Law School Reality Archives - Page 18 of 37

ASU May Cut Ties with Its Law School – Incredible as It May Seem, This is Not a Joke

Arizona Republic: “Arizona’s state universities are on a fast track to making some of their professional schools financially self-sufficient, an unprecedented shift that would mean higher tuition to cover the loss of state funds for operations. Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law is the first school slated to convert to the new model, a kind of privatization.” The reporter makes this incredible statement in the story, which presumably is the thinking of the ASU elites who are pushing to dump the law school:

“By breaking off one or more self-sustaining arms, the universities can maintain or improve the quality of those schools. Plus, they would free up state money to benefit other programs.”

Earth to the idiots pushing to privatize the ASU law school: IT IS A PROFIT CENTER THAT MAKES MONEY FOR THE UNIVERSITY. IT IS NOT A MONEY PIT! Here’s the tuition and fees for ASU’s law school for the 2010-11 school year: residents: $21,598 and nonresidents: $35,147. ASU law plans to admit 193 students for the upcoming school year. If we assume that the total enrollment is 193 x 3 = 579 and two thirds (386) are in state and the rest (193) are nonresidents, then total tuition for 2010-2011 would be (386 x $21,598) + (193 x $35,147) = $15,120,199. Considering that the school doesn’t have to pay rent, that’s a lot of extra cheese that ASU can siphon off to use for its undergrads who are paying a mere $7,793 resident tuition for the 2010 – 2011 school year.

Here is a simple test for the ASU elites that want ASU to dump its law school:

1. Which student generates more money for ASU: a law student or an undergraduate student? Hint – see above.

2. Is it better for ASU to make more money or less money per student?

3. If money is all that matters, why not sell the entire ASU undergrad college to the University of Phoenix and keep the graduate schools that charge high tuition?

4. Have you lost your minds?

How Law School Went from Being a Sure Thing to a Bum Deal

Washington Post: “The demand for lawyers has fallen off a cliff, both due to the short-term crisis of the recession and long-term changes to the industry, and is only starting to rebound. The lawyers who do have jobs are making less. At the same time, universities seeking revenue have tacked on law schools, minting more lawyers every year. . . . The job market for lawyers is terrible – and that hits young lawyers the worst.”

Law School Graduates Failing to Pass the Bar Exam Lag Far Behind Peers

The National Law Journal: A recent paper in the Journal of Legal Education investigates the consequences for law school graduates that fail the bar exam on their first attempt. “during the first five to 10 years out of law school, those who don’t pass the bar lag far behind their peers who do in areas such as earnings, job stability and marriage and divorce rates. Non-bar passers close that gap somewhat in the latter half of their careers, though they never fully catch up with most of their classmates who passed the bar . . . . ‘Law schools owe it to their most at-risk prospective students to provide candid information about the probability and costs of failing the bar examination’,”

A Case of Supply v. Demand

Slate: “Law schools are manufacturing more lawyers than America needs, and law students aren’t happy about it. . . . a number of recent or current law students are saying—or screaming—that they made a mistake. They went to law school, they say, and now they’re underemployed or jobless, in debt, and three years older. And statistics show that the evidence is more than anecdotal. . . . The job market for lawyers is terrible.”

Law School Hopefuls Undaunted by Dim Prospects

National Law Journal: “Veritas, a law school admissions consulting firm, polled 112 prospective law school applicants in June and July, and 81% said they would still apply even if ‘a significant number of law school graduates were unable to find jobs in their desired fields.’ Only 4% said they would not apply to law school under that circumstance.”