Everyone who goes to law school is an adult.

Anyone who thinks "I'm a Libra" is a good indication of why they ought to go to law school is not thinking clearly.

Anonymous wrote:Thanks all, this is a sobering thread. I'm an NP who has been considering this since a relative started a part time law program at a regional school for only $13k a year (they place into a lot of public service work that relative wants to do). I'm a fed with a PhD stuck around $100k, looking around at my attorney friends all just making way more money, both in fed and private, and feeling like I wasted my brains. But if the odds of substantially increasing incomes are THAT bad...oh well.

I do have a route to a part time, free or low cost MBA through my spouse's job, but am not sure that would actually be helpful for advancement from a lesser known school. Feel free to chime in on that one!

If you hung out with slightly different people you’d be feeling pretty good about your salary.

Anonymous wrote:Thanks all, this is a sobering thread. I'm an NP who has been considering this since a relative started a part time law program at a regional school for only $13k a year (they place into a lot of public service work that relative wants to do). I'm a fed with a PhD stuck around $100k, looking around at my attorney friends all just making way more money, both in fed and private, and feeling like I wasted my brains. But if the odds of substantially increasing incomes are THAT bad...oh well.

I do have a route to a part time, free or low cost MBA through my spouse's job, but am not sure that would actually be helpful for advancement from a lesser known school. Feel free to chime in on that one!

Does that PhD happen to be in STEM? If so, you can probably find a patent agent job and maybe even get part time law school paid for.

Thanks all, this is a sobering thread. I'm an NP who has been considering this since a relative started a part time law program at a regional school for only $13k a year (they place into a lot of public service work that relative wants to do). I'm a fed with a PhD stuck around $100k, looking around at my attorney friends all just making way more money, both in fed and private, and feeling like I wasted my brains. But if the odds of substantially increasing incomes are THAT bad...oh well.

I do have a route to a part time, free or low cost MBA through my spouse's job, but am not sure that would actually be helpful for advancement from a lesser known school. Feel free to chime in on that one!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don’t do it OP. Waste of time and money.
I’m a Fed at an agency where many of my colleagues are attorneys. I make just over 100k. Many of my colleagues are saddled with law school debt. I just have a bachelors and no debt. We are doing the same job. I’m sure a lot of my colleagues thought they’d be making a lot more money. There is a serious glut of lawyers out there and many of them to not make the $$$ to justify law school.
Add online law school and your age to that glut and it does NOT look good.

Well, if OP just wants to experience law school and then lounge around the federal government her loans would be forgiven in 10 years. Not a terrible outcome in that case.

The likelihood of an online, unaccredited law school graduate getting a federal government job is zero.

There are plenty of accredited online law schools.

No, there are not. There are no ABA accredited online law schools. There are a handful of shitty hybrid programs. Please don't claim that cash-grab masters in legal studies counts as a law school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don’t do it OP. Waste of time and money.
I’m a Fed at an agency where many of my colleagues are attorneys. I make just over 100k. Many of my colleagues are saddled with law school debt. I just have a bachelors and no debt. We are doing the same job. I’m sure a lot of my colleagues thought they’d be making a lot more money. There is a serious glut of lawyers out there and many of them to not make the $$$ to justify law school.
Add online law school and your age to that glut and it does NOT look good.

Well, if OP just wants to experience law school and then lounge around the federal government her loans would be forgiven in 10 years. Not a terrible outcome in that case.

The likelihood of an online, unaccredited law school graduate getting a federal government job is zero.

There are plenty of accredited online law schools.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don’t do it OP. Waste of time and money.
I’m a Fed at an agency where many of my colleagues are attorneys. I make just over 100k. Many of my colleagues are saddled with law school debt. I just have a bachelors and no debt. We are doing the same job. I’m sure a lot of my colleagues thought they’d be making a lot more money. There is a serious glut of lawyers out there and many of them to not make the $$$ to justify law school.
Add online law school and your age to that glut and it does NOT look good.

Well, if OP just wants to experience law school and then lounge around the federal government her loans would be forgiven in 10 years. Not a terrible outcome in that case.

The likelihood of an online, unaccredited law school graduate getting a federal government job is zero.

