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Factors Associated with Graduate and Professional Students\u27 Mental Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic
No full textThe purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between graduate and professional students’ individual, interpersonal, institutional, health and safety, and academic/financial stressors and students’ odds of experiencing clinically significant symptoms of major depressive disorder (MDD) and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) during the COVID-19 pandemic. We drew our sample from ten large, public research universities (n = 15,247). The results of logistic regressions suggest there are several demographic variables associated with students’ odds of MDD or GAD. Additionally, supportive campus environments are associated with reduced odds of MDD or GAD while food/housing insecurity, lack of safety in home environment, obstacles to degree progress, and financial hardships were associated with increased odds of MDD or GAD
Approaching the Bar: An Analysis of Post-Graduation Bar Exam Study Habits
Get PDFFor most law graduates, passing the bar exam is the culmination and most critical outcome of their legal education. The typical two months spent preparing after law school graduation are essential to success. However, empirical understanding of post-graduation bar preparation is limited; only a few studies in the legal academy have examined this period. Generally, law graduates are advised to treat bar preparation like a full-time job. But we lack research and data on the specific time management strategies and tactics that are correlated with bar passage. Given impending changes to the bar exam, such inquiries are critical to determining what post-graduation study approaches are currently most effective and what adjustments, if any, should be made to prepare law students for the bar exam of the future.
In an effort to contribute to a better understanding of the post-graduation bar prep period, this report describes the results of a 2017 study AccessLex conducted in the seven weeks leading up to taking the July bar exam, which examined the extent to which graduates’ study habits and non-academic activities predicted their bar exam outcomes. With help from the University of San Diego School of Law and Themis Bar Review, we recruited recent California law school graduates to participate in a daily time-diary survey that would yield insights into how they managed their studies in the weeks leading up to the bar exam. During the seven-week period, survey respondents completed a daily record of their activities in 30-minute increments, based on nine predetermined categories: bar preparation, employment, job search, commuting, personal care, caregiving, leisure, sleep, and “other.” In analyzing the data, we sought to answer the following questions: To what extent is bar passage associated with the number of hours spent studying? To what extent is bar passage associated with study habits and patterns (e.g., number of study sessions per day)? To what extent is bar passage associated with the amount of time spent on non-study activities? To what extent is the amount of study time associated with negative experiences (e.g., feeling unprepared) and mindset during the bar exam
Overall, this report makes the following observations: The likelihood of bar exam passage is strongly associated with the average number of hours spent studying daily. Although the average length of study session duration has no significant impact on bar passage, higher numbers of daily study sessions lead to a higher probability of bar exam success. Studying earlier in the day is more strongly associated with bar passage than studying at any other time of the day. Employment during the bar preparation period is negatively associated with bar success. Although graduates who study more hours per day are more likely to pass the bar exam, they are more likely to report running out of time on the multiple choice and essay sections of the bar exam. Graduates who studied an average of 10 or more hours per day are the main drivers behind this finding, indicating that there may be diminishing returns to daily averages of study beyond the 10-hour threshold.
Because this report focuses on a small group of first-time bar takers in California, the findings discussed have limited generalizability and should be considered exploratory in nature. We hope our approach serves as a methodological proof of concept that can be replicated among other legal education researchers and practitioners in other jurisdictions
Looking Back: A Case Study of Career Interest and Experiential Learning in Law School
No full textEven though experiential learning has received renewed attention in the legal academy in the last decade, students themselves remain largely left out of the discussion. This, at the very least, is shortsighted. Asking students about curricular opportunities for experiential learning should be a larger part of the discussion.After all, if students do not perceive a value in legal education in light of the cost, the lights could soon go out at many law schools. The 2020 symposium hosted by the Business Lawyering Institute at Willamette Law School on Teaching Better Business Lawyering led us to think about our own research—surveys of law students at the University of Denver (“Denver Law”)—in a new way. One involving students whose career goals are related to a non-litigation business practice, and specifically exploring their experiences with and views of experiential education. Do student experiences and views differ based on career goals, and if so how? Are students with an interest in a business practice different than their peers with different interests?This article is divided into four parts. First, some general observations on what led us to think about our research differently—the importance of career relevance with attention to students interested in a business-related career. Second, an overview of our ongoing study of students and experiential learning at Denver Law, a study designed to follow an incoming class as it goes from first year to last and into the practice of law. Third, through the lens of career interest, an analysis of 1L Denver Law students’ preferred style of learning and their views on experiential learning. Fourth, a corresponding analysis of Denver 3/4L students with a difference. Where the 1L analysis explores learning style and experiential learning as students enter law school, the 3/4L analysis explores these matters as they are finishing. The 3/4Ls were asked to look back on their time at Denver Law with regard to experiential learning and compare to themselves as 1Ls.Most importantly, we found a persistent, strong, and clear preference for a teaching and learning methodology focused on experiential learning for students generally – including business law students
Internships: The Solution to Racial and Ethnic Discrepancy in the Legal Field
No full textAlthough the world is much more progressive than it once was, many law firms struggle to change a culture that historically favors white male attorneys at every level. This has resulted in a huge lack of diversity in the legal profession. Unfortunately, diversity diminishes even further as one moves up on the ladder of success. Achieving full diversity would mean that various groups are represented in legal education and in the legal profession, according to their percentage in the general population. However, this is not the case for Black or African American associates. According to the National Association for Law Placement (NALP), for the first time since the Great Recession the percent of Black or African-American associates in large law firms has finally \u27eclipsed\u27, the percent measured in 2009.
