Re: Concord Law School
Posted by Phil on 7/25/08

Hello all,
This is an excellent topic, but as a former Concord Law Student
(1.5 years in the program) and a current student in an ABA
accredited law school, I can certainly compare and contrast
Concord or a correspondence course and the ABA law school
experience.
Concord was as convenient a program as you can find. When I
attended (September 2005-June 2006), they had software in which
allowed real-time lectures with your professors and the rest of
your classmates and it allowed you to take your courses anywhere
you could find the internet....if you didn't have your own
computer, you could use a buddies computer if you remember the
URL or website address and had downloaded your Verisign digital
certificate. In fact, I was in the Virgin Island when my first
week of class started. Is the program easy? Absolutely not!
So, if anyone is thinking of attending, please don't think that
this will be easy. In fact, it will be a rigourous course of
study that will consume you. Most folks start of strong, but
after the 4, 5, and 6 month, students dropped out like flies.
From September 2005 to October 2006, THERE WERE NO BREAKS!!!! I
started with 3 girls in the DC area and we started off as study
buddies, but they all withdrew by the Spring! The first school
year lasts from September of one year to August of the next year
(remember no time off in the summer, etc), and then immediately
after that, you prepare for the Baby Bar Exam for the State of
California (officially called the First Year Law Student Exam-
FYLSE), and by this time you are absolutely numb from this non
stop pace especially if you work and have other things going
on. By the end of the Spring of my first year, we had lost more
than 50% of our class. In order to continue on as a student in
the JD program, you have to pass the Baby Bar, and based on my
recollection, they allow you to take it 2 or 3 times, and if you
can't pass it after that, you have to sit out of the JD program
until you can get it done or pass the baby baby. You could even
lose your second year grades if you don't pass it before you 2nd
year end. Don't forget this because this wasn't sufficiently
mention when you enrolled. This will require you to fly to LA
(I live in DC), get a hotel, pay for the test (about $400 or
$500 for the baby bar) and any other expense (I think I spend
around $1500-$1700). So, remember this because you will have to
take leave to do this if you work! But I left Concord because I
didn't want to uphill battle of being limited to taking the bar
in the state of California (especially since I don't live in
California). I live in DC and have family in Michigan (and
definitely want to practice in both states without any
problems).
Is an ABA law education superior to Concord? I would say yes.
This is not to say anything negative about Concord and the
online verson, but I quickly found out that teaching in a brick
and mortar school is superior, (but that shouldn't be a surprise
since you are in a classroom full of people who will discuss
issues or vantage points that you didn't even consider and not
to mention a professor). As a student, you have to prepare much
more for an ABA school. They teach the Socratic method where
the professor will put you in the hot seat and ask you every
question under the sun about a legal case. In fact, at my
current ABA school, if didn't prepare for a certain case, you
must tell the professor before class starts because it is seen
as a very negative thing if you are not prepared when the
professor calls on you and they take this seriously. This
definitely wasn't done at Concord and the professors asked for
volunteers and a few students seemed to always answer, and some
never volunteered (at Concord, you could hear the professor
talking through your speakers, and when you responded, you had
to type your answer in the software tool). I would say the
overall experience at an ABA school is far superior than at
Concord...wow, you have many different organizations such as the
sports law society,(which is my area), student bar association,
law fraternities and many-many others, guest speakers,
networking and studying with students from all over, doing
internships with firms, being involved in law clinics where you
acutally practice "live" law to real clients while in law
school, mock trials, moot court, etc, etc, etc. With Concord,
you might get distracted every now and then with the TV on in
the background or the phone ringing. To prepare for my cases at
Concord, I did a cursory search on the net and this was
sufficent. This doesn't fly at my ABA school. If you are
called on, you had better be prepared in a thorough manner. I
was able to exponentially improve my legal writing at the ABA
school, and if I had learned this method at Concord, I would
have briefed cases much better. So, if a person has a choice
between an ABA and Concord, you have to choose an ABA. But if
you want a legal education put can't leave your job and being
barred in Calinfornia is not a problem (and passing the Baby Bar
after your first year) then Concord is certainly a viable
option. Some states allow you to take the bar exam in their
state if you do other requirements. For example, in Washington
DC, you can take the bar exam with a Concord law degree if you
take at least 26 hours at an ABA school. 26 is basically 1 out
of 3 years, so in DC you might as well complete at an ABA
accredited. My last point is that Concord is not for the
student that is not highly focused and motivated, of if you have
a busy lifestyle already with work and your family. It will
consume you. If you are interested in an ABA school, MAKE SURE
YOU STUDY HARD FOR THE LSAT BECAUSE IT IS EVERYTHING!!!!! I
thought that I didn't really need to a good score because
already had 1.5 years of law at Concord and passed the baby
bar. I was wrong, that doesn't mean anything if you don't make
a good LSAT and you will not get accepted into any school with a
low LSAT. But let me say this about Concord, the type of
student that can be successful at Concord, could be successful
at an ABA school no doubt!!! You must be a person motivated
person with a lot of initiative to make it through the Concord
program because you won't have study groups to pull you through
and/or professors extra office hours to assist you. You are on
your own!!!!Sorry for the filabusters, but I just wanted to add
some points to this discussion having studied at Concord and an
ABA school.


