Here are some tips for selecting schools, based on an analysis comparing each school to all others across dozens of factors:
Schools Concentrating On Paralegals And Legal Assistants
- Focus: For schools with a focus on this career area, look at Ivy Tech Central Indiana, Ball State, Ivy Tech Northeast, and Ivy Tech East Central.
Fastest Response From Schools
- Request Info: For the fastest information for prospective students, look at the Spotlight schools on this page.
Student Body
- Part-Time: For schools emphasizing part-time studies, consider Ball State.
- Female: For schools particularly welcoming to female students, consider Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College.
- Diverse: For a diverse student body, consider Calumet College, Vincennes University, Ivy Tech Northwest, and Ivy Tech Central Indiana.
- Adult Learners: For lots of adult learners, consider Ivy Tech Whitewater, Ivy Tech Kokomo, Ivy Tech Northcentral, and Ivy Tech Northwest.
School Setting
- Out of State: For geographic diversity, take note of Valparaiso, Ivy Tech South Central, Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College, and Calumet College.
- Dorms: For a residential campus environment, take note of Valparaiso, Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College, Ball State, and Vincennes University.
Excellence
- SAT: For students with high SAT scores, look at Valparaiso.
- Class Size: For small class sizes, look at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College, Valparaiso, and Ball State.
Student/Alumnus Reviews of Schools for This Career and State
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Indiana University • Bloomington, IN
Studying Political Science (completion in 2009)
• 5/4/2011
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale
| Characteristic | Rating | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Would Recommend? | yes | |
| Program Reputation | 8 | The program was ranked 7th in the nation when I attended. |
| Program Quality | 10 | IU - Bloomington had one of the top Political Science programs in the country. |
| Instruction | 8 | All professors were very knowledgeable and helpful. |
| How Difficult | 8 | The workload was heavy, but very rewarding. |
| Hands-On vs. Bookish | ||
| Schedule Flexibility | 10 | Scheduling was always easy. |
| Academic Facilities | 10 | |
| Social Life | 10 | IU was a great school for socializing and making new friends. |
| Placement Services | 5 | I did not take advantage of the job placement program. I went right to graduate school. |
| Alumni Network | 5 |
Indiana Purdue University Fort Wayne • Fort Wayne, IN
Studying Criminal Justice/ Legal (completion in 2013)
• 5/4/2011
"I feel like I am getting what I am paying for. That is a big deal for me since being a single mother, every penny must be accounted for and must be used wisely. I feel that my school is brightening up my family's future."
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale
| Characteristic | Rating | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Would Recommend? | yes | I feel that signing up, attending, and passing the courses in this program is easy and informative. Most importantly, you will come out of the program educated and prepared for your occupation. |
| Program Reputation | 7 | I feel that the university is well known and recognized in my city. It branches off Indiana University in Bloomington and Purdue University in Lafayette, so the recognition comes from that. |
| Program Quality | 9 | My program is very detailed and has been easy to complete so far. I feel that I am learning valuable information that will further my career. |
| Instruction | 10 | I feel that with the information I am obtaining, I have a better understanding of the legal field. This helps me further my knowledge as a legal assistant and makes my job easier. |
| How Difficult | 5 | At times the schoolwork is challenging. However, most of the time the work is informative and easy to comprehend. |
| Hands-On vs. Bookish | Most of the courses I take are online courses, so the material is very book learning-orientated. Some courses have required other materials for projects. | |
| Schedule Flexibility | 7 | Being a mother of two, the class schedule really is quite comfortable and easy to work around my school and work schedule. |
| Academic Facilities | 10 | Recently, most of the courses that I need to complete the program have been posted online. That is a huge convenience to me as I can complete work once my children go to sleep. |
| Social Life | 5 | I really do not have time to attend such events. |
| Placement Services | 5 | I am not really sure of this program. Most of my classmates have jobs in the field and we have all found our own jobs and placed ourselves. |
| Alumni Network | 5 | This is not something that is brought up everyday. The alumni send out newsletters, but the university does not emphasize the alumni and/or it's network. |
IUPUI At Indianapolis • Indianapolis, IN
Studying Humanities/Liberal Arts (completion in 1976)
• 5/5/2011
"I am satisfied with my education. I feel as though it prepared me for my career."
