Drexel Law Assistant Dean here to answer questions! Forum

[disciullo]

Hello! My name is Issa DiSciullo and I am the Assistant Dean of Admissions at the Drexel University Earle Mack School of Law. We know that choosing a law school is not an easy task so I am making myself available to answer your questions about our school and the admission process. Whether it’s questions about our experiential learning programs (co-ops, clinics, pro bono and trial advocacy,) our admission requirements, our Philadelphia location or about our status as a provisionally accredited law school, I am more than happy to answer your questions.

In addition, our Admissions Office is happy to answer questions anytime and to help schedule your visit to campus. Please don't hesitate to contact our office directly at 215-895-1589 or via e-mail at lawadmissions@drexel.edu.

Good luck and I look forward to chatting with you.

Regards,

Issa DiSciullo
Assistant Dean of Admissions
Drexel University Earle Mack School of Law

[02082010]

Ran here.

[RBbugBITme]

Hello Issa,

I graduated from the Drexel Mech. Engineering deptartment this past June and have been working at Westinghouse Nuclear since then. I am likely going to take the LSAT in June 2010 and I was wondering if you consider work experience at all? I ask because my GPA was not stellar but I have a great job and if I do well on the LSAT I may wait to apply until I have more real world experience. Also, I was thinking of taking the Patent Bar Exam prior to applying. Is this something that could put an applicant over the edge?

My interest is patent prosecution if that matters.

Thanks,
Ryan M.

[TheGracchus]

No questions from me, but I just wanted to say that it's great that Drexel people are so helpful with information. When I went to the LSAC Conference in NYC in the fall, there was a career services guy from Drex just answering questions from anyone about applications in general (Grant, I think his name was). He was a huge help.

[disciullo]

Thanks for your comments on Drexel's willingness to help! Grant Keener is Drexel University's Pre-Law Adviser and he is a great resource.

Ryan had asked a question about how we view work experience in the application process.

It is definitely something that we take into consideration. While we don't give actual credit for the experience, we do look at it to learn more about your passion, motivation and interests. The same can be said for the patent bar...it shows us your level of interest and commitment as well as reiterates to us your passions. Your academic profile is extremely important to us because we want to make sure you're ready for the rigors of law school, but work experience (and everything else that you bring to the table) is something that helps us get to know you a bit better.

Ryan, I hope this answers your question...Please don't hesitate to post follow-up questions if it isn't getting at what you're looking for. AND, you're welcome to call me for a more in-depth conversation.

Sincerely,

Issa

[RBbugBITme]

That is about what I expected.

Thanks for getting back to me.

Ryan M.

[FacistCommunist]

Thank you for your willingness to answer our questions!

In looking at LawSchoolNumbers.com, the first big round of decisions for last cycle came in mid-December. Can we expect a similar date for the first round this year? How will you communicate decisions?

[disciullo]

It is great to see the different questions and I am happy to answer to please keep them coming...

As far as when our decisions will be going out, we are actually getting ready to convene the Admissions Committee next week. File reading and decision-making will follow shortly after that, so you can expect that our decisions will begin rolling out by mid to late December and it will just keep going from there.

For the decision letters, we still send it out the old-fashioned way - via the US Postal System But, you can also check it through the on-line status check.

Hope this helps....

[riburn3]

Do scholarships usually accompany admission letters or do they come at a later time?

How has your first graduating class been fairing in the job market in this economy? I saw they had a 93% bar passage rate, which I believe is second only to UPenn in the state, but has it translated into good job opportunities? I ask mainly because I have a friend who is in his 3rd year at Drexel Law, and he describes things as being pretty grim right now (although he has really liked his time at the school). I'm curious what someone in the front office has to say.

[disciullo]

Happy Friday to all! It is a chilly day in Philadelphia today, but the sun is out and the weekend is around the corner.

Our scholarship information accompanies the accept letter, so you'll know that information as soon as you get your admit packet.

As for the job placement rate, I must give kudos to our Career and Professional Development Office! They are great resources for our students and work really hard to help our students and graduates reach their goals.

