a JD for JSD: another Northwestern California University School of Law journey thread

[MFG]

Yikes? Is this from several students?
How does that happen that they make it trend so?

[HogwartsSchool]

Oh hey, it's me, from before. it's been a while.

Just popping in to give a quick update, not sure I'll stick around too much.

Yesterday I received my final exam grades back -- I passed my 1L courses and will be starting up 2L at the end of March!

This past year has been a mess and really hard on me, it was difficult to juggle some family problems and this program at times. But I survived and made it through year 1. My grades are garbage, which was kind of an ego blow after finishing Georgia Tech with a 4.0, but a pass is a pass. I'll take it. Some of those poor grades were because of the trouble I had juggling my personal struggles with school stuff, but probably a bigger portion is simply that this program is hard. (law school, hard? who would have thought   )

2L classes don't seem as interesting as 1L, but maybe it'll be a little easier this time around because I know more about how the school works. 

Anyway, I'm alive and moving on full steam ahead. Hope you are all well and happy.

Thanks for giving us an update! I have heard that grades in law school average one to two letter grades less than most people get in their undergrad. Have you gathered from other students how much of a drop they experienced in the program compared to undergrad on average at that school?

Yes Law school grades are less. Don't expect the same type of grades from undergrad or even grad school. Law school is an entirely new beast to manage for schooling and no prior experience can prepare someone for it.

[MFG]

Since you already have a bachelors, you don't have to take the baby bar. I'm also in the program but haven't made as much progress as I'd have liked. In either case, we can always lean on each other in the times ahead.

How do you like OP Jindal?

How is the grading at NWCUL?

[collegecareerstudent]

Since you already have a bachelors, you don't have to take the baby bar. I'm also in the program but haven't made as much progress as I'd have liked. In either case, we can always lean on each other in the times ahead.

How do you like OP Jindal?

How is the grading at NWCUL?

I like OP Jindal. I am slated to graduate in September. Definitely washed out of NWCU, Just didn't like the structure.

[Bingbong]

Just over a month in, and I'm really enjoying the school and the program setup. It is definitely a big commitment and sometimes I'm scratching my head wondering why I got myself into this for 4 years, but so far no true regret.

General impressions and quick thoughts so far:

-Information and classes are interesting, enjoying what I'm learning

-I'm thinking I'll never remember any of it, haha... I need to switch up my studying habits a bit if I ever want to make it through exams (let alone the bar in 4 years)

-School learning management system is pretty cool, and content outside of the the casebooks is setup well. Optional live classes, tons of recordings of past live classes with various professors so you can pick the one that fits your style (or mix and match), access to a lot of third-party resources and tools.

-I like the self-paced model, but I'm mostly sticking to the suggested study path and pace. There's is a ton of reading (not surprising) and a lot of small things to keep up with, and speeding ahead wouldn't help much anyway. If I finished everything in 6 months, I still would have to wait until the last month to take my finals, and I wouldn't be able to start my 2L term until next year when I "should" have finished 1L anyway. Plus, going that long without doing anything certainly wouldn't help with retention. I think it's definitely possible to complete the core work quicker (particularly if you're a speed reader -- I am not), but as stated, the requirement of the final exams being done in month 12 kind of makes this pointless.

-There are some Pass/Fail assignments that need to be completed during the year, but as far as your overall course grade, it's based 100% off of exam essays (a third based on your midterm, and the rest on your final). These are bar-style essay questions. I am not looking forward to this.

-All other work is pass/fail and is required to pass before exams are unlocked for you (case briefs, definitions assignments, mini-thesis).

Hi JSD,
When time permits, can you please briefly share more information about the suggested study schedule?

Thanks 

[jsd]

I thought I popped back in here at some point and gave this update already, but it looks like I didn't.

Shortly after finishing 1L at NWCU, the family problems I mentioned in my prior post continued to explode, and work and normal life got in the way of law school stuff. I passed 1L, and while 2L was very doable, I put myself in too deep of a hole to climb out of and ended up withdrawing before finishing 2L in 2024.

That said, it's a very doable program with a pretty cool setup and multiple ways to learn the material. I have a few gripes, like grading is very inconsistent between evaluators, and some will tell you to ensure you do something on a submission while another will tell you the exact opposite (and you never know which evaluator you'll get), but overall I was really happy with NWCU.

It's a program that has very limited utility as it fills an ultra specific niche, but if you fit that niche then it's a solid, affordable option.