I fought the law, and the law won...
So I've started to take classes towards earning an ABA-certified paralegal certificate. My current position is technically a paralegal position, but my workplace doesn't require the paralegal degree/certificate, so I'm just doing it to increase my knowledge and future job opportunities. When I registered last fall, I was able to get a business law class waived because I had taken something similar in my undergrad schooling (never mind that I barely remember the class). I made some inquiries about getting a waiver for the legal research course, but didn't push it at the time. Instead, I registered for the Intro to Law class, another requirement, and I've been taking that one this semester. The first third of the class was strictly review for me, but I have been learning some new stuff, so it hasn't been a complete waste of time.
Knowing that registration for the fall semester was coming up soon, I met a few weeks ago with the paralegal program coordinator to discuss the possibility of a waiver for the legal research and writing course. After all, I thought to myself, you took a legal research class in graduate school, and you have mumble years of doing legal research as a career! This should be a no-brainer! And I can take an additional elective course to take it's place, and therefore learn more! It's all good!
Um, no.
Basically, my chances of getting a waiver are slim-to-none, for various reasons I won't bother to repeat. I have three choices: take the class as it is and have an easy time of it, work with the class instructor to focus on things that are less familiar, i.e., some of the legal writing, or submit an independent study proposal which will allow me to do something I find interesting while satisfying the requirements of the class. I know I should probably go the independent study route, but frankly, taking a class while working 40 hours is a somewhat tiring endeavor (I know, I know, it's just one, but still). I'm not sure how much I want to challenge myself at this point, especially for something I'm doing for the heck of it. It annoys me that i'll have to pay the school to learn something I already know, but I'm still not inclined to go all out by designing my own special course. I need to think about it some more.
At any rate, I'm avoiding the issue for now by signing up for two more required courses for next semester: a 1 credit course on legal ethics, and a 3 credit course on litigation. Both are on Thursday night, so I expect I'll be a bit of a zombie on Fridays.
Knowing that registration for the fall semester was coming up soon, I met a few weeks ago with the paralegal program coordinator to discuss the possibility of a waiver for the legal research and writing course. After all, I thought to myself, you took a legal research class in graduate school, and you have mumble years of doing legal research as a career! This should be a no-brainer! And I can take an additional elective course to take it's place, and therefore learn more! It's all good!
Um, no.
Basically, my chances of getting a waiver are slim-to-none, for various reasons I won't bother to repeat. I have three choices: take the class as it is and have an easy time of it, work with the class instructor to focus on things that are less familiar, i.e., some of the legal writing, or submit an independent study proposal which will allow me to do something I find interesting while satisfying the requirements of the class. I know I should probably go the independent study route, but frankly, taking a class while working 40 hours is a somewhat tiring endeavor (I know, I know, it's just one, but still). I'm not sure how much I want to challenge myself at this point, especially for something I'm doing for the heck of it. It annoys me that i'll have to pay the school to learn something I already know, but I'm still not inclined to go all out by designing my own special course. I need to think about it some more.
At any rate, I'm avoiding the issue for now by signing up for two more required courses for next semester: a 1 credit course on legal ethics, and a 3 credit course on litigation. Both are on Thursday night, so I expect I'll be a bit of a zombie on Fridays.