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Hi.

Dose anyone know of any US law schools that run on a trimester as opposed to a semester system?
I am contemplating law school and am trying to get as much information as possible. Thank you.

btw. I looked at the ABA website and was unable to find this information.

I would kill myself. 3 finals instead of 2?

This would be pointless information to know.

i know u chi and baylor do

FWIW stanford just moved to the trimester system

bk187 wrote:This would be pointless information to know.

Actually it wouldn't be pointless. A trimester system could allow me to take couses in fall, spring and summer or fall and spring only or summer and spring only. The ability have more flexibility in my schedule is important to me.

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"Law_noob" and "The stig", thank you for your help.

trimester system means that the school has 4 quarters and to complete one year you have to take 3 out fo the 4. so, you can do spring summer fall, or fall winter spring. with a trimester system, you have to take 3 terms, never just 2.

I understand that "law_nood", the same rules apply to undergrad trimester schools.. but if I needed to requesst a level of absence or anything of that sort I would have a bit more fexibility. The other reason is I am not a hugh fan of the semester system at this point in life, trimester and quater systems are more to my liking.

Thank you for your help.

Just out of curiosity, can someone take 6 quarters back to back to finish law school in a year and a half?

I'm pretty sure that trimester schools have a higher number of required hours. So, no. But you could take all four quarters the first two years and then only have one left for the third year, which would allow you to finish in 27 months

FWIW. I just found out Cooley offers three start dates; January, May and September. Their website suggests you could finish in two years, it appears mathematically possible.

sfalloon wrote:FWIW. I just found out Cooley offers three start dates; January, May and September. Their website suggests you could finish in two years, it appears mathematically possible.

Flame? Don't go to Cooley.

whymeohgodno wrote:

sfalloon wrote:FWIW. I just found out Cooley offers three start dates; January, May and September. Their website suggests you could finish in two years, it appears mathematically possible.

Flame? Don't go to Cooley.

Why not?

sfalloon wrote:

whymeohgodno wrote:

sfalloon wrote:FWIW. I just found out Cooley offers three start dates; January, May and September. Their website suggests you could finish in two years, it appears mathematically possible.

Flame? Don't go to Cooley.

Why not?

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9 quarters would be required. The ABA may mandate a minimum of 2 academic years.

This is important information for a variety of reasons, including the ability to offer two term courses in light of the recent trend of eliminating year-long courses.

Jealous of my friends at U.Chicago who are on the trimester system.

The benefit: they are finished with OCI before classes even start. They don't get behind in a single class due to CBs, etc.

Another benefit of the trimester system is that it may allow one to concentrate on fewer courses each term.

P.S. Chicago's first year students take only 8 exams during their first year---which is similiar to most law schools except that 2 exams are given after the first quarter, two after the second & four after the third.

Summer jobs are critical after your 1L and 2L years. You can't take the Fall semester off and study over summer, unless perhaps you find a Fall internship instead (not an option for big law, but could be an option for other jobs). There is nothing wrong with a trimester system, but I doubt it will give you more flexibility.

monkey85 wrote:Jealous of my friends at U.Chicago who are on the trimester system.

The benefit: they are finished with OCI before classes even start. They don't get behind in a single class due to CBs, etc.

FWIW, CLS didn't start until 9/6 this year; and from Chicago's academic calendar, they started on 9/26 (http://www.law.uchicago.edu/students/academiccalendar). CLS had OCI from 8/11-8/16 and U of C had it from 8/23-9/1. That means Chicago had 25 days between the last day of OCI and the beginning of classes, CLS had 21 days. Not too much difference. Though if you got a CB from the beginning of Chicago's OCI, that gap would widen. Not 100% sure what my point is -- I think it's that at least the top schools try to leave time for students to get OCI stuff sorted out before classes start; I know Harvard moved their OCI up this year too. Rumor would say this is to steal more jobs from other schools though.

At UChicago they don't offer any courses during the summer at all. You HAVE to take a full load of courses in fall, winter, and spring in order to graduate.

But yes, the late start date has major OCI benefits, and 1L is really manageable with only 2 exams each the first 2 quarters. Downside is that you go later into the summer and have to start your job later, although I've never heard of anyone having a big problem with this.

sfalloon wrote:I understand that "law_nood", the same rules apply to undergrad trimester schools.. but if I needed to requesst a level of absence or anything of that sort I would have a bit more fexibility. The other reason is I am not a hugh fan of the semester system at this point in life, trimester and quater systems are more to my liking.

Thank you for your help.

QF Freudian slip

sfalloon wrote:Hi.

Dose anyone know of any US law schools that run on a trimester as opposed to a semester system?

Also UW