Fellowships and VAPs

FYI for "First Mover"-Types: There's a very interesting post by Glenn Cohen, guest blogging at Prawfs, on the pros and cons of fellowship and Visiting Assistant Professor (VAP) programs for prospetive legal academics. If you're thinking about such a program, e.g. Bigelow at the U of Chicago, the Freedman program at Temple, it's a "must read." One thing that struck me in reading the post and the comments is how obtaining a J.D., PhD, and spending any time in law practice hardley ever happens. If someone gets a J.D. and then practices for anything longer than a cup-of-coffee there just isn't enough time in an average life-span to also go through 6 years of graduate school to get a PhD (Glenn says "4-6", but "4" is quite optimistic in today's graduate schools, at least in the humanities). A fellowship or VAP is a good way to split the difference.