DL Law School that is approved for VA Benefits??

Does anyone know of a DL Law school approved for VA benefits. I looked and coul not find one. I wish a high caliber (high bar pass rate) school like Oak Brook was but it is not. I once sugeested to them that they check out TRACS accreditation and the message was passed on but no further. I suspect that TRACS requirements for on campus programs, libraries, etc makes it not an attractive choice.

Sigh....I had some GI Bill left and thought about law school but Concord is a no go (kind of expensive too) and WH Taft said that they will not be pursuing VA approval.

North

 

NoGo as of February 2004

Hey North,

I hate to tell you this...but I searched and inquired with every DL Law School that is listed on Johnnie Liu's listing as of February 2004, and none of them seemed interested in or would entertain seeking approval for VA Benefits. I was going to go to University of LaVerne or Chapman in California (Both B&M), however I moved prior to even getting fully enrolled in a program.

Oakbrook was an exception. They advised me that if they received enough inquiries from vets (they seemed to be getting a lot of interst) they may seek to get registered as a VA Authorized School.

Good Luck..and if you find something let me know...I still have nearly 30 months of benefits & 4 years left to use them.

 

I looked at every correspondence school listed on the CalBar website, none did. Sorry. There were some non-ABA accredited ones but you'd be going to their night school.

I would think some of the cheaper CA-Law schools are quite affordable under any budget, like $2k per yr only. WestHaven did have some scholarships too that you might want to check out.

 

Thanks folks for your help.

North

 

Are you certain that Concord does not qualify for VA benefits? According to the DANTES website, it is approved. http://www.dantescatalogs.com/NADLP/NADLP.asp?RecID=37

Just curious.

 

It does seem like one or another of the CA D/L Bar programs would qualify. I wonder what the problem is?

When I took a D/L A.A.S. from the Cleveland Institute of Electronics, the VA was happy to pay for it. They are DETC.

 

Ah. Concord DOES claim to accept "most VA benefits".

 

Apparently SCUPS does, too. At least, they have some VA-ese on their web site.

 

Sorry to tell you...

If you look back at some of my posts....I am a big proponent of Some DL Law Schools (Oakbrook probably my only choice) and I wish that they would allowed to be ABA Approved.

Since this is not a big possibility in my lifetime...I have researched DL Law Schools that will be useful with GI Bill, because I have about 30 months of eligibility left. There are no schools that fit because either they don't want to be VA Approved, or the VA will not authorize them to join (for whatever reason...and surpringly, the VA does its research).

What I was told by the VA, get the school to apply for VA eligibility and they have to be approved in order for you to get reimbursed for the tuition.

 

I went to the GI Bill portion of the Veteran Affairs website and used its interactive FAQ to find out how you can see if a particular school or program is approved. The answer was to check with the school providing the training. If the school or program is not approved, you should contact the State Approving Agency (SAA) of the state in which the school is located.

Not wanting to wait for an e-mail response from Concord, I went to the SAA website for California (the Bureau for Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education - part of the California Department of Consumer Affairs). Concord is listed as being a Title 38 approved institution for veterans. The list is updated quarterly and appears to have been updated on 5 Aug 04. The only other school that I looked for was Taft and it is not on the Title 38 approved list.

The other thing to think about is the logic test - Concord was announced as a DANTES affliated program last October. Why would DANTES, our nontraditional education support for the DoD, affiliate itself with a school that doesn't accept verterans benefits?

To me, it looks like VA benefits can be used at Concord.

 

Airtorn

It looks as if Concord was listed as of 8/4/2004...long beyond the the last time that I inquired about their VA eligibility. I am very ecstatic that they have apparently done what they needed to do to get their act together as far as their GI Bill Eligibility.

But, one bad thing about this is that their tuition is going to still be about $400 per class more than what the GI Bill will cover...and that cost increases exponentially with the more classes you take!

