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I just got my schedule for my evening/part time law school program and I am on the verge of a heart attack. I knew it would be intense, but I was under the impression that classes met four days a week and not five. I am attending GMU and have class from 6-8 4 days a week and 6-9 one day a week. Is this the same for you part timers at other schools?
For current part timers out there - who are still working full time - how are you managing? Any tips/tricks? I am panicking!! It would be nice to band together! Haha ... Thanks all!!

Haha, I'm also starting PT at GMU and I expected four days a week. It was a rather unpleasant surprise when I saw the schedule we'll have to deal with. As someone who works in Herndon, four days of commuting to Arlington would've been much, much better for me than five.

No real tips and tricks here; just well wishes and I'll see you shortly!

Hahaha even knowing someone else is in the same boat is comforting. I'll be commuting from Mclean... the accident on the key bridge yesterday caused me to have a mental breakdown as I realized that any time there is an accident I will be at least 60 minutes late for class.

I did a post in this forum about part time 1L schedules you should check it out.

Most part-time programs are 4 days a week. I will be a PT 1L at Catholic and my schedule is 6-9 M-Th.

Your schedule just depends on the type of person you are. But what I can say is that Saturday and/or Sunday should become a normal 8hr work day for you.

When I met the GMU rep at an LSAC forum, she said 1L PT students would have M-F classes. But that's the only way I found out. AU's PT schedule (so far) is only M-TH, but haven't got our writing seminar schedules yet. Possibility we'll meet every other Friday, or something like that.

They should make this information more available for us trying to figure out work schedules (or to help our sanity) when applying. Or at least provide the schedules from the past couple years.

I guess I should feel lucky, I'm a beginning 1L parttime at Georgia State and I only have class M-W (8.5 credits total).

lazy8s wrote:I guess I should feel lucky, I'm a beginning 1L parttime at Georgia State and I only have class M-W (8.5 credits total).

8.5? That's odd. Is it still Property, Contracts, and RWA/Legal Bib?

lazy8s wrote:I guess I should feel lucky, I'm a beginning 1L parttime at Georgia State and I only have class M-W (8.5 credits total).

8.5? How long does your program take to complete? Are you going summers too? We're (GMU part-timers) at 11 for first semester.

it can't be done!

If you take summer courses, I think you can finish in 4 years (someone mentioned 3.5 years is possible if you maxed out summer sessions). The program, excluding summers, would take 5 years to finish.

lazy8s wrote:If you take summer courses, I think you can finish in 4 years (someone mentioned 3.5 years is possible if you maxed out summer sessions). The program, excluding summers, would take 5 years to finish.

4 years is pretty standard, as most PT students end up taking summer classes. 3.5 years is doable if you come close to maxing out (11 in the spring & fall, 6 in the summer) your hours each semester.

It's good that you're only taking 9 or 10 your first two semesters - RWA will be a huge time suck.

That's actually something new they started to do because of recent ABA-requirements which dictate that law schools ought to offer Friday classes. It sucks, but alas it is the ritual that many will have to bear. I am working full-time and go to school part-time in the evening, it sucks! But somehow, people do it, so we all can as well. Good luck!

I'm a 2L at a T1 who will try out one or two part time semesters (with FT work). I think PT school is a great arrangement to cut down net costs. I did 1L as a FT student, and for me at least, the amount of time spend studying doesn't have that much impact on the course grade (largely because reading cases, which is the time killer, is useless for the most part) - so no need to stress too much about the numeric quantity of time.

Ouch, five days week. I do not know about you, but I would prefer to stay one hour later M-Th then coming in for three hours on Fri.