Graduation Season Education Write-Off: DePaul, A Wonderful Place to Learn the Law
Written: May 24 '04 (Updated May 24 '04)
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Pros: Instruction, Clinics, Institutes and Law Journals are top notch.
Cons: Student administration leaves a lot to be desired.
The Bottom Line: Nestled in the heart of Chicago DePaul University College of Law offers a great environment in which to study and become conversant in the law.
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| vemartin's Full Review: DePaul University College of Law |
I can still remember the day I received my letter of acceptance for DePaul University College of Law in Chicago, IL. It was a slightly overcast late day in spring 2001. It was threatening to rain, teasing the budding thirsty flowers in my backyard with a cool nourishing drink. My hands trembled slightly as I held the envelop that one that would (possibly) determine the course of my life.
I turned the envelop over and over in my hands, putting it down and then picking it up, trying to decided whether or not to open it. Finally, with letter opener in hand I ripped open the announcement to learn that I made it in; I was going to the Law School! But why DePaul one might ask.
My Choice
When it came to choosing a law school I really didn’t have many choices. Its not that my LSAT scores were less then average, they weren’t, it was a matter of location, location, location. Since I am an older student (39 years old when I first entered law school) and I own a home and work fulltime and I am raising a family, I could not just pickup and leave the Chicago area to attend a law school elsewhere. So I need to apply to a school in the area; Northwestern University, University of Chicago, and DePaul were all school I considered.
Budget was also a concern. I pay for law school through a combination of student loans and Veterans Education benefits, and I wanted to keep the cost of Law School below $18,000 a year. Finally reputation was a consideration. Because I am a Network Engineer by day, I knew I wanted to eventually practice in the burgeoning area of IP (Intellectual Property) Law.
In the end I choose DePaul University College of Law, because first and foremost I am an alum; I received my Bachelors from DePaul’s, School for New Learning, a highly regarded adult education program. Second, DePaul University College of Law has one of the most extensive IP clinics in the nation and I knew I want to join to gain practical knowledge before graduating. Lastly, I felt comfortable at DePaul; the law school is housed in one 11 story building and the atmosphere of the school, faculty, and facilities felt homely and welcoming.
The law schools national ranking was important to me as well (see How Law Schools are Ranked at the end of this review). DePaul University College of Lawis considered a Tier 3 school, but that concerned me less then its growing reputation in the area of IP practices and instruction, which rank at the top.
Impressions
The DePaul University College of Lawclass of 2006 has some 86 students in attendance and that can make for some rancorous classroom debates, but the professors always mange to keep things under control. All of the horror stories one hears about 1L (first year law) are true, but the becoming part of a study group can minimize the impact.
The bookstore is extensive in its offerings, and what it does not carry, can be purchased on-line at efollett.com, or ecampus.com, both of which offer books at a much higher price then Amazon.com. At the start of one semester the bookstore was out of one of the books I needed, but that was only because it was backordered from the publisher.
Most everyone hated Legal Writing as a 1L, and I have to admit that I count myself among their number. I disliked the way the course was taught, and I think more should be done to ease student into the practice of speaking legalese.
End of semester exams were given is essay form without the benefit of computer. A bit old fashioned and all that writing gives one finger cramps, but I am assured computers are coming.
Student administration is a nightmare as it is at most college so I hear. I have spent hours either on the phone or at the administration desk trying to get one thing or another straightened out. At first it is frustrating, but over time I have learned to deal with it, or learn ways around the inept administration.
The student financial aid office is much better. Though my student financial aid award letters are always late getting to me, at no time was my account not credited on time. And my VA certifications were always submitted on time assuring that my all important VA educational benefits continued unabated. There are a number of scholarship opportunities available, most geared towards fulltime students; a complete listing is available online at the law school’s extensive website.
The DePaul University College of Lawwebsite (http://www.law.depaul.edu/) is well laid out, informative, and easy to use. Course schedules, syllabi, student handbook, class assignments, course descriptions, study guides, and various student resources are all at my fingertips, whenever I need them. Each student is also assigned an email address to use while attending the school, which can be accessed via the web. And each class is outfitted with secure wireless so accessing resource on the web during lecture or before or after class is breeze; bring your own laptop and wireless card of course.
