If you had the ability to graduate a semester earlier, would you? Forum

crisgcia · Post by **crisgcia** » Wed Sep 16, 2015 6:33 pm

Hypothetically if you could have the credits to qualify for a J.D. in 2.5 years instead of 3 years, would you choose to do so? Why or why not?

abogadesq · Post by **abogadesq** » Sun Sep 20, 2015 12:20 am

Depends what you're aiming for. A lot of firms hire in cycles. Graduating mid-cycle may not be advantageous if you are left post-graduation for the next cycle to come about. However, graduating early can give you a leg up in seeking employment in offices that hire sporadically. I graduated early and believe that it helped me land a government job that had fewer takers since people in my class were still on their last semester.

totesTheGoat · Post by **totesTheGoat** » Tue Sep 22, 2015 2:36 pm

Yes, and I am*

*I'm a part-time student, so I went from 4 years to 3.5.

Why? Because I'm working in my field of law, doing a limited version of the work I want to do when I graduate. I'm taking pretty much all of the classes in this area of law this semester, so I just have 2 required courses, a public service requirement, and I have to hit my credits requirement to graduate. If I had the option to take care of all of that next semester and graduate a full year early (roughly equivalent to graduating full-time in 2.5 years), I'd jump on that in an instant.

Mid-cycle graduation is a really awesome thing if you have yourself together. Either you'll be hired early, or you have the opportunity to take the February bar and have a bar passage on your resume when competing with your May-graduating classmates who are still waiting to take the July bar.

Vexed · Post by **Vexed** » Tue Sep 22, 2015 7:37 pm

I don't think I would, unless I was in a situation where I was worried about employment and wanted to get a leg-up on hiring. It's not like starting 5 months earlier is going to set me significantly ahead on some abstract career curve, and I'm pretty sure you'd end up in the same "class" of associates as those who graduated in spring semester anyways (not positive on this point).

Biggest thing for me is that while I get the gripes about law school classes/professors/students, once that's all over it's straight-up career from here on out. Might as well milk those last 5 months of relative freedom.

smaug · Post by **smaug** » Tue Sep 22, 2015 7:42 pm

Are you paying for the last semester?

jbagelboy · Post by **jbagelboy** » Wed Sep 23, 2015 12:02 am

If I didn't have to pay for the last semester, obviously I would.

If you had the ability to graduate a semester earlier, would you? Forum

If you had the ability to graduate a semester earlier, would you?

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