Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Fast-track through Law School

I wanted to mention one option open to law school students at Queen's that, I don't believe, is only available at Queen's. The option is to fast-track it though law school and finish one semester early. Yes - a 2 1/2 year law school degree. The way to do it is a combination of the summer program in International Law in combination with maximum courseloads for 3 semesters.

At least 4 students in my class has taking this route. So what are they doing during their free (academically-speaking, not financially-speaking) semester?
Student A is studying for the New York Bar Exam. A will be joining a New York firm as a Junior Associate, thus skipping the Ontario articling process.

Student B has a successful business on the side and has interest in foreign languages and travel. B is back to running that business and relaxing (although I don't see much relaxing).

Student C is working in a law-related job. C is still looking for an articling position and now has more time to find it.

Student D is also still looking for an articling position. D is still involved with some clubs on campus.
To a certain extent, I can see the value of finishing the coursework early. It could be a valuable time to apply some of the skills that we're learning.

On the other hand, I would not do it (and didn't). There are so many fascinating courses available in law school - not to mention all the non-academic experiences - that I wouldn't want to forfeit the opportunity to take advantage as much as possible. I could easily fill another semester of interesting courses.

4 Comments:

At 3:56 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I notice that two of these individuals have yet to find articling positions. Do you think there is a connection to this? Do firms look as highly on this "fast tracked" degree? And/or is it more difficult to do well with such a high courseload?

 
At 10:54 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

There is actually a 5th student who fast-tracked and has simply started work early at the firm they will be articling with

 
At 3:23 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

There's a dude in '06 who took the free semester and went to medical school. Pretty nutty...

 
At 10:22 AM, Blogger Greg Prosmushkin said...

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