job during part time school Forum

[hoping2015]

I won't start law school until august and I didn't plan to work and simply be a full time student. Some things happened with my husband and we are barely making ends right now and I don't see when it will get better. So I'm looking for a job and thinking of going to law school part time in the evenings. I so far have two likely job offers that pay around the same both Monday through Friday.

One is a legal assistant where I strictly cannot leave until 5:30PM and I'm not sure how flexible or understanding they would be to me taking night classes. It is also salary so when there is no school and I could work overtime I wouldn't because I wouldn't get paid for it.

The other is a funding analysts which is pretty much data entry, around the same pay but hourly where they always offer overtime but do not expect you to take it. I can also choose my in and out times as long as its 8 hours. It seems more relaxed and they said me taking night classes was fine. And if there is OT it pays more than the other. They also said they would want to promote me quickly and that would pay more. Problem is it has nothing to do with law I wouldn't make any obvious connections.

I was thinking since Part time would be four years, working the first two, saving money and hopefully my husband would be good by then. Then the third and fourth year focusing on clinics, internships, externships, clerkships, all those things. That would give me some connections and experience.

I guess I'm looking for what people think. Please help

[totesTheGoat]

Don't do part time unless your job is something substantive that will lead to significantly improved job prospects. (Legal assistant doesn't fall into that category)

Trust me when I say this: You will be miserable if you're working a legitimate job (with responsibilities) AND going to law school at night. The first night that you're expected to stay past 5:30 (it will happen), you will understand. I have lost count of the number of days that I got home at 9:30 or 10pm, and continued working until 2 or 3am. Then I had to get up at 6:30am to start all over again.

You may be able to find a job where you will never have a single minute of work beyond 40 hours, but you're still splitting time (and priority) between law school and a job. That's great if your job complements your law school, but it doesn't sound like your jobs will add to your legal education.

If you can't afford full-time law school right now, defer and go when you can afford it. Going part-time for financial reasons is a bad idea.

/part-time 3E who has worked 2 different full-time jobs while in law school

PS: PM me if you have any detailed questions about my part-time experience v. what I thought part-time was going to be like.

[seashell.economy]

It depends on who you are and how much you can personally handle. I recently met a woman at one of the law schools I was accepted to who is a nurse during the day, takes classes at night, and has five (!!!!!) kids. That would personally drive me to the insane asylum, but she is somehow managing it. I think most people couldn't manage what she does. Only you know what you can handle. Most will probably advise you against a FT job/PT law school route, but if you need to work and think you can handle it, go for it.

[Abraham Lincoln Uni.]

There is nothing wrong with going to law school part-time. Many students have no other option due to

financial or personal reasons and are capable of handling it and fully succeeding. It appears that your

part time job prospects may not be law-related, but if those are your only options that is fine as well.

The specific company may be willing to hire you as counsel upon graduation or have connections to help

you find a job upon graduation. If that is not the case, then your third and fourth year can be where you

devote more time to practical legal experience.

Law school is timely and costly so students must be prepared and plan accordingly. If a part time

program works best for your schedule and allows you to obtain the JD at your own pace and make it

manageable, then pursue that route. It may be difficult, but not impossible.

Best of luck!

[totesTheGoat]

There is nothing wrong with going to law school part-time. Many students have no other option due to

financial or personal reasons and are capable of handling it and fully succeeding. It appears that your

part time job prospects may not be law-related, but if those are your only options that is fine as well.

The specific company may be willing to hire you as counsel upon graduation or have connections to help

you find a job upon graduation. If that is not the case, then your third and fourth year can be where you

devote more time to practical legal experience.

This is pretty much what the admissions office told my class. It's technically true, but a very rosy picture. Frankly, after 1L year, we were pretty pissed off at our admissions for painting such a rosy picture. From my experience, most of the people who were in the part-time program have transitioned to full-time. The rest have houses and families and can't just quit working. Nobody is in the part-time program because they like it better. The school also treats you as the red headed step-child, but that's hard to care about when you're just trying to make sure that you brought the right textbooks with you each day.

The idea that your company may want to hire you on as a lawyer is a pipe-dream if you haven't already arranged it with them. If anything, they'll get pissed because they know you're not sticking around. (wanna know how I know this???)

The big piss-your-pants moment for a part-time law student is "the leap of faith." This was something that was completely not advertised to us before law school started, and it was something that pissed me off when I heard about it. What's the leap of faith? It's that time when you're supposed to "trust the system" and jump from the well-paying job you've been doing to a $15/hour legal job to "jumpstart your legal experience." I remember to this day that they had a panel of students talk to us (at the time) 1Ls... the part-time representative was a guy who talked about being stressed out, but he took the leap and it worked "because we could live off my wife's income." That was how out of touch the school was with their part-time students at the time. Since then, I've actually been on that panel so that I could give the 1Ls a bit of a real snapshot into what it's like to work full-time and go to school part-time. It's immensely rewarding, but it's miserable at the same time.

Anyway, most 0Ls think that they can keep their job, and maybe their combination of work experience and good grades will land them a job. The reality is that you really have to make this leap, or else you're not going to have many job prospects.

Sorry for the rant, but one of the biggest things that rubbed me the wrong way about my admissions to law school was how different the part-time program was compared to how the admissions office described it to us.

Like I said in my last post, feel free to PM me if you want specific details, want to bounce ideas off of me, or just want more info. I want to make sure that you go into law school knowing what you signed up for.

[TLSModBot]

Yeah I'm a graduating part time student who worked for 3 of my 4 years - pretty much endorse totesthegoat here.

Unless you're doing GULC (highest ranked school with a PY program) and have a significant scholarship, then don't do PT, especially if making ends meet is an issue. There are just so many better careers.