Lex programs develop many of the key competencies for entering law students, help with assessing your vocation, and contribute to your law school applications. This type of learning experience is often recognizable for credit, depending on your university’s approach.
About Requesting Course Credit
Lex programs do not come automatically with credit. However, we offer guidance to students who study at universities that give credit for outside experiences, such as internships. Students have often received credit by their institutions for the Lex experience, often using the mechanisms that universities have for granting credit for experiences such as internships, projects, trips, etc.
It is true that most of our alumni do not request credit for Lex from their university, because students generally have enough credits from their classes already. However, there are still plenty of students every year who seek and receive credit for Lex from their institutions. There are others who would like it but their universities don’t do that. However, most of those who do need the credit, and are at universities with these mechanisms, are successful at requesting it, and Lex is more than happy to assist.
What option is available for you depends on your university, and not all universities offer the option to recognize internships or learning experiences for credit. However, below are some common approaches available at many universities.
Common Approaches
Register for a generic internship course, at your university, to the extent its policies allow this. You may need to contact the career services office and apply for credit through their website.
Register for an independent study course. This option will require meeting with a faculty member and proposing assignments that will connect your Lex experience to coursework or to that professor’s research. Ask your advisor or the career office if they can refer you to someone who’d be willing to supervise your independent study.
Less common: look at your local community colleges to see if they offer a for-credit internship course, and then confirm with your advisor that those credits can be transferred to your home university. For more information, read this helpful page from the UVA Career Center.
Ask your advisor to see what options are available at your university.