and how many years are is the entire program all together yeah absolutely so for part-time law school um typically at george washington university we go to law school for four years or eight semesters plus one summer session and in terms of the number of classes we're taking usually three classes or an average of 11 credits per semester and to give a reference of what my 1l year looked like is we had classes monday through thursday in the evenings of course from about 6 00 to 9 30 or 10 p.m um at night so um yeah and so personally for you what does a typical day look like yeah that's a great question and um i don't know if any day is typical but i know exactly what you're getting at um so oftentimes and i wake up around 6 30-ish um and one practice that i have been incorporating into my um my morning is starting the day with a 10-minute morning meditation um which just gets me in the in the right head space to take on a typically dynamic and fairly action-packed day um so after that i love to do a little bit of journaling um and then getting ready for work um which typically begins at about 8 a.m um and so uh work is um for me a lot of phone calls emails and scientific conversations which i love um and then over lunch um i do typically try to incorporate some form of movements um and so i'm an avid runner um and so when the weather is nice i'd love to go outside for a run um but also i enjoy in-home workouts that include bar yoga pilates that kind of thing and then having some lunch of course and signing back on around one o'clock and working the afternoon until 5 00 pm um and then at five that's when i get ready to commute to law school and for me that's about a half hour commute typically via metro washington dc um and then of course arriving at law school and having classes about six to let's say about 10 pm in the evening and then one thing angela that i've found to be very advantageous in my early legal education is to actually stay on campus for an additional hour before going home just so that i am able to look through my notes and maybe even create some kind of rough outline and truly try to synthesize that information that i have been exposed to just because i um feel as many law students probably very inundated with information um and if i i find that if i go directly home that i'm going to want to go directly to bed so that's one thing that i kind of learned through trial and error um but has been has been really helpful for me um and so then i get home and get ready to start it all over again the next day that's so incredibly impressive and so incredibly efficient my days i don't think have ever looked like that in my whole life and i am totally envious that's that's incredible and i'm sure it's a necessity having so many demands on your time that by nature of the day you have to be as efficient as you are okay so talking academics and jobs everybody knows when you head into law school that classes are graded on a curve and that is what makes law school so competitive and there's only a certain percentage of a's and b's and c's that can be allocated across the entire class and so when you're in an evening program are you graded just against the for example 25 people in the evening program are you also graded along with the full-time day students as well yeah that's a great question um and like you said the curve is incredibly important and i'll speak specifically for george washington university but for us specifically for 1l classes we are graded on the curve with the full-time students um and also our evening classes uh include the full-time students so the class sizes are a bit bigger about like 100 people in the doctrinal classes um but that also um provides opportunity for us to give our unique perspectives as part-time students but also kind of get a little bit of that flavor or what that's like and um and kind of meet all the the full-time students too so i think it's a really unique blend um but yes for the most part we are um graded on the curve with our fellow classmates which include the full-time students gotcha okay and then in terms of oci or on-campus interviewing which is where the law firms come to campus and they recruit for the following summer is that is the oci system something that you guys can participate in after your 1l year along with the full-time students or do you have to wait until you get a requisite number of classes to then participate in oci the following year yeah so for us we can do both um or rather either or likely um and so after our first year and you are eligible to to apply for sure for on-campus interviews and and in that case depending upon what you do in the summer um you might have one less class than a typical 1l um and then subsequently or alternatively if you wanted to wait an additional year um that that typically is an opportunity as well um and so in that case you might have a padding of one or two additional classes than a typical other oci interviewee might have and so i think it's kind of kind of the best of the both worlds in that case and you can really make a decision individualized based on your kind of your career path or what you envision as well as how your you know how your grades come out and that's a perfect segue to talk about the next question which is what are some of the advantages and disadvantages of being in a part-time program because i know that there's probably a perception of both and so i'm really interested to hear what your take on that is yeah absolutely um so i i think we can start with advantages um and so one thing that i see personally with respect to um working full-time is that essentially you know while you're serving um your your employer who whoever it might be or if you're an entrepreneur through that avenue you're essentially being paid to professionally and personally develop and that can look at like um a lot of different ways but one specific thing that i've found very um interesting is being able to really network while you're on the job right so with your colleagues with your clients with your constituents whoever it might be you're doing that every day and it's not something that you you know allocate an hour a week to do while you're on law school in some firm or some organization is brought to you um it's just kind of a natural evolution as you go through your career so i found that to be incredibly advantageous um and in terms of um disadvantages or i like to say different advantages for full-time students um i think law school specifically george washington do a great job of kind of leveling the playing fields and providing accessibility for evening students to participate in different things but of course if there is something like a lunch and learn for example during the middle of the day that's going to be challenging for someone who's working full time to be able to do but i think as we continue to move towards um recordings and live streaming i think that that's going to really um not continue to be a disadvantage and you will be able to you know call in remotely or something like that but that's something that comes to mind for me that you know is an occasional frustration i you know i wish i could be at different events at different times one other thing that i'm continually trying to to think through in in ways to improve is of things like office hours for professors as well that can be challenging as a part-time student um arriving on for me typically on campus 10 minutes before i need to go to class and you know dive in and but oftentimes what i found is you know emailing professors they're willing to and give a 15-minute break during your workday jump on a phone call and get those questions answered um or saying after class and so i think there there certainly are advantages and disadvantages and i'm probably coming at it from the perspective of