Anonymous wrote:Don’t do it OP. Waste of time and money.
I’m a Fed at an agency where many of my colleagues are attorneys. I make just over 100k. Many of my colleagues are saddled with law school debt. I just have a bachelors and no debt. We are doing the same job. I’m sure a lot of my colleagues thought they’d be making a lot more money. There is a serious glut of lawyers out there and many of them to not make the $$$ to justify law school.
Add online law school and your age to that glut and it does NOT look good.

Well, if OP just wants to experience law school and then lounge around the federal government her loans would be forgiven in 10 years. Not a terrible outcome in that case.

I am sort of attorney-adjacent at my work and my attorney friends have advised me not to do this. I had the same thought, OP, and it hurt to let it go, but it was the right call. And I am younger than you but definitely too old to be a law student starting out.

Karen, ‘The View’ airs in a few minutes, refill that glass with white wine and continue your fantasy…

Don’t do it OP. Waste of time and money.
I’m a Fed at an agency where many of my colleagues are attorneys. I make just over 100k. Many of my colleagues are saddled with law school debt. I just have a bachelors and no debt. We are doing the same job. I’m sure a lot of my colleagues thought they’d be making a lot more money. There is a serious glut of lawyers out there and many of them to not make the $$$ to justify law school.
Add online law school and your age to that glut and it does NOT look good.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Socratic Method is not intellectually stimulating. Imagine being tired at the end of a busy day only to login to a law class where 20 year olds are unprepared for class but responding with "well I feel the Supreme Court was wrong because...."

+1 ROFL

Happens in undergrad far more. You pull that stunt in an in-person law school even ONCE, your professor will make an example out of you. Law schools today aren't that far removed from The Paper Chase.

Maybe. My conlaw professor was one of those old codgers. He was famous for telling students "Mr. Smith, with all due respect, you dont know sh!t." At the time I was kinda shocked, but who cares. What happens in con law class one day is irrelevant. blind grading and all, not that grades matter unless you're going to biglaw. that's the part of law school that nobody understands until its all over.

Bad idea OP. That ship has sailed. You will likely never get a legal job There has been a glut of lawyers for at least 30 years now. Maybe try for a research job with an association or think tank. There is nothing glamorous about being a lawyer. It is not like tv.

OP, I echo the common sentiments in the responses. If you want to be a practicing lawyer, you will have an extremely low chance of employment as a 50+ year old woman with an online degree. It is called the practice of law for a reason, graduation is not the end of the education, it’s the beginning and you will need a decent job as a new lawyer where you can go and develop into a “real practicing lawyer”. That job will be very very very hard to find.

Law school is an expensive education and time consuming. I am a practicing lawyer, your age with 23+ years experience. I enjoyed the education but hated the test taking. I went to a top 20 school and still had difficulty finding a job. I was able to pay off my loans in less than 10 years but it took living a meager lifestyle and mercifully the scholarships were high and 20+ years ago the costs were lower. The big law big checks come with big sacrifices, but those will not be available to a grad from an online school. If you have a burning passion to be a practicing lawyer go for it, but not the online, unaccredited law school. If you have not done so already, try shadowing a lawyer who practices in the area you are interested in for a few days.

Most lawyers are not making $200,000 so if it’s riches you seek, don’t. I try not to be a dream killer, but in your case I don’t get the sense that you have a burning desire to be a practicing lawyer so I am joining the choir encouraging you to spend much more time thinking this through.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn’t do this unless you have a really really good reason. Otherwise it will likely be a huge waste of money, time and energy

In immigrant families it's a prestige to be a lawyer. And so many people in this area who can afford this area and make so much money are lawyers. I'm not getting the 'miserable' lawyers on here? what's your deal?

Getting a high paying lawyer job is not the typical outcome. Most high paying lawyer jobs are very tedious and incredibly stressful. You don't get it because you haven't worked in big law, and you refuse to believe anyone who tells you what it's like.

No one has told me what it's like yet but it's better than a blue collar job that requires hard physical labor or risking your health working in a hospital.

There's plenty of skilled labor jobs that don't require hard physical labor. And working in a hospital isn't "risking your health." And if you can't use the Google long enough to figure out that big law is not a typical outcome and that big law is miserable for most, you lack skills needed to either make it to big law or to succeed there.

Being a lawyer involves hours of research or reviewing of evidence or reviewing and drafting contracts. There's little room for error, and you're expected to always be right.

I'm not sure what you think being a lawyer involves.