For me, law school was a “put up or shut up” proposition. I was a single mom with a “going-nowhere” job. I needed to go back to school so that instead of a job, I could have a career, a profession: Something challenging, and something that would be a good investment for my family. That’s when I found UWLA.
I don’t have a bachelor’s degree so I had to jump through a few extra hoops to attend law school, but they were well worth it. I studied for the LSAT on my lunch breaks and took all three CLEP tests in one day—because I couldn’t afford an extra day off from work!
Yet working harder for something always makes it more personally valuable. Walking in the door for my first class, I committed to working hard and doing the best that I could. If I was going to invest time and money in this educational opportunity, there really was no other option.
I’ve done well in law school. People ask me how I juggle family, work, and school, but I don’t look at it that way. Once you make that decision to just make it work, it all kind of just comes together. This isn’t just my experience. There are a lot of other students here at UWLA that are in the same position, and they are excelling in their studies and balancing life, as well. You can’t do that at a lot of law schools—they won’t allow you to work at all if you have a full-time course load. As a single parent, that rule would have precluded my attendance entirely. But UWLA offers flexible solutions that let more people have access to a legal education.
The thing about law school is - you just have to do it. You have to make the decision to make it happen. It really is that simple. Once you decide, everything else falls into place.
Once you get here, you control how much you get out of your education. The professors can help you along immensely, and the staff and administration will be there to guide you, but the onus falls on you to take advantage of what is available. If you approach law school as a unique opportunity to learn, expand the way you think about and approach problems, and challenge yourself to raise your discipline level, then you will have a really great academic experience. The professors are in large part working attorneys or former practicing attorneys, which has wonderful practical advantages for UWLA students over professors who are purely academics. There is a high level of utility to the teaching approach at UWLA, not merely learning legal history for its own sake.
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