14 Jul, 2006
Law School Prep Courses
Professor Dave Hoffman in this post at Concurring Opinions asks "are law school courses a waste of money." He comes to the conclusion that they probably are not worth the money. My thoughts on this are below.
THE OPTIONS FOR PREP COURSES
There are a couple of week long programs that cost around $1,000. One by BAR/BRI and another called Law School Preview. Unfortunately I cannot truly comment on the quality of the programs because I did not attend either. If anyone who attended these wants to comment on either of these, feel free.
THE VALUE OF A LAW SCHOOL PREPARATION COURSE:
I think Prof. Hoffman may be underestimating the potential value of preparing for law school when he says "a prep course can't hurt you." I would add
that a prep course has the potential to help you if it gives you a
familiarity with the basics of law school that students are sort of expected to pick up along the way, about which so many incoming students have no clue (some fundamentals of the first year course material, basics of government, certain vocabulary, law school exam testing skills, study techniques, etc)
The first semester is spent (at least in my case it was) as much on learning those mentioned above as it is on learning the material. Having some sort of understanding about those topics, including some basic knowledge of the actual materials, would allow you to concentrate on the more intricate parts of the law in your first classes as well as pick up previously familiar topics taught through the professor with greater ease.
SHOULD YOU TAKE A LAW SCHOOL PREP COURSE?
"Want to know
what everyone else will be doing this summer to ensure law school
success," BAR/BRI's entrance page says, "They're taking BAR/BRI" the home page then explains. The
"everybody's doing it"/subtle scare tactic marketing technique is
pretty transparent because the majority of students
entering law school do not do take any preparation course. So should you be one of them?
If it were free, like the program mentioned earlier this week it would be an obvious yes. The problem is the steep price tag of the aforementioned programs vs. how much you do actually gain from a week long course. It all comes down to what you're willing to spend for, probably at most, a marginal gain in law school success. But, again, I think the gain could be greater than what the Professor mentions. There are certainly other (cheaper) methods of preparation which I will discuss later.