UDC Law open house on March 22, 2014 Forum

[VAUDC2016]

I currently attend UDC Law and am really enjoying my experience so far. The location can't be beat - DC is a great place to live, with access to many types of work and volunteer experience throughout the year. Another major selling point of UDC in my opinion is the price. For out-of-state residents it's around $21,000 and for DC residents (which you are eligible for after living in the District for 1 year) is around $11,000. And that's before the scholarships they give you too! I received a $15,000 scholarship for my first year, which with a GPA over 3.0 you are eligible for continued merit scholarship, which gives you $7,500 for the second year. Furthermore, if you do well during your first semester, they will put you on the Dean's Fellow list which entitles you to another substantial scholarship and other benefits. This is so much cheaper than other schools and it's really worth it for that point alone. Unless you're going to Harvard or somewhere else with a stellar reputation, going into substantial debt is not worth it for law school, especially given the job market woes we keep hearing about.

Aside from the price, the school is a really nice atmosphere as well. The faculty and students are very friendly and helpful. Many of the professors and directors are very involved in public interest law, pioneering initiatives in their fields and have gone to excellent schools themselves.

The school's curriculum includes community service requirements, as well as at least 2 clinical positions. This gets you a foot in the door at many locations, and automatically gives you experience to make your resume attractive to future employers. Furthermore, the school hosts many different opportunities to meet lawyers and professionals in DC, giving workshops on cover letter construction, interview and oral argument training. Like I said, I'm still in my first year, so I'm sure there are other great things to come in the future that I don't know about yet.

I really don't know why UDC Law isn't more popular, honestly. I feel like I am getting a great education and wouldn't change much about the school! Please consider UDC and you won't regret it!



UDC is having an open house on March 22, 2014:

When:
Saturday, March 22nd, 2014
10 am to 2:30 pm

Where:
5th Floor
4340 Connecticut Ave., NW
Washington, District of Columbia 20008
United States

Contact:
lawadmission@udc.edu
Phone: (202) 274-7341

[rad lulz]

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[VAUDC2016]

No I'm not on admissions and those numbers are outdated/accuracy is questionable (where did they get the numbers?). The school has undergone many changes over recent years and has dramatically improved. I'm personally not worried about my future job prospects or bar passage. But thanks for the warning! It's good to consider all relevant information.

[rad lulz]

No I'm not on admissions and those numbers are outdated/accuracy is questionable (where did they get the numbers?).

Those are the numbers the school reported to the ABA for class of 2012, the latest yr with available data

[Nova]

•25.8% of graduates were known to be employed in long-term, full-time legal jobs.
•47.3% graduates were employed in long-term jobs.
•49.5% graduates were employed in full-time jobs.

http://www.lstscorereports.com/?school=udc&show=chars

ITS A TRAP

[VAUDC2016]

There is a lot of potentially misleading information on these websites. Despite its convenience, as a practical matter you should not reduce a school to a number. Instead, look at UDC's contribution to society, its alumni, its prominent lawyers, activists, and judges. Have you looked at the faculty? Name one non-Ivy League school that has a more impressive and diverse faculty. Also, have you looked at the curriculum?

Perhaps the low numbers (if they are even recent/accurate) reflect their willingness to give individuals an opportunity, rather than the actual academic integrity of the school. You don't have to do very much research to uncover UDC's sincere, honorable and meritorious agenda.

[beepboopbeep]

Mods are asleep, post poorly-written pitches for terrible schools

[Nova]

There is a lot of potentially misleading information on these websites. Despite its convenience, as a practical matter you should not reduce a school to a number. Instead, look at UDC's contribution to society, its alumni, its prominent lawyers, activists, and judges. Have you looked at the faculty? Name one non-Ivy League school that has a more impressive and diverse faculty. Also, have you looked at the curriculum?

Perhaps the low numbers (if they are even recent/accurate) reflect their willingness to give individuals an opportunity, rather than the actual academic integrity of the school. You don't have to do very much research to uncover UDC's sincere, honorable and meritorious agenda.

I really hope youre not serious

[rad lulz]

[quote="VAU.

