Thomas Jefferson in San Diego Forum

[williamsmatt]

Has anyone heard about Thomas Jefferson in San Diego? My first choice for law school is the University of San Diego, but I'm also thinking about applying to Thomas Jefferson as an alternative, in case I don't get into USD.

Are there any current students out there? Anyone had experiences with this school that you can share with me?

Thanks,

[Teapot]

Yeah I was wondering the same thing. Thomas Jefferson is a no name, but i'd go there over USD if they gave me money.

[williamsmatt]

Yeah, the only bad thing about applying to Thomas Jefferson, over the University of San Diego, is that Thomas Jefferson requires 2 letters of recommendations, whereas USD doesn't require any!

[LawSuitUp]

i am from NY. But i hear all very very nice things about TJ school of law. i looked there as a safety, and the faculty is impressive and ive never heard something bad about the place (unless you are one of them elitists who sneeze at any thing that isnt in the top 14)

[RVP11]

What about Cal Western? Seems like more of a middle ground between USD and Thomas Jefferson.

[MTal]

/JDunderground hat on

TTThomas Jefferson is a TTT toileTTTe of the highest order, if you don't graduate in the upper 5 % you will be lucky to get a $35k per year shitlaw gig, which will never be enough to pay off your 200k loans which you took out for the "privilege" of earning a salary less than that of a cop or even garbage man.

/JDunderground hat off

[williamsmatt]

Hi jsporter - I'm looking to keep my full time job while attending law school, since I will be needing to take classes at night in San Diego, it's either USD or Thomas Jefferson; Cal Western has a part time program, but the classes are held during daytime hours, which would be impossible for my situation!

[lsb]

/JDunderground hat on

TTThomas Jefferson is a TTT toileTTTe of the highest order, if you don't graduate in the upper 5 % you will be lucky to get a $35k per year shitlaw gig, which will never be enough to pay off your 200k loans which you took out for the "privilege" of earning a salary less than that of a cop or even garbage man.

/JDunderground hat off

Thats funny because the median salary is 55K.

[RVP11]

Hi jsporter - I'm looking to keep my full time job while attending law school, since I will be needing to take classes at night in San Diego, it's either USD or Thomas Jefferson; Cal Western has a part time program, but the classes are held during daytime hours, which would be impossible for my situation!

That's a shame, as I've heard really good things about Cal Western, albeit from 1Ls who've yet to start their job search.

[RVP11]

/JDunderground hat on

TTThomas Jefferson is a TTT toileTTTe of the highest order, if you don't graduate in the upper 5 % you will be lucky to get a $35k per year shitlaw gig, which will never be enough to pay off your 200k loans which you took out for the "privilege" of earning a salary less than that of a cop or even garbage man.

/JDunderground hat off

Thats funny because the median salary is 55K.

Don't trust the reported median salary. It could well be the median of the top 20%...

[MTal]

/JDunderground hat on

TTThomas Jefferson is a TTT toileTTTe of the highest order, if you don't graduate in the upper 5 % you will be lucky to get a $35k per year shitlaw gig, which will never be enough to pay off your 200k loans which you took out for the "privilege" of earning a salary less than that of a cop or even garbage man.

/JDunderground hat off

Thats funny because the median salary is 55K.

Are you insane? You think this school actually reports the salaries of its graduates accurately?

[Teapot]

if you're going to tj do it because they give you money and you're confident you can be near the top of the class. otherwise it makes no sense.

[lsb]

/JDunderground hat on

TTThomas Jefferson is a TTT toileTTTe of the highest order, if you don't graduate in the upper 5 % you will be lucky to get a $35k per year shitlaw gig, which will never be enough to pay off your 200k loans which you took out for the "privilege" of earning a salary less than that of a cop or even garbage man.

/JDunderground hat off

Thats funny because the median salary is 55K.

Don't trust the reported median salary. It could well be the median of the top 20%...

55k is with 85% of grads responding.

OP-Don't listen to people who like to say that unless you get into a T14 you won't break 35k a year. That is complete and utter BS. I think that for some reason it pisses a select group of people off that they're opportunities for people that don't get into a T14.