Our overall employment rate for the Class of 2009 is 82%. However, students attend law school for a variety of different reasons, so not all of our graduates end up pursuing a law related/legal job. So, if you're looking at jobs SOLELY in the legal field both full and part-time, it was a 73% employment rate. Both very solid and positive showings...

It's still a bit too early to tell what the outcome will be for this year's graduating class. But, as I mentioned earlier, we've got great advocates and resources in our Career and Professional Development Office.

You're always more than welcome to contact me for more specific information or the CPDO folks as well.

[riburn3]

How does the required Co-op program work? Do students receive a grade for it or are they allowed to receive payment? Have any law students gotten job offers as a result of their work in the co-op? If so do you have any specific examples?

Finally, do you expect the first batch of decisions to be sent out this week?

Thank you so much for answering!

[Zojirushi]

Our overall employment rate for the Class of 2009 is 82%. However, students attend law school for a variety of different reasons, so not all of our graduates end up pursuing a law related/legal job. So, if you're looking at jobs SOLELY in the legal field both full and part-time, it was a 73% employment rate. Both very solid and positive showings...

Thank you for this differentiation and this thread. It is a positive reflection on Drexel.

[disciullo]

Experiential learning is one of the things that differentiates Drexel as a law school. Students complete their co-op in their 2nd or 3rd year and the focus of our co-op program is solely academic. Which means that students receive academic credit for it and not monetary compensation. The ABA does not allow students to receive acedemic credit and be paidat the same time.

Some of our graduates have received job offers directly from a former co-op partner, but many will say that their co-op has indirectly affected their job outcome by the networking opportunities they we given on co-op.

As always, don't hesitate to ask me for further clarification. And, feel free to visit our co-op website for more information...

http://drexel.edu/law/co-op/

[nealric]

So, if you're looking at jobs SOLELY in the legal field both full and part-time, it was a 73% employment rate.

What percentage got full time legal jobs? (non-temp)

[disciullo]

Thanks for all your questions! 67.5% of our graduates were able to attain full-time legal jobs.

Don't hesitate to check our website and Career and Professional Development's page for more information.

Also, on December 17th, we'll be launching our Instant Message Office Hours. You can IM us Monday through Friday from 10 am - 2 pm.

Here are our IM accounts:

AOL: lawadmissions@drexel.edu
Windows Live: lawadmissions@drexel.edu
Gmail: earlemacklawatdrexel@gmail.com
Yahoo: earlemacklawatdrexel

Also, follow us on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/EarleMackLawDU

And Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Philadelp ... 910?v=wall

[riburn3]

Thanks for all your questions! 67.5% of our graduates were able to attain full-time legal jobs.

67.5% for full-time legal jobs is actually suprisingly good to me in this economy, especially for a brand new school with its first graduating class. 9% of the class found work in fields not directly law related, but it could also add to the full-time number. I wouldn't be surprised if it jumps up more at the 9 month or 1 year mark, which is what most law schools seem to report. Thanks for the honest reporting. It would be nice if more schools did this and took the Dean Pless approach to releasing information.

[disciullo]

Thanks for all your great questions and comments. We're extremely proud of our first graduating class. They've done remarkably well and are a great group of folks. We have received termendous support from the Philadelphia legal community as well. They are a vibrant and active group and have embraced and reached out to our students and alums.

And don't forget...today we launch our IM Office Hours as well as our Twitter and Facebook page...follow us and continue to learn more about the Earle Mack School of Law Community!

[ddoc117]

Good morning Issa,

I have applied to Drexel Law and I am awaiting the December LSAT to be complete. I am a non-traditional student and I was curious as to how many of the students are non-traditional, i.e. what is the demographic with respect to age of students in the most recent applicant pool.

Thank you

[reasonable_man]

-Discounting the top 10% of your last graduating class (and further discounting the nearly 40% without legal jobs at graduation), what is the actual mean average starting salary for last year's graduating class?

The 67% figure is really full time legal employment, or is that total employment?

[disciullo]

Thanks for the applications! I'm happy to hear that folks are applying.

Our average age for the current applicant pool is 24, but the age range is 18-56. We get a diverse group of students here at Drexel. Last year, 14% of our the class came in with advance/post-baccalaureate degrees.

As for the starting salaries, I'm not sure about that answer. I would strong suggest checking in with the Career and Professional Development Office. There website has their contact information...

