<p>I would be interested in hearing from students who attend or have recently visited any of the above schools, or from others who know the schools well. My son, who wants to attend law school in Philadelphia and thereafter have a criminal defense practice, is fortunate to have a choice between the three. Cost is not a distinguishing factor since he qualifies for in state tuition at Temple and has received merit scholarships at Drexel and Villanova which make their net tuition even less than Temple’s.</p>
<p>He has scoured their websites and is pretty familiar with the info contained there. So far, here’s how he distinguishes the schools:</p>
<p>Temple- Number 2 ranked Trial Advocacy Program in the country. He would attend the Evening Division which is a 4 year program thereby enabling him to continue to work a couple of days a week as a law clerk for a well established criminal defense attorney for whom he presently works. Clinical placements in the area of criminal law are available to 4th year Evening students. In addition to FT faculty, has many Philadelphia practitioners and judges as adjuncts.</p>
<p>Drexel -Young school, provisional accreditation (but that is not a major concern, the school has the full resources of Drexel behind it and is attracting well credentialed faculty including area judges and practitioners). Major focus on clinical/field work with a 6 month co-op program, required pro bono hours and 4 quarters of courses in Criminal defense Field Work available.</p>
<p>Villanova - Seems to be a very solid program. An emphasis on a “values” based approach to the study of law, many opportunities for clinicals and externships in the area of criminal law. Also appears to have a strong academic support services system for students. In addition to full time faculty, has many Philadelphia practitioners as adjuncts.</p>
<p>So, for those who currently attend these schools, recently attended them or otherwise know them well, what have your experiences been. Going beyond the facade of the websites, what are your thoughts about the reality of the educational experiences, training, opportunities and student life at these schools? Any thoughts on how these schools would serve the needs and desires of someone who wants to do criminal defense trial work and related litigation.</p>
<p>michael- I was going to suggest you go to LSD (and TLS too)- but I think you already found it.</p>
<p>In case you missed it on LSD, there was a thread Temple vs. Villanova. Just use the LSD search engine. There was a 4 page discussion on it a while back.</p>
<p>as a proud luddite, that’s a tough thing for me to do- How I usually get info about specific schools on LSD:</p>
<p>Go to home page of LSD</p>
<p>(page is divided into Pre-Law and Grad students-I usually use pre-law side)</p>
<p>Screen will list several latest posts and underneath those posts is white rectangular area in which you can do LSD /google search
So–In the white box -put in “temple vs villonova”
(or whatever else you might want to check out)
The google search on LSD should bring up the old postings if interest.</p>
<p>Your questions are getting responses. If all else fails, when you get to the home page of LLSD, type in your user name and post will come up, then you can just link to the threads.</p>
<p>on the tls home page you will see a small box search forum, type in temple villanova and a list of threads will come up</p>
<p>My impression is that Temple sounds like the best fit for your son and his career goals. Being in the city for school will provide many opportunities for contacts (I realize he already works…). Temple has an extremely good reputation in the Philadelphia legal community. Villanova is no slouch, of course, but with your son’s interests, I would go with Temple. Drexel is an unknown and I think it is the weakest of the choices.</p>
<p>MoWC, thanks for your response. My impressions are the same. My son has arranged to visit the schools which I suspect will solidify his choice of Temple. Between the older student body in Temple’s night program, the ability to continue to clerk part time, the strong reputation of its trial advocacy program and the fact that his scholarships at Drexel and Villanova are in a sense “contingent” future assets as compared to Temple’s in state tuition, Temple is very appealing.</p>