However, the increase is minuscule. It has taken Black associates more than ten years to increase their population size by one-tenth of a percentage point. The lack of Black attorneys hired by law firms is an unfortunate reality that is often overlooked. The legal field cannot successfully bring progressive change in the world if it is largely made up of a homogenous, white, male majority. To bring about progressive change, the discrepancy between the white majority and the racial or ethnic minority in the legal profession must be reduced. Such change can begin by providing individuals of racial and ethnic backgrounds with job opportunities. Specifically, this begins with offering law students of diverse backgrounds with internships
Exploring the Impact of Test-Flexible Admissions on Law School Diversity and Selectivity
No full textReducing barriers to graduate and professional education offers one strategy to reduce racial inequalities in high-status professions. One-quarter of law schools have implemented test-flexible policies, allowing applicants to submit GRE scores in place of LSAT scores, reflecting an effort across educational domains to offer flexible score submission options. We use a generalized difference-in-differences design to investigate the impact of test-flexible policies on diversity and selectivity in legal education. We do not find evidence of changes in racial diversity but find increases in applications and decreases in acceptance rates. Findings indicate test-flexible policies alone may not expand access to high-status fields
Law School in a Pandemic: Student Perspectives on Distance Learning and Lessons for the Future
Get PDFWhen COVID-19 forced colleges and universities across the United States to send their students home and transition to a distance learning model for the duration of the Spring 2020 term, many faculty and staff had only the time afforded by an extended spring break to shift their curricula to online courses. But even if these faculty were given a full two weeks to prepare, that window would have been just a fraction of the four to six months some universities suggest dedicating to the development of a fully online course — to say nothing of the impact the pandemic may have had on their personal and financial wellbeing.
While some undergraduate and graduate faculty were likely able to consult with internal university resources experienced in delivering online education, most law schools had a scarce curricular foundation to build upon. As of the Fall 2019 term, five law schools had received variances from the ABA to offer hybrid J.D. programs, allowing them to deliver parts of their curriculum in a distance learning environment. Prior to the pandemic, no ABA-approved law school offered a completely online J.D. program.
While some law faculty may have had access to existing infrastructure that could house asynchronous learning materials or facilitate live online class sessions, few would have had the preparation or experience to rapidly transition their materials and instruction to a distance learning environment
Reexamining Relative Bar Performance as a Function of Non-Linearity, Heteroscedasticity, and a New Independent Variable
No full textOne might think that if a law school’s graduates do better on the bar exam than their credentials on entering law school would have predicted, the law school’s faculty must have done a good job. Indeed, some scholarship makes that claim. But it is empirically untrue. What actually yields such superficially impressive results is not pedagogy but rather prestidigitation. When law schools manipulate their matriculant pools via academic attrition and transfer, that sleight of hand improves their bar performance rates. This article reveals the math behind the magic.We challenge the assertion that effective pedagogy is the primary driver of a school’s overperformance on the bar examination by demonstrating the model misspecification of the linear regressions in support of that assertion. Our analyses, based on original code written for the program Mathematica, generate regression equations that clearly illustrate the error of applying linear regression to heteroscedastic, non-linear data, and the bias in favor of schools with mid-range LSAT and UGPA matriculants this misapplication causes.Over and under performance on the bar examination, relative to the entering credentials of a school’s matriculants, can be explained in large part by combining the institutions’ academic attrition and net transfer rates into a single independent variable. We demonstrate the marked difference in the value of this variable between schools identified as overperforming and those identified as underperforming their matriculation credentials on the bar examination.The article concludes by emphasizing the harm to legal education that stems from the unwarranted attribution of bar success to pedagogy and especially the harm this causes to untenured academic support faculty. We also raise the question of whether ABA standard 316-mandating a certain level of bar passage by law schools’ graduates-is ethically and morally supportable given the ability of schools to manipulate bar passage rates by modulating academic attrition and transfer rates
Analyzing First-Time Bar Exam Passage on the UBE in New York State
Get PDFThis report is the culmination of three years of work to collect, analyze, summarize, and interpret data on the experiences and outcomes of first-time and second-time New York State Bar candidates. After careful collaboration and review between AccessLex Institute and the New York State Board of Law Examiners to finalize this publication, a release date was anticipated for Spring 2020 to share its findings publicly and to provide recommendations for how the legal education community could build on efforts to equitably and effectively prepare law school graduates for first-time bar exam passage. Of course, at the time nobody had any idea a public health crisis was about to override those best laid plans.
