If you could, would you do law school in two years? Forum

[A. Nony Mouse]

It doesn't really matter what your experience is, if you're not a law student or graduate, you shouldn't be answering questions in this forum - people posting here are looking for responses from students or graduates. This may eliminate some useful advice, but it's the easiest way to prevent the blind leading the blind. Everyone will have to live without your insights until you make it into law school.

[NYC-WVU]

It doesn't really matter what your experience is, if you're not a law student or graduate, you shouldn't be answering questions in this forum - people posting here are looking for responses from students or graduates. This may eliminate some useful advice, but it's the easiest way to prevent the blind leading the blind. Everyone will have to live without your insights until you make it into law school.

That's fair. Which is why I apologized. My original post to the OP was a mistake.

[Sicem007]

Is Northwestern the only school worth going to for an accelerated J.D? How would someone in this program develop a network if they are in school for two years without summers?

[mirroroferised7]

Is Northwestern the only school worth going to for an accelerated J.D? How would someone in this program develop a network if they are in school for two years without summers?

You do have the second summer. And most AJD's seemed to be able to land something their second (2L-ish?) summer.

As for other 2 year programs, my numbers allowed me to restrict my consideration to the T20. I don't think there's another 2 year program in the T20, but outside of that I have less information.

0L: Having worked for quite a while, I am not particularly interested in rushing to get back to work, so I didn't even consider trying to graduate in two years. And if 3L is as easy as everyone says, I'm looking forward to the pace. It's probably the last time I'll be able to sleep solid hours and enjoy weekends for a long time, and worth the opportunity cost (paying tuition might be annoying though.) That's not to say I don't enjoy working, I'm just not interested in making law school any harder/shorter for the benefit of working again sooner.

Read the title of the section of the forum, 0L. It says ask a law student/graduate. And then OP went on to specify she wants 3Ls and grads. So, yeah, stop offering advice you don't know about. You have no idea if its worth the opportunity cost.

You're right. She was not asking me. And I apologize to the OP for giving my thoughts.
On the other-hand, while I hate to divert the thread from OPs question, your response was so dick, I just have to say something. As far as offering advice that I "don't know about," you really have no idea what I know and what I don't know. And I don't need to know anything about law school to answer the question of whether an extra year in school is worth it. I've probably got more years of education than you, even with your years of law school, and I almost certainly have more law firm experience, doing exactly the same shit that I'm going to be doing as an attorney. So I think I have some justification in saying whether that 3L year kicking it is worth the lost ~$170,000 in opportunity cost. And, again, I think it's worth it, which is why I didn't bother applying to NUs AJD program.

ETA: Seriously, though, NYU, if you don't have real, actual experience with the third year of law school, why did you post?

[wojo98]

if you don't have real, actual experience with [X], why did you post?

Also applicable to 90% of the opinion (masquerading as fact) on TLS.

[mirroroferised7]

if you don't have real, actual experience with [X], why did you post?

Also applicable to 90% of the opinion (masquerading as fact) on TLS.

PREACH.

[NYC-WVU]

Is Northwestern the only school worth going to for an accelerated J.D? How would someone in this program develop a network if they are in school for two years without summers?

You do have the second summer. And most AJD's seemed to be able to land something their second (2L-ish?) summer.

As for other 2 year programs, my numbers allowed me to restrict my consideration to the T20. I don't think there's another 2 year program in the T20, but outside of that I have less information.

0L: Having worked for quite a while, I am not particularly interested in rushing to get back to work, so I didn't even consider trying to graduate in two years. And if 3L is as easy as everyone says, I'm looking forward to the pace. It's probably the last time I'll be able to sleep solid hours and enjoy weekends for a long time, and worth the opportunity cost (paying tuition might be annoying though.) That's not to say I don't enjoy working, I'm just not interested in making law school any harder/shorter for the benefit of working again sooner.

Read the title of the section of the forum, 0L. It says ask a law student/graduate. And then OP went on to specify she wants 3Ls and grads. So, yeah, stop offering advice you don't know about. You have no idea if its worth the opportunity cost.

You're right. She was not asking me. And I apologize to the OP for giving my thoughts.
On the other-hand, while I hate to divert the thread from OPs question, your response was so dick, I just have to say something. As far as offering advice that I "don't know about," you really have no idea what I know and what I don't know. And I don't need to know anything about law school to answer the question of whether an extra year in school is worth it. I've probably got more years of education than you, even with your years of law school, and I almost certainly have more law firm experience, doing exactly the same shit that I'm going to be doing as an attorney. So I think I have some justification in saying whether that 3L year kicking it is worth the lost ~$170,000 in opportunity cost. And, again, I think it's worth it, which is why I didn't bother applying to NUs AJD program.

ETA: Seriously, though, NYU, if you don't have real, actual experience with the third year of law school, why did you post?

Are you asking seriously? Or are you just trying to jab me about something that I already apologized for? At the time of answering, I had not recognized that the question was only for law school students. I realize that was a very stupid oversight and I have apologized.
But now that you have asked me specifically, thereby granting me the precious right to answer the question: The reason that I answered is because I've been sitting in a law firm doing patent prosecution and opinion work for nine years and I'll probably do it for another thirty years after graduating, perhaps with some litigation as well. And my point was, there's no way I'm skipping the easy year of law school to get back to doing this asap. You might not value that, but I thought someone should point out that if your third year is as easy as everyone says it is, it'll be your last chance to relax without having any adverse affect on your future, so why would you want to skip it.
And while I may not be in the best position to answer your question, the 3Ls that are answering are not equipped to answer your question either. You should be asking young attorneys who have done NUs AJD program and other young attorneys that went to the three-year schools you are looking at. A current student can't know what impact their third year will end up having on their career. And I assume that is what you're really interested in. Finally, you should definitely take the answers you're getting from the general population of current law school students with a huge grain of salt. I would be surprised if the value of the third year at U Miss can be compared to the third year at UCLA.

[spleenworship]

Just to be clear, OP, some of the people answering your question were grads. And furthermore, one of them is an NU grad. So I anyone needs to be taken with a grain of salt it's the 0L with extremely limited experience in a very specialized area of law.

[A. Nony Mouse]

The idea that a third year at one school has less value than the third year at another school also doesn't make any sense to me. You can get pretty much the same quality education anywhere. The value of an overall degree from one school may arguably be less because that school opens fewer doors than another, but that doesn't have anything to do with whether a third year is more worth it at one school than another (remember that NU's AJD program costs the same as the 3-year program).

Personally, my 3rd year was the most work of all 3 years, but I was applying for clerkships and continuing to try to bolster my resume because I was aiming for government jobs, so I took on too much stuff. Some of that stuff was very beneficial to my career, but if I'd been heading the traditional biglaw route, and got a permanent offer at the end of 2L summer, I probably wouldn't have done most of it and would have found 3L fairly pointless.

[mirroroferised7]

Just to be clear, OP, some of the people answering your question were grads. And furthermore, one of them is an NU grad. So I anyone needs to be taken with a grain of salt it's the 0L with extremely limited experience in a very specialized area of law.

Spleen, I realize that. I appreciate their (mostly) thoughtful discussion. It has definitely served to confirm my suspicions about being a 3L. I feel much more thoroughly informed about this topic.


NYU, no, I was not actually asking you to clarify your motives. Please, next time, read the OP.

This definitely sways me in favor of the AJD program, but I am still a bit skittish about committing in May. I will get my NU financial aid (and merit aid) offer next week. That will hopefully solidify my leanings.

If any 3Ls or grads have comments they wish to submit about committing to a school in May, or about 2 year programs, please feel free to continue weighing in!