Obama Says Law School Should Be Two, Not Three, Years!!!
President Obama urged law schools on Friday to consider cutting a year of classroom instruction, wading into a hotly debated issue inside the beleaguered legal academy.
“This is probably controversial to say, but what the heck. I am in my second term, so I can say it,” Mr. Obama said at a town hall-style meeting at Binghamton University in New York. “I believe that law schools would probably be wise to think about being two years instead of three years.” . .
On Friday, he questioned the utility of a third year of classes and suggested that students use their final two semesters to gain work experience. “In the first two years, young people are learning in the classroom,” Mr. Obama said. “The third year, they’d be better off clerking or practicing in a firm even if they weren’t getting paid that much, but that step alone would reduce the costs for the student.”
He acknowledged that eliminating a third year could possibly hurt a law school’s finances and ability to maintain a strong faculty. “Now, the question is,” Mr. Obama said, “can law schools maintain quality and keep good professors and sustain themselves without that third year? My suspicion is, is that if they thought creatively about it, they probably could.”
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/08/23/obama-says-law-school-should-be-two-years-not-three/?hp
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Took me five years to earn my JD. Eleven semesters. I was working full time at the courthouse as a court reporter & typing my transcripts and going to night school. I thought it would help me get a job as a paralegal training trial lawyers, since I've seen a jillion hearings.
Didn't help me get a job.....
The main problem I have is
the lack of feedback on how well you know the material. There's a final exam and that's all. You make 3 F's and you're out, as well.
Horrifically scary. Some teachers made sure the curve was a flat 70. If they were generous the center point of the curve might be a 73. Horrendously competitive.
