Part-Time and Blended Law School Programs with Mitchell Hamline
Photo via Mitchell Hamline School of Law
Law school is a large undertaking, especially when you consider the years that go into it and thew workload throughout that time. For some of you, being a full-time law school student may not be feasible due to family commitments, your job, or just knowing what a reasonable workload is for you.
If that’s the case, don’t worry! Part-time and blended law school opportunities are becoming available at more law schools nationally. One of them that is leading the charge is Mitchell Hamline School of Law, which is why we had Ann Gemmell, their Vice President for Enrollment, join us in a recent Break Into Law School® episode!
Below you’ll find some of the highlights of our conversation, but be sure to listen to the full episode on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
Alice: I would love to start with the blended program, because it is probably the most unique of the enrollment opportunities that you have at Mitchell Hamline. Can you tell us a little bit about what that program is?
Ann: It’s a mostly online program, but it is blended, so students are both online and in person. In the first two years, students come to the first week of their fall semester, a long weekend at the beginning of their spring semester, and a week near the end of each of their semesters. After two years, the rest of their time is online and asynchronous.
They also have the option to take classes in other formats if they want at that point.
Alice: Is there a particular learner that you had in mind when you created this program? You had mentioned increasing access, so who were you looking to to help out with this particular type of legal education?
Ann: It’s similar to our other part-time programs. Usually work or family obligations take them out of being able to take classes during the day.
But when we thought about the blended program, we were also thinking about options for people that don’t live near any other law school and don’t really want to move. That not only helps, of course, the student, but it helps that whole community. When we started the program, we also started a North Star Scholarship. That was a scholarship specifically for students that live in rural areas or on reservations that are underserved by the profession and want to stay in their communities.
Another thing that came up after we started the program was that we had a lot of students that are in the military or a military spouse, so they are moving all the time and they couldn’t commit to being in one place for law school.
Alice: You touched on it a little bit, but are there any particular advantages that we haven’t covered?
Ann: First of all, I think it’s important to really just reiterate that when people are online, they are asynchronous. So students don’t ever have to be anywhere at a specific time, so it really gives a ton of flexibility. Students have deliverables every week, so you still have to do assignments and you still have to respond to the reading, but it’s really great because we have students around the world. We have students in different time zones. We have students that have schools that aren’t just during the day.
This allows everyone a chance to really do law school in a way that works for them. That’s one of the things that I think is really important about this program and something that, frankly, not a whole lot of other programs have figured out how to do.
The reason that I tell students that they should come to this program is because we have the most interesting group of students you have ever met. We always have between 35 to 45 different states represented, plus a handful of other countries. Our student population is usually between the ages of 20 to 70. Every industry is represented.
It’s a really great experience, a really vibrant community, and a better way to think about the law when you’re in class.
Alice: I’d love to move into a little more of the traditional part-time program that you guys offer. Is it just in the evenings? Is it during the day?
Ann: It looks like a traditional part-time evening program. Students are in class between about six to ten o’clock at night Monday through Thursday, at least in the first year when they’re doing first-year requirements.
After that, they have a lot of flexibility. They can take classes online or during the day, so they don’t have to be here every night.
I would say the biggest differences really between the part-time evening program and the blended program are the demographics and the size. Our blended program is usually has over 200 students in three different sections; we have lots of students in that program. It’s actually about 600% of our incoming class every year.
Our part-time evening program is usually around 30 students, so it’s much smaller. It’s much more intimate.
Other than that, the big difference is that most of [students in the part-time program] are here in Minnesota because they’re usually people who are already working here and that’s why they’ve decided on the program. That program is usually 90% Minnesotan and the blended program is usually about 15% Minnesotan.
Alice: Is there anything that we haven't touched on about the blended program, about the part-time program, about Mitchell Hamline generally that you want to share with our viewers or that you think may be helpful for folks that are gonna apply in the future?
Ann: One thing that we do well here is that we try to be not only student-centered but really consider just wellness and student support. What is important for me for students to know is that you should sort of know what your most important things are when you’re going to law school. If having a supportive community where you think about your professional identity and wellness when you’re working and how to have balance are important to you, then this might be the right place for you.
Wherever you are, really be thinking about how you do best. It’s not just thinking about what the world says is the most prestigious law degree or the most prestigious job to have after law school. Even if you don’t think you want that, when I went to law school I still felt like I got sucked into that a little bit. I try to just let students know that there are lots of different things that schools might offer that aren’t those things but might be best for you.