Friday, March 11, 2005
Bar Review, Anyone?
I think BAR/BRI is a scam. A monopolistic scam. And it needs to be stopped. I don't know if I'm going to be the one to stop it, but someone should.
Everyone who's been to the first semester of law school realizes that if there's anything law school teaches you, it's certainly not what's on the bar exam. We learn how to argue for or against laws, we learn some cases, but we very rarely learn actually what laws are on the books. So when law school comes to a close and the bar exam looms, someone has to teach it to you. BAR/BRI has decided to take upon itself this function.
(Parenthetical sidenote: What's up with BAR/BRI's name? Why is it that when you write it in text, you're supposed to put it in all caps with a slash in the middle ("BAR/BRI"), but in their official logo, it's all lowercase with no slash ("barbri")? What does it mean? "BAR" obviously refers to the bar exam, but what's BRI? Is it an acronym? For what?)
BAR/BRI really has no competition. There's PMBR, but that supposedly is geared more to a different section of the bar exam; most people sign up for both. I have been in law school for three years now, and I am completely unaware of another bar prep course. BAR/BRI advertises that something like 90% of law students sign up for their service. That sounds to me like more students than even take the bar exam! Shouldn't someone use their BAR/BRI outline to review the Sherman Act, pass the bar, and then come after BAR/BRI?
Anyway, the thing that really chaps my hide is how much they charge, and the service offered in return. Fortunately, my firm is paying for my expenses, or I wouldn't be quite so inured to this mistreatment. My bill comes to $2351.75 for a six-week review course.
And what do I get in this review course? Classes four hours a day, five days a week, for six weeks (which, incidentally, start before graduation!). The class experience works like this: You and several hundred other people file into a large lecture hall at some law school, sit down with the official BAR/BRI books, and turn your attention to the person standing at the front of the room. That person pulls out an official BAR/BRI VHS tape, walks over to the official BAR/BRI VCR, sticks it in, and pushes Play. Repeat for the next 29 days. If, I am told, you are so lucky as to have an actual live instructor, you are not allowed to ask questions. Because, as we all know, if we allow people to ask questions, we can't get through the material and everyone will suffer as a result. This is education at its finest, folks.
And for this each person pays over TWO THOUSAND THREE HUNDRED DOLLARS. To have the chance to watch a video that is mass reproduced at a cost of like two bucks per tape (and considering that each tape will serve the needs of 500 people, that's a cost to BAR/BRI of twelve cents per student, even ceding that there will be 30 different tapes). That's a tidy profit of $2351.63 per student. Multiply by 90% of the graduating law students in the United States, and you can see what a genius the guy who invented this scam is. (OK, OK, I recognize they have more expenses than this--they've got to print the books at a couple of bucks apiece, reserve the space, and pay the minimum-wage salary of the VCR button-pusher. But still.)
As it turns out, I'll be taking the Virginia bar. As I mentioned, the course starts before I graduate. So it'll be tough for me to be in DC, where the BAR/BRI classes are, and Cambridge, where graduation is, at the same time. I asked BAR/BRI about this and they told me that if I insisted on not moving to DC first and coming back to Cambridge for graduation ("My wife lives here," I told them), I could lease CDs from them for home study. I'm told these CDs are essentially the audio track from the videos everyone else will be watching. I'll hear what the dude on the TV is saying, but I just won't have to look at his ugly mug. Not quite as good of a service, but at least I can do it on my own time, and in my own place.
You'd think that a lesser version of the same service wouldn't cost as much. But no. It's an extra $795. Why, you ask? Well, BAR/BRI itself says "the audio lease fee covers the costs of duplication and packaging of CDs and servicing students throughout the course." Excuse me? It costs $800 to duplicate and package 30 CDs? I can do that at home for like $20. Seriously.
Someone needs to start up a competitor to BAR/BRI. You can even charge half the amount they do, and you'll make a fortune, because students will come flocking to you. Not everyone has an employer that will pay these outrageous prices for lousy service. Any entrepreneurs out there?
