First 100% Online JD Program Approved by ABA

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by sanantone, Sep 16, 2021.

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  1. nosborne48

    nosborne48 Well-Known Member

    The ABA put off allowing a 100% online J.D. program for decades. It will be interesting to see if the graduates of such a program have as much trouble passing the Bar exam as graduates of California's correspondence and online programs have. If they do, these programs will not keep their ABA approval for very long.
     
    Rich Douglas likes this.
  2. nosborne48

    nosborne48 Well-Known Member

    There may also be a student retention issue. I've studied law both in residence at an ABA approved school and by D/L from Taft, a DEAC accredited school. The overall student experience is different in detail but not so different in substance. You read a lot, analyze a lot, and write a lot. Frankly, even when I was in law school I questioned the value of the lecture as a teaching method. On the other hand, the first year of law school is critical. How well one does in the first year is a good predictor of success in the remaining years of school and on the Bar exam. That's why California will exempt any student from the First Year Law Students Exam (Baby Bar) who has completed the first year of an ABA or Calbar approved program. Until recently, Calbar did not accredit D/L schools so that first year was always taken in residence.

    The reason I mentioned retention is that D/L programs have notoriously poor retention rates compared with residential programs. Law study is hard but studying alone without daily student and professor contact is harder. People drop out.
     
  3. TEKMAN

    TEKMAN Semper Fi!

    I could be wrong, but some law graduates told me that you would not pass the bar exam if you only learned from the law schools. You have to prepare yourself to study for the bar exam, like high school, not preparing yourself to take the SAT exam. You have to spend months studying for the bar exam alone.
     
  4. TEKMAN

    TEKMAN Semper Fi!

    I want to earn an ABA-approved online J.D as a sixth degree. However, I think I just wait until Harvard Law School offers online J.D. :D
     
  5. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    The ABA never seems to care about the wide variances in passing rates among the different states. Unless, of course, they're acting on behalf of a cartel to limit supply in the lawyer labor market.

    IIRC, haven't there been a couple of examples of correspondence schools whose graduates perform well on the CalBar? If so, doesn't that indicate that it (law school by correspondence) can be done if done well?
     
  6. nosborne48

    nosborne48 Well-Known Member

    Tekman is sort of right anyway. After you graduate you generally take a six week course to pass the Bar exam. People DO self study and succeed but most folks have too much riding on getting admitted as soon as possible so they go for the commercial prep course.

    Now the question is, can you just take the Bar and pass based on the courses you took in law school. I don't know. It should depend on what courses you took and how well you learned the material. This has been studied as I recall in that someone somewhere concluded that passing does not depend on what courses one took.

    One way to test the idea would be to give a bunch of brand new JDs an old Multistate test and see how they do with no test prep.
     
  7. nosborne48

    nosborne48 Well-Known Member

    As to Dr. Douglas ' question, yes, but the "Oak Brook Effect" seems to wane after awhile.

    Bar passage seems to correlate with law school performance and especially with first year class rank. I suspect that undergraduate performance also can predict Bar success but I am no statistician.
     
  8. schools

    schools New Member

    Why don't unaccredited law schools post employment statistics regarding their graduates?
     
  9. schools

    schools New Member

    I was accepted to begin my studies at the Northwestern California University School of Law.
     
    SteveFoerster likes this.
  10. TEKMAN

    TEKMAN Semper Fi!

    They only do that if they are required by accredited agencies.
     

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