Georgetown Law evening (part time) student taking questions Forum

A forum for applicants and admitted students to ask law students and graduates about law school and the practice of law.
GULCsect7

New
Posts: 38
Joined: Sat Mar 15, 2014 10:29 pm

Re: Georgetown Law evening (part time) student taking questions

Post by GULCsect7 » Sun May 18, 2014 5:46 pm

Bull_Moose wrote:Thank you very much for taking questions. Any insight on how PT students fare at OCI compared to FT'ers? Also, do many PT'ers participate on journals or in clinics? Do the journals/clinics cater to PT schedules?

I can't speak to OCI (called EIW at GULC) performance from my or my classmates' perspectives since we just finished our 1E year and won't do OCI until 2E, but I have not heard anything bad about PT performance at OCI. The anecdotal evidence is that employers like candidates with work experience (which pretty much all PTers have) and that employers see the PTers as likely to be hard workers and good time managers, so we've been told PTers who want to do OCI do very well. I think a lower % of PT students do OCI than FT students for the obvious reason that many PTers are already in careers/jobs that they plan to stay in. That makes sense to me.

If you are a PTer and plan to do OCI then I assume you plan to leave your job in order to do a summer associate gig?

As for journals, loads of PT students do them without any problems. I could be mistaken, but I believe the editor in chief of the main journal next year is a PT student. Similar to OCI/EIW, I suspect a smaller % of PT students do journal than FT students since journal is really about landing a job and many PT students plan to stay in their job/career. We also don't have the kind of free time that FT students have in which to do journal. I'm not doing a journal, for instance. But if you want to do one there are plenty of PT students who have done it before you across all of the journals.

Clinics are tough because they are time intensive and normally require work during the workday that many PT students can't give due to our jobs. There is at least one (and probably more than one) that is geared toward PT students and meets at night. But yeah, on the whole clinics are harder to do for PT students. No doubt about it. The point of clinics is to get legal experience, so hopefully you can get legal experience out of your job rather than from a clinic.

Hope that helps. Happy to answer any follow ups.

User avatar
Bull_Moose

New
Posts: 13
Joined: Wed Jul 03, 2013 2:28 pm

Re: Georgetown Law evening (part time) student taking questions

Post by Bull_Moose » Mon May 19, 2014 11:24 am

GULCsect7 wrote:
Bull_Moose wrote:Thank you very much for taking questions. Any insight on how PT students fare at OCI compared to FT'ers? Also, do many PT'ers participate on journals or in clinics? Do the journals/clinics cater to PT schedules?

I can't speak to OCI (called EIW at GULC) performance from my or my classmates' perspectives since we just finished our 1E year and won't do OCI until 2E, but I have not heard anything bad about PT performance at OCI. The anecdotal evidence is that employers like candidates with work experience (which pretty much all PTers have) and that employers see the PTers as likely to be hard workers and good time managers, so we've been told PTers who want to do OCI do very well. I think a lower % of PT students do OCI than FT students for the obvious reason that many PTers are already in careers/jobs that they plan to stay in. That makes sense to me.

If you are a PTer and plan to do OCI then I assume you plan to leave your job in order to do a summer associate gig?

As for journals, loads of PT students do them without any problems. I could be mistaken, but I believe the editor in chief of the main journal next year is a PT student. Similar to OCI/EIW, I suspect a smaller % of PT students do journal than FT students since journal is really about landing a job and many PT students plan to stay in their job/career. We also don't have the kind of free time that FT students have in which to do journal. I'm not doing a journal, for instance. But if you want to do one there are plenty of PT students who have done it before you across all of the journals.

Clinics are tough because they are time intensive and normally require work during the workday that many PT students can't give due to our jobs. There is at least one (and probably more than one) that is geared toward PT students and meets at night. But yeah, on the whole clinics are harder to do for PT students. No doubt about it. The point of clinics is to get legal experience, so hopefully you can get legal experience out of your job rather than from a clinic.

Hope that helps. Happy to answer any follow ups.

