Northwestern California University School of Law - My Journey

[GoodYellowDogs]

As everyone knows, the school is accredited by the CA Bar, but is not ABA accredited.   Initially you can only practice in CA, but can also do Federal or Indian cases if you apply to those bars.  However, after you pass the bar and practice for a number of years you can apply for licensure in some other states.  

I started last Thursday and I'll try to update through the 4-year journey.  I did watch a lot of My Life As Macy on Youtube.   She is a second year, and has done vlogs of her first year.  Her recommendations for how to organize, along with the school's are excellent.  I work fulltime, so I'll be studying 4 evening hours Mon-Thurs, and about 5 hours on Saturday.    I also have commute time to listen to lectures, and my lunch hours will be doing definitions, or watching lectures.  Basically I won't have a life for the next four years.

Here are my first week impressions and info:

• really impressed with the tools, resources, and organization that the school provides
  
• impressed with the professors I've met - they want to help and for you to succeed
  
• each class has a syllabus that tells you exactly what to do for each of the first eight weeks, then for each month after that
  
• you take 4 courses the first year - Intro to Law, Torts, Contracts, and Crim Law
  
• the lessons are live, recorded, and audio, something for everyone or any place/time you are studying
  
• you can watch or attend a classes led by different professors to find someone whose style clicks with you
  
• the school has it's own student portal that is robust and easy to navigate
  
• you have access to LexisNexis, but I have explored it yet
  
• you have access to Cali Lessons that are lessons, podcasts, etc., seems to be a really good resource
  
• you can start any month and they normally start people on the 10th or the 25th
  
• must of the students are 30 years old and older - I'm probably one of the oldest
  
• the week before I started I watched a lot of youtube law classes from around the US so I was familiar with how lectures were done
  
• the school's admin team has been good and easy to work with and very responsive.
  

Approximate costs - even the little stuff as it adds up:

• about $4000 a year in tuition - you can split it into 12 payments (you send pre-dated checks)
  
• about $600 of misc fees at the start of your year
  
• I spent about $1500 on my first year books, outlines, dictionary, etc. - for the first year I bought new books - you can definitely get used ones for about half and that's what I'll do for future years.  I also got some other books and audio that weren't recommended, but the first year I wanted to see what would help me the most.
  
• I spent $100 in sending them my transcripts
  
• I spent about $100 in office supplies to set it up like My Life As Macy
  
• I decided the first day that I needed a faster printer (black/white) for all of the syllabi (about 50 pages each), but printers are most out of stock due to supply chain issues, so I'll limp along with my tiny inkjet for a while longer
  
• I decided my second day that I needed a heavy duty 3-hole punch
  

I'm really enjoying my first week and I think the study plan is tough, but doable.

They have a formal and informal FB page and students are on Reddit too.

http://www.nwculaw.org

Class of 2026 

[datby98]

Cool, but that definitely is going to be a long journey. Good luck, Denise!

[bjcheung77]

Great stuff, good luck, and have fun! It's awesome seeing you start a new educational journey...

[Tedium]

That's so cool! I'm glad you landed on another grad program you liked. Good luck! Can't wait to see how the program treats you.

[ss20ts]

That's so cool! I'm glad you landed on another grad program you liked. Good luck! Can't wait to see how the program treats you.

It's a JD which is a doctorate.

[Tedium]

That's so cool! I'm glad you landed on another grad program you liked. Good luck! Can't wait to see how the program treats you.

It's a JD which is a doctorate.

I know it's a doctorate. Why are you bringing that up? Do you not think that doctorates qualify as graduate education? That would be a first for me, and I've been around the block a few times. 

A graduate degree is anything past the undergraduate (Bachelor's) level of study. A graduate program is any program that offers degrees past the undergraduate level. Doctorates are considered graduate degrees. Any program offering education past the undergraduate level are graduate programs. 

Here are the first four links that came up when I searched for, "What is a graduate degree?":


https://www.northeastern.edu/graduate/bl...te-degree/

https://online.maryville.edu/blog/what-i...te-degree/

https://www.devry.edu/blog/what-is-a-gra...egree.html

https://bau.edu/blog/graduate-degree/

Some of those schools even reference the JD in their posts. What I said is accurate. [url=https://bau.edu/blog/graduate-degree/][/url]

[ss20ts]

A lot of people don't consider doctorates to be a grad program. They associate grad programs with master's degrees.

DeVry as a source of anything is hilarious!

[decibel]

DELETED POST

[ss20ts]

A lot of people vs. every institution of higher learning ever...

What was the purpose of that comment? You having a bad day? I'm being serious and not trying to pick a fight.

I'm going to leave you to it, though, and let you calm down. Let's let GoodYellowDogs have her thread, so she can keep bringing us some good news about her shiny new JD program.

I really do hope you feel better.

What are you talking about? Nope not having a bad day and I don't need to calm down. You sure do sound like you've got some issue going on. 

I was specifically talking about people. Like I said. Lots of people use words interchangeably even though academia doesn't. Some academia even considers doctorates to be above grad school. A JD is a whole different level of doctorate than a PhD or DBA even. It's not used in the same way and has that pesky bar exam after graduation.

[collegecareerstudent]

Yayyyy!!!!! I'm so happy for you! I have watched Macy's channel as well! How funny! Hahaha I hope to join you in the program at some point! Good luck!!!!!