The DePaul University College of Lawlibrary covers two whole floors and is quite extensive. However 1L’s are afforded (limited) access to Westlaw and Lexis/Nexus in the first half of 1L and full access thereafter. Both of these professional grade legal resources are invaluable tools for researching cases, statues, current and relevant archived newspaper & magazine articles etc.
Institutes, Centers, and Law Journals/Reviews
The DePaul University College of Lawmaintains a number of student staffed Institutes and centers geared towards helping students—beginning in 2L—gain practical knowledge in diverse areas of the law. They include the Health Law Institute, International Human Rights Law Institute, Center for Intellectual Property & Information Technology, Center for Justice in Capital Cases, Center for Law Science, Center for Church/State Studies, Center for the Study of Race & Bioethics, The Schiller, DuCanto & Fleck Family Law Center, Center for International Law, Policy& Africa, and the Criminal Law Program.
Joint Student/Faculty run law journals include Art and Entertainment Law, Business & Commercial Law, Health Care Law, DePaul Journal of Sports Law and Contemporary Problems, and Law Review. In addition the DePaul University College of Lawruns an outstanding Moot Court program—of which I participate—as well as a plethora of student organizations including the Moot Court Society, Student Bar Association, American Civil Liberties Society, and the IP Law Society.
Final Thoughts
Thus far my time at the DePaul University College of Lawhas been time well spent. Though the course load for a part-time student is less severe then that of a full time day student, the demands of outside life make law school a challenge, but through the schools Academic Support Program extensive help is available.
Nestled in the heart of Chicago DePaul University College of Lawoffers a great environment in which to study and become conversant in the law. The classes are challenging, the professors engaging, and there are amble resources to help you through the process of earning a law degree. I, for one, am very happy with my choice…now if I could only round up the courage to take advance Legal Writing…
How Law Schools are Ranked
Law Schools are grouped by U.S. News & World Report into Tiers; fist, third and fourth—don’t ask me what happened to the second Tier. A 1998 report by Prof. Joseph Hoffmann of Indiana University School of Law and commissioned by the Association of American Law Schools, came to this conclusion about law school rankings:
U.S. News and World Report uses data on 12 factors to make its annual evaluation of law schools. Two of these factors (ratings by academics and ratings by lawyers and judges) involve subjective judgments of school quality. The other 10 factors are based on objective actuarial data, such as the school’s median LSAT score for beginning students and its bar passage rate. US News uses the 12 factors to rank the top 50 schools and assign the remaining 124 schools to three "tiers" of overall quality (with about 40 schools per tier). US News also publishes the data on each school for a few of the 12 factors.
There are several problems with the US News evaluation system. One of the most important of these is that US News does not consider many factors, such as the educational benefits of attending a certain school or the quality of its faculty, that are just as important as the ones it does include. There also are problems related to the accuracy of the data US News relies on to measure a factor, intentional and unintentional biases in the subjective assessments of school quality, and the use of variables that may foster inappropriate school practices. For example, survey respondents may rate down some schools in order to make their own school look better and schools may try to raise their score on the "rejection rate" factor by encouraging applications from students who have virtually no chance of being admitted. In addition, the methods US News uses to combine the values on different components (such as LSAT scores and undergraduate grades) into an overall factor score (such as for "student selectivity") does not really result in assigning the components the weight US News says they should carry (and no rationale is provided for its weights). Other concerns relate to whether the persons who respond to the surveys are truly representative of their respective populations and how US News imputed the values for missing data on certain variables.
Statistical analyses of the data that were available to us revealed that virtually all of the differences in the overall ranks among schools could be explained by the combination of two of the US News factors. These factors are student selectivity (which is driven by the school’s median LSAT score) and academic reputation. The other ten factors are superfluous. However, because the US News ranking system inflates small differences in quality among schools, the addition of other factors (and/or slightly changing their weights) could shift a school from the bottom of one broad category of overall quality to the top of another (such as from the second to the third tier). Unfortunately, because of problems with all the factors in the US News system, these changes could just as easily decrease as increase the validity of the overall rankings.
Complate Law Schools Rankings can be found here:(http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/grad/rankings/law/lawindex_brief.php)
Recommended:
Yes
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