Widener Commonwealth Law School Accepted Students Day

Hello everyone, I attended Widener Commonwealth’s Law School Accepted Students Day today and I just wanted to share my experience with everyone considering almost all of reddit is so toxic about this school.

I thoroughly enjoyed every second of my visit at the school today. They provided lunch, I got a canvas tote and free t-shirt, and more than enough space to fit myself and my family to sit. All speakers used microphones so everyone could hear clearly and not miss a thing, with additional TV’s to show the presentations to the people sitting in the back in case they could not see the projector. The Associate Dean of Admissions welcomed us and congratulated us for our acceptance, and said this application cycle they had more applicants than they had in the past decade, so it was comparatively more competitive to be accepted to this school than Reddit makes it out to seem.

I believe the Dean of the school began the presentation with the school’s values, which areas of law they are most successful in teaching and providing employment for, emphasizing the school’s location in the capitol of PA with incredible out of school employment opportunities and the benefits of learning in a small class size environment. Then there was a faculty panel with professors we will most likely learn under in 1L at Widener and they were very helpful in giving us advice to prepare for 1L, how to succeed, emphasizing the fact that they are more than willing to answer our questions and be available during office hours, and reassuring us that they want every student to succeed. Then there was a financial aid presentation talking about the estimated Cost of Attendance, Payment Options, the difference between Federal Subsidized Loans and Unsubsidized Loans, Scholarship options, Work-Study options and more. I will say that this presentation had my heart in my throat. I was terrified. I never knew any of this because I graduated undergrad completely debt free. I am not naive, I knew law school would come at a cost, I just wasn’t expecting it to be triple the amount I thought it was going to be. Then the Associate Dean of Admissions took the floor again to tell us about our next steps, talking about seat deposits, Canvas, myWidener portal, other events Accepted Students can attend in the next few months, Orientation, class materials, first assignments, and Housing options. Then there was a current student panel that I thought was the most informative segment of the whole event. All faculty and staff left the room and allowed the students to speak freely without any fear of offending the staff by their honest opinions about their experience, and their honest opinions were all so positive! An accepted student asked if School Ranking factored into their decision to go to Widener Law. THEY ALL SAID NO! I WANT TO REPEAT! THEY ALLLLLL SAID NOOOOOO! School Rank does not matter to anyone but yourself. A JD IS A JD!!!! It is what you make of it. All students were very involved like some Presidents of clubs or part of Student government and balancing law school!!! It is possible!!!! Reddit induced my anxiety about this school because of the all the “School Rank matters for jobs after law school and Bar passage rates” or “You will be working 60+ hours a week on 1L work alone,” and yet I see real life students in front of me who are killing it being top 20% of their classes and building their resumes for after law school. Finally, we had a tour of the campus which was pretty short considering Widener only has two buildings, but I got to speak with my tour guide about more of my questions and how concerned I was with my low LSAT score and if I would succeed in law school, and she told me two of her friends with lower stats than me are Top 10% in their classes and taking advantage of the plenty of opportunities Widener offers.

I want to preface that Widener Commonwealth Law School has absolutely no idea I am writing this post and did not pay me to say any of these positive things and I haven’t even committed to this school yet. I owe Widener nothing, and yet I felt compelled to write this post to inform all the miserable 0L’s who know nothing about law school who are just trashing on a school you don’t want to go to because name and rank mean everything to you. I am just a young, latina woman who has been wanting to go to law school ever since freshman year of high school and I got my one yes from Widener with my low LSAT because they saw more to me than just a number. I have visited other schools this cycle and I have never felt such peace about my decision. I hope this can encourage those who just want to be a lawyer, but your LSAT or GPA is intimidating you. You are going to be an incredible attorney and don’t let anyone ever say otherwise.