Financial Aid, Cleps and Law School...

[traderash]

I know this is going to sound like a crazy question but I wanted to see if I could accomplish my goals. I want to enroll in an online law school which if I graduate I will be eligible to take the California Bar Exam. The law school is not accredited, however it is approved by the California Bar. The problem is that they do not offer financial aid. I do not have a degree however I have 88 credits from my community college. What I was thinking about doing is paying for law school myself, enrolling in community college again and getting financial aid, then taking the clep tests and dropping the classes I enrolled for after passing the cleps.

I know this isn't the most ethical way to approach things, however I really want to go to law school, however I can only do it with financial aid. I am wondering if this has any chance at working and/or if anybody has any other way for me to be able to go to an unaccredited law school and get financial aid. If I choose to go to an accredited law school, it would cost about $14k for tuition and I don't think I could get enough financial aid to pay for my living expenses.

Any thoughts or ideas would be very much appreciated. Thank you.

[sanantone]

When you drop courses, your financial aid is reduced. The school will send back their portion of excess aid, and you will have to send back yours.

[BGSU_Alum_86]

The State Bar of California allows applicants who have not completed a degree (associates or bachelors) to take the CLEP exams for admittance. Candidates are required to pass either the College Composition OR the College Composition Modular exam. In addition, candidates must earn 12 additional credits by taking either two 6-credit CLEP exams, four 3-credit CLEP exams, or one 6-credit and two 3-credit CLEP exams.

Limitations to the exams available -- only Humanities under the Composition & Literature category (other than the first required step above), and the foreign language exams have a maximum limit of 6 credits.

[corpsole2]

From your description of the law school, it sounds as if you are talking of Oak Brook College of Law. What tipped me off was it wasn't accredited and you could take the California Bar.

I would strongly urge you to finish your B.A./B.S. degree before you attempt this. I have heard too many stories of students who graduated from OBCL (assuming that's what the school is) and didn't live in California who discovered their state bar association didn't let them test if they attended an unaccredited school.

Also, some accredited law schools have generous aid packages. A friend of mine is a graduate of Baylor Law School, and she told me that the school paid 90% of her costs as long as she stayed in the top third with her grades. So there are ways to go without spending a ton of money. Or you can move to a state that allows you to apprentice to an attorney.

As for financial aid for community college, most of the non-loan money you'd get are Pell Grants, and the maximum is now just over $5000k. Some colleges will give you a hardship grant, but you don't get any money from it - just your tuition is free. As it sounds like you want to avoid student loans, the only other avenue I can think of is applying for scholarships or hitting up a rich relative. :-)

You have 88 credits? You're so close to having enough for a basic bachelor's degree. Bite the bullet and get it, then look into law school. If you still choose to go to your unaccredited school, you will have a degree to fall back on if your plan doesn't work.

Good luck.

[Jonathan Whatley]

Also, note: The ABA has opened the door to hybrid, partly online, partly accelerated short-residency legal education in an ABA-approved program:
ABA Approves Hybrid distant ed Law Degree at RA school (December 2013 DegreeInfo thread)

And: Have you read about the "law school crisis," or alternately stated, the unemployment or underemployment crisis for law school graduates? A few starting points:
Unemployment crisis for law school grads deepens (Celia R. Baker, Deseret News, Wednesday, April 10 2013)
The Jobs Crisis at Our Best Law Schools Is Much, Much Worse Than You Think (Jordan Weissmann, The Atlantic, April 9 2013) And this among the "best," traditional, ABA law schools.
The Law School Crisis, Visualized (Aaron Kirschenfeld, circa 2013) Note, towards the bottom, that huge surplus of California bar passers over estimated number of legal jobs in the state.

[sanantone]

Concord Law School (Kaplan University) is regionally accredited, but not ABA accredited. Completing their program will allow you to sit for the Bar in California. Because they are accredited, you can receive financial aid for their program. The current max on loans for graduate programs is $20,500 per year. Concord law school charges just under $10k per year. If you're attending school online, you can also work.

[Jonathan Whatley]

Concord Law School (Kaplan University) is regionally accredited, but not ABA accredited.

There are also at least three non-ABA, non-RA, but DETC-accredited California-approved law schools. Of these, Taft Law School does and Abraham Lincoln University appears to participate in mainline federal financial aid. California Southern University does not, but has its own private lending plans (and may be eligible for certain military, MyCAA military-spouse, VA, and vocational rehab funding).

[rebel100]

I know this isn't the most ethical way to approach things, however I really want to go to law school,

Your gonna make a great lawyer!