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale
| Characteristic | Rating | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Would Recommend? | yes | It is a good university for all fields of study. It has a good reputation in the real world of work. |
| Program Reputation | 9 | There are lots of paralegals at the place where I work that are IUPUI graduates. It is a law enforcement agency that values graduates from IUPUI. |
| Program Quality | 5 | IUPUI is a university that does well to provide the basics of a liberal arts education. I did not specialize in criminal justice at the time. Therefore, my education was adequate. |
| Instruction | More than 5 years ago | It has been too long since I last attended school. I did not attend college for a criminal justice degree. |
| How Difficult | 5 | I was able to maintain a grade point average of 2.9. I felt that I did well in liberal arts courses and especially well in Spanish courses (I was the first student to receive a liberal arts degree at my school). |
| Hands-On vs. Bookish | There was both hands-on and book learning. Practicums made real-world learning opportunities possible. | |
| Schedule Flexibility | 5 | The schedule has some flexibility with regards to those working full time and raising children at the same time. The classes I needed were usually available on schedule for my planned graduation date. |
| Academic Facilities | 5 | Access to libraries, media, and computer resources/laboratories (especially for Spanish practice) was adequate. Academic advisors, professors, and study group support was very helpful. |
| Social Life | 5 | I did not participate in school activities very often. I did attend Black Student Union meetings and celebrations, which they were culturally enriching and opportunities for socialization. |
| Placement Services | 8 | I have utilized the job placement services at IUPUI and found employment as a result. The placement counselors are helpful and supportive of an applicant's search. |
| Alumni Network | 8 | The alumni network is active and quite influential with the local businesses and chamber of commerce. I am a member and it does help with networking and obtaining discount CEU's. |
Indiana University • Bloomington, IN
Studying Elementary Education (completion in 1976)
• 7/1/2011
"I was very pleased to receive a Master's degree from Indiana University. I felt it prepared me for many life skills I would not ordinarily have encountered anywhere else. It made me a very good teacher, and has helped me transition into a new field as a Paralegal."
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale
| Characteristic | Rating | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Would Recommend? | yes | I feel like Indiana University had a wide spectrum of professors which made learning interesting. It also provided me with excellent experiences that added dimension to my teaching career, and later on to my career as a paralegal. |
| Program Reputation | 8 | It has been a number of years since I lived in Indiana, so I have not followed up on the reputation of the school. However, at the time I was at the school, Indiana University had a very good reputation, and their education program was very popular with the teachers. |
| Program Quality | 10 | I feel like my graduate school helped me with specific mathematics skills, which I actually use as a paralegal. I also thought it helped me learn how to be an affective listener, and learn how to direct people to do things that are appropriate in life. |
| Instruction | 10 | My professors took a lot of care in their training. I felt like I was able to ask questions and learn a lot of new ideas. |
| How Difficult | 5 | I felt like some classes I took were very difficult, such as statistics and advanced geology. Yet other classes were so much fun, like learning about assessing reading skills, that they didn't seem difficult at all, yet I learned so much. |
| Hands-On vs. Bookish | I felt like the school offered a great opportunity to have hands on experiences with the students. I was even able to diagnose hearing loss from a basic test learned in class. | |
| Schedule Flexibility | 1 | I was working full time as a teacher, and back in the 70's Indiana University was very flexible in offering night classes and classes in the summer. I was even able to take an internship in the summer, which left me free during the year to teach. |
| Academic Facilities | 10 | Indiana University is very large and has a fabulous library and academic resources available to the students. I felt like I had more than enough resources available to me. |
| Social Life | 5 | At the time I was newly married and working full time as a teacher. I was not interested in a social life, however I have met some lifelong friends, with whom I still keep up with today, 30 years later. |
| Placement Services | 3 | I really did not get much help from Indiana University in getting a job. I switched careers ten years later, and it really isn't fair to fault the university for my decision to change jobs. |
| Alumni Network | 5 | As I do not work as a teacher anymore, and have evolved into a new field, my alumni network was not helpful to me. Plus, I live in Pennsylvania which is very far from Indiana, and the school would not be helpful in offering any job tips. |
Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis • Indianapolis, IN
Studying Criminal Justice (completion in 2010)
• 6/24/2011
"I am glad I finally have my Bachelor's because it means more money and better accessibility to work. But was it worth going to a 4-year college for that? Probably not. The paralegal career is not so difficult that 4 years of education is necessary. I wish I had chose a different vocation."
