Should I continue teaching and attend law school part time? Forum

[legallyliz92]

I am a transplant living in NYC. I’m a second year teacher (TFA), and love my job.

I have always wanted to become a public interest lawyer (working with families similar to the students I serve now). I also come from a similar background, so I have a personal stake in this decision.

I’m planning to stay in NYC, but am not sure if I should pursue law school part time while teaching, or attend full time and quit my teaching job.

As it stands, I’ve narrowed down my choices to Fordham (part time), Columbia (a reach school), and NYU (another reach school). My undergrad GPA is low (3.3 with upward trend for the last two years of undergrad). I’ll also have a masters degree in education with a 3.9 GPA (I’m aware that isn’t calculated in the school’s numbers, but I do consider it a soft). I work at a transfer school in the South Bronx where I work with court-involved youth and/or those who are housing insecure.

I took the LSAT-flex and scored a 169 after 6 months of consistent studying. I’m mainly concerned about quitting my job, not having an income, and attending a full time law school in a very expensive city. I’m a URM (AA Female), and first-gen.

The idea I have is to attend law school part time (Fordham, CUNY, other) while continue teaching full time (increases salary every year).

Please help!

[crazywafflez]

Hey, I would expand the schools you are applying to. I'd look at applying to all the T14 (you'll get a waiver to them, just email the schools), and Fordham full-time (maybe even some other T20s like WashU or T1s if they are in other areas you wouldn't mind working in, as you'll get fullrides to a number of them I believe, but it seems you're quite settled on NYC). Not sure what Fordham does for scholarships, but I think you'd receive a good one, and possibly some from some T14s as well (but apply broadly, as you never know).
Your GPA is a bit low but you've got a good LSAT and URM/softs going in your favor. I think you'll get into a decent number of schools.
All of the T14 schools can get you back to NYC biglaw, if that is your goal.

I would not teach while going to law school. I taught in a University setting part time while going to law school fulltime and it was a mistake. I wasn't able to balance everything. I also chose to go to a regional T1 school on a scholarship, but my goals were not biglaw related. Moreover, at a T1 school like Fordham, if biglaw is your goal, you'll need top grades. Balancing work and school and attempting that outcome will be quite difficult. You'd be better set financially even in the mid-term future if you went to Cornell or Penn for half price, graduated median or bottom half, grabbed a less prestigious biglaw job, worked there for 5 years, and then went to do public interest work (maybe someone who knows more about PI stuff can tell you about transitioning, cause it may not be that easy), or you could do the PI debt forgiveness, than you would be doing part time at Fordham. I think the calculus could change though if you're looking at a fullride at Fordham vs sticker at Cornell, etc. But I would not do the part time program, both for financial reasons and grade related ones.

[CanadianWolf]

The concern is that if you continue to work while attending law school on a part-time basis is that you will not do well at either endeavor.

Apply to a larger number of law schools in order to maximize your chances for a meaningful scholarship offer.

Have you considered the COA for law school ? Seems as though CUNY may be your only affordable option on your list of target law schools.