Is an Online degree useful for law school?

[tito_99]

APUS also operates American Military University.  A good friend of mine was accepted to William and Mary with an AMU BS and great LSAT score.  I think the latter carried more weight than the former.

Good Luck.

wjo9522,

What Major/Concentration did your friend study at AMU?

[haus]

Haus,

What law school(s) are you looking into applying to?

For me selecting potential schools will be based on career/family issues. At the moment I am living and working in Northern Virginia, as such I would likely blanket the part-time programs in the DC area: Georgetown (major reach), George Washington (very expensive), George Mason (more affordable with in-state tuition), American (very expensive), Catholic (very expensive), and UDC (very low ranked, but even out of city tuition is less than in-state at Mason).

The internal argument that I have is the role a JD would play in my expected career path, and what it would be worth in price. I suspect that if I managed to somehow get Georgetown to let me in the door (unlikely, I know) I think that I would be willing to pay the hefty sticker price. Sticker at GW, American, or Catholic I am not so sure about (and to make matters worse, it appears these programs are not very generous with PT students). The more affordable schools Mason & UDC do not look to be overly punishing from a financial stand point, although I am bothered by the five nights a week that 1Ls need to attend as PT students at Mason.

Actually if one of the local programs offered something like the weekend PT program that Hamline has, I would be interested, but it currently does not exist and I am not holding my breath for it to happen in the near future. I have actually considered applying to Hamline and flying up each weekend. Of course, this is insane, but I have bee traveling up to Cambridge off and on for weekly courses for my Masters degree program at the Harvard Extension School.

For work and family reasons I my consider moving to Connecticut, should this happen my options would likely change to UConn and Quinnipiac.

Sorry for the long winded answer to a simple question.

[tito_99]

Haus,

What law school(s) are you looking into applying to?

For me selecting potential schools will be based on career/family issues. At the moment I am living and working in Northern Virginia, as such I would likely blanket the part-time programs in the DC area: Georgetown (major reach), George Washington (very expensive), George Mason (more affordable with in-state tuition), American (very expensive), Catholic (very expensive), and UDC (very low ranked, but even out of city tuition is less than in-state at Mason).

The internal argument that I have is the role a JD would play in my expected career path, and what it would be worth in price. I suspect that if I managed to somehow get Georgetown to let me in the door (unlikely, I know) I think that I would be willing to pay the hefty sticker price. Sticker at GW, American, or Catholic I am not so sure about (and to make matters worse, it appears these programs are not very generous with PT students). The more affordable schools Mason & UDC do not look to be overly punishing from a financial stand point, although I am bothered by the five nights a week that 1Ls need to attend as PT students at Mason.

Actually if one of the local programs offered something like the weekend PT program that Hamline has, I would be interested, but it currently does not exist and I am not holding my breath for it to happen in the near future. I have actually considered applying to Hamline and flying up each weekend. Of course, this is insane, but I have bee traveling up to Cambridge off and on for weekly courses for my Masters degree program at the Harvard Extension School.

For work and family reasons I my consider moving to Connecticut, should this happen my options would likely change to UConn and Quinnipiac.

Sorry for the long winded answer to a simple question.

I know George Washington University and American University take a good number of slitters into their JD programs. I'm not sure about Georgetown and George Mason. It doesn't hurt to apply to all the Law schools you want to consider attending. UCONN is a pretty good law school.

Have you taken the LSAT exam?

[haus]

I know George Washington University and American University take a good number of slitters into their JD programs. I'm not sure about Georgetown and George Mason. It doesn't hurt to apply to all the Law schools you want to consider attending. UCONN is a pretty good law school.

Have you taken the LSAT exam?

I have not taken the LSAT. My current thought is that I want to stay focused on completing my masters degree, which should be done in December. I have promised my family that I will take two years before I start another degree. Although I suspect I can get away with using a portion of this time to prep for the LSAT.

Back in January, while I was taking time off from work to attend a January Term course at school, I opted to spend a few hours taking timed practice exam (PT60) and scored 154. While the score was lower than I was hoping for, it was without any prep. I am fairly confident that improvement from this first score should be possible.

[tito_99]

I know George Washington University and American University take a good number of slitters into their JD programs. I'm not sure about Georgetown and George Mason. It doesn't hurt to apply to all the Law schools you want to consider attending. UCONN is a pretty good law school.

Have you taken the LSAT exam?

I have not taken the LSAT. My current thought is that I want to stay focused on completing my masters degree, which should be done in December. I have promised my family that I will take two years before I start another degree. Although I suspect I can get away with using a portion of this time to prep for the LSAT.

Back in January, while I was taking time off from work to attend a January Term course at school, I opted to spend a few hours taking timed practice exam (PT60) and scored 154. While the score was lower than I was hoping for, it was without any prep. I am fairly confident that improvement from this first score should be possible.

I'm sure you'll do  much better in the actual exam. I'm hoping to take a prep class to get more understanding of the exam. Plus, I want to try the study guides and books to get an idea. I'm hoping to apply to Georgetown, Northwestern, USC Gould College of Law (even though those schools are tough to get accepted into).

[financialandtaxguy]

Since APU is regionally accredited, I don't think the issue will be the online degree if you can get a high score on your LSAT.  Are you sure you want to pour all that money into a traditional high powered law school, that brings no guarantee of high income in return after graduating and passing the bar?

[fortook]

Its all in the LSAT for the vast majority of schools.  I can't remember the formula they use, but you should be able to look it up and see how each school alters it to emphasize either grades or LSAT.  If you get a decent LSAT score, they probably won't care about your undergrad.  No one really cares about undergrad anymore.

It looks like you are planing to apply to a ton of schools.  You know it averages $80-$100 per application per school, right?  Get you score and then see what schools are in your range.  Don't just apply to all 200+ schools, plan a little. Good luck.

[haus]

As I stated before, my selection will be limited in scope by which area will make sense for my family to live in. On the high-side I am looking at about 6 applications. Even if they came in at $200 a pop, I am considering the possibility of spending 4 years (PT) and possibly over 100k in cost, the application fees are a rounding error in this calculation.

[fortook]

haus, that's kool buddy.  I was more intending to hint, nicely, to the OP that he has a ton of research to do.  Saying you want to apply to all 4-tier schools from Yale to Columbia (or whatever top 14 school he mentioned) shows a serious miss/dissunderstanding of the system.  6 schools is normal, but to apply to say 50 is $5000 in fees and somewhat aimless.  Granted $5000 is chump change considering the overall cost, but still not many of us have $5000 in disposable income lying around, hence the need for a strategy. There are schools that no one should go to based on accreditation, location, employment, cost just to name a few important factors. Why waste resources (money) applying to schools you have no intention of going to?

[haus]

fortook,

My apologies for reading something into your comments that simply were not there.