Pros and Cons of a Part-Time Law Degree
Applicants often – and certainly sometimes wisely – pursue admission to law school through a part-time or evening program track. While not all law schools offer alternatives to full-time program, for many students, the part-time option offers a viable way to attend that dream school when either an LSAT score or GPA falls short of being competitive in the full-time pool. Typically, law schools do not officially present differing admission criteria between part-time and full-time applicants, however a quick survey of the numbers reveals a consistently more forgiving numeric range for part-time program applicants. Take Georgetown as example. According to the 2008 ABA-LSAC Official Guide to ABA-Approved Law Schools, the median GPA and LSAT for the 2006 entering class were 3.71 and 169 respectively, while the part-time class had medians of 3.54 and 165.
It is important to keep in mind that evening part-time programs are generally geared toward professionals already in the works force. Accordingly, admission officers often place greater emphasis on work experience and other subjective factors than on the LSAT and GPA. So while it is not necessarily always easier to gain admission to a school through a part-time program, for an applicant whose numbers don’t quite stack up and who has strong work experience or other soft factors, applying to the part-time program might make sense.