Thanks! Anything you've learned in your first year that you wish you knew before you started? Anything about the program that surprised you?

GULCsect7

New
Posts: 38
Joined: Sat Mar 15, 2014 10:29 pm

Re: Georgetown Law evening (part time) student taking questions

Post by GULCsect7 » Mon May 19, 2014 2:57 pm

Bull_Moose wrote:
GULCsect7 wrote:
Bull_Moose wrote:Thank you very much for taking questions. Any insight on how PT students fare at OCI compared to FT'ers? Also, do many PT'ers participate on journals or in clinics? Do the journals/clinics cater to PT schedules?

I can't speak to OCI (called EIW at GULC) performance from my or my classmates' perspectives since we just finished our 1E year and won't do OCI until 2E, but I have not heard anything bad about PT performance at OCI. The anecdotal evidence is that employers like candidates with work experience (which pretty much all PTers have) and that employers see the PTers as likely to be hard workers and good time managers, so we've been told PTers who want to do OCI do very well. I think a lower % of PT students do OCI than FT students for the obvious reason that many PTers are already in careers/jobs that they plan to stay in. That makes sense to me.

If you are a PTer and plan to do OCI then I assume you plan to leave your job in order to do a summer associate gig?

As for journals, loads of PT students do them without any problems. I could be mistaken, but I believe the editor in chief of the main journal next year is a PT student. Similar to OCI/EIW, I suspect a smaller % of PT students do journal than FT students since journal is really about landing a job and many PT students plan to stay in their job/career. We also don't have the kind of free time that FT students have in which to do journal. I'm not doing a journal, for instance. But if you want to do one there are plenty of PT students who have done it before you across all of the journals.

Clinics are tough because they are time intensive and normally require work during the workday that many PT students can't give due to our jobs. There is at least one (and probably more than one) that is geared toward PT students and meets at night. But yeah, on the whole clinics are harder to do for PT students. No doubt about it. The point of clinics is to get legal experience, so hopefully you can get legal experience out of your job rather than from a clinic.

Hope that helps. Happy to answer any follow ups.

Thanks! Anything you've learned in your first year that you wish you knew before you started? Anything about the program that surprised you?
Hmmm...

Not that it thought people would dislike eachother or anything, but I have been very happy with the collegiality of the Section 7 students. Everyone is very friendly and we really seem to enjoy the company of eachother. That is important I think.

Also, I think that having employer support is important to succeeding at being a night student. I don't mean financially. I mean they have to understand that you must leave at 5:00, that you will be taking days off for exams, etc.

elmar

New
Posts: 27
Joined: Fri Sep 12, 2014 4:05 pm

Re: Georgetown Law evening (part time) student taking questions

Post by elmar » Tue Oct 04, 2016 4:34 pm

Don't know if there's much interest in bringing this thread back to life, but I thought I'd pay it forward on TLS if anyone out there is mulling over GULC as an evening student. I'm happy to take some questions and provide some feedback. I'm a few years into the program, have been employed the whole time, and generally recommend it.

User avatar
AvatarMeelo

Silver
Posts: 515
Joined: Mon Aug 15, 2016 1:58 pm

Re: Georgetown Law evening (part time) student taking questions

Post by AvatarMeelo » Mon Oct 17, 2016 1:30 pm

elmar wrote:Don't know if there's much interest in bringing this thread back to life, but I thought I'd pay it forward on TLS if anyone out there is mulling over GULC as an evening student. I'm happy to take some questions and provide some feedback. I'm a few years into the program, have been employed the whole time, and generally recommend it.
To your knowledge, were there people who bounced around with whatever job they held? I like the idea of being able to do PT and work at the same time, but it seems like the program is geared towards someone who already has a job in the area.

Want to continue reading?

Register now to search topics and post comments!

Absolutely FREE!


