My daughter's applying to Law schools - She said Pepperdine?

[kid a]

I said Starr?

Should that be a criteria? (Other than the fact that I would :puke: if I ever ran into him - Pres. Kenneth Starr, that is.)

[gristy]

1. You're kidding. Ken Starr is President of Pepperdine?

I think that should be a criteria, but I guess it is your daughter's decision if it is for her. Does she have other good choices?

[Yoda Yada]

6. Starr is Dean of the Law School at Pepperdine. nt

[DefenseLawyer]

18. Not only is Ken Starr the Dean

but he only got the job because Richard Mellon Scaife is on the Board of Trustees and is one of the university's major benefactors.

[JI7]

2. did you ask her why Pepperdine ?

is she political ? if so where does she lean ? Pepperdine isn't exactly a school most liberal leaning would decide on.

maybe she likes the area which is really nice. is it close to home ?

why not UCLA ?

[JDPriestly]

23. It is easier to get into Pepperdine.

Traditionally, in Los Angeles, Pepperdine grads have not been as highly regarded as UCLA, USC, Loyola or, I believe, Southwestern. That means, if someone wants to go to school in L.A., UCLA, USC, Loyola or Southwestern are better choices. Where you go to law school can make a big difference when you try to get a job. Of course, where you can get in can depend on your LSAT scores and undergrad grades. I think Pepperdine is associated with a fundamentalist religion. I might be wrong, but I think so.

[ptolle]

3. Just my opinion

Starr's presence would certainly give me cause to wonder if the ethics component of the law school curriculum was as strong as it ought to be. I guess, depending on which area of law your daughter is considering I'd research the whole faculty closely and make any decision on the basis of those findings. May I respectfully interject here. If your daughter's mind is not made up and there are no geographical considerations look at the Denver University Law School.Good luck to her in whatever she decides.

[spotbird]

4. It can't be a top tier school

since she's going private, unless it's a scholarship, you could get more bang for your buck.

If it's her money and her political slant is fascist, let her do what she wants. I suppose someone has to be trained in the "new" law.

[depakid]

13. It's not- it's 3rd tier. AND very expensive.

but education is what you make of it.

[Hello_Kitty]

5. Tell her to go to ASU law, for the simple fact

That we need more smart left-leaning folks here! :hi:

Assuming she is left-leaning, anyway.

[goclark]

7. Pepperdine's campus is beautiful!

Overlooks the Pacific off of Pacific Coast Hwy.

The last time I visited there I thought of STARR and realized that somebody had a whole lot of BUSH money to build that campus.

[SheilaT]

8. It's extremely conservative

and with a strong christian bent, I believe.

Ask her why Pepperdine? Is it just that it's on the coast of California and therefore automatically desirable?

Is she very political? Does she care if she's surrounded by extremely conservative fellow students and professors?

There are lots of choices out there, so hopefully she'll look at a lot more.

[reality based]

10. It is affiliated with one of the more fundamentalist sects in modern

Christendom, although it tends to be on the liberal side of that group-- obviously not liberal enough, or Christian enough for that matter, having given refuge to one of the most despicable modern day Pharisee I can think of.

[Wilms]

9. There is a nice view of the Pacific, there. n/t

[Scout1071]

11. Beautiful campus.

If she can go on schollie or something, then she should go.

Unless she has a Yale, Standford or Harvard banging on the door.

[SharonAnn]

12. Pepperdine is a right-wing laww school. That's why Starr was hired.

You don't want her to go there.

She should go to a "real" law school.

[pstokely]

24. Could be worse

Falwell and Pat Robert$on have law schools.

[Greyhound]

14. Fantastic location (Malibu), beautiful campus, great reputation, bastion

of neo-con enforcers. At that price range, surely there are other choices. JMO :shrug:

[JDPriestly]

25. Actually, its reputation wasn't that great a couple of years ago.

A Pepperdine J.D. probably will not get you a top job even if you are at the top of your class. It won't even get you a pretty good job. That's my opinion.