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale
| Characteristic | Rating | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Would Recommend? | maybe | If a student wants a 4-year degree in criminal justice and is not pursing the paralegal vocation, then I would recommend it. But I think a better vocation is to become a legal mediator or attorney. You'll make more money so it's worth the additional time spent in school. |
| Program Reputation | 8 | IU is nationally recognized mainly because of its basketball program and because of its academic program in medicine. But as far as Criminal justice goes, I am not aware of any significant reputation. The rating I am giving is because it has all the necessary accreditation and my credits would transfer anywhere should I choose to pursue higher education. |
| Program Quality | 6 | The information provided at IUPUI could have been easily obtained at a community college. There was nothing earth shattering about the education. A lot of the criminal justice course material has been used very little since entering my field. |
| Instruction | 5 | There were some good and some bad instructors. The good ones provided real world experience and examples that would help in the field of criminal justice. The reason is that they had actually done the work as former probation officers, paralegals, attorneys, and some as judges. The bad ones were those hired by IU to just teach CJ/SPEA courses regardless of their degree or previous work history. So the instruction was straight out a book. No examples or personal insight for students. |
| How Difficult | 4 | The program was fairly easy, just a lot of paper writing. The hardest part was some of the math courses, in particular statistics. Also, the general education electives were time consuming and a waste of time. |
| Hands-On vs. Bookish | Very book oriented. Not much real-world examples or experiences. Also, it was very difficult trying to find an internship/externship for CJ students. I basically had to do data entry work for an instructor to earn credit. | |
| Schedule Flexibility | 10 | It was very accommodating to my schedule because I was able to do work-study. Also, I took some classes online which made it extremely easy to complete. I would come home in the evening and work on my homework without being at the library or classroom late at night. |
| Academic Facilities | 9 | IU has great technology features from multimedia to the latest advances in distance learning. You can take classes online and you can talk to instructors via Skype or instant message. Instructors post their lectures, assignments, and tests online as well. The library has all the latest information and databases for students. A great wealth of information is available. |
| Social Life | 5 | When I initially started at IU-Bloomington I was involved with several organizations because I really wanted to be a part of the college experience. I was involved with black student union, GROUPS (for low-income students), and other organizations. When I moved back to Indianapolis and attended IUPUI, because it is a commuter campus, I became less involved due to distance and time. |
| Placement Services | 3 | I did not receive any job placement assistance when I graduated. I basically had to job seek on my own. Also, I did go to the career services department on numerous occasions and found no listings for paralegals or legal assistants. |
| Alumni Network | 8 | IU puts a lot of work into alumni associations for all of its academic programs. They send out monthly and quarterly newsletters, recruit grads for membership, and have parties for former grads. |
Michiana College • South Bend, IN
Studying Secretarial Science (completion in 1993)
• 1/20/2012
"Michiana College got me started on my education after high school. I went on to earn my bachelor's degree, but Michiana College gave me the foundation I needed for further learning."
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale
| Characteristic | Rating | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Would Recommend? | yes | My experience was very good. I would recommend them because of that. |
| Program Reputation | 10 | I assume it's good because they are still there and going strong. |
| Program Quality | 10 | I graduated from a community college and I felt that it equipped me for the position. I work as a paralegal in a personal injury law firm. I was prepared for the job. |
| Instruction | 10 | I do a lot of legal dictation and transcription at the firm I work at. This was actually the title of a class I took at Michiana College. It was called Legal Transcription and Dictation. |
| How Difficult | 8 | I graduated with honors, but I found the difficulty in my home situation. I went to school during the day and then worked at night. I had small children at home at the time so it was difficult seeing that they were taken care of while I was gone. |
| Hands-On vs. Bookish | You were given books and you did the work. Very basic, but you definitely learned. One thing I do remember is that they have extraordinary instructors. They were very good and they worked well with the students. I actually go to church with one of them. | |
| Schedule Flexibility | 4 | During the period I was there, there were no on-line courses like they have today. You went to class Monday through Thursday and everyone had Friday off. They did have evening classes, so that was good. |
| Academic Facilities | 10 | I was quite pleased with what Michiana College offered. They had a full library to use for term papers, free tutoring, and also good quality computer labs. |
| Social Life | 3 | This was a community college, so it was basically about education with no extra curricular activities. |
| Placement Services | I didn't really use their job placement services. I sent out my resume and became employed less than 30 days after graduation. | |
| Alumni Network | 10 | Michiana College gave job placement help. You can also return to use any of their resources, such as the library and the computer labs. They also help you with putting together your resume. |
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