--LinkRemoved--

The overall job placement rate is 82% - 67.5% reflects only the full-time legal jobs.

[reasonable_man]

Thanks for the applications! I'm happy to hear that folks are applying.

Our average age for the current applicant pool is 24, but the age range is 18-56. We get a diverse group of students here at Drexel. Last year, 14% of our the class came in with advance/post-baccalaureate degrees.

As for the starting salaries, I'm not sure about that answer. I would strong suggest checking in with the Career and Professional Development Office. There website has their contact information...

--LinkRemoved--

The overall job placement rate is 82% - 67.5% reflects only the full-time legal jobs.

Respectfully, that answer seems a bit evasive. As someone working in the administration of Drexel, I would think that you would have the best access to information pertaining to salary statistics, or at the least, would have access to that person at the school.

Why is it that schools are so very afraid of providing the mean salary data (not median but mean), for their graduates? Is it perhaps because less than 10% of the class at Drexel earned above 125k, meaning (with reference to the oft-quoted bi-modal distribution of starting attorney salary data compiled by the NALP), that the better part of your grads are earning in the range of 40k to 60k, thus decimating the mean average figure for all Drexel graduates?

I mean absolutely no disrespect here. Frankly, I think its wonderful that Drexel is making a representative available. But these are the types of answers potential applicants need. Not % on employment and 'median salary' data. Potential students need access to the real data to properly assess the risk and reward of a 3 year time commitment coupled with a 100k+ price tag.

Thank you for taking some time to answer the questions here. It is greatly appreciated I'm sure. But some detailed answers would be helpful.

Signed,

A concerned member of the Bar.

[ddoc117]

Thank you, and I am looking forward to visiting Drexel Law within the next few weeks.

[disciullo]

Happy Friday to all!

I'm thrilled to hear that folks are applying and thinking about visiting. Again, just as a reminder, check us out on Facebook, Twitter and IM. And, if you're around the next few weeks, we're holding a few information sessions and would love the chance to meet you at these events. All information sessions are held at the Earle Mack School of Law Campus on 3320 Market Street.

You can RSVP on our website:

--LinkRemoved--

The next events are as follows:

Tuesday, December 22nd from 4:30 pm - 6:00 pm
Saturday, January 2nd from 11:00 am - 1:00 pm
Tuesday, Janueary 26th from 4:30 pm - 6:00 pm

Once again, I thank everyone for all the comments and questions...As a follow-up to the median salary question, we report those figures officially in February. When I checked in with the Dean of Career and Professional Developement, she strongly encouraged me to point students to their website where there is an employment statistics page listed one of our employers. --LinkRemoved--

[reasonable_man]

Happy Friday to all!

I'm thrilled to hear that folks are applying and thinking about visiting. Again, just as a reminder, check us out on Facebook, Twitter and IM. And, if you're around the next few weeks, we're holding a few information sessions and would love the chance to meet you at these events. All information sessions are held at the Earle Mack School of Law Campus on 3320 Market Street.

You can RSVP on our website:

--LinkRemoved--

The next events are as follows:

Tuesday, December 22nd from 4:30 pm - 6:00 pm
Saturday, January 2nd from 11:00 am - 1:00 pm
Tuesday, Janueary 26th from 4:30 pm - 6:00 pm

Once again, I thank everyone for all the comments and questions...As a follow-up to the median salary question, we report those figures officially in February. When I checked in with the Dean of Career and Professional Developement, she strongly encouraged me to point students to their website where there is an employment statistics page listed one of our employers. --LinkRemoved--

Once again, The median tells people nothing; which is why it is reported by law schools. The question was; why is the mean salary not reported? Why not release the full data set? It seems to me that this simply sends the message that Drexel is satisfied with going down the same road as every other middle-range law school, i.e. release as little data as possible, making it impossible for would-be applicants to make a fully informed decision before investing 3-years and in many cases more than 100K.

Why not show the legal community that drexel will be different and that it does not intend to use poor reporting standards to inflate its numbers? Why not simply release the full data set?

[reasonable_man]

I guess that's a no go on a real answer from Drexel. Oh well. This could have been informative.