Northwestern California University School of Law - My Journey

[jsd]

I'm a bit tempted to do this, as the price is so low (compared to all the other CA schools, even the ones not accredited by the Cal Bar), and their bar passage rate is pretty respectable.

Some cons for me personally -- I'm bummed that, even though they're programmatically accredited by the state bar, they don't have institutional accreditation (neither RA nor NA), so I can't get my employer to cover any of it (and on that note, it closes the door to ever potentially teaching law at most schools, since almost all other CA online law schools have at least NA and would likely want your JD to be NA or RA for teaching). Their job placement is pretty terrible, but I'm not exactly looking to switch careers. And 4 years is a very long commitment for essentially a hobby degree. I'm hesitant about the hurdles it puts up around practicing outside of CA, but it's very unlikely I'll be leaving the state anyway. It'd just be nice to have that option.

I've been very critical of the California state bar-unaccredited online law schools, but with the moves Cal Bar has made over the past few years to start allowing online/distance schools to be accredited, and therefore waiving the baby bar and giving an incentive for these schools to maintain higher bar passage rates (or risk losing accreditation), things seems to be moving in a very interesting direction.

It's still very hard to justify this degree for myself personally, but I am certainly tempted.