[chuckbass]

There is a lot of potentially misleading information on these websites. Despite its convenience, as a practical matter you should not reduce a school to a number. Instead, look at UDC's contribution to society, its alumni, its prominent lawyers, activists, and judges. Have you looked at the faculty? Name one non-Ivy League school that has a more impressive and diverse faculty. Also, have you looked at the curriculum?

Perhaps the low numbers (if they are even recent/accurate) reflect their willingness to give individuals an opportunity, rather than the actual academic integrity of the school. You don't have to do very much research to uncover UDC's sincere, honorable and meritorious agenda.

I really hope youre not serious

Clearly adcomm.

[sublime]

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[VAUDC2016]

This slander is completely unsubstantiated by good argument. Clearly, nothing anyone has said so far is sufficient to support their conclusions. The low numbers perhaps reflect a desire to give people an opportunity. Its supposed 'low ranking' may be attributed to UDC's unwillingness to conform to outside, cliche standards of acceptance (like choosing students based solely on their LSAT scores).

As far as jobs are concerned, I am currently a 1L and I don't know this to be a problem. I'm quite skeptical of the data. For those who dismiss UDC based on their supposed numbers are only cheating themselves. I have nothing to gain by making this argument: I've already been accepted. So I leave it to you to do the research: look at the school, faculty, syllabi, visit the school! There is so much that's not captured in percentage terms from random websites with data that I personally believe is questionable.

Note: I know 3Ls, even ones who I don't believe are top students, who have found great jobs for when they graduate in May.

[sublime]

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[rad lulz]

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[A. Nony Mouse]

There is a lot of potentially misleading information on these websites. Despite its convenience, as a practical matter you should not reduce a school to a number. Instead, look at UDC's contribution to society, its alumni, its prominent lawyers, activists, and judges. Have you looked at the faculty? Name one non-Ivy League school that has a more impressive and diverse faculty. Also, have you looked at the curriculum?

Perhaps the low numbers (if they are even recent/accurate) reflect their willingness to give individuals an opportunity, rather than the actual academic integrity of the school. You don't have to do very much research to uncover UDC's sincere, honorable and meritorious agenda.

All law schools have impressive alumni and faculty, and because of bar/accreditation requirements, you get essentially the same education at all of them. I'm sure UDC does as good a job of educating its students as any school. It doesn't, however, provide them with a significant opportunity to get a job. All the other stuff is merely marketing.

This isn't to say you're not having a good experience at the school, or even that you won't get a job coming out of it. It's just that if you do get a job, statistically you will be an outlier.

Keep in mind that LST has been at the forefront in the movement to get more accurate job statistics out and available to people planning where to go to law school. It's an entirely credible and admirable site. It's not a "ranking" like the USNWR, it's statistics about who gets jobs and where.

[VAUDC2016]

Statistics can be deceptive and it's hard to argue against people who can't dig deeper. It's obvious that the numbers could contribute to an auto-regressive vicious cycle inhibiting the school's potential. So I encourage you to gain a deeper understanding of the school and its mission, and form arguments on that basis instead of clinging to scant statistics whose predictive value may be meager at best.

It's worth noting that there are many potential reasons the numbers could be low: UDC's willingness to give students an opportunity to learn the law who would not otherwise have that opportunity (we have students old and young from nearly every walk of life), the students for whatever reason who chose not to take the bar, etc.

[A. Nony Mouse]

Statistics can be deceptive and it's hard to argue against people who can't dig deeper. It's obvious that the numbers could contribute to an auto-regressive vicious cycle inhibiting the school's potential. So I encourage you to gain a deeper understanding of the school and its mission, and form arguments on that basis instead of clinging to scant statistics whose predictive value may be meager at best.

It's worth noting that there are many potential reasons the numbers could be low: UDC's willingness to give students an opportunity to learn the law who would not otherwise have that opportunity (we have students old and young from nearly every walk of life), the students for whatever reason who chose not to take the bar, etc.

Those may in fact be the reasons behind the low numbers. But that doesn't make the chances of getting a job out of the school any better.

