Law Schools that begin sometime other than fall? Forum

[Guard1an]

I was wondering if there are any law schools that start their academic year sometime other than in fall? Perhaps later such as in Winter, etc...

To make a long story short, I found out late that i could graduate early from my university (finishing in 3). Consequently, I will be behind on the application process.

During my "year-off", I really want to be doing something. My aim is to hopefully work or atleast intern at a law firm, I have been trying to build my network and befriend practicing attorneys to hopefully build some connections, but I wont depend on them. I was wondering if there any law schools that start later in the year which i could apply. Thanks in advance, I really appreciate it!

edit: I apologize if i posted this in the wrong section, please let me know if it is incorrect or if there is a better place and i will re-post it. Thanks again!

[cigrainger]

I was wondering if there are any law schools that start their academic year sometime other than in fall? Perhaps later such as in Winter, etc...

To make a long story short, I found out late that i could graduate early from my university (finishing in 3). Consequently, I will be behind on the application process.

During my "year-off", I really want to be doing something. My aim is to hopefully work or atleast intern at a law firm, I have been trying to build my network and befriend practicing attorneys to hopefully build some connections, but I wont depend on them. I was wondering if there any law schools that start later in the year which i could apply. Thanks in advance, I really appreciate it!

What's your GPA? Most people would kill for an opportunity NOT to graduate early and to use their fourth year to pad out their GPA.

Mich does a summer start program, but other than that I dunno.

[Logjik]

Cardoza offers admission on January:

http://www.cardozo.yu.edu/MemberContent ... lderid=302

[jayn3]

I was wondering if there are any law schools that start their academic year sometime other than in fall? Perhaps later such as in Winter, etc...

To make a long story short, I found out late that i could graduate early from my university (finishing in 3). Consequently, I will be behind on the application process.

During my "year-off", I really want to be doing something. My aim is to hopefully work or atleast intern at a law firm, I have been trying to build my network and befriend practicing attorneys to hopefully build some connections, but I wont depend on them. I was wondering if there any law schools that start later in the year which i could apply. Thanks in advance, I really appreciate it!

What's your GPA? Most people would kill for an opportunity NOT to graduate early and to use their fourth year to pad out their GPA.

Mich does a summer start program, but other than that I dunno.

agreed, if you can afford another year of UG then by all means bump up that gpa with easy courses and spend the extra time prepping for the lsat and writing essays.

otherwise, talk to career services and find out what opportunities you can get in law or related to law. consider volunteering and working part-time when you're not prepping/writing.

[vanwinkle]

Cardoza offers admission on January:

http://www.cardozo.yu.edu/MemberContent ... lderid=302

This program could potentially be terrible for your future job prospects, though. It's a full-time program, and you take your 1L year in the Spring and Summer semesters (instead of Fall and Spring like regular students do). Then you start your 2L year the same Fall. This is bad for two reasons:

1) Your 1L summer is spent in class, not doing an internship or anything else that counts as "real-world" activity. In this economy that's going to be extremely hurtful. When you're looking for 2L summer internships, employers are going to prefer students who have some prior experience over those who don't.

2) OCI is still going to be the start of your 2L fall. You won't have your grades back from your 1L Summer classes because grading takes forever. You'll be asking employers to hire you based on just a single semester of grades. That could be rough.

These obstacles might have been less of a problem in a stronger economy, but right now employers are looking for every excuse to prune people from consideration. They're swimming in applicants and if they can cut it down easily before or after initial interviews they will. These are the things they'll look for as easy targets for non-consideration. Going into a program like this could be a severe handicap. You'd be better off waiting until the next fall and starting then.

[vanwinkle]

During my "year-off", I really want to be doing something. My aim is to hopefully work or atleast intern at a law firm, I have been trying to build my network and befriend practicing attorneys to hopefully build some connections, but I wont depend on them. I was wondering if there any law schools that start later in the year which i could apply. Thanks in advance, I really appreciate it!

Get a year of work experience. It doesn't even have to be in the legal field at all. Law schools, and legal employers, right now are looking for people with real-world work experience. They're not looking for legal experience, since they expect to train you how they do things anyway; they're looking for something that shows you know what working in the real world is like and you have that experience. That makes you more valuable than someone who's fresh out of UG and doesn't know what real work is like, and is going to have to suffer some real growing pains on the job they don't want to deal with.

Also, anecdotally, people who've had prior work experience do better in law school, because law school is more real-job-like. You have to be a self-starter and do a lot of learning that isn't assigned to you in the classroom in order to get ahead. A lot of the people I know who do well in law school are people who had prior WE and understood better that they were going to have to do a lot of work on their own instead of waiting for someone to handhold them.

For that reason, WE of almost any sort helps in both law school admissions and in legal hiring. As long as it's full-time work and it's a full year or more (which can be a full year when you'd start law school, it doesn't have to be a year yet when you apply) it'll be a help to you.