[A'nold]

/JDunderground hat on

TTThomas Jefferson is a TTT toileTTTe of the highest order, if you don't graduate in the upper 5 % you will be lucky to get a $35k per year shitlaw gig, which will never be enough to pay off your 200k loans which you took out for the "privilege" of earning a salary less than that of a cop or even garbage man.

/JDunderground hat off

Thats funny because the median salary is 55K.

Don't trust the reported median salary. It could well be the median of the top 20%...

55k is with 85% of grads responding.

OP-Don't listen to people who like to say that unless you get into a T14 you won't break 35k a year. That is complete and utter BS. I think that for some reason it pisses a select group of people off that they're opportunities for people that don't get into a T14.

Actually, even though this is an extreme statement, I'd say the general idea behind it holds true. People going to higher ranked schools seem like they don't want to believe that someone could actually: 1. Get a job from anything other than a very prestigous law school or 2. Anybody would ever want to work at a job where the starting salary is 55k a year. A good deal of people that don't fall into the previous category are just uninformed due to prestige whoring on websites. Finally, there is a final group that actually knows that it is harder to get a great job from a lower ranked school, kindly state this to people while giving them constructive advice (not things like: consider a different career), and encourage people looking at these schools to, for example, look at t3 or 4 schools in areas where they are the best school in a geographically large market (Ole Miss comes to mind) or make sure to not pay full price at a private t3 or t4.

[joonix]

/JDunderground hat on

TTThomas Jefferson is a TTT toileTTTe of the highest order, if you don't graduate in the upper 5 % you will be lucky to get a $35k per year shitlaw gig, which will never be enough to pay off your 200k loans which you took out for the "privilege" of earning a salary less than that of a cop or even garbage man.

/JDunderground hat off

Thats funny because the median salary is 55K.

lol

[hieveryone]

Yeah actually I know someone who's sister had a high 160's and got accepted full ride to Thomas Jefferson. Apparently she loved it there and made a lot of good friends. I'm guessing she graduated at the top of her class because she makes 100+k a year. Which, the sister admitted, is far above what her friends are making. So moral of this story? If you're ace in law school you're good. Personally, I'm not taking that chance, but if you do decide to go to a TTT work your ass off and it's definitely possible to get a very good job. Not likely, perhaps, but if you're going anyways at least there's some hope.

[lawschoolorbust]

I know someone who graduated from TJ with a medical background prior to enrolling at TJ. Following graduation they got several offers for IP law jobs including work overseas and they are doing quite well now. They were top of the class however including their prior medical degree which is what made it easy to find employment.

[CE2JD]

Some of the posters in this thread are probably just Thomas Jefferson Law School trolls trying to help their school's sterling reputation.

[polycom01]

If you choose Thomas Jefferson over USD, you aren't smart enough to be going to law school anyway.

[pretzellogic]

/JDunderground hat on

TTThomas Jefferson is a TTT toileTTTe of the highest order, if you don't graduate in the upper 5 % you will be lucky to get a $35k per year shitlaw gig, which will never be enough to pay off your 200k loans which you took out for the "privilege" of earning a salary less than that of a cop or even garbage man.

/JDunderground hat off

Thats funny because the median salary is 55K.

Don't trust the reported median salary. It could well be the median of the top 20%...

55k is with 85% of grads responding.

OP-Don't listen to people who like to say that unless you get into a T14 you won't break 35k a year. That is complete and utter BS. I think that for some reason it pisses a select group of people off that they're opportunities for people that don't get into a T14.

There is some excessive negativity in some quarters.

However, keep in mind that the 15% that didn't report likely had the absolute worst results, were not hounded for their response by the law school, and/or were too depressed to respond. Keep in mind that 55k is less money that some skillful career building over the course of 3 years will get almost any intelligent college graduate. Keep in mind that the 55k salary reported is NOT for legal gigs only. They report ANY full-time employment as full-time employment, and count the salary towards their total. (And of those graduates making the 55k median salary, many of them are making 55k at jobs they could have gotten straight out of college.)

All schools manipulate their employment percentages and median salary by doing these things.