[VAUDC2016]

What are you suggesting, that employers look at those websites before hiring you? We live in a free-market society where jobs are filled based on merit and productivity. At the worst, if you are really concerned about how UDC will look on a resume, you could expect to start off at some public interest position. I, for one, intend to build my career in public interest, so for me, it's somewhat of a non-issue.

Note: If you did have to start off at a public interest position, the rate of return on your law school investment (based on my calculations) would still be better than any other law school I can think of.

[A. Nony Mouse]

What are you suggesting, that employers look at those websites before hiring you? We live in a free-market society where jobs are filled based on merit and productivity. At the worst, if you are really concerned about how UDC will look on a resume, you could expect to start off at some public interest position. I, for one, intend to build my career in public interest, so for me, it's somewhat of a non-issue.

It's not about how UDC looks on a resume. The website tracks who has been employed and where. 43% of students at UDC end up unemployed. Only 15% of students have a government/public interest job. Someone who is planning where to go to law school would be well advised to avoid a school with such poor employment outcomes - or, at the very least, not to pay money or go into debt to go to such a school.

[beepboopbeep]

Statistics can be deceptive and it's hard to argue against people who can't dig deeper. It's obvious that the numbers could contribute to an auto-regressive vicious cycle inhibiting the school's potential. So I encourage you to gain a deeper understanding of the school and its mission, and form arguments on that basis instead of clinging to scant statistics whose predictive value may be meager at best.

It's worth noting that there are many potential reasons the numbers could be low: UDC's willingness to give students an opportunity to learn the law who would not otherwise have that opportunity (we have students old and young from nearly every walk of life), the students for whatever reason who chose not to take the bar, etc.

I've changed my mind about you, VAUDC2016. You're a cut above the usual shill. Have you ever thought about being a lawyer? Working for the admissions department is beneath you.

Want to make a wager about the predictive nature of UDTTT's job statistics? If more than 30% of the class of 2013 got a full-time, bar-passage-required job within 9 months of graduation, I'll pay you like, .05 bitcoins. We can repeat this game every year until either bitcoin bottoms out or UDC closes its law school - whichever comes first.

[VAUDC2016]

How could you make such an advisement based on such scant statistics? Think about what you're taking for granted. Those statistics obviously do not necessarily reflect the quality of education that you will attain. With all due respect, your assertion is somewhat unreasonable.

You simply cannot accurately make the type of predictions you just made based on the limited data. I think prospective students would be well advised to broaden their perspectives before arriving at such a conclusion.

[rad lulz]

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[cron1834]

Statistics can be deceptive and it's hard to argue against people who can't dig deeper. It's obvious that the numbers could contribute to an auto-regressive vicious cycle inhibiting the school's potential. So I encourage you to gain a deeper understanding of the school and its mission, and form arguments on that basis instead of clinging to scant statistics whose predictive value may be meager at best.

It's worth noting that there are many potential reasons the numbers could be low: UDC's willingness to give students an opportunity to learn the law who would not otherwise have that opportunity (we have students old and young from nearly every walk of life), the students for whatever reason who chose not to take the bar, etc.

What on Earth are you talking about? The "statistics" aren't "deceptive." This is several years of historical data gathered and reported by the school itself. It's not a projection model or a predictive theory - it's historical information that your school provides.

Are you suggesting that the school admits too many dumdums and too many folks who want to go to law school without actually practicing law, and that's why the employment numbers are poor? Even if that were the case, it's still a terrible outcome for someone actually interested in being a lawyer from UDC, because employers do not hire more than 25% of their graduates. Quit lying about this fact. If you're enjoying yourself at UDC, that's great - but it doesn't meant that UDC isn't a horrible choice for someone who is actually interested in being a lawyer. A diverse student body and outstanding faculty do not change this, unfortunately. If it were that easy, every school would have good employment outcomes

[rad lulz]

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[A. Nony Mouse]

VAUDC2016, none of this is meant to belittle you or the education you're getting, and if you have a good outcome and are pleased with UDC, that's great. It's just that it's only likely to be a reasonable choice for a very very small population under very specific circumstances.