Top Law Schools

Hello everyone,

This is my first post on these forums and it's probably one of the weirder ones you will see! I am in the Southern California area.

Since my story is odd I'd rather omit it. The long and short of it is that I have free rides at Loyola Marymount and Pepperdine. Why am I looking at these schools? Well, it's because I want to stay in the area and because I don't really think I need a fancy law degree! To be honest, I am already very well credentialed. I have a Ph.D., a specialty masters degree, and some industry certifications (I'm in Finance). I have an excellent and flexible job.

I want a law degree only to learn about the law (everyone in my industry says it really doesn't help advance careers in my area). Therefore, the name on the Diploma doesn't matter to me. Since the name doesn't matter, why stress out at a ruthless school farther away from me?

This is where you guys talk me down from my perch of stupidity (i.e., wasting years for a J.D. I probably wont use) or set me strait on the details of how to do this!

PS: I'm closest to Loyola and I see US news says they have a good part time program. Thus, I lean toward Loyola.

You want a law degree only to learn about the law?

You can do that without going to law school and not waste 3 years of your life. Buy some books and read on your own time on your own pace.

While I'm 90% sure you are correct, if it's free and part time I sort of am learning on my own pace, right? Plus I can put J.D. on my business card and people will probably be impressed assuming they are stupid (note: my experience tells me that many people are stupid and easily impressed with the letters I put behind my name). EDIT, I'm joking on the "stupid" comments! Please take no offense!

Terrible reasons, I know, but if I do study it on my own anyway I might as well get credit for it, right? That is basically my dilemma. I will probably NOT do it, but I wanted to feel out the community on it.

Law school is not some high-brow academic endeavor. You'll be wasting your time I promise you.

LawSchoolOrNot wrote:While I'm 90% sure you are correct, if it's free and part time I sort of am learning on my own pace, right? Plus I can put J.D. on my business card and people will probably be impressed assuming they are stupid (note: my experience tells me that many people are stupid and easily impressed with the letters I put behind my name).

Terrible reasons, I know, but if I do study it on my own anyway I might as well get credit for it, right? That is basically my dilemma. I will probably NOT do it, but I wanted to feel out the community on it.

Why does the credit matter???

Your ability to discuss legal principles from self study and your supposed PhD will suffice in being 'superior' over people that you view as stupid from your self-proclaimed experience.

There is no dilemma to discuss. Stop trolling

"Law school is not some high-brow academic endeavor. You'll be wasting your time I promise you."

"There is no dilemma to discuss. Stop trolling"

Haha. I appreciate the brutal honesty! I just know a couple people with law degrees that really talk them up, so on some level I find the comments here surprising.

Still, like I said I'm almost sure I won't do it! I'm not trolling, I'm just trying to give this thing one last bit of consideration. I was just joking about the "stupid" people comments. Gotta have some levity to make it through this life!

You should just got to an online school to keep finances low. You really just need 2-3 classes to get an idea of the academic experience. It's a lot of stuff repeating over and over again for several years.

Go to Pepperdine, then. Why not?

LawSchoolOrNot wrote:I just know a couple people with law degrees that really talk them up, so on some level I find the comments here surprising.

Lawyers are lawyers and most people would probably talk up a degree they spent 3 years and some good money on.

"Go to Pepperdine, then. Why not?"

Haha. The earlier posts seem pretty vehement that I'm wasting my time...

Pepperdine is gorgeous, though. It was a stunner. Loyola is closer but not in half as nice of an area.

It sounds like law school offers more negatives than positives for you, even supposing it is entirely free of tuition costs.

Won't you have to miss out on earnings/career advancement? Won't you miss out on a bunch of networking/social/family life? Law students aren't terribly fun to hang out with, unless your idea of a good time is drinking heavily and gainsaying one another until you pass out. They're also mostly kids just out of college, so they won't offer much in terms of intellectual compatibility if you really do have a PhD.

And then you gain... a couple more letters after your name? Do you even want to take the bar? If not, you're not really a practicing lawyer, and if so, why? It just seems like a huge waste of time to me. Keeping up with the Joneses is a terrible reason to get a JD.

