Nah - I like being educationally unemployed!!

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ShotoJuku +
A.S., B.S., M.S.

Always be ready to release your mind and be willing to listen to the advice of others. Remain flexible. - Gichin Funakoshi

Hello SirJake and congratulations on your path into law school. That sounds so awesome. I got so pumped up reading your story and future plans. You even got me thinking about law school!!!! I figure if I'm gonna run my mouth anyway...I might as well get paid for it!!!

I noticed that ShotoJuku was in here... so by obligation, I have to tease him!!! I bet you guys that in about 6 months you'll be hearing about him signing up for law school!!!!


Good One!!!!

Good Luck to all on their educationaly journey. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

From a loyal degree seeker,

Marshall

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Marshall L. Williams IV
Excelsior College (enrolled)
B.S. General Business (42 credits down, 78 to go)

CLEPS:
Social Sciences & History (60)-Principles of Management (68)-Principles of Marketing (72)-Introductory Sociology (69)-Financial Accounting (53)-Introductory Psychology (66)-Intro to Educational Psychology (56)-Human Growth & Development (59)-Analyzing & Interpreting Lit (64)

Courses:
Real Estate Principles & Practices (A)-Real Estate Law (A)-Real Estate Finance (A)-Real Estate Appraisal (A)-Information Literacy (B)

Quotes:
"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us" - Oliver Wendell Holmes
"Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least." - Goethe

I am actually planning the same thing. Matter of fact, it really depends on how well I do on the LSAT and based on how much scholarship money I can get. Or, if any management positions pop up, I might go MBA. My initial goal is to get the degree with Excelsior, then study like a dog for LSAT. I am thinking of getting the Blueprint Solo for my initial studies.

Last year, I contacted my local school and spoke with the Dean and was initially given the following response in regards to acceptance to law school.

"As far as I know there is no limit on how many CLEP exams you decide to take. However, when being considered for admission, your GPA and LSAT scores are what weighs most heavily. So, if taking the CLEP will negatively impact your GPA, you may want to reconsider. If you have a good GPA to begin with, than you should be in good shape. As far as scholarships are concerned, they are determined based on merit."

This was good info, but I was more concerned about getting scholarship money. That's when I spoke with the Dean to get more details on how they evaluate based on merit. He mentioned if you're an older student, they don't knock many points if you take many of your courses online or classes, but if you are young and out of high school taking a lot of CLEP, they don't know how they will interact with people. For older students and working in a business environment, you are already interacting with people and have that experience (social skills). Then again, it's safe not to have most of your credits on testing when being evaluated for scholarships.

I just went through the entire law school admissions process (I start law school this Fall). If you score high on your LSAT (160+), you should not have any trouble getting into a law school. There will be some who raise their eyebrow at the non-traditional credits, but a strong LSAT performance will more than make-up for that. Example, at UH law this year (Top 60 school), they admitted folks with 2.5 GPA's when they had a 160+ on their LSAT. You might not get into a top tier school, but you shouldn't have any problems getting into law school somewhere. The best advice I can give is do well on your LSAT, get good letters of recommendation, and write a strong personal statement.

PS: A great resource for determining your chances at particular schools: LawSchoolNumbers.com | LawSchoolNumbers.com

Good luck!

I thought I would follow up my own thread here to offer a bit of hope for others who might be pursuing this path:

I got a very good, but not outstanding score on the LSAT (166, 93rd percentile).

My degree was through TESC, but I also had many of my credits "graded" through Excelsior by enrolling with them for an associates degree. My GPA, as calculated by the LSAC, was about 3.7. It would have been 4.0, but was brought down by a year at a non-accredited private school--which ironically did not help me in getting my degree, at least directly, because the credits weren't regionally accredited.

As of right now, I've been accepted to two of the three law schools to which I have applied (waiting to hear back from the third). The school I will probably attend is ranked in the top 30 over all law schools. I received a 15k a year scholarship from them (more than half tuition). I was also offered a full scholarship from the other school (a lower ranked local school).

So, in sum, you can attend law school with the type of degree that I received. I'm starting this fall.

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Thomas Edison State College alum: BA in Liberal Studies, 06. Considering other school/career options... Working on sciences.

That is great news. Congratulations! Thanks for the update. Please keep us posted.

SirJake,
that is AWESOME TO HEAR!!!! Thanks for coming back to this thread!!!
I am really happy you were able to do this, you're gonna be a lawyer!

__________________
Penn Foster College 3rd semester Criminal Justice, 30 credits transcripted through ACE
CLEP
1/18/08 Intro to Psychology - 63
1/26/08 Intro to Sociology - 57
3/28/09 Human Growth and Development - 54
5/09/09 Intro to Educational Psychology - 58
UExcel Political Science test failed 1/16
Completed 22 FEMA credits
2 NFA courses transcripted through ACE

Slowly creeping my way up to a degree, 66/120 [/size]

Looks like I should have read your whole thread before I posted.... Congrats!

Hey there,
I am in a similar boat as I just took my LSAT and was wondering how all my non-traditional classes would translate into a GPA. For me it is no longer an issue because Excelsior is now even attaching a GPA to my degree even though most of my credits are from the military.

However, my best-friend from highschool is a lawyer in NY and he went to WPI in Mass for is engineering degree. WPI does not give out letter grades, and LSAC (the site you will have to go to if you want to go to an ABA school) was able to take care of the fact he had no GPA.

GPA is important to a degree, it is your LSAT that will determine how much you need to worry about it.

Good Luck!