Law School: Part-Time or Not Part-Time?

[Music] part-time or not part-time hi nathan oh this came to me i guess um hope you're doing great not sure if you answer questions here but i figured i would give it a shot oh yeah um this was somebody just emailed this to me and i i said okay let's answer on the show so i forwarded it to ada cool um i am not a typical student worked in retail for 10 years and then went back to school for my undergrad and mba full-time okay i have always joked i would be a lawyer in another life but never put any real thought behind it because i didn't think it was attainable but here we are i would have to get my jd in a part-time program and i am currently working as a legal administrator i'm looking at loyola chicago and depaul as they are both close to my home and work in my schedule first question is do people look down on part-time programs as in getting a job after graduation second question i know you said to wait until the next cycle if you are past the august cut off lsat but if i am most likely going to have to pay for it regardless does it matter am i crazy to try to go to law school at 34 let me know your thoughts thanks ashley there's a few different questions there ben you want to tackle one or more of them yeah so i was thinking about the first one do people look down on part-time programs as in getting a job after graduation i don't know but my also my reaction is if you have to do part-time don't worry about that i think so much more matters on how well you do in school and whether you follow the advice of uh what was your name rachel gesser say and just start networking get out there if you do that and you're in the nighttime part night time part-time program and people generally look down on that you're going to overcome whatever negative effect that bears on your process so i don't know i i don't think it's a factor to consider um i think it varies wildly school by school too right i mean there might be some schools i mean there certainly are some schools where the part-time program is more prestigious than the day program or at least they have harder like higher lsat and gpa numbers i can't imagine it being bad to go to the part-time program at one of those schools where the credentials of the students are actually higher yeah at other schools i mean it's possible that there are some schools where the part-time program is looked down upon but that's going to vary community by community and you know you you need to meet people you need to meet alums of the program you're thinking about going to like talk to the school tell them hi i want to do xyz type of legal work i want to talk to one of your alums from this program that i'm thinking about going to i want to talk to one of your alums who did does this work and if they can connect you to those people then obviously people don't look down on those part-time programs if they can't connect you to those people then maybe that school can't help you reach your goals yeah it's kind of blanket advice no matter what program you're thinking of whether it's full-time or part-time yeah and just to clarify that book by rachel gezer say is the law career handbook or something like that playbook maybe it's got like templates for how to reach out to people scripts for you know calling random cold calls for people or cold emails it's definitely worth yeah the 15 bucks or whatever 15 or 20 bucks yeah seriously um the second question i know you said to wait until the next cycle if you are past the august cut-off lsat but if i'm most likely going to have to pay for it regardless does it matter why are you assuming that you're going to have to pay for it regardless you just need to work longer on your lsat you take that extra time to push up your lsat score it is gold it is literally gold it's money not every um part-time program offers scholarships i think but it's all on the 509 reports and many part-time programs do offer full rides or even full rides plus so why yeah i don't understand this assumption that you have to pay if you're assuming you have to pay i i would think you probably just shouldn't go the tagline of the show is don't pay for law school i mean if you have to pay if you have to pay part-time but you can get a scholarship full time then go full-time it's probably worth it yeah totally how much money do you make at your job i mean free tuition to law school is very likely more than you make or you know because you could flip it right you could like go full time on a scholarship and then 10 bar instead of working full-time and paying tuition to go to a part-time program um i don't know people do i think need to be a little more flexible with their ideas i was yelling last night then at the class um you know because i get it a lot where people are like they just insist that they have no geographic flexibility and i'm like well what do you do when your career office at uc hastings tells you as a 1l that there's no way you're going to get a job in the bay area when you graduate and that you need to start applying to law firms in fresno like think it through you know the reality is if you're trying to build a legal career you might have to move to get the job you want yeah you know like this is obviously a chicago resident and chicago is a big place and there's lots of jobs in chicago but i don't know that loyola chicago or depaul are going to guarantee you you know lucrative legal work in chicago so ashley's being like super stuck on law school in chicago but she might find out three or four years from now that if she actually wants a job practicing she's going to end up moving to not chicago so um and and that doesn't have to work out that way certainly some people do go to law school in chicago and work in chicago i just think people need to if you're serious about law you you probably need to be willing to make some sacrifices um or you need to be willing to put your career first how about that yep or think outside the box i mean there's so many basically what you're trying to do is solve a problem and there are so many solutions to whatever problem it is you're trying to make money you're trying to find fulfillment in your career um or you feel stuck in chicago because of some family situation start thinking about it like what who needs what and where do you need to come back and visit like do you really need to be there do your kids have to stay in the same school district there are so many assumptions we just all walk around the semesters are only 14 weeks long right i mean you actually only have to be even if they do require you to go to class which of course isn't happening in covid times but even if they do require you to go to class it's 2 14 week semesters per year that's 34 weeks out of 52. um yeah you have to show up for your finals but you know that's like three exams during a eight day exam period and so and at least be open to s to possibilities that you weren't thinking about right at least consider applying to a school that's two hours away you you're not obligated to do anything once you applied apply see what happens maybe they make you some crazy offer maybe it turns out to be worth it yeah okay do you think she's crazy to go to law school at 34 oh um no not at 34. i think it's getting up there and i would really just question your desire to go to law school but since you're a legal administrator i'm assuming that you are seeing the kind of work that you're going to get involved with so i'm a little more confident in your decision than someone else who might be in like marketing and has decided at age 34 to go to law school but regardless you got to make sure you like what those lawyers do at your firm yeah i mean i don't think you're any crazier than everyone else who's like it is crazy to go to law school in many many cases it's just like what are you even getting yourself into it's insane um but because you work in yeah because you're already working in a firm um you know what you're getting yourself into so name a lawyer whose career you're trying to replicate you know who who you you're like yep this lawyer they went to depaul i'm going to go to depaul because i want to do exactly what that lawyer does if you can do that then i don't think it's crazy yep if you can't i think you don't know what you're getting yourself into like people are just in many many cases people are just buying a dream right they just they have no idea what lawyers do they're going to just go to law school name a lawyer excuse me name a lawyer whose career you're trying to replicate and they're like well barack obama is a lawyer ha ha ha you know and it's like yeah okay you're not doing that let's be real about what you're actually going to do but then the age thing who care i mean you know law is a thing that you can easily practice law until you're 90. yep you don't need there's no heavy lifting involved there's long hours involved there's making your work the primary focus of your life involved but if you're willing to do those things then age i don't know just seems kind of irrelevant

Channel: Thinking LSAT

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Keywords: lsat, thinking lsat, Thinking LSAT, ThinkingLSAT, law school, law, test, exam, admissions, law school admissions, studying, lsat studying, studying tips, logical reasoning, tips, logic games, reading comprehension, lsat podcast, law school podcast, podcast, Thinking LSAT podcast, 7Sage, Manhattan LSAT, powerscore, blueprint lsat, princeton review, fox lsat, foxlsat, ben olson, nathan fox, ben olsen, strategy prep, strategyprep, strategy prep lsat, RC, LR, LG, lsat study tips, LSAT demon

Id: Iwkr9Ti_OSM

Length: 10min 43sec (643 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 05 2020