Everyone who's been to the first semester of law school realizes that if there's anything law school teaches you, it's certainly not what's on the bar exam. We learn how to argue for or against laws, we learn some cases, but we very rarely learn actually what laws are on the books. So when law school comes to a close and the bar exam looms, someone has to teach it to you. BAR/BRI has decided to take upon itself this function.
(Parenthetical sidenote: What's up with BAR/BRI's name? Why is it that when you write it in text, you're supposed to put it in all caps with a slash in the middle ("BAR/BRI"), but in their official logo, it's all lowercase with no slash ("barbri")? What does it mean? "BAR" obviously refers to the bar exam, but what's BRI? Is it an acronym? For what?)
BAR/BRI really has no competition. There's PMBR, but that supposedly is geared more to a different section of the bar exam; most people sign up for both. I have been in law school for three years now, and I am completely unaware of another bar prep course. BAR/BRI advertises that something like 90% of law students sign up for their service. That sounds to me like more students than even take the bar exam! Shouldn't someone use their BAR/BRI outline to review the Sherman Act, pass the bar, and then come after BAR/BRI?
Anyway, the thing that really chaps my hide is how much they charge, and the service offered in return. Fortunately, my firm is paying for my expenses, or I wouldn't be quite so inured to this mistreatment. My bill comes to $2351.75 for a six-week review course.
And what do I get in this review course? Classes four hours a day, five days a week, for six weeks (which, incidentally, start before graduation!). The class experience works like this: You and several hundred other people file into a large lecture hall at some law school, sit down with the official BAR/BRI books, and turn your attention to the person standing at the front of the room. That person pulls out an official BAR/BRI VHS tape, walks over to the official BAR/BRI VCR, sticks it in, and pushes Play. Repeat for the next 29 days. If, I am told, you are so lucky as to have an actual live instructor, you are not allowed to ask questions. Because, as we all know, if we allow people to ask questions, we can't get through the material and everyone will suffer as a result. This is education at its finest, folks.
And for this each person pays over TWO THOUSAND THREE HUNDRED DOLLARS. To have the chance to watch a video that is mass reproduced at a cost of like two bucks per tape (and considering that each tape will serve the needs of 500 people, that's a cost to BAR/BRI of twelve cents per student, even ceding that there will be 30 different tapes). That's a tidy profit of $2351.63 per student. Multiply by 90% of the graduating law students in the United States, and you can see what a genius the guy who invented this scam is. (OK, OK, I recognize they have more expenses than this--they've got to print the books at a couple of bucks apiece, reserve the space, and pay the minimum-wage salary of the VCR button-pusher. But still.)
As it turns out, I'll be taking the Virginia bar. As I mentioned, the course starts before I graduate. So it'll be tough for me to be in DC, where the BAR/BRI classes are, and Cambridge, where graduation is, at the same time. I asked BAR/BRI about this and they told me that if I insisted on not moving to DC first and coming back to Cambridge for graduation ("My wife lives here," I told them), I could lease CDs from them for home study. I'm told these CDs are essentially the audio track from the videos everyone else will be watching. I'll hear what the dude on the TV is saying, but I just won't have to look at his ugly mug. Not quite as good of a service, but at least I can do it on my own time, and in my own place.
You'd think that a lesser version of the same service wouldn't cost as much. But no. It's an extra $795. Why, you ask? Well, BAR/BRI itself says "the audio lease fee covers the costs of duplication and packaging of CDs and servicing students throughout the course." Excuse me? It costs $800 to duplicate and package 30 CDs? I can do that at home for like $20. Seriously.
Someone needs to start up a competitor to BAR/BRI. You can even charge half the amount they do, and you'll make a fortune, because students will come flocking to you. Not everyone has an employer that will pay these outrageous prices for lousy service. Any entrepreneurs out there?
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