[Greyhound]

26. Wow! really? I was looking there many years ago, it was about $35K

per semester then. If it ain't one of the best, it really isn't worth it (unless you just want to party with the offspring of the uber-rich).

[JDPriestly]

27. You are right.

Unless you are independently wealthy, it doesn't make sense to get students loans to pay that kind of tuition to a school if the degree from that school is highly unlikely to get you into a firm that pays well pretty quickly. Think about the return on the investment. You can afford to invest a lot of money in a law school if the J.D. from that school is likely to get you into a firm that pays enough for you to pay your debts back pretty quickly. If you can't get into a school with a reputation to get you into that kind of firm out of law school, choose a less expensive school. If you study hard, and you have the social and intellectual skills and the ethics to make a good career out in the real world of law, you will succeed even if you don't have a J.D. from a top school. But -- if you don't go to a top school, you may face more lean years in the beginning of your career.

Regardless, be prepared to study hard in law school if you want to pass the California bar. Everyone in law school is smart. One half of those who get J.D.s and take the bar exam flunk. You can get good grades in law school and still flunk the California bar.

My advice: work in a law firm in some lowly position like copy clerk or coffee maker if you can before deciding to go to law school. Make sure you like the life style: stress, merciless deadline after deadline, long hours, lots of reading and writing (if you don't like writing term papers, don't bother), perfectionism, stressed out bosses (some of whom may be "screamers" or worse, "throwers"), and, let me say it again, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long hours. Oh, yes, and dirty firm politics and criticism and blame and --- you'll probably run into quite a few completely erratic, emotionally unstable fellow lawyers at some point in your career (and possibly become one yourself). So, work in a law office for a year or two to find out if you've got the right stuff before you take out your student loans. That's my advice for those looking to start law school. And, by the way, I love the profession.

[Greyhound]

28. LOL!

Brilliant, this is exactly why I ended up going a different direction. I worked for one of the most prestigious firms in LA (IT stuff) and saw the unbelievable hours that even the senior partners put in, it's no wonder that they're all divorced and miserable in what passes for their personal lives. I asked myself what good does it do to make a seven figure income if all it does for you is let you buy toys to impress other people and you don't have the time to enjoy them?
Like so many professions, it seems to be one that you're born to do, or it will ruin you.

[bullimiami]

15. pepperdine is best known for beach volleyball. and

ken starr sucks.

[Cleita]

16. If she wants to do really right wing law with no ethics,

thats the place to go. She will learn not only the law but how to get around it. There are other ways to become a lawyer.

[rwenos]

17. Pepperdine Is Also Popular with

the "go out to Hollywood and get a gig in a movie" set.

There's so much to learn in law school, both in the books and from fellow students.

I attended law school in Orange County, at a very conservative law school in a very conservative community. The commercial law, contracts, tax, corporations and real property profs were all conservatives. The constitutional law and criminal law profs are all liberals.

Almost all graduate school decisions end up being about money. If she gets money from the school, go. If she doesn't, try to get into UCLA, which is public and about one-sixth the price. If she's going because it's a nice campus, forget it. She's unlikely to graduate.

Law school is a grind, not a beach party.

[NaturalHigh]

19. Just a bit of trivia...

Texas Tech football coach Mike Leach has a law degree from Pepperdine. He is one of only two Division 1A head football coaches to never have played college football, along with Kansas football coach Mark Mangino. Both were offensive coordinators at OU under Bob Stoops.

[jumpoffdaplanet]

20. A friend goes to Law School at UofO, in Eugene Oregon

He really likes it. And that it doesn't really rain as much as people say.

[fujiyama]

21. It's a conservative school...

What other schools is she looking at? Is she looking for those in the state of CA?

Unless she's getting a great scholarship there, I'm sure she could do better...But of course it all depends on a million factors - grades, LSAT score, location, $...

I'm sure you and her known that though. Best of luck with the process though.

[donheld]

22. Check Richard Mellon Scaife's connections

http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1998/04/27/scaife.profile/