<p>Alot of posts on med school........if I am interested in being an offcier and attorney in the navy judge advocate general (JAG) corps following graduation from the USNA......what is involved?</p>
<p>It is even more problematic than becoming a doctor. There are duty limitations before which you must have entered law school; I don’t remember exact age but something like two to six years after commissioning. In other words, if you graduate at age 22, fulfill your five-year commitment, you will barely have time to apply and get accepted to law school.</p>
<p>that’s not to say that you could not start applying from the fleet, but it is a difficult proposition.
Going straight after graduation is not an option, ABSENT unusual circumstances, e.g. you were restricted line for some reason or the other.
I don’t know for sure that is an option, but I’m sure it has happened at one time or the other.
In other words, if you want to go JAG your chances are MUCH better going to a civilian school and applying from school.</p>
<p>Amen</p>
<p>JAG hopes + USNA –> incompatible</p>
<p>True story. I applied for LEP (Law Education Program) in 1989. Got accepted to law school. Things were looking good, but I was stymied by a rule that said I would have been 3 months too senior to be considered for the program, and the rule was not waiverable. Thus ended my nascent dreams of becoming a Navy JAG.</p>
<p>What you always hear is that you should have a warfare specialty - that means a SWO pin, and, at least in the P-3 Navy, you needed to be Plane Commander or TACCO qualified. if you want to cross over to a staff job like JAG; your operational experience gives you perspective that JAG’s who go straight from law school to OCS don’t have, makes you more promotable, etc. The practical problem is that for aviators, by the time you earn those quals after lengthy waits to begin flight school, flight school itself and then qualifying for your warfare designator, you are figuratively about out of runway to take advantage of LEP. </p>
<p>Might be a little easier for SWO’s and Nukes, but still pretty hard. Your only other option is to pay for it yourself and then apply for a transfer over to JAG. Doable, but pretty expensive, and there are possibly a lot more lucrative law opportunities out there than Navy LT pay with a big law school debt as well.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.jag.navy.mil/careers/careers/opportunities_lep.html[/url]”>http://www.jag.navy.mil/careers/careers/opportunities_lep.html</a> - here’s the link to the official gouge on LEP</p>
<p>When I attended law school: tuition, fees, books, etc. was less than 10k per year. I recently went to an alumni event and administrators said tuition was expected to be 23k per year for next year. This is from a state school. It is difficult to consider that a 27-year old LT, 30-years old by the time they graduate, would want to go JAG with over 70k in debt. [Although . . . would post 9/11 GI bill pay for some portion of that? Or, is the problem that 5-years post Academy–in other words committed time-- still does not qualify graduate for post-9/11 GI Bill benefits? I thought that had changed somewhat in post-9/11 bill.]</p>
<p>The rule now seems to permit LEP as long as you can complete 20years by your 62nd birthday, i.e. 42. I think it used to be you had either be admitted to law school or licensed by 27th [28th?] birthday, which is perhaps what was applicable in 1989. [THE REAL THING TO CONSIDER IS, ACCORDING TO THE WEBSITE, THAT LEP ONLY ACCEPTS SEVEN NAVY OFFICERS PER YEAR!]</p>
<p>In any event, unless there are unusual circumstances, law school is not an option upon graduation. Distinguished, for example, from VGEP programs.</p>