On 7/15/08, Manoj wrote:
> Concord seems to be emerging as the Harvard/Yale of on-line law
> schools in the USA. Even though ABA does not accredit on-line
JD
> courses, I believe the likes of Concord and Taft provides an
> alternative to people like me who are unable to attend a bricks
> and mortar school due to the geographical distance (I live in
> Switzerland), schedule (full-time work) and cost.
>
> ABA is run by dinosaurs. You can get an on-line LLB degree from
> the UK (or any common law country) and be eligible for bar
exams
> in the US. Neither the ABA nor any other bodies have any issues
> with the mode of instruction or eligibility.
>
> With the absence of ABA approval, the responsibility of
choosing
> a genuine on-line law school lies on the applicant, so that
they
> don't invest time and money on diploma mills. Other than that,
> ABA is almost defunct during the law education stage in my
> opinion. The acid test is the bar exam. As long as any on-
line
> or correspondence schools bar exam pass rate follows the
general
> trend than they are good enough.
>
> I would however like to see on-line schools offering trial
> advocacy immersion workshops to bridge the gap due to the
> on-line divide.
>
> The schools I am considering -
>
> Concord (part of Kaplan University, renound faculty, Concord
> model may be eventually become industry standard)
> William Howard Taft (they are $16000 cheaper, oldest school)
>
> My tupence. Hope this helps
>
> On 7/12/08, John wrote:
>> On 7/12/08, Mary Ann wrote:
>>> Does anyone have any comments on Concord?
>>
>>
>> Concord is a very successful online school Mary Ann. You
>> will not get socratic teaching, or have a professor ask you
>> to brief a case in front of the class, or explain a legal
>> theory, but you will be able to call your own hours for your
>> own study time. They have canned video lectures that you
>> watch at a time of your own choosing. And computerized
>> modules to track your reading completion to keep you on
>> pace. I highly considered Concord, and called many times
>> about the program talking to their enrollment advisors and
>> to the dean. I also called a Concord graduate and asked him
>> about the program and how he liked it. You may want to do
>> the same. The program has grown considerably as you can tell
>> on the Cal Bar pass rate stats. However, I decided that
>> interaction with a law professor is one of the hallmarks of
>> getting a good legal education. If you cannot set aside a
>> regular time to attend a class, Concord is not a bad way to
>> go. It's more expensive than other online and pure
>> correspondence programs, but you will have a large cohort in
>> your class group. Note that you really dont interact with
>> anyone, its mainly self study and meeting once a week for a
>> online chat session with the instructor. The main goal of
>> the school is to prep you for the BB and Cal bar exam, and
>> based upon their pass rates they do a better job than most.
>> Perhaps forming a study group would be advantageous to
>> overcome this obsticle. I have an online study group at Cal
>> SL, where we are able to speak and hear each other
>> contemporaneously and go over the case reading and outlining
>> for exam prep. We meet once a week. The setup is very
>> useful. You might want to check to see what programs are
>> there to interact with other students, I think they encourage
>> study groups, but mainly let the students organize for
>> themselves outside the school such as with a yahoo group
>> account. Going it alone in a law program is a rough road,
>> but its done all the time so just have to be extremely
>> disciplined to keep on pace. Since my online class is
>> totally interactive, we get to talk to each other and
>> encourage each other through the rough spots and before and
>> after exams, and complain about how we missed certain
>> elements on the exam. If you were at Concord, where you dont
>> get to talk to anybody, I would find a study buddy or a few
>> of them just to interact about the program for encouragement
>> and feedback.
>>
>> Here is a link to a successful Taft student talking about
>> what it takes to complete a correspondence JD program and
>> passing the bar:
>>
>> http://www.asis.com/users/edenson/lawstudy.html
>>
>> Check it out. Its a little old but still absolutely relevant
>> for any correspondence student. I even use it to guide my
>> outlining and memorization technique.
>>
>> John

Posts on this thread, including this one

• Concord Law School, 7/12/08, by Mary Ann.
• Re: Concord Law School, 7/12/08, by John.
• Re: Concord Law School/Taft, 7/13/08, by Karen.
• Re: Concord Law School/Taft, 7/13/08, by Jack B..
• Re: Concord Law School/Taft, 7/13/08, by Paulo.
• Re: Concord Law School/Taft, 7/14/08, by George.
• Re: Concord Law School, 7/15/08, by Manoj.
• Re: Concord Law School, 7/25/08, by Phil.
• Re: Concord Law School, 7/28/08, by Revfidel.