Go do something interesting. Can you do the Peace Corps for only one year? I think that requires at least two, but that might give you ideas. See if you can get a year-long job with Habitat for Humanity or the local TV station or whatever you can think of that interests you and can use you for a year.

[Guard1an]

my overall GPA will fall somewhere around a 3.0-3.1

I was a bio major my first 2 years while basically majoring in Political Science without actually having it declared yet. I came in undecided/undeclared. My first year went great and had solid grades, my second year was a disaster and hurt my GPA as i got knocked around with organic chemistry and a few biology courses. I have been trying really hard to raise it up as much as possible. My political science major GPA is a little over 3.5. I can possibly raise my overall GPA by another .2 if i stay another year but i am not sure if that is significant enough to make a worthwhile difference. I am walking this june for but will be staying for summer school the entire summer to fulfill remaining units and raise my GPA a little more.

I REALLY regret coming in as Bio with pre-med disposition, at the time I thought it was what I wanted to do. Wish i could go back and start as strictly political science but its too late for that unfortunately

I have not taken the LSAT yet but i am preparing for the October 2010 test, I have been taking a prep course that I won for free with Princeton Review and will be taking another one with Testmasters over the summer up until before the October test.

I apologize for the lengthy posts. Please let me know if you would like me to clarify something. Thanks again for the help, it means a lot!

[jayn3]

my overall GPA will fall somewhere around a 3.0-3.1

I was a bio major my first 2 years while basically majoring in Political Science without actually having it declared yet. I came in undecided/undeclared. My first year went great and had solid grades, my second year was a disaster and hurt my GPA as i got knocked around with organic chemistry and a few biology courses. I have been trying really hard to raise it up as much as possible. My political science major GPA is a little over 3.5. I can possibly raise my overall GPA by another .2 if i stay another year but i am not sure if that is significant enough to make a worthwhile difference. I am walking this june for but will be staying for summer school the entire summer to fulfill remaining units and raise my GPA a little more.

I REALLY regret coming in as Bio with pre-med disposition, at the time I thought it was what I wanted to do. Wish i could go back and start as strictly political science but its too late for that unfortunately

I have not taken the LSAT yet but i am preparing for the October 2010 test, I have been taking a prep course that I won for free with Princeton Review and will be taking another one with Testmasters over the summer up until before the October test.

I apologize for the lengthy posts. Please let me know if you would like me to clarify something. Thanks again for the help, it means a lot!

by overall gpa i'm assuming you mean lsdas gpa....so are you sure you can't stay another year? it sounds like that could really help you out.

otherwise, i'd say your best option is to get a few years' work experience. seriously.

[Danteshek]

California Western has a section that starts in January.

Also, some Kansas students start in the summer.

[vanwinkle]

my overall GPA will fall somewhere around a 3.0-3.1

I was a bio major my first 2 years while basically majoring in Political Science without actually having it declared yet. I came in undecided/undeclared. My first year went great and had solid grades, my second year was a disaster and hurt my GPA as i got knocked around with organic chemistry and a few biology courses. I have been trying really hard to raise it up as much as possible. My political science major GPA is a little over 3.5. I can possibly raise my overall GPA by another .2 if i stay another year but i am not sure if that is significant enough to make a worthwhile difference. I am walking this june for but will be staying for summer school the entire summer to fulfill remaining units and raise my GPA a little more.

So you're a 3.0-3.1 now, but staying a year could raise it to a 3.3? If that's possible it's probably worth it, especially since it would help establish a strong upward GPA trend. You would still be considered a splitter and would need a high LSAT score to get into top law schools, but you would be able to make a stronger case for yourself. Given how law school admissions are getting tougher every year, this may be worth it.

I would honestly recommend both. Spend an extra year boosting your GPA, then go get a year or two of WE doing something. Don't worry about getting older, getting older is actually a strength in law school. The more maturity and experience you bring in with you, the better you'll do. I started at the age of 28 and it's a great age to be starting law school to be honest. I'm not saying you have to wait that long, but certainly don't be in a rush to get into law school.

This is especially true right now. ITE legal hiring sucks really badly. Things are starting to slowly look better, but if you can delay a couple years you'll be a lot more likely to find quality work when you graduate. It's going to take years for legal hiring to truly recover, and the longer you wait the better the conditions will likely before you when you're seeking post-graduation work.

So, while it's the opposite of what you're looking for, I recommend:

1) Taking time to graduate. Do NOT graduate now. (Getting a degree stops GPA calculations for law schools, so don't think you can receive a first degree now and then stay in and get another!) Spend an extra year taking classes and bolstering your GPA.

2) Rock the LSAT when you're getting ready to apply to law school.

3) Get at least 1 year of solid work experience under your belt. It will help you in many, many ways.