The one good thing is that Kaplan is a big company...they have a lot of power, leverage, and influence. Maybe, just maybe the ABA will be inclined to develop a program for proven DL schools (by no means do I consider Concord to be proven at this point...but they have DETC, they could possibly get RA one day) and recognize their degrees. I hope an Oakbrook or Concord Lawyer wins a big, blockbuster case against a Harvard, Yale, Columbia, etc. lawyer and changes the universe. I am holding my breath!

 

mdg1775:

You raise an interesting question. Exactly HOW does a school like Concord prove itself?

On this board, we tend to be results oriented. Specifically, we look at Bar and Baby Bar percentages. However, we also acknowlege that these figures are both flawed and represent too narrow a focus.

In the U.S., the J.D. degree is the professional qualification for practice but it is also the basic credential for an academic career in the law. It seems to me that a law school, to "prove" itself needs to be a regular contributer to research and publication as well as produce reasonable Bar passage rates.

A law school also needs to produce occasional scholars that teach at other law schools. This is a Catch-22; until Concord is accredited, it won't be easy for its graduates to find such positions, no matter how brilliant they may be.

I don't particularly LIKE the ABA accreditation standards; they concentrate too much on INPUTS and not enough on RESULTS. Nevertheless, they're all we really have at this point.

Maybe that's the answer. If the ABA won't open itself up to really radical approaches to legal education, and thus far it has refused to do so, the D/L world should maybe create its OWN accreditation agency, develop a reputation and obtain DOE approval, then go a'sellin' the state Bar authorities and, eventually, University officials.

Just a thought.

 

I agree

NOSBORNE,

There is not a sentence in your posting that I disagree with. I am a big supporter of DL Law Schools (and DL Period) because it has the potential to provide an equal opportunity to those who would otherwise be unable to attend law school, get a good job, and provide a better life for their family. I won't go into the story about how I finished much of my BA from the back of a C-130 aircraft or sitting on firewatch in some God Forsaken Heck Hole defending our freedoms...but I was able to get an education and start a career when I left the Military and DL gave me that opportunity.

One thing you mention, DL may have to get its own accreditation body and run it all the way up to the DOE; then start pushing it to schools. Well, the DETC opened the door for that. Many of us in this forum do not care for DETC Accreditation and that's unfortunate because it "cracked a door!" There are people that have the knowledge, drive, and determination; many who are members of this discussion board, to blast the door wide open. Hell, I always mention...we have Dr. John Bear in this group, Steve Levicoff, E. Kavanaugh (spelling), Tom Head, Rich Douglas, Lawrie Miller...the list goes on! Then, the administrators of this board probably have read more information on DL and B&M schools than nearly anyone else on the planet.

If you could concert that knowledge, effort, and influence...you could do anything!

But with that being said...I also will say that none of the aforementioned notables in this forum would ever place their name or stake their reputation behind something that is not reputable! I don't see any DL Law School that has proven it is worthy of in co-sign at this point...besides maybe my favorite; Oakbrook. But you are correct:

Make achievements by having a graduate that teaches law (impossible if they are not ABA)
Have an Oakbrook Grad win a Landmark Case
Have a DL Lawyer find groundbreaking legislation that becomes material aspect of law
etc. etc.

Until something like this happens, I don't see DL Law Schools gaining any type of recognition in my lifetime...or shall I say as long as I am willing to continue attending school.

 

Hm. Well, there are some other considerations.

DETC is accreditation, to be sure, but it is not "professional accreditation". It's more like RA than ABA, if you see what I mean.

I propose a new "professional" accrediting agency, I don't know, call it the "Association of Nontraditional and Distance Law Schools" or something like that. Put together an advisory board made up of Judges, traditional law professors, and well-known lawyers, some D/L educated, some from conventional but non-ABA law schools, and some from ABA schools. Include a PhD type research center or grant to develop solid statistics about D/L lawyers and law students, what they do, where they go, whether they get into trouble more often than traditionally educated lawyers (I doubt it).

Create specific, measurable standards and requirements and start assembling the data that will impress the public and the Courts.

The process will take years, but we'll all grow old and die before the ABA changes its ways!