I mean, if you really are a PhD, MBA, CPA/CFA, have a job that you're keeping to attend law school part time, have a full ride, and want to go to law school? It'll be a waste of 4 years of your evenings and it'll be grueling as hell, but (1) it won't be financially crippling (2) you're already job secure and have no desire to look for a law job anyway so... why not? Not a lot of compelling reasons for "why" though but it won't be a life-ruining decision to attend. Just not a prudent, smart, or logical one.

Dont you have friends or family to spend your free time with?

I'm guessing no if you're even considering this

Thanks everyone.

I will show this thread to the person who is still trying to convince me to go. It should shut them up.

I will admit that I do love school, but I also admit that my love of school does cut a lot of time out of my life.

Yeah. There are better things to do in LA than go to mediocre law schools! This really shouldn't have been a discussion in the first place. I'm officially ending my time as a student!

Thanks everyone. Your harshness was very helpful!

Don't go

See your family. Don't let your life pass you by for two letters meaningless to your career.

I'd consider looking at unaccredited law schools with online programs. Northwestern California's online program is sub-5k a year including books, Oak Brook is about the same, St. Francis is about 7k/year including books, and so on. If you have a bunch of money to throw down on learning lawish things and you're opposed to borrowing books from the library and figuring it out yourself, any of these options are better than quitting your job and going to law school for three years.

LawSchoolOrNot wrote: I want a law degree only to learn about the law (everyone in my industry says it really doesn't help advance careers in my area). Therefore, the name on the Diploma doesn't matter to me.

read a goddamn book and save three years of your life

jbagelboy wrote: read a goddamn book and save three years of your life

This. But if you won't listen to that, then:

twenty wrote:I'd consider looking at unaccredited law schools with online programs. Northwestern California's online program is sub-5k a year including books, Oak Brook is about the same, St. Francis is about 7k/year including books, and so on. If you have a bunch of money to throw down on learning lawish things and you're opposed to borrowing books from the library and figuring it out yourself, any of these options are better than quitting your job and going to law school for three years.

Law school is horrible and mostly just a means to an end (piddling chance of possible miserable career), but I actually disagree that it's not a high-brow academic endeavor. It is that, in many cases, but it's also an insane pressure-cooker of stress that centers around forced competition and grueling desperation. I occasionally wonder if school could be enjoyable without the looming spectre of unemployment pressure, but for most of us that's just one of those things we dream about then shove back down into our subconscious because ain't nobody got time to dream in law school.

To echo everyone else, buy a ridiculously long treatise on an area of law you find absolutely uninteresting (for me that would be contracts). Read the book cover to cover at a rate of roughly 40 to 70 pages per night, then google around for a law school exam on that subject, and take it under timed conditions. Then recognize that that would be less awful than actual law school, where in all likelihood you'll be alternating reading four casebooks you hate.

As an alternative, buy a few Law in a Nutshell books on things that interest you and save yourself the worst headache imaginable.

LawSchoolOrNot wrote:Thanks everyone.

I will show this thread to the person who is still trying to convince me to go. It should shut them up.

I will admit that I do love school, but I also admit that my love of school does cut a lot of time out of my life.

Yeah. There are better things to do in LA than go to mediocre law schools! This really shouldn't have been a discussion in the first place. I'm officially ending my time as a student!

Thanks everyone. Your harshness was very helpful!

You will show this to the person and say "the random internet people tell me not to go, so there"?

If you want to study law and you can go for free while maintaining your current job and income then you are in a pretty good position.
Yes, law school is work and it won't be summer camp.
To most people that aren't scambloggers, scamblog-reader-naysayers, or otherwise disenchanted TLS folks (or disenchanted attorneys), I think being having a JD still carries some clout.

You don't need anyone here to validate anything or talk you out of anything. I say do it.
But what you really should be doing here is asking about the law school experience and deciding if you want to subject yourself to that.
Law school can be fun. You will meet interesting and smart people. You will be intellectually challenged in a unique way.
But it will be a commitment.

Heck, if it is free then what do you have to lose by giving it a crack!? Start, and if you hate it then bail. Or, if you are considering it at all simply because someone is suggesting it then maybe you really shouldn't go, in which case tell your friend it's just not your bag (absent the back up from random internet strangers).