GULCsect7

New
Posts: 38
Joined: Sat Mar 15, 2014 10:29 pm

Re: Georgetown Law evening (part time) student taking questions

Post by GULCsect7 » Mon Oct 17, 2016 6:44 pm

clueless801 wrote:
elmar wrote:Don't know if there's much interest in bringing this thread back to life, but I thought I'd pay it forward on TLS if anyone out there is mulling over GULC as an evening student. I'm happy to take some questions and provide some feedback. I'm a few years into the program, have been employed the whole time, and generally recommend it.
To your knowledge, were there people who bounced around with whatever job they held? I like the idea of being able to do PT and work at the same time, but it seems like the program is geared towards someone who already has a job in the area.

Yeah there are/were people in my section who bounced around. Generally they had more flexible lines of work. Not typical office jobs. But that's a generalization, too. Some who went the firm route worked at their firm as clerks, etc. Probably around half have settled jobs all four years.

elmar

New
Posts: 27
Joined: Fri Sep 12, 2014 4:05 pm

Re: Georgetown Law evening (part time) student taking questions

Post by elmar » Tue Oct 18, 2016 9:57 am

GULCsect7 wrote:
clueless801 wrote:
elmar wrote:Don't know if there's much interest in bringing this thread back to life, but I thought I'd pay it forward on TLS if anyone out there is mulling over GULC as an evening student. I'm happy to take some questions and provide some feedback. I'm a few years into the program, have been employed the whole time, and generally recommend it.
To your knowledge, were there people who bounced around with whatever job they held? I like the idea of being able to do PT and work at the same time, but it seems like the program is geared towards someone who already has a job in the area.

Yeah there are/were people in my section who bounced around. Generally they had more flexible lines of work. Not typical office jobs. But that's a generalization, too. Some who went the firm route worked at their firm as clerks, etc. Probably around half have settled jobs all four years.
Yeah, I agree with GULCsect7. My impression is that half or more of the section have stayed in their original job. That said, quite a few people have changed, and some of them more than once. There's the usual mix of reasons as well - because the original job was inflexible and made school attendance difficult, because they'd never liked the position and always intended to leave, or because an unexpected good opportunity just came up. Realistically, a lot of people also believe that some experience in the legal industry may be useful, so they move for that reason.

Colm

New
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Nov 05, 2016 9:34 am

Re: Georgetown Law evening (part time) student taking questions

Post by Colm » Sat Nov 05, 2016 9:40 am

Thanks for providing your insights. I have the following questions: do you know of any students undertaking this program later in their career i.e over 45? Also, do you know of any students commuting to DC from out of state on a weekly basis to work and take the program? If so, do they rent within DC or in the suburbs?

GULCsect7

New
Posts: 38
Joined: Sat Mar 15, 2014 10:29 pm

Re: Georgetown Law evening (part time) student taking questions

Post by GULCsect7 » Sat Nov 05, 2016 10:06 am

Colm wrote:Thanks for providing your insights. I have the following questions: do you know of any students undertaking this program later in their career i.e over 45? Also, do you know of any students commuting to DC from out of state on a weekly basis to work and take the program? If so, do they rent within DC or in the suburbs?
There is a wide range of ages in my section, and for sure there are students in my section who are over age 45. I would say the average age is probably around 30 years old.

I don't know of any classmates in the evening program who are commuting from outside the DC/MD/VA region. If you mean be in DC during the work week but be in your domicile state on the weekends I think that would work as long as you are OK with the frequent travel. There aren't any requirements for evening students' time at GULC on the weekends (though some students choose to take weekend classes and at least one semester you will probably have to take Friday night class). Occasionally you may have an exam on a weekend, but probably no more than two or three times in the whole four years. I assume you would rent an apartment somewhere in the region. Unfortunately housing in the region is very expensive, but there are a lot of options

Want to continue reading?

Register for access!

Did I mention it was FREE ?


konoha

New
Posts: 30
Joined: Sat Jul 19, 2014 7:45 pm

Re: Georgetown Law evening (part time) student taking questions

Post by konoha » Mon Nov 07, 2016 8:58 pm

Would you happen to know the longest one can take to finish the part time program? GT is my number one school and willing to commute from out of state.

konoha

New
Posts: 30
Joined: Sat Jul 19, 2014 7:45 pm

Re: Georgetown Law evening (part time) student taking questions

Post by konoha » Mon Nov 07, 2016 9:00 pm

Colm wrote:Thanks for providing your insights. I have the following questions: do you know of any students undertaking this program later in their career i.e over 45? Also, do you know of any students commuting to DC from out of state on a weekly basis to work and take the program? If so, do they rent within DC or in the suburbs?

