More changes are coming at
Kaplan in the form of mergers. I’d like to provide an opinion on one aspect of these mergers. The concept of “online law school” is what I’m talking about, and I have some concerns.
Kaplan recently announced a merger with
Concord Law School. I’ve always been of the opinion that there are certain subjects or degrees that are probably best not taught online. Law is one of those. I am of the opinion that there needs to be a lot of face-time in getting a degree like this, and my suspicions were pretty much confirmed when I talked to a close friend of mine who recently graduated from a law school in Oregon.
He is of the opinion that there is a lot that people would miss out on by getting an online law degree. Furthermore, since the
California bar is the only bar that accepts the degree from Concord, this is going to make it tougher on graduates since the California bar is one of the hardest in the nation.
The overall pass-rate for the California bar is low to begin with. It’s even lower for schools that are not ABA-accredited. My friend also has turned up through some research that post-graduation employment rates for non-
ABA accredited graduates is even lower.
From my perspective, I am not sure it would be worth the time and money to get a law degree if you were not going to practice law. With a degree from Concord, you can only practice in California. So this limits the options a student has tremendously.
I would also be concerned about pouring the thousands of dollars you would have to spend into an institution that doesn’t have the standard ABA accreditation. This also puts a lot of restriction on the student (even if they were allowed to take the bar in states other than California).
When taking any online degree program, we have to weigh the pros and cons of our particular situation. This not only applies to a law degree, but to all degrees in all disciplines. There are issues of cost, transferability, employment benefits, income realization, and more. Perhaps I am missing something (I’ve never claimed to know it all), but there just seems to be more cons in this online law degree program than pros.
For more statistics on this program, please see:
http://info.concordlawschool.edu/AboutConcordLaw/barexam.aspx?ID=BExamhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_Bar_of_California