Has anyone completed their degree via online schooling? Do you know if it impacts your chances of being accepted to law school? I have completed the majority of my degree this way mainly because there aren’t any programs in my field here in TN and I have to work full time so the majority of physical classes wouldn’t be possible for me.
Anyone have any experience with this? (My school is accredited and is actually a full university out in UT, so not a fly by night program.) I know there is a perception out there that many online programs aren’t as rigorous as those taught on campus. I’m sure that academic competitiveness can be a deciding factor…
I know of people, you should be fine so long as you have good GPA and you attend one of the longer term distance ed schools (which sound like it the case)
I have done my degree online (minus the first two years when it wasn’t available)… and it did not hurt in admissions. My school was somewhat local, but I worked full time and online was the best way to go. The classes were more rigorous and difficult than the “land based” classes… you have to pick up on the information yourself rather than have it explained to you. So, in essence, I don’t think it detracts from your application like a fly by night university would. On your transcript, they simply show the class complete and graded, not what type of class you took. I would even venture to say you could use it in your personal statement somewhere as a positive… it takes a lot of self motivation to do well in those classes.
Local, it depends on how typical it is and how local/well known the online school is. I’ve seen a few University of Phoenix, Rio Salado, Harvard Extention → ASU Law and similar
Any proof of the bolded? I am not denying you could be right, I would just be interested to know.
Also, I went online for my last 45 credit hours, and graduated that way. And not a single school seemed to give a crap. I suppose my 4 dings (out of 33 schools) might have been because of that. But I doubt it. My numbers seemed to be drive the process, not my softs or where I went to school.
Short version: I went online and got accepted to 21 schools, many T1 or T2. (Though, TBF, two of my dings were T1… and only one of my acceptances was T1. The other T1s were all WL. But T2s didn’t care at all, nor did the three T3s I applied to).
Admission to law school is based primarily on GPA and LSAT. If you have a 180 and a 4.0 I honestly believe you could send in a PS that consists of a drawing in crayon of you having sex with an elephant and you would still get in to every school except the T10 (where they actually have some standards… and enough people with similar scores not to need a crayon drawing freak to raise their US News numbers).
GULC might be raising their numbers standards to stay in the T14, though. GULC was the only school I applied to that rejected me. And I applied throughout the T-14. Kind of made me feel like an asshole, lol
Nothing but ancidotal, there isn’t a single product of online education at Penn that I know of, school has a reputation for slight snobbery about undergrad. Its not that you COULDN’T do it, but GPA and LSAT are a proxy for intellegence. A 4.0 from MIT and a 165 means you had a bad test day, a 4.0 from UPHX and a 165 means that you got lucky, so there is no chance of a great undergraduate performance outweighning a bad LSAT score. You get a 4.0 from UPHX and a 180, you will, of course, be fine as other posters have said. Hurt =/= impossible.
Maybe I am wrong, but I don’t think OP was talking about an online only school (ie university of phoenix)… I think he meant a land based schools who happen to have degree programs that can be attained online. In my experience, my degree could be attained online or in “the classroom”… it makes no difference. In the end, all they see is your transcript, and that bears no indication that there was online study done.
Oh, if its something where they really can’t tell whether it was online or offline, I’d say that they won’t treat you any differently than a graduate of that school as long as you still had enough classes in the classroom to get good letters of rec.
But in that case, the question is silly, of they can’t tell, they can’t treat you differently.
I agree, but maybe OP didn’t know if they could tell. I ordered for myself an official transcript before I had it sent out to LSAC, just to be sure of what they would see… nothing at all indicated online classes as different in any way. If it were a fully online institution, that might be a different beast… but may depend on how each individual on the adcom looks at online learning… some may favor it, some may not.
Thanks for the responses. I wasn’t sure if they could tell simply by the transcript. I’ve seen mine and it didn’t look like it but you never know, I suppose. It would be apparent from my resume since I’ve worked in TN the entire time I have been in UG in UT, though. Does anyone know the best way to determine how academically competitive your school is considered to be? I have asked my school about rankings and they claim not to have any. I’m sure they would have to since they have to be able to determine who the valedictorian is. I probably just spoke to the wrong person. Does the LSAC tell you where you rank among GPAs attained at your school/in your program? I’m new at this, so I’m sorry if that question has already been answered somewhere.
Since it’s very likely that HYS will be a (very, very far) reach for me, I think I might have to dust off the old crayons and give that a shot…good call.
Um… so I finished my UG online. I lived 250 miles from the school. Not even my in-state school cared… and they KNOW where my UG institution is compared to where I work.
I really, really don’t think they care (Except, as pointed out, perhaps in the T25). GPA + LSAT. GPA + LSAT.
Also, LSAC will tell you how you compare to others from your school who also applied to lawschool… but only after your transcripts are in.
They can probably tell based on dates and locations of your work or residence and the school, even if the school doesn’t slug your transcript with an online designation. It won’t matter anyway for most law schools.
If you have the numbers they want, only a handful of schools will ding you specifically for taking “online” classes in order to complete your degree. Anecdotally, Penn does appear to do this. Vanderbilt might as well; or at least they used to. Michigan and Georgetown at least do not care. I suspect HYS/CCN will discount a degree that include a lot of online classes, but I have no evidence either way.
This is assuming that you completed a degree through a “real” school that also has an established campus and in residence studies, like Penn State or U of Maryland. You will probably run into some bigger discounting problems if you’re talking about for-profit programs like U of Phoenix, since those have a reputation for basically passing anyone who pays.
