Concord is owned by the largest test-prep program in the world, which is in turn owned by a disputed news monopoly. What does that have to do with my law education? If you've read any of the other articles I've written on distance education, you may be able to guess what I'm about to say next. The answer my friends is money, of which Kaplan and the Post have plenty. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Concord's parent endowment is atleast as large as Harvard's. Who cares about reputation when you're talking dollars and cents?
I can't claim to have done much research beyond this point, (I said, "lawyer-to-be") but I'm taking an educated guess that a JD from most equally-endowed institutions runs in the $60,000 plus range. Well, my Concord cronies and I will be paying a grand total $14,4000 for our degrees. Add a few grand for the cost of a new computer and an ISP and it still works out to less than $20,000. Sound too good to be true? If you said yes, you must not watch enough television, because there's more... Based solely on my "Qualification Assessment Form" (QAF), I was awarded $2,400 in tuition credit. Just so you don't think this was some kind of merit-based award, let me tell you that the QAF took all of ten minutes to complete and mostly asked questions like whether or not I was interested in the law and if I thought I would be a good candidate for online learning. There you have it, a not so final price of $12,000.
As tempting as it all seems, I still have some questions for the folks at Concord. For example, "What kind of person earns a professional degree from the leader in 'cramming what you should've learned in four years of highschool/college into three weeks?'" Lucky for me, along with the tuition credit voucher, the detailed payment plan options and the shiny brochure with a picture of some federal building on the cover, an admissions advisor sent me a nice letter saying that I'll be contacted in several days for an interview. Wish me luck; this is my future we're taling about!!
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