in NYC there is def. a physical class component

there is only one location with a live lecturer, but then they rent out classroom space in every other law school and the lecturer is live streamed in all of these classrooms. It is my understanding that it is similar in other cities as well. That is why BarBri is so expensive compared to other courses. You are essentially paying for a seat in a physical class.

You don't have to go to a class as all of the lectures are online. But they give you the option--whereas Themis doesn't for example.

I actually plan to do all of my studying at home and think Themis would be better for someone like me. But since I'm not paying for it anyway I'm doing Barbri.

I did mine through Themis, no physical class component and ended up negotiating down to $900. I thought Barbri was complete overkill from my friends who took that as opposed to kaplan/themis. Themis gets a bad rep (I'm not sure why other than they are cheap) but if you're not sold on barbi, I'd look around.

I made friends with my school's rep and got a crazy discount price bc I signed up super early. A couple of my roommates got discounts by just getting offers from Themis/Kaplan and showing it to Barbri/making them match it. Other than that, I didn't see anybody extremely successful in lowering prices unfortunately.


My two cents:

I passed the bar by like 50 pts+ in PA (easy bar though), wasn't that close and I'm not going to pretend like I was the craziest about studying. Did my time starting at 9, going to gym mid-day, ending by 7 and watching baseball till bed. Didn't study on weekends until 2 weeks left, at which point I just added in a few hours on Saturdays. Got like 83% complete of my course and did fine.

That being said, I thought Themis was great bc I'm good at studying on my own. I don't need to go to class to study and I skipped tons of classes in LS but did fine. Not everyone can self-motivate though, so if you need the physical component, don't skip out imo. I think honestly, no matter which bar prep you use, you'll be fine if you just put in the time.

I'm not sure how many schools have this, but I know that a couple schools in NYC do:

There's a student organization that raises funds to provide public interest students taking unpaid summer internships with $5k stipends. The main way this organization fundraises is through a event with a silent auction, and BarBri is one of the sponsors. They essentially donate an unlimited amount of there bar study courses, valued at $3500, and they all end up being auctioned off for the minimum bids of $1650.

I'm only a 2L, so I haven't really looked into it, but have wondered how good of a deal it was.

It's a good deal, but it's not a crazy deal.

This post makes me think we go to the same school

Appellate brief... 2 credit class; more work than my five credit class.

Any divorce attorneys in PA who could answer a quick question for me?

It would be much appreciated!

curious what you're learning in there. im learning appellate briefs just by doing them, which (i think ive posted here before) is incredibly intimidating. my very first appellate brief in a fed circuit was bounced for a tiny technical error, and ive been scarred ever since. i just refiled the next day, but still.

(im sure they aren't teaching you about the technical aspects of filing an appellate brief, cause lol law school, but that stuff is really important)

it is MAINLY research and persuasive writing; it is funny that you asked the question because my professor is GULC grad, and all the handouts she gives in class are from the writing center at GULC.

However, we were given like a 7 page packet of "fake jurisdiction appellate court rules" which I am pretty sure they jacked from the Appellate Division 2nd Department in New York; as I feel like I have seen them before. But it covers things like margins, word counts, font sizes and allowable types etc etc.

And it sucks that your first appeal got bounced for something technical; the firm where I worked rarely files appeals (did 1 over past year) but whenever we did one, we would just use one of those appellate services companies that do all the printing for you.

Are there companies like that where you work? They are pretty popular in NY and they make knowing the technical rules of the Appellate Courts their job. Sort of expensive though, last August we paid like $1,000.00 for a company to print, according to court rules, a products liability appeal.

Well, the reason it got bounced is really crazy. The lead counsel on the case couldn't believe it... said most circuits probably wouldn't notice.

We actually retained local counsel for that Circuit. To his credit, he sent me an email apologizing after the fact that he didn't catch the error. Either way, it worked out fine. (And he still billed us for the time, of course. Haha.)

