Evening Division

[usd_evening]

Hi,

I was on the waitlist and I was just accepted into the evening division. Are there any 2L's out there that worked full-time with the 10 credit courseload? Is it possible? I used to be a pretty good student before I started working...what do you think? Also, I heard from a graduate's wife that it costs less to take summer classes and not take the full load. Does anyone know anything about that? If anyone wants to get together before school starts, I am up for it.

[chicothegreat]

I attended another PT-Evening program and worked 40 hours a week. 19 credits after the first year. It was a lot of work but definitely not impossible. If you were a good student it should be doable, just make sure to aim for the maximum study time at first to get a head start on everything. Then, reduce as needed. I on the other hand did not have a good academic background so I wasn't sure how I would fare. In the end, I kicked ass. It's just about managing your workload and setting aside study time. I hope to be at USD next year for my 2L. Good luck.

[Shiftagon]

Did you originally try to go FT there?  If you did, then your circumstances finacially wouldnt be worse off if you decided to just not work and study the first semester.  See how you do then try working after that...Also, for some schools it ends up being cheaper.  My school for instance is around 10 grand cheaper if you go PT...Of course you can always just pile on credits your 2 or 3L and graduate on time.  Make sure you look really hard into the Law Review rules though, becuase most PT students wont be able to get onto Law review until their 3rd year, and many Law Reviews are a 2 year program.  So if you decide that you want to cram it into 3yrs, you might get screwed.  I know of some smaller journals at schools that let you do one year though.

[norm012001]

I went PT this year and worked full time.  It's definitely manageable but a lot of work.  I'm at the top of my class, but I did everything I could to get there, reading, briefing, outlining, studying, all of it.  Just don't get behind, because there is no time to catch up.

The one thing you have to do is arrange with your work at the outset to have a lot of time off at exams, it's crucial, if even for your sanity.  If you add up work and school as work, I probably worked less hours during exams than during the semester, but being able to focus only on class for that week and a half was very beneficial.

[Law9486]

I was just accepted off the waitlist for the part time program and I am very excited about USD! Can you tell me more about the PT program? All it says online is that it starts at 5:30 and takes 4 years (not too much info. )

[usd_evening]

Call the admissions office and ask to speak with Eddie Tsang. He answered some questions for me. I think that he is a 2L or 3L...

[Law9486]

So, the impression that I got from USD was that we got our schedules and bought books at the bookstore on the 16th. Does anyone know if theres a way to find out which books we need to buy earlier so that we dont have to buy them new through the bookstore? (This is assuming of course that the USD bookstore is more expensive.)

[dsnutter]

Thought I would jump start this thread. It is a year old now, but maybe we can get some PTers who will be starting in the fall on here.

Who's joining me?

[IONLYKNOWY]

Thought I would jump start this thread. It is a year old now, but maybe we can get some PTers who will be starting in the fall on here.

Who's joining me?

I will be in the PT section.  Did you get that email about the lawyering skills class being a 4pm instead of later after 530pm?

What are the advantages to this?  People that work will probably not like the earlier version.  And I plan on working so I am going to say no to the 4pm class.. 

Anyone else have opinions on the matter?

[MCVinny]

I also received this e-mail. I think the one advantage would be the chance to get out earlier. However, I called USD and they said that there is no guarantee that we would get out earlier. It is possible that you could wind up with a large gap in your schedule. I have also decided to pass on this 4 PM class. Does anyone know what a typical schedule is like for the evening division? I know we start at 4:30, but how many classes do we have and what time do classes normally end?