having to try to navigate those and innovate and finding ways around them because i really don't think that um any student specifically a part-time student should should come in with the mentality of oh this is going to be disadvantage disadvantages to me like how can i find a way to do what i really want to do because at the end of the day we are all in control of our education um and so i i really think that it's um the power of the person to navigate it um but those are a couple things that that come to mind um right now ah i love that and you know just to kind of continue with what you were saying so many of the evening students especially obviously ones that come in with jobs have the thing that everybody in law school is after right you go to law school to get a job interest and to begin your career in a legal arena of some sort and so to already come in with that at least a starting place at least knowing a little bit about what you want to do have somewhat of a trajectory have the ability to make money so that you hopefully don't have to go into thousands of dollars of debt or just be able to sustain a lifestyle is so so neat and something that i think maybe doesn't even get talked about all that often because the full-time day program is kind of the traditional program and not all law schools even have an evening program and so i think i think you're right i think that's you know really really interesting and beneficial to think through when people are trying to make this decision to the extent that you know somebody's on the line between full-time and evening and so for people who are trying to make the decision between going into a full-time program and a part-time evening program what was sort of your thought process and your approach to that and how did you personally decide on a part-time evening program yeah that's a great question and i certainly think it's a individualized cost-benefit analysis for sure um but for my for me specifically um at the end of my undergraduate degree i started working while i was going to school full-time and i really found so much value in doing the two in parallel value being personal and professional development and and so i i continue to do that throughout my master's degree and i think that's an important point perhaps to make is that i really have been practicing this this lifestyle if you will of full-time work as well as school for um about four years now um and so for me it was a fairly natural evolution to decide to continue on um by working full-time and going to law school part-time um but i really did enjoy what i was doing uh professionally and i found that i was growing um both my skill set but also um kind of shaping my career or the you know the early um portions of my career while i was gaining education um to you know apply that to what i was doing and so for me that was really a compelling reason as to why i wanted to to go that route um but then subsequently as i'm you know working and able to contribute to tuition financially and that was another um incredible incentive for me to to try to go to law school with as um a few or or no loans as possible and and so those were kind of the two big buckets that that i thought through um of course um with the understanding that yes it's gonna take you know four years rather than three um but that was a i guess a sacrifice that that i was willing to make um and so thus far i am very pleased with my decision and uh yeah excited to keep going so the last question i want to ask you is do you have any advice for someone who might be considering a part-time evening law school program yes absolutely so one thing that i think is incredibly important to keep in mind especially when things get tough you know you're in the middle of a studying for finals and it's 2 a.m and you don't think you can go on but to keep in mind that there have been so many attorneys that have gone before you in a part-time program while working full-time and guess what they've made it and you can too and so that's something i tell myself all the time to be completely honest um and i just find it to be so comforting um and then another thing i think also um to think about is law school as a whole is a marathon but each individual semester or we can even break it down into midterms is a sprint and so when you have that mentality of like okay i have 12 weeks to go incredibly hard and get on you know my readings done these exams completed and then maybe i have a two-week break or something like that to recuperate and to restore and then you do it all again and i thought for me kind of breaking that down was really was really helpful to kind of put everything into perspective um and so in addition to that i think it's also important to recognize that first and foremost we're human right and then subsequently we're law students and employees or entrepreneurs or whatever and your work form is um and so tending to those human needs is absolutely essential and to being able to perform um your best self and that's going to look very different to everyone i like to think about it in the 3ms the meditation movement and mindful eating and so those are kind of my non-negotiables if you will in terms of taking care of myself and supporting my own wellness um and you'll find whatever works for you but to stay true to those and to do you know everything in your power to um just to be consistent and it's not always going to be consistent you know i oversleep and miss my meditation i don't always get movement in um but um know that if you skip one day you can start again the next day and the the last thing that i wanted to to say is to remember that it's um it's your birthright to feel good and to have fun despite you know the intensity that you're about to embark on um and that's going to be very individualized but i think that goes along with the humanization to incorporate things that you truly enjoy and um that bring you fulfillment in addition to hopefully studying as well um and there's going to be a lot of times where people feel feel down maybe discouraged overwhelmed but if you dig deep enough you can find something that will brighten your day and encourage you to keep on and so that would be another thing that as i as i continue and as i reflect back on my first two semesters that's really something that i hope to to take with me going forward throughout the rest of my legal education bree that was amazing thank you so much for sharing all of your experiences being a evening law student it actually makes me jealous and i kind of want to go back in time and redo my law school experience and have the same one that you're having just because it sounds so fulfilling and there's so many components and elements to it so thank you thank you thank you so much for coming on thank you so much for having me angela it's been so much fun yeah absolutely and guys please follow bri to learn all about evening and part-time law school life also all things biotechnology and all things wellness i'm going to include her linkedin and instagram accounts below so make sure to give her a follow and thank you guys so much for tuning in i'll see you next week bye guys [Music] you

Channel: Angela Vorpahl

Views: 3,593

Rating: 4.9470201 out of 5

Keywords: part-time law school online, part time law degree, working full time in law school, evening law school, part-time law student, evening law student, can i work full time while in law school, part time law school, working full time and law school, day in the life of a part-time law student, day in the life of an evening law student, Can I Go to Law School While Working Full Time?, Can You Hold a Job and Work in Law School?, law school and working full time, part time law student

Id: OcmPWFKk4RY

Length: 17min 35sec (1055 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 28 2020