The problem is that when tier 1 schools in large cities do this manipulation, they get numbers above 100k. 55k is NOT a hopeful number.

Think long and hard before paying a dime for an education at a school like this. If you have a full scholarship, whatever. Consider going. If you have *any* chance whatsoever of scoring higher on the LSAT, take it again. A 150 is like 1000 on the SAT. A 160 is like 1200. See the difference?

Take a class. Buy the books. Invest $2k in gaining 10 points on the LSAT, and you'll likely earn more than $10k every year.

This is not a joke. The negativity is abrasive, but I've done the research, and those people were right. I'm glad I encountered them on these forums.

When people told you that all you need is that law degree, they were wrong. It's not like that in law (it is in medicine to a great extent). They probably thought you'd make 100k. It seems you've already come to terms with the 55k median -- but do you realize how bad that is? How hard it is to pay back 100k of loans on 55k?

There are 0 Big Law, 135k jobs waiting for graduates of Thomas Jefferson. 0. Do you love law more than anything? Want to make the world a better place? Fine. But just make sure you will be financially solvent. Better yet, take the LSAT again and break into tier 2 or tier 1. It's worth it.

http://www.law.com/pdf/nlj/20080414empl ... trends.pdf
See how ugly it gets even at the bottom of tier 2?

[caroltowtrucker1]

There is some excessive negativity in some quarters.

However, keep in mind that the 15% that didn't report likely had the absolute worst results, were not hounded for their response by the law school, and/or were too depressed to respond. Keep in mind that 55k is less money that some skillful career building over the course of 3 years will get almost any intelligent college graduate. Keep in mind that the 55k salary reported is NOT for legal gigs only. They report ANY full-time employment as full-time employment, and count the salary towards their total. (And of those graduates making the 55k median salary, many of them are making 55k at jobs they could have gotten straight out of college.)

All schools manipulate their employment percentages and median salary by doing these things.

The problem is that when tier 1 schools in large cities do this manipulation, they get numbers above 100k. 55k is NOT a hopeful number.

Think long and hard before paying a dime for an education at a school like this. If you have a full scholarship, whatever. Consider going. If you have *any* chance whatsoever of scoring higher on the LSAT, take it again. A 150 is like 1000 on the SAT. A 160 is like 1200. See the difference?

Take a class. Buy the books. Invest $2k in gaining 10 points on the LSAT, and you'll likely earn more than $10k every year.

This is not a joke. The negativity is abrasive, but I've done the research, and those people were right. I'm glad I encountered them on these forums.

When people told you that all you need is that law degree, they were wrong. It's not like that in law (it is in medicine to a great extent). They probably thought you'd make 100k. It seems you've already come to terms with the 55k median -- but do you realize how bad that is? How hard it is to pay back 100k of loans on 55k?

There are 0 Big Law, 135k jobs waiting for graduates of Thomas Jefferson. 0. Do you love law more than anything? Want to make the world a better place? Fine. But just make sure you will be financially solvent. Better yet, take the LSAT again and break into tier 2 or tier 1. It's worth it.

http://www.law.com/pdf/nlj/20080414empl ... trends.pdf
See how ugly it gets even at the bottom of tier 2?

Amen.

[hieveryone]

Some of the posters in this thread are probably just Thomas Jefferson Law School trolls trying to help their school's sterling reputation.

I don't think so, and there's no need for that.

[brendawalsh]

I drove by it and I wasn't impressed at all. Definitely not aesthetically pleasing...but then again that shouldn't be the most important thing about decided where to go. I'm from the East Coast and I had never heard of it before visiting San Diego. That is just my 2 cents.

[CE2JD]

Some of the posters in this thread are probably just Thomas Jefferson Law School trolls trying to help their school's sterling reputation.

I don't think so, and there's no need for that.

^

Proof

[Teapot]

I drove by it and I wasn't impressed at all. Definitely not aesthetically pleasing...but then again that shouldn't be the most important thing about decided where to go. I'm from the East Coast and I had never heard of it before visiting San Diego. That is just my 2 cents.

brand new building opening up right down town. if the building was your only problem...