4) Start law school later than you planned, but with more experience and knowledge that will make you both more valued by future employers and more likely to succeed in law school.

[jayn3]

my overall GPA will fall somewhere around a 3.0-3.1

I was a bio major my first 2 years while basically majoring in Political Science without actually having it declared yet. I came in undecided/undeclared. My first year went great and had solid grades, my second year was a disaster and hurt my GPA as i got knocked around with organic chemistry and a few biology courses. I have been trying really hard to raise it up as much as possible. My political science major GPA is a little over 3.5. I can possibly raise my overall GPA by another .2 if i stay another year but i am not sure if that is significant enough to make a worthwhile difference. I am walking this june for but will be staying for summer school the entire summer to fulfill remaining units and raise my GPA a little more.

So you're a 3.0-3.1 now, but staying a year could raise it to a 3.3? If that's possible it's probably worth it, especially since it would help establish a strong upward GPA trend. You would still be considered a splitter and would need a high LSAT score to get into top law schools, but you would be able to make a stronger case for yourself. Given how law school admissions are getting tougher every year, this may be worth it.

I would honestly recommend both. Spend an extra year boosting your GPA, then go get a year or two of WE doing something. Don't worry about getting older, getting older is actually a strength in law school. The more maturity and experience you bring in with you, the better you'll do. I started at the age of 28 and it's a great age to be starting law school to be honest. I'm not saying you have to wait that long, but certainly don't be in a rush to get into law school.

This is especially true right now. ITE legal hiring sucks really badly. Things are starting to slowly look better, but if you can delay a couple years you'll be a lot more likely to find quality work when you graduate. It's going to take years for legal hiring to truly recover, and the longer you wait the better the conditions will likely before you when you're seeking post-graduation work.

So, while it's the opposite of what you're looking for, I recommend:

1) Taking time to graduate. Do NOT graduate now. (Getting a degree stops GPA calculations for law schools, so don't think you can receive a first degree now and then stay in and get another!) Spend an extra year taking classes and bolstering your GPA.

2) Rock the LSAT when you're getting ready to apply to law school.

3) Get at least 1 year of solid work experience under your belt. It will help you in many, many ways.

4) Start law school later than you planned, but with more experience and knowledge that will make you both more valued by future employers and more likely to succeed in law school.

this

also, don't feel pressured by the free prep course. remember your score stays valid for several (3?) years after you take it, so you can sit on the score until you're ready to apply....or retake it if you're not satisfied.

[katjust]

I didn't read this too closely, but if you have to take on debt to go an extra year I don't know that it is worth it.

Also, Baylor admits in the fall, spring, and summer.

[jayn3]

I didn't read this too closely, but if you have to take on debt to go an extra year I don't know that it is worth it.

Also, Baylor admits in the fall, spring, and summer.

depending on OP's tuition and financial aid right now, the cost of one more year of UG may well be balanced out or bettered by potential future scholarships and job opportunities. not to mention life experience + maturity gained that will likely help them succeed in LS.

[TexasDemocrat]

STCL admits for Spring.

[gwuorbust]

my overall GPA will fall somewhere around a 3.0-3.1

I was a bio major my first 2 years while basically majoring in Political Science without actually having it declared yet. I came in undecided/undeclared. My first year went great and had solid grades, my second year was a disaster and hurt my GPA as i got knocked around with organic chemistry and a few biology courses. I have been trying really hard to raise it up as much as possible. My political science major GPA is a little over 3.5. I can possibly raise my overall GPA by another .2 if i stay another year but i am not sure if that is significant enough to make a worthwhile difference. I am walking this june for but will be staying for summer school the entire summer to fulfill remaining units and raise my GPA a little more.

I REALLY regret coming in as Bio with pre-med disposition, at the time I thought it was what I wanted to do. Wish i could go back and start as strictly political science but its too late for that unfortunately

I have not taken the LSAT yet but i am preparing for the October 2010 test, I have been taking a prep course that I won for free with Princeton Review and will be taking another one with Testmasters over the summer up until before the October test.

I apologize for the lengthy posts. Please let me know if you would like me to clarify something. Thanks again for the help, it means a lot!

Here is the plan: you withdraw your application for graduation. Then you defer at your current school for a year and research to find the easyist school that also has a higher than 4.0 scale. Get a summer and two straight semesters of 4.33s and then I'm betting your GPA will go up like .3-.35 ..plus if you find the right place then it will prob be cheap as hell if it is a nothing state college.

HTH

[Norlan]

1) Your 1L summer is spent in class, not doing an internship or anything else that counts as "real-world" activity. In this economy that's going to be extremely hurtful. When you're looking for 2L summer internships, employers are going to prefer students who have some prior experience over those who don't.

Is it possible to go to summer school while you work on an internship?