Student/Alumnus Reviews of Schools for This Career and State
Sort Reviews By:Sorting by: • Show All Details • Hide All Details
Yale Law School • New Haven, CT
Studying Law (completion in 1993)
• 9/14/2011
"This is simply one of the best law schools in the country. No one would regret a degree from there."
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale
| Characteristic | Rating | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Would Recommend? | yes | It is one of the best law schools in the country. You can do anything you want in the legal field anywhere in the country as well as you can from any school. |
| Program Reputation | 10 | The law school is known as one of the best, if not the best, in the country. It is consistently ranked highest by US News & World Report. |
| Program Quality | 10 | I was fortunate to attend one of the very best law schools in the country. The most important part of the education was my fellow students, who were brilliant. For law, most of the "national" law schools -- the top 20 or so in the country -- all have adequate programs for any type of legal career, as about two of the three years of law school are for the most part the same formal content at any reputable school. So unlike schools for other types of career fields, the sub-specialties that law schools might have are not generally relevant. |
| Instruction | 9 | Law school is extraordinarily helpful with theoretical thinking in approaching legal problems -- what many call "thinking like a lawyer." Yet it is not so good with practical knowledge. One learns much on the job. My school was, if anything, an extreme version of this and was extraordinary at "thinking like a lawyer" yet not especially good with practical content. |
| How Difficult | 9 | The coursework is as difficult as you make it. It is actually not all that difficult to skate by and pass without working that hard, but it is quite difficult to do very well. I would advise anyone at any law school to work hard to master the course content and do as well as possible. |
| Hands-On vs. Bookish | The law school has a clinical program that is good. Nevertheless, the book learning portion of the school is far more pervasive and it is certain book-oriented. | |
| Schedule Flexibility | 8 | The flexibility is limited by being a small law school. It is increased in that they have relatively few mandatory classes and they allow courses to be taken throughout the university. |
| Academic Facilities | 10 | It has an excellent library and related resources. It is hard to imagine a student having a problem with the resources. |
| Social Life | 5 | One can have good social experiences if one wants at the school. But there is nothing particularly good in this area or notable compared to other schools. |
| Placement Services | 5 | There are certain jobs in certain cities -- like federal law clerkships in the big cities -- that the career office is very good at. Many others that are not traditional or in smaller cities they are not good at helping with. |
| Alumni Network | 9 | My school has very loyal and dedicated alumni. In part because of the small class size (about 175 per class), alumni feel close to their school and classmates. |
University Of Connecticut • Storrs, CT
Studying Patent Law (completion in 2005)
• 9/20/2011
"I feel relatively satisfied. UConn provided me with a reasonable education at a bargain price and flexible hours."
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale
| Characteristic | Rating | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Would Recommend? | no | I find that being a lawyer is too stressful. In retrospect, it may have simply been better to be a doctor. The course work would have been comparable, but the pay would have been higher and a job easier to find. |
| Program Reputation | 6 | UConn Law is considered to be a relatively good program. While it is obviously not comparable to Harvard or Yale Law, for a state school, it is quite good. |
| Program Quality | 7 | UConn provided a very good law program for me. The most beneficial part was that I was able to take night classes while still working during the day as a chemist. The professors were good, and the grading fair. |
| Instruction | 6 | The professors were all very thorough in covering their topics and taught very well. Unfortunately their education still left some topics uncovered and I found myself stumbling through my first year at a firm. |
| How Difficult | 7 | The course work was not particularly challenging on its own. I would spend about 3 hours a day doing it. However, because at the time I was working as well, the difficulty was compounded with the fatigue of my work. |
| Hands-On vs. Bookish | I feel that UConn provided a fair mix of book learning as well as hands-on learning. We would have many definition and term oriented tests, but we would also have mock trials and the like. | |
| Schedule Flexibility | 8 | As I said before, the flexibility was great. Because I worked during the day, I had to take night classes. To my surprise, UConn was very flexible about scheduling my hours and classes. |
| Academic Facilities | 7 | The facilities were very good. Most classrooms were reasonably well renovated and they had up to date technology, such as computers. |
| Social Life | 5 | Honestly, I did not have much social interaction in law school. At the time I was nearing 40, not exactly the average law student's age. In addition, I simply didn't have the time to interact with anyone. |
| Placement Services | 4 | The school did make attempts to set me up with a job, that ultimately I did not find very useful. As I said before, I ended up finding my own job. |
| Alumni Network | 4 | To be honest, I don't know much about the alumni network and support. I've only attended one reunion of our class, and I never asked the network to help me find a job. I found my own job at a law firm. |
Online Course Finder
Find the path to your
education in 3 easy steps.