I plan to be over 40 when I start and will commute from out of state. Since I work in VA, I contemplate buying a small studio.

GULCsect7

New
Posts: 38
Joined: Sat Mar 15, 2014 10:29 pm

Re: Georgetown Law evening (part time) student taking questions

Post by GULCsect7 » Tue Nov 08, 2016 6:03 am

konoha wrote:Would you happen to know the longest one can take to finish the part time program? GT is my number one school and willing to commute from out of state.

I *think* it is five years, but the admissions office or the registrar's office could tell you easily.

haus

Gold
Posts: 3896
Joined: Wed Aug 18, 2010 11:07 am

Re: Georgetown Law evening (part time) student taking questions

Post by haus » Tue Nov 08, 2016 8:04 am

GULCsect7 wrote:
konoha wrote:Would you happen to know the longest one can take to finish the part time program? GT is my number one school and willing to commute from out of state.

I *think* it is five years, but the admissions office or the registrar's office could tell you easily.
If I recall correctly the ABA has a requirement that a JD be completed with five years of the start.

Register now!

Resources to assist law school applicants, students & graduates.

It's still FREE!


elmar

New
Posts: 27
Joined: Fri Sep 12, 2014 4:05 pm

Re: Georgetown Law evening (part time) student taking questions

Post by elmar » Tue Nov 08, 2016 10:25 am

The answer is six years.

Policy Manual: https://www.law.georgetown.edu/campus-s ... rogram.pdf

But the relevant text is: Students in the full-time program may take no longer than five consecutive academic years from the date of matriculation into law school to meet all J.D. requirements. Students in the part-time program may take no longer than six consecutive academic years from the date of matriculation into law school to meet all J.D. requirements.

As to commuting from out of state, I know a couple of people who go up to New York most or many weekends, usually because of a partner who is living and working there. All of them had employment that was flexible enough for them to work remotely or shift days to make it happen.

konoha

New
Posts: 30
Joined: Sat Jul 19, 2014 7:45 pm

Re: Georgetown Law evening (part time) student taking questions

Post by konoha » Wed Nov 09, 2016 10:13 am

elmar wrote:The answer is six years.

Policy Manual: https://www.law.georgetown.edu/campus-s ... rogram.pdf

But the relevant text is: Students in the full-time program may take no longer than five consecutive academic years from the date of matriculation into law school to meet all J.D. requirements. Students in the part-time program may take no longer than six consecutive academic years from the date of matriculation into law school to meet all J.D. requirements.

As to commuting from out of state, I know a couple of people who go up to New York most or many weekends, usually because of a partner who is living and working there. All of them had employment that was flexible enough for them to work remotely or shift days to make it happen.
GULCsect7 wrote:
konoha wrote:Would you happen to know the longest one can take to finish the part time program? GT is my number one school and willing to commute from out of state.

I *think* it is five years, but the admissions office or the registrar's office could tell you easily.
Thanks all for the replies!

jimalan06

New
Posts: 5
Joined: Tue Nov 29, 2016 9:21 pm

Re: Georgetown Law evening (part time) student taking questions

Post by jimalan06 » Tue Nov 29, 2016 9:35 pm

To go Part time, full time, or not at all??

Me: 33, married but no kids, MBA with 5 years of unrelated professional experience.

