<p>As a lawyer of 16 years who deals with law students all the time, BEWARE of private law schools with big price tags. I know several students who were bright enough but couldn’t qualiffy into their state schools. They really really wanted law school and thought that the money/jobs would follow…justifying the
high costs. It doesn’t. </p>
<p>If you cannot afford to take a test prep do not go to a lower tier/big bucks private law school. You may end up $120-160k in debt and no job and about half of them don’t pass the bar on the first go. They talk a good game but the legal market is in a GLUT and are NOT doing a service for most students. </p>
<p>We have a relatively new LS in my state that started out very very small to get their feet wet and those kids were fine and good and the first two years they had high bar pass rates. Now, class size is 350 because they are much less selective. There is no iL/2L/3L “law school community” to speak of because kids can take classes day or night! and start any semester! ( which they market as convienence) and the legal community is getting wary of those who are graduating…</p>
<p>In fact at my work we had a recent discussion that even if someone got a scholarship free ride first year whether it would be worth it…because you have to keep your grades up (unpredictable in LS how you will do) and the cost is SO HIGH.</p>