Info on La Verne

[coto29]

Does anyone know anything about La Verne?

[bigs5068]

Not that much, but they did have the fairest scholarship system of any California School I dealt with, because you didn't lose it automatically if you fell below a 3.0 and it was based on class rank. I think the only way you lost the whole scholarship was if you were in the bottom 25% of the class.

The city of Ontario where it is located sucks, it is technically part of L.A., but nobody knows where L.A. ends or begins. I was born and raised there and I still don't know.  Ontario is not good I wouldn't say it is necessarily dangerous, but it is 30 or 40 minutes away from the good parts of L.A.  It is also only provisionally ABA approved or that is what it was last year, not sure if that changed or not in 2009.

[nealric]

  I think the only way you lost the whole scholarship was if you were in the bottom 75%. 

I hope you mean bottom 25%. Otherwise that would be awful.

[bigs5068]

Yea, I said it wrong the bottom 25% lose the scholarship, if I remember right you kept half of it unless you reached that bottom 25%, so even if you were in the 74th percentile you kept half of it, which is pretty reasonable. Considering most lower ranked schools including mine are pretty stringent with the 3.0 requirement and if you get a 2.999999999999 your scholarship is gone, which is pretty lame.

[coto29]

I am thinking of applying there.  Their employment rate doesn't look too good though.  I have tons of family in Cali, but know very little about the L.A. area.  Do La Verne grads get jobs in SC?

[bigs5068]

I don't know, but I imagine where they are located in the Inland empire they get hired often, but nobody in L.A. wants to live in the Inland Empire.

Realistically, Law school is pretty much what you make of it, certainly Harvard will open doors for you. However, most people like me and assuming you can't get into Harvard, but the bottom line is if you graduate and pass the bar you will likely have some opportunity somewhere.

I am only a 1L and far from an expert on anything, but I have talked to a lot of lawyers and recent graduates and that is the consensus I have gotten. Realistically,  La Verne like any other school will teach you the law and it is up to you what you do with it. Obviously, don't expect employers to be lined up at La Verne's graduation with 100,000 contracts in hand, you will have to work to find a job, but you can do it. 

I remember an old boss of mine's quote at the initial interview and he asked, "what do you call a guy that finished bottom of his class at the worst law school and passed the bar. The answer was a lawyer,that is the truth certainly that nobody's wants that start, but by passing the bar you are a lawyer.  Don't get to caught up in rankings if you are dealing with tier 2, 3 or tier 4 schools, just go where you want to live. Ask yourself if you want to a be a lawyer though and know that La Verne is probably not going to grant you a huge payday, but you will get to be a lawyer if you go there and pass everything.

The only real issue with them is if they are still provisionally approved, that raises a bit of a red flag and I don't know if you could transfer out in the case that you do exceptionally well. That was the main reason I chose not to attend and my dislike of L.A., but the practically guaranteed scholarship money would be nice.