I hate my current cubical job and am looking for an escape. I have always wanted to go to law school - for personal protection/knowledge, to help fight for what I believe in, and to open doors that I may never have even known about. However, I really do not have a clear direction for what will come after graduation. I am in no hurry to rush back into a standard job afterwords and thus prefer to live the student life for as long as possible, I enjoy studying - but I dislike being overwhelmed with a huge course load. I have been offered full time admission to George Washington (no scholarship), but have the ability to select the part time program instead. If I pursue the part time track, I'm confident I can achieve excellent grades and would focus much of my time networking, participating in student groups/extracurricular activities and possibly creating a start-up for side income. One of the activities is sure to lead me somewhere lucrative/meaningful/satisfying. My strong point has always been to take the alternative route / skip the line by using the side door.

I have been told that the part time division is more or less the "B-team" when it comes to getting top internships.

In my case, would the additional free time of the part-time program offer a clever person more options than the standard full time program?

Thanks for any advice!!

konoha

New
Posts: 30
Joined: Sat Jul 19, 2014 7:45 pm

Re: Georgetown Law evening (part time) student taking questions

Post by konoha » Tue Feb 14, 2017 6:28 am

Any part timers here know what lsat score is needed to get accepted? Is it similar to the full time program?

Get unlimited access to all forums and topics

Register now!

I'm pretty sure I told you it's FREE...


chasima

Bronze
Posts: 238
Joined: Sat May 09, 2015 11:03 pm

Re: Georgetown Law evening (part time) student taking questions

Post by chasima » Tue Feb 14, 2017 8:40 am

:o
Last edited by chasima on Wed Apr 05, 2017 3:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.

GULCsect7

New
Posts: 38
Joined: Sat Mar 15, 2014 10:29 pm

Re: Georgetown Law evening (part time) student taking questions

Post by GULCsect7 » Sun Feb 19, 2017 4:40 pm

Well, as for evening students being "B Team" for internships, I note that both of GULC's SCOTUS clerks this go round were evening graduates. Just recalling my classmates' internships, summer positions, and firm offers I would say we did very well. Perhaps better than the day students. There must be data out there on employment somewhere that would answer it definitively, though. Good luck!
jimalan06 wrote:To go Part time, full time, or not at all??

Me: 33, married but no kids, MBA with 5 years of unrelated professional experience.

I hate my current cubical job and am looking for an escape. I have always wanted to go to law school - for personal protection/knowledge, to help fight for what I believe in, and to open doors that I may never have even known about. However, I really do not have a clear direction for what will come after graduation. I am in no hurry to rush back into a standard job afterwords and thus prefer to live the student life for as long as possible, I enjoy studying - but I dislike being overwhelmed with a huge course load. I have been offered full time admission to George Washington (no scholarship), but have the ability to select the part time program instead. If I pursue the part time track, I'm confident I can achieve excellent grades and would focus much of my time networking, participating in student groups/extracurricular activities and possibly creating a start-up for side income. One of the activities is sure to lead me somewhere lucrative/meaningful/satisfying. My strong point has always been to take the alternative route / skip the line by using the side door.

I have been told that the part time division is more or less the "B-team" when it comes to getting top internships.

In my case, would the additional free time of the part-time program offer a clever person more options than the standard full time program?

Thanks for any advice!!

elmar

New
Posts: 27
Joined: Fri Sep 12, 2014 4:05 pm

Re: Georgetown Law evening (part time) student taking questions

Post by elmar » Tue Feb 21, 2017 10:47 am

GULCsect7 wrote:Well, as for evening students being "B Team" for internships, I note that both of GULC's SCOTUS clerks this go round were evening graduates. Just recalling my classmates' internships, summer positions, and firm offers I would say we did very well. Perhaps better than the day students. There must be data out there on employment somewhere that would answer it definitively, though. Good luck!
jimalan06 wrote:To go Part time, full time, or not at all??

Me: 33, married but no kids, MBA with 5 years of unrelated professional experience.

