Aim low?

[azirish]

Anyone else considering one of the relatively new for-profit law schools such as Florida Coastal, PhoenixLaw or Charlotte College of Law?  Anyone have opinions as to quality, marketability of the JD, job prospects, etc?

The reason i ask is because while likely to get into the more established (full time only) school of my choice, the possibility of part time school makes the financial aspect of this undertaking a little more palatable.  I just wonder if i'm sacrificing too much for short term convenience.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[slacker]

Have you checked out the school's stats in terms of employment, salary, etc?

In general, a better ranked school gives you more options -- more eyes willing to glance at your resume. This gives you more access to jobs, as well as more access to better-paying jobs. There are always exceptions to this rule, of course. Another aspect with newer schools is they don't have the alumni based that a more established school has; don't discount the alums when it comes to searching for a job.

If you want to go part-time, why aim low? Why not go for a parttime program at a better-ranked school? Do these schools cost significantly less? If not, then yes, I think you would be sacrificing too much for short-term convenience.

[Bettn]

There are plenty of part-time programs at better schools, and most of them are easier to get into than the regular full-time day programs.
The for-profit schools usually cost more, and I don't think it's worth the investment to go to these schools.
Also, and I'm not sure if this is the case in all the newer schools, but some of them fail out a certain percentage of the class. That's not the case in most schools that I'm aware of. The only school that I visited where they admitted to that was Baylor.

As for the financial aspect, aren't you taking out loans anyway? If you're that worried about paying for it - go to a lower ranked school that gives you a scholarship, or to a state school. U of Houston has a part time program, and the in-state tuition for them is about $15,000 a year. I'm sure there are plenty of other state schools out there with part-time programs.

Bottom line, I wouldn't trust the quality of the newer for-profit schools. I don't think they're worth the investment, and they're certainly not worth the extra stress.

Oh and FWIW, when I visited Denver, they said the part-timers were more competitive than the full time students. That decided it for me! There's no way I'm adding the stress of ultra-competitive classmates to my law school experience if I don't have to.