But it's important to remember that no matter how many layers of review you have, or what local counsel says, or how ridiculous the error is: it's still on you to read the rules and make sure every single one is followed. Especially if you're "the attorney with the oar," as I was here.

Hey all:

In the year 2017, law school is largely a rip-off for naive students. This is ESPECIALLY true for those attending any school outside of the T-20 and borrowing money to do so.

Years ago, law school was very, very difficult to get into. You had to have very good grades and a decent/good LSAT score. Now it is almost open admission at many schools. They simply have to accept almost anyone in order to keep the doors open.

Demand for newly minted attorneys is low, and is getting lower almost every year.

Finally, it has gotten so expensive, even if you do land a "big law" job, it simply is not worth it.

Good rule of thumb is to NOT borrow more for your entire education than what you will make in your first full year of work. Thus, if you are going to make $32k starting out, you should not have borrowed more than $32k for your undergraduate AND law school education.

I used to work with attorneys making $35k to $45k a year with $200k in student loan debt. They lived at home with their parents, some even into their 40's. They'll only get out from that debt when it is forgiven at the end of the IBR.

For the vast majority of people, law is a pathway to poverty...

Demand is not getting lower every year, demand stabilized and has been rebounding over the last couple years. False fearmongering like this is only marginally better than the myths you're attacking.

Kool?

I wonder if there's a huge difference in the last 10 years. I and all my contemporaries from a top 50 school in 2007 seem to be doing fine. Any financial struggles I see are purely self inflicted.

It's funny that he starts out saying "In the year 2017" and then immediately unloads a 10 year old take.

Yeah the same rhetoric was booming 10 years ago. At least back then there was a reason for it since we all spilled out into the maw of a recession.

hey all:

I guess I made a mistake...

Demand for attorneys is good, and law school is a good investment for the majority of people. Of course, some do really good (top 10%) and some do really bad (bottom 10%).

Did you guys know that lawyers typically make almost $1mm moar in lifetime earnings due to their degree/license?

Good times ahead!

Sounds good!

Anyone interested in making some money writing about their law school exam experiences? My office is working on a publishing project gathering stories and tactics from law students who made top grades on exams. The 1L courses like contracts, torts, civ pro, etc. are the subjects we're looking to cover. If you made a top grade we want you to answer a few questions in essay type format on topics like, long term preparation strategy, crunch time tactics, going to class, etc.

We'll pay you and you have the opportunity to have your name and link to a linkedin profile included in the finished product. Please PM for more info.

BTW I used to occasionally post here (pre and post Noah's thread) under another sn before the 2+2 site was hacked and I had to change my sn. Definitely glad to be done with the law school grind, though real life and practice is still a grind too.

rumors are that GULC bounced out of T14 this year.

i expect to immediately get a pay cut as a result

After five years of spinning my wheels in medicine and trying to convince myself that's what I ultimately wanted to do, I finally pulled the trigger on applying to law schools. I was inspired by the election and the ensuing madness to start taking my professional life more seriously. I'm interested in constitutional and health law.

Waiting to hear back now - top choices are UC Berkeley and UT Austin.

I went to undergrad planning to apply to law school but was scared off by the bad market for young lawyers in 2011 as well as everyone I knew telling me not to apply to law school. I'm still a bit concerned about borrowing a large amount of money (still have a decent chunk of loans left from undergrad as well) but I'm feeling excited about the prospect of becoming an attorney in a way I haven't for years.

Subscribing to thread to hopefully learn from others who have been there and to meet some people who are at the same stage I am.

Lmao been sitting on this account for 4 years to come into this thread and drop this burger. gg

There's plenty of "older" (30+) people in law school. If you go to UC Berkeley or UT Austin, I think you'll be able to do quite well in the employment market. Just make sure law is what you actually want to do. I love it, as do many others ITT I believe.

I started law school at 29. The top 10% of the class is made up mostly older non-traditional students, I truly think being a little older gives an edge.

I turned 29 one month into 1L and could not agree more.