Law School DETC Degree Accepted?

Will a DETC B.S from an university with an online presence be enough to fulfill the requirement?
I transferred after two years at a state school to spend more time with my son. I went to work as a legal assistant and love the idea of law school.

Has anyone been through this before? I am looking at NY schools-

Natasha

 

reply

The best way to answer your question is for you to find out where you're interested in working or applying the degree to. Some places will accept a DETC or nationally accredited degree while others will not. That is the best way I know on how to answer your question and you'd also want to check to see if you'd need to if you're interested in practicing law whether you'd be able to pass the bar if you're interested in becoming a lawyer and going through further steps for this type of work.

 

This seems to be a school specific question. You may want to pick the schools and research their admissions requirements.

 

A few years ago, the ABA amended its accreditation standards to allow, but not compel, law schools to accept nationally accredited bachelor's degrees in admissions decisions.

It is school specific.

 

Why not go RA with big three of Excelsior,COSC or TESC and not have to worry about it?

Good luck!

 

TESC

Thanks for the replies. I tried TESC and I didn't like the format: It seemed the tests were always slow in delivery. I did complete a business management course which I liked, but other courses weren't so well managed.

 

I know nos knows this, so I will chalk it up to maybe his just forgetting to mention it, in addition to what he already correctly wrote, above: While it is, indeed, school specific, the state's bar (or the state's supreme court... whichever one controls who gets to be, and who doesn't get to be, a lawyer in a given state) may also have specified a pre-law-school educational requirement. Some states specifically require that the undergradate degree be regionally (and not nationally) accredited; and some even go so far as to specify that said undergraduate degree must be obtained before the law degree (which, of course, is the most -- maybe even the only -- logical way to do it, but some states specify it anyway).

In other words, in some states, it's not enough that your law degree is ABA approved. Some states say, in effect, "Fine, we do require that your law degree be ABA approved, so on that part of it, you're good. But we notice your bachelors is only nationally -- and not regionally -- accredited. That's a problem."

So what the law school school will accept is one thing; but what ultimately matters most is what the state in which you intend to practice requires. Most states don't care about or even mention pre-law-school studies; but some do. Always check with the state in which you intend to practice before even beginning discussions with any given law school.

 

NY

The bar examiner's office for N.Y. doesn't care about the undergraduate degree, only the law school degree. The state's department of education says it's up to the school. So I suppose I won't get any answers until I apply.

 

Can't you just call/email and ask?

sthenri

 

DesElms is correct. State Bar authoities DO sometimes require a regionally accredited bachelor's degree for prelegal education.

I really don't know why, either. There's nothing about a bachelor's degree that necessarily guarantees a broad general education though I do think that a broad general education is a very good thing for an aspiring lawyer.

 

NY

Sometimes they do maybe, but I haven't heard anything else about this in New York. The bar examiner's office, education dept. state bar, none have heard of any requirements other than a law degree and admission to the bar. There is an admissions process after the bar exam but it's not dependent on an undergraduate degree.

Which states do you know have this requirement? Regarding law schools. It's preferred that an email is sent and someone gets back to you.

That's why I was asking if anyone had applied to a law school with a DETC degree. So far I haven't found anyone who has. I know getting into a MBA program is not that difficult but there seems to be more barriers for law school.

I will find out, but if anyone has experience negative or positive post it here.

Nat

 

Nat,

Do you actually have BA degree or contemplating it?

 

Re: NY

Don't rely on staff in a bar examiner's office to give you accurate information. I know that sounds outrageous, but what those people tend to know best is the normal way things are done, not the exceptional way; and they tend to characterize the normal or more common way of doing things as the only way. Staff in bar examiners's offices tend not to be about possibilities; and tend to be, instead, about preferred methods. I've emailed questions like these to every state and, to my astonishment, some of the answers were just plain wrong.

The only way to know what's allowed and what's not is to consult the law or the rules, as codified. Don't ask anyone in a bar examiner's office to interpret the law and rules for you. Instead, ask them where you can find the law and/or rules online so you can read them yourself.

You'll learn, early on in law school, to only trust what you research and read yourself. Everything else is merely an opinion.

 

NY

Yes, that is true, they were not that helpful. I will try and get another answer on Monday.

Nat