With little to no warning, the New York State Court of Appeals, the New York State Board of Law Examiners, along with other bar examiners and courts, law graduates, and law schools nationwide, faced the daunting task of determining how to respond and adapt to a global pandemic that made conventional testing and learning conditions unsafe and traditional timelines impractical. As a result, it was decided to hold off on releasing this report so that both the New York State Board of Law Examiners and AccessLex Institute could address the most critical and immediate needs facing their respective constituents.
A year later, at a time when the world as we once knew it seems more within reach, and lessons learned over the last year are sparking new ideas about the world to come, this report is being released in its pre-pandemic final form. Anticipating the return to bar exam business as usual and contemplating the implications of forthcoming changes to the bar exam itself in four to five years, the results and recommendations of this report are all the more relevant to the research and discussion of bar exam success. The pandemic and bar exam changes notwithstanding, law graduates are better served passing the bar exam on their first attempt, and so the goal of this report is to provide a first step in identifying ways to promote strategies and support systems to help narrow first-time performance gaps among bar exam candidates, now and into the future
Access to Graduate School: A Quantitative Study of Interest in Selective MBA Programs
No full textAlumni of selective graduate programs, such as those from top business and law schools, have high lifetime earnings and are overrepresented in influential positions in society. Given limitations in nationally representative datasets, many existing studies of graduate school enrollment in the literature focus only on the United States and collapse programs of different types, fields, and selectivity in their analyses. These limitations may mask important differences in access to programs across the graduate school landscape. Though business is one of the most common fields of graduate study, relatively little is known about pathways and barriers to enrolling in a Master of Business Administration (MBA), including why women, some racial/ethnic groups, and individuals from low socioeconomic backgrounds are underrepresented in top-ranked programs. Little also is known about pathways and barriers to access for international students. This study addressed this knowledge need by analyzing data from a survey of 4,082 bachelor’s degree holders in five countries who were screened as potentially qualified applicants for a top-ranked MBA program but who had, as yet, not applied. Descriptive findings from this analysis showed interest in graduate business programs—and barriers to applying to a full-time MBA program—vary by gender, race/ethnicity, parent education, home country, the intersection of these characteristics, and other variables. In multivariate analyses, I found women and those whose parents have earned less than a bachelor’s degree reported lower levels of interest in a top-ranked, full-time MBA after controlling for other variables. Although African Americans and Hispanics were underrepresented among bachelor’s degree holders, those who had a bachelor’s degree were more likely than Whites with a bachelor’s degree to report interest in a top-ranked, full-time MBA, net of other variables. Home country was an important mediating characteristic to understanding access with those outside the United States reporting higher levels of interest in a selective MBA program after controlling for other variables. These findings have practical implications for graduate school leaders aiming to enroll a more diverse set of students and for scholars examining the increasing importance of access to graduate school in understanding social stratification patterns
Black Law Student Attrition in the Age of Affirmative Action: Why America\u27s Current Diversity Framework is Failing
No full textBlack law students encounter unique obstacles that leave them with some of the highest non-transfer attrition rates among all groups. Theories have emerged alleging that Black law students are simply ill-suited for the educational environments they are accepted into. However, these theories fail to acknowledge the added pressures that accompany being a Black law student. The systems of racial discrimination present today, created in slavery and written into the laws Americans live by, have long been present in America\u27s educational history. These systems create atmospheres where Black law students struggle to integrate. Without more, Affirmative Action as it stands is ill-equipped to fix the existing systems. As a result, the racially discriminatory effects Affirmative Action programs are trying to eradicate are cited as justifications for removing unnecessary Affirmative Action policies.
The implementation of Affirmative Action is not the reason why attrition rates are so high, but rather, it is because of the lack of continued support to bolster the program. On its own, Affirmative Action cannot cure the isolation of a Black law student; it cannot speak up for Black law students who fall victim to implicit biases or overt acts of discrimination; it cannot fix racially skewed LSAT questions or U.S. News rankings-driven school administrator tendencies. A plan that truly desires to reduce the racial divide in American law schools requires a collaborative effort from all parties involved, starting with open discussion.
This article begins this discussion by outlining the history behind the creation and implementation of Affirmative Action in the school setting, followed by a detailed look into the statistical discrepancies that highlight the issues. Finally, a discussion of the extracurricular pressures on law students will inform the conclusion that the current diversity framework is tailored to fail and is directly responsible for the high attrition rates observed among Black law students