I recently met a guy who has a JD from Presidents College School of Law, but he dose not have a BA or BS. I asked him how he ended up getting a JD with out a BA or BS? He told me that when applying to law school he had 2-3 years of work experience and scored 170 on the LSAT I would like to know if that is really possible or is this guy just full of bs. Thanks
Law without undergrad When I did my degree you were able to be admitted to your LLB (in Canada) without completing your final year of a four year undergrad program. I know that there are also special provisions made for mature students, but if I recall that meant that allowances might be made for grades below those of younger students, not application based on a resume.
It appears that this school was unaccredited and it is now closed down due to financial trouble. College needs millions BY JULIE MAH The Wichita Eagle http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/news/5900096.htm The Presidents College School of Law, unable to raise the millions it needs to become accredited, must decide today whether to shut down. One year after celebrating its first graduating class, the board of trustees meets today to weigh the stark choices: Try to raise enough money to convince the American Bar Association the college has the backing needed to meet the bar's accrediting standards over time. The cost to hire more faculty, expand the law library and find a bigger building would be $15 million to $25 million, according to consultants the college hired last year. Without accreditation, the school's degrees give its graduates no right to take the bar exam and become practicing lawyers. The school had 66 students this spring. AND Second-year student Bryan Barr said he was surprised to find that he can't transfer his credits to law schools at Washburn University or the University of Kansas. Barr said he has spent about $3,000 so far to attend Presidents College. When he found out he couldn't transfer, he said, he audited his classes. He said he may have been naive about the college receiving accreditation. "You went into it thinking it's going to be a fair deal," he said. "If they can get degree-granting authority, they should be able to get ABA (accreditation)."
I beleve many schools require you to have 2-3 years of college, but not neccessarily a Bachelors. That said, it would be hard to compete in the admissions process at ABA schools without one.
Here is an interesting short article on studying law in the US. It is from the Fulbright Czech website: http://www.fulbright.cz/czech/Poradna/law.htm John
It's certainly possible in CA. One one only needs I believe an associates degree or 60 units to get into a CA-Bar approved school. These schools are not ABA approved though and initially you would only be able to practice in CA. I do remember reading somwhere where some LLB programs that are ABA approved might accept a CA-Bar approved JD for admissions. So that can be a possible work around to getting an ABA accredited education.
I believe that technically, an ABA accredited school can admit a JD student with not less than ninety semester hours of undergrad work. However, a glance at the catalogues shows that most schools won't even consider less than a completed BA. I know one lawyer who started in a CA approved school with less than a BA. Midway through the program, the school became provisionally accredited by the ABA; this person's JD is therefore fully accredited. Some states have specific pre-law education requirements. which I suppose could include a BA. As has been pointed out, it is very common for applicants to California Bar approved, unapproved, and correspondence schools to be admited with a minimum of 60 semester hours completed. It is even possible to CLEP out of this requirement! I know of NO bar eligible program that will accept "work experience" in the place of academic credits. Of course, there are MANY non Bar programs that will...
One thing I've discovered over the years is that ABA law school catalogs often don't mean what they say. When it comes to admissions, "must" usually means "most." Special exceptions are made all the time.
True. However, I doubt seriously that any ABA school would reduce its requirements below 90 semester hours and a REALLY doubt that they would accept "work experience". I thought that the Roosevelt option looked interesting. I've heard of medical schools taking the same approach for the same reason; seven or eight years to the professional degree is too damned LONG!
Well, section 502 of the ABA standards for accreditation of law schools actually DOES allow a school to admit an "extraordinary" applicant without the magic ninety semester hours based upon his previous professional and work history! You're right, Mr. Boyd. "Must" really DOES mean "most".
You are right, but don't forget the Presidents College School of Law is not an ABA aproved school. They are approved by the state.
Hunh! Not only does Kansas require ALL Bar applicants to have an ABA accredited JD, you have to produce a regionally accredited bachelor's degree as well! Wow! They ARE tough!
From 1994, one of the more interesting exceptions: "When 40-year-old Edward J.Nicoll enters Yale Law School in the fall, he will not be the oldest student ever admitted there; a retiree set that record before him. Nor will he be the first to have left an executive suite and the world of finance -- he heads a discount brokerage firm -- for Yale Law's classrooms. He will not even be the school's first student to have herded sheep for a living. But people with long memories in admissions say Nicoll will be the first person ever admitted to a leading law school who has no college credits, indeed no college experience at all. ABA standards stipulate that degree candidates admitted to ABA-approved law schools must have completed at least three-fourths of the work toward a bachelor's degree at a qualified institution. Exceptions can be made, however, when there is a ""clear showing of ability and aptitude for law study. '' "Reading letters attesting to Mr. Nicoll's ability,'' Thomas said, "then examining his record and test scores and interviewing him at length, I made such a finding. '' Three law professors then reviewed his application, the usual procedure at Yale, and he was in. ""It helped that I graded in the top 1 percent on the law school admissions test,'' said Nicoll, whose score was 174 out of 180 and who notes that Columbia, Fordham and St. John's also accepted him. ""Only New York University refused to even consider my case. '' (It also probably helped he made a major contribution to the school.)
And apparently that would be NYU's loss. Rules, particularly with something like school admissions, should never be absolute. Tom Nixon
