So I'm researching different aspects of going into law school. I have a law school close to were I live, but they are CalBar certified and not ADA. I have 3 ADA law schools about 90 minutes from my house, but that commute is murder so I'm looking for other options. Is there an ADA accredited law school online?
I am assuming you mean ABA (American Bar Association), not ADA (American Dental Association). No, there are no ABA accredited law schools that offer a JD online.
No, I think the ABA's stand against online law study (at least for the JD) is still in effect. I'm guessing you want to maintain a job while in law school, so your best bet might be to see if any of the local schools offer evening or weekend classes and see if you can arrange them to minimize your commute. This would add flexibility but also make it take about another year to get the degree.
I have the following law school within a 30 minute drive: Empire College Law School / School of Law | Empire College I have the following law schools within a 90 minute drive: USF Law School / University of San Francisco School of Law Golden Gate Law School / School of Law - Golden Gate University UC Hastings Law School / UC Hastings College of the Law I have the following law schools within a 2 hour drive: U.C. Berkeley Law School / Berkeley Law - Home University of the Pacific Law School / Pacific McGeorge School of Law Now some of these schools do not offer an evening/ part time program, so I'm going to have to do some research. . . .
You'll want to check the bar pass rates, especially of the cal-bar schools. You'll also want to visit JD Underground to read up on Golden Gate. And, of course, there's always the entirely online program at Concord. You'll be able to take the Calif bar but after the first year you'll have to pass the baby bar before you can continue in the program. There are several other entirely online schools, but none of them are cal bar accredited or ABA accredited so you'd have to pass the baby bar.
Some other things you might want to consider: (1) The California Bar Association posts a complete list of all California law schools, with all forms of approval or accreditation. There may be other law schools, such as CalBar-approved John F. Kennedy University School of Law in Pleasant Hill, that might fit you geographically. (2) You can find out more about ABA-approved law schools in California, including the types of programs offered and their admissions standards, through LSAC. (3) There aren't very many ABA-approved part-time/evening programs in Northern California. The only ones may be Golden Gate U, U of San Francisco, Santa Clara U, and U of the Pacific. And these programs are not open admissions; on the contrary, they reject most applicants. You may want to take a practice LSAT test to see if you are likely to get a competitive score. (4) CalBar law schools (like Empire or JFK) and unaccredited law schools are more likely to have part-time/evening programs, and are generally more flexible in terms of admissions as well.