I hate my current cubical job and am looking for an escape. I have always wanted to go to law school - for personal protection/knowledge, to help fight for what I believe in, and to open doors that I may never have even known about. However, I really do not have a clear direction for what will come after graduation. I am in no hurry to rush back into a standard job afterwords and thus prefer to live the student life for as long as possible, I enjoy studying - but I dislike being overwhelmed with a huge course load. I have been offered full time admission to George Washington (no scholarship), but have the ability to select the part time program instead. If I pursue the part time track, I'm confident I can achieve excellent grades and would focus much of my time networking, participating in student groups/extracurricular activities and possibly creating a start-up for side income. One of the activities is sure to lead me somewhere lucrative/meaningful/satisfying. My strong point has always been to take the alternative route / skip the line by using the side door.

I have been told that the part time division is more or less the "B-team" when it comes to getting top internships.

In my case, would the additional free time of the part-time program offer a clever person more options than the standard full time program?

Thanks for any advice!!
This thread isn't definitive, given that it looks like just one user's individual research, but it seems to indicate evening students have broadly similar outcomes to the rest of the school in terms of biglaw placement: http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 1&t=262951

Section 7 is pretty diverse, with people who have no real professional experience, and others who are pretty senior and seriously consider dropping out because their career takes off. Obviously day students also have some ratio of people who decide not to try to do biglaw/clerking, so who knows how different the decision-making is in practice between day and evening. All that said, I've never heard an anecdote of someone being taken less seriously in an application process because they were evening, but rather the opposite, and in my experience people were very complimentary about it in the networking and interview context.

Don't know how much this maps onto other schools' evening programs, though. It seems to me that most evening students like their peers, like the program, and like the outcomes from it, they just dislike the opportunity cost of the years involved and the personal sacrifice of the lack of free time and additional life stress.

konoha

New
Posts: 30
Joined: Sat Jul 19, 2014 7:45 pm

Re: Georgetown Law evening (part time) student taking questions

Post by konoha » Wed Mar 15, 2017 12:40 am

What is the minimum classes one can take for their first year? How many days per week and time for the minimum amount of classes?

Communicate now with those who not only know what a legal education is, but can offer you worthy advice and commentary as you complete the three most educational, yet challenging years of your law related post graduate life.

Register now, it's still FREE!


haus

Gold
Posts: 3896
Joined: Wed Aug 18, 2010 11:07 am

Re: Georgetown Law evening (part time) student taking questions

Post by haus » Wed Mar 15, 2017 1:06 am

konoha wrote:What is the minimum classes one can take for their first year? How many days per week and time for the minimum amount of classes?
Most schools are highly regimented in the part-time programs, especially in the first year. GULC provides a page that has many of the details you are looking for.

https://www.law.georgetown.edu/academic ... mation.cfm

User avatar
AvatarMeelo

Silver
Posts: 515
Joined: Mon Aug 15, 2016 1:58 pm

Re: Georgetown Law evening (part time) student taking questions

Post by AvatarMeelo » Sat Sep 30, 2017 4:39 pm

Okay just saw on the GULC PT page that these students can arrange to finish in 3 years instead of the traditional 4 - what does that look like exactly??

elmar

New
Posts: 27
Joined: Fri Sep 12, 2014 4:05 pm

Re: Georgetown Law evening (part time) student taking questions

Post by elmar » Sun Oct 01, 2017 8:40 am

It's a new policy, so there haven't been many people to do it yet (previously PT students were required to be enrolled for at least seven semesters, 3.5 years), though a large number of PT students change to full-time status and finish in three years that way. But as a practical matter your first two semesters the required curriculum has you enrolled for 20 credits, meaning you need to find the time to knock out 65 credits in the following two academic years, which generally means taking 11-12 credits a semester instead of 10-11, and also using the summer semesters to take multiple classes. It's a serious grind, but can be done.

goldenbear2020

Silver
Posts: 631
Joined: Wed Aug 17, 2016 11:47 pm

Re: Georgetown Law evening (part time) student taking questions

Post by goldenbear2020 » Fri Oct 06, 2017 12:42 pm

Here are some sample 3-year, 3.5-year, and 4-year PT schedules:

http://www.law.georgetown.edu/campus-se ... ksheet.pdf

Seriously? What are you waiting for?

Now there's a charge.
Just kidding ... it's still FREE!


Post Reply

Return to “Ask a Law Student / Graduate”