A Bit More About Cooley Law School (repost from Nontradlaw)
The curve is no longer a C minus, but a regular C. Also, the chance to void-grade options has been reduced from a total of four (4) classes down to two (2) classes. Void-grades are those things which one can use to remove a bad grade and "retake" the class.If it were possible for you to see the posted grades for all the classes... the number of people who flunk would horrify you.
Let's suppose a 3L is about to graduate with a 2.0 GPA. That person then fails a class during his final year and drops a tad below a 2.0. Let's also say that person has no void-grade options left as they were used up during 1L. That person CAN re-take the failed class, but lets also suppose that person only gets a C in the re-take class. Although it is a passing score, that C won't be enough to bring that person up to a 2.0 total GPA, because the F and the C are averaged together (remember - the void-grade options were used up). Hence, a 3L with a bad semester can find themselves in a world of hurt.
In truth it's pretty rare to find a 3L doing poorly at Cooley. If you've lasted that long at Cooley, odds are you're going to take it all the way and not do poorly during 3L.
Cooley NOW has a "no visiting other schools" policy. You can't take a term and "visit" another school. It's in our policy book. You can't do two terms at Cooley and try to do a term at your state law school over summer (for example, in my case that would be Arizona) and then come back to Cooley to finish up. Absent an outright transfer, you are either Cooley all the way or not at all.
You will have far more "required" courses at Cooley. Your electives won't come until well into your 2L or 3L career. You'll get a taste of electives in 2L, but only a taste.
If you miss 2 classes you will be dismissed, but I should note you will be dismissed from the class rather than the school itself. Sort of. I have to qualify that a bit, because your one dismissal can cascade into being dismissed from other classes and, well, let me just say that missing classes is not a good idea at Cooley as it will shorten your stay at the school.
We had a winter storm. The airports were shut down. The state/city was imploring people to "please do not drive on the roads." We still had a class and missing it counted against you.
I was not pleased.
Some classes do not permit one to "pass", but all of the classes I've had will give a student a chance to pass ONCE for the entire term. Passing twice or being unprepared when called on (same thing) is subject to cause one to be dismissed from the class, or depending on the situation, from the school itself.
The upside to Cooley is that you CAN get a good, solid, hardcore legal education. The volume of students mixed with the curving issues creates roughly a 48% attrition rate (give or take, but generally about half of all the original students are gone after 1L).
Transferring out is not as hard as people claim. Lots of people do it and a surprising number seem to make it into Michigan State. However, if you are a C student at Cooley your ability to transfer out will be much more difficult.
I could go on and on about Cooley. It is a mixed bag of tricks. Go in with open eyes and under the right set of circumstances and it can give you one hell of a legal education. It can also just seem like Hell and little else.
posted by majqa @ 2:21 PM
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