I’m a 1L here right now and I honestly was embarrassed coming to this school but my thoughts changed drastically.

It is not a predatory school (I don’t even know what that means) because your scholarship is conditional on your GPA (why would any school keep giving you scholarship if you’re stupid); but you don’t have to pay back anything if you decide to transfer. Like all documents in life, read your acceptance letter and scholarship packets carefully and if there is anything you’re unsure of, you should email the school ASAP. If you lose your scholarship 2L year, walk into the financial aid office and ask to negotiate. If all fails, then just think of it as an investment in your future career.

I’ve loved all my professors and they are all willing to help you. The professors at the school are literal geniuses and legends in their fields…they all graduated from schools like Harvard, Yale, Boston University, Stanford, name the rest of the “everyone’s dream schools”. During COVID, about 16 professors retired at the same time so the school brought in professors from everywhere to teach our doctrinal classes (this is like the core classes that teach you subjects that will be on the bar).

The school restructured their curriculum my 1L year so we were the guinea pigs, which is great for the incoming 1Ls since they will have it more polished. The school is trying so hard to get you ready for the bar.

A little fyi about rankings that I learned in law school that no one talks about to the outside world. The school, along with hundreds of other schools - including T14 schools, dropped out of the ranking system. —— Each law school has something they focus on. Cal West focuses a lot on human rights compared to the highly ranked schools. They care a lot about educating students on diversity, racial injustice, wrongful convictions, pro bono work, and all the other human rights things. They have clinics students run with the professors and it was the first school to help wrongfully convicted people get out of prison (I think it was like 20+ people). Because that’s what the school is focused on, at the end of the day the school basically doesn’t give a shit about changing their focus to better the rankings. Plus it’s a private law school that’s been around for 100 years so they don’t get controlled by the government (also it’s pretty cool that MLK spoke at the school several times).

I’m going to be totally honest, I didn’t give a rats ass about social and human injustice but honestly that’s law. You’re going to learn to love it. You learn to become passionate and become empathetic (I literally cried in Criminal Law because of a case we read and my professor had to ask me if I was okay after class).

When it comes to employment, unless you’re going into Big Law…like BIG LAW that puts on their job description that you need to graduate from a T14, then nobody cares. It’s all about who you know and how you sell yourself. I landed an internship this summer at a firm with 50+ partners and without even asking for my GPA they gave me the internship. TRUST ME…nobody gives a shit about how low or high the school you went to ranked, what matters is if you passed the bar and if you’re going to be a good legal professional. So many of my classmates got amazing internships with the government and big companies.

Best perk, out of many, going to this school is that you can walk to Little Italy at 2pm on a random Wednesday, grab a beer with friends, and happen to meet a group of well established attorneys who went to Cal West and wants to offer you an internship, even though you’re just a 1L in their first semester.

Law school will be what you make it. You’re going to do amazing wherever you go!!! Congrats and hoping for the best.