Would dropping the third year of law school be a good idea? Forum

[Kronk]

and would lead to a lot of people not knowing what the fuck they want to do with their lives.

Isn't that how we all ended up in law school in the first place?

IDK, I got kind of mindfucked by law school. Thought I knew what I wanted to do, got there, did an internship, realized it wasn't as easy to get a job doing what I wanted to do as I thought, didn't know what the fuck I wanted to do, used the next internship to help work it out, and only know have a blurry concept of it.

[IAFG]

hells no

i like the year long vacation, thanks

[prezidentv8]

you get out of school you have 80k-160k in loans or whatever

In theory, less school would minimize this.

[Sheffield]

If one could option out of the 3rd year, he/she would receive his/her JD at the end of 2L and then go on to the Bar (with the blessing/offer from their SA firm). This make sense?

[Kronk]

you get out of school you have 80k-160k in loans or whatever

In theory, less school would minimize this.

That was 2 years @ 40k - 80k per year. I think a lot of people now are more like 150k-250k.

[M458]

How soon before schools started jacking up tuition prices on the 2-year degree so that it would eventually end up costing the same as the current 3-year degree?

[Gorki]

I can actually see this working, and LSs going along with it. Enrollment, especially for lower tier schools, is plummeting with no apparent floor in sight. I know of schools doing tenure buy-outs and other such stuff to make longer term goals. If LS was simply 2 years instead of 3, they may get more applicants (Note that I do not think that this will necessarily be any better for the profession or society at large, but the schools have to see the potential for more $ here).

At my school there are people who externed both summers and took a summer class and will graduate in 2.5 years. I guess this is becoming more common for folks who did not get a big law or other formal route of employment. Not sure this has a huge payoff yet, but worse comes to worse they can start IBRing down the debt w/Walmart jerb 6 months earlier than they would have.

[eric922]

Drop 2L too.

The whole thing is pretty stupid, really. Just let people take the bar without going law school and raise the standards for the bar. And then actually give people their score on the exam and elite firms can use that score to distinguish among applicants.

Realistically, I think law should just be an undergrad major and anyone should be able to take the bar with or without it. Maybe require an apprenticeship of like 6 months to a year or something too.

Law as a 3-4 year graduate degree is stupid.

It works in England. Honestly this sounds like the most sensible option. Of course, if we did that who would pay deans and professors their 6 figure salaries?

[bowser]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/18/opini ... neral&_r=0

I respect NU for a couple of things. The dean even admits how bad the legal economy is. Not sure this is the right solution.

[rinkrat19]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/18/opini ... neral&_r=0

I respect NU for a couple of things. The dean even admits how bad the legal economy is. Not sure this is the right solution.

And yet, he thinks he did us a favor by "only" raising tuition (one of the highest in the country) three percent.

[IAFG]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/18/opini ... neral&_r=0

I respect NU for a couple of things. The dean even admits how bad the legal economy is. Not sure this is the right solution.

And yet, he thinks he did us a favor by "only" raising tuition (one of the highest in the country) three percent.

He was really between a rock and a hard place on that. He was charged with doing what DVZ failed to do: attract and retain big name faculty.

I think any plan that makes curriculum planning less restrictive is a good one.

[Sheffield]

Foregoing 3L = waiving out of +$40K of new debt, earning $150K (or whatever), a swing of roughly $200K and (meaningful to me) sidestepping a big waste of time.

[smaug_]

http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 3&t=202415

[soj]

http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 3&t=202415

Merged the two threads.

[manofjustice]

Drop it for an apprenticeship. But leave the first 2 years as they are.