Should I leave Ave Maria School of Law? Forum

[akili]

I think regardless of what people think of your situation (which sucks, I'm sorry!) you should leave Ave Maria. They are not a good school at all AND they are treating you like crap.

[DeeCee]

I have IBS/Crohn's Disease, which is a chronic illness(ADA and NALSWD designated disability) that has started to affect my neurological system and as caused me to experience severe anxiety attacks.

Several of my family members have Crohn's and Ulcerative Colitis. It's no joke....you should probably go high up the ladder at your school to make sure your disability is appropriately handled. I'm not sure what you can do about it if it was diagnosed at the end of the semester, however. My cousin has Crohn's and until her school (not law school but UG) would recognize her problem (she had to miss so many days), she was in danger of failing many of her classes.

EDIT: I might have missed this, but are your disabilities documented with the school? If so I am almost positive it is illegal that you were not given specific accommodations. Like I stated earlier, if your disability is not on file or if you found out about it at the end of the semester, I am not sure how much recourse you have. Before leaving, I think you have to try to fix this through every avenue possible and keep documentation. That way, you have the bestpossible chance of getting the results you want.

[romothesavior]

So, you are in Ave Maria with bad grades? That's all the info I need to say leave immediately.

But where should she go??

Anywhere but Ave Maria. Going there was a disastrous mistake in the first place, and staying would be the equivalent of lighting money on fire. Not to mention wasting 2 1/2 more years.

There is, you know, always the option of not going to law school.

[Barbie]

So, you are in Ave Maria with bad grades? That's all the info I need to say leave immediately.

But where should she go??

Anywhere but Ave Maria. Going there was a disastrous mistake in the first place, and staying would be the equivalent of lighting money on fire. Not to mention wasting 2 1/2 more years.

There is, you know, always the option of not going to law school.

Thats what the rest of my post asked- if she was willing to just stop going or whether she was set on a transfer.

[romothesavior]

Thats what the rest of my post asked- if she was willing to just stop going or whether she was set on a transfer.

The problem is, there is no law school worth going to that will take her with those grades. No disrespect intended to the OP, but if I may be frank, Ave Maria is a law school on par respect-wise with Cooley. It is really a joke of a school, and no semi-respectable law school is going to even sniff at an Ave Maria student seeking with those kinds of grades.

[gorgeouslawgirl]

I think regardless of what people think of your situation (which sucks, I'm sorry!) you should leave Ave Maria. They are not a good school at all AND they are treating you like crap.

Thank you soooo much!!! I needed this!

[gorgeouslawgirl]

I have IBS/Crohn's Disease, which is a chronic illness(ADA and NALSWD designated disability) that has started to affect my neurological system and as caused me to experience severe anxiety attacks.

Several of my family members have Crohn's and Ulcerative Colitis. It's no joke....you should probably go high up the ladder at your school to make sure your disability is appropriately handled. I'm not sure what you can do about it if it was diagnosed at the end of the semester, however. My cousin has Crohn's and until her school (not law school but UG) would recognize her problem (she had to miss so many days), she was in danger of failing many of her classes.

EDIT: I might have missed this, but are your disabilities documented with the school? If so I am almost positive it is illegal that you were not given specific accommodations. Like I stated earlier, if your disability is not on file or if you found out about it at the end of the semester, I am not sure how much recourse you have. Before leaving, I think you have to try to fix this through every avenue possible and keep documentation. That way, you have the bestpossible chance of getting the results you want.

Thank you sooooo much!

[ResolutePear]

Thats what the rest of my post asked- if she was willing to just stop going or whether she was set on a transfer.

The problem is, there is no law school worth going to that will take her with those grades. No disrespect intended to the OP, but if I may be frank, Ave Maria is a law school on par respect-wise with Cooley. It is really a joke of a school, and no semi-respectable law school is going to even sniff at an Ave Maria student seeking with those kinds of grades.

When a school *MOVES*, you know there's a problem.

I'm curious to see what schools lawyers went to who today work for Dominos Pizza, though.

[Barbie]

Thats what the rest of my post asked- if she was willing to just stop going or whether she was set on a transfer.

The problem is, there is no law school worth going to that will take her with those grades. No disrespect intended to the OP, but if I may be frank, Ave Maria is a law school on par respect-wise with Cooley. It is really a joke of a school, and no semi-respectable law school is going to even sniff at an Ave Maria student seeking with those kinds of grades.

Do you think there is a way she can try to get her tuition back since they didn't accomodate her illness?

[joemoviebuff]

The amount of RC fail combined with assholery in this thread is ridiculous.

OP, if I were you, I'd raise hell at that place. This school is charging you thousands of dollars for your education, then promptly fucking you over by disregarding your illness and ensuring you'd see the bottom of the curve, all because it would "be too much work on their tech staff." My goal would be to get my tuition back, then leave the school.

[ResolutePear]

Thats what the rest of my post asked- if she was willing to just stop going or whether she was set on a transfer.

The problem is, there is no law school worth going to that will take her with those grades. No disrespect intended to the OP, but if I may be frank, Ave Maria is a law school on par respect-wise with Cooley. It is really a joke of a school, and no semi-respectable law school is going to even sniff at an Ave Maria student seeking with those kinds of grades.

Do you think there is a way she can try to get her tuition back since they didn't accomodate her illness?

Probably not. I think the best thing she can hope for is that the ABA revokes their accreditation. That'll get her money back IIRC.

[romothesavior]

Thats what the rest of my post asked- if she was willing to just stop going or whether she was set on a transfer.

The problem is, there is no law school worth going to that will take her with those grades. No disrespect intended to the OP, but if I may be frank, Ave Maria is a law school on par respect-wise with Cooley. It is really a joke of a school, and no semi-respectable law school is going to even sniff at an Ave Maria student seeking with those kinds of grades.

Do you think there is a way she can try to get her tuition back since they didn't accomodate her illness?

That's something I couldn't speak to. My gut would say no though. No idea.

[northwood]

See what you can do, and if its possible to get your tuition money back. In the meantime, take a leave of absence from the school, or drop out completely. Its time to cut your losses at this school. Figure out what you need to do to be able to regulate your illnesses, and then once you have that under control do some soul searching to find out what it is you want to do in life- then start working towards that goal.

[dr123]

I'm pretty sure the school is violating the americans with disabilities act, you should look into that.

Also does LSAC offer special accommodations for for ADD LSAT takers? Cause I am diagnosed ADD, first diagnosed at age 7, and some extra time or something would be incredibly helpful

[gorgeouslawgirl]

The amount of RC fail combined with assholery in this thread is ridiculous.

OP, if I were you, I'd raise hell at that place. This school is charging you thousands of dollars for your education, then promptly fucking you over by disregarding your illness and ensuring you'd see the bottom of the curve, all because it would "be too much work on their tech staff." My goal would be to get my tuition back, then leave the school.

Thank you sooo much! I needed this too! It is so discouraging to be in this position and not have any viable support from the staff. Again, thank you so much.

[gorgeouslawgirl]

See what you can do, and if its possible to get your tuition money back. In the meantime, take a leave of absence from the school, or drop out completely. Its time to cut your losses at this school. Figure out what you need to do to be able to regulate your illnesses, and then once you have that under control do some soul searching to find out what it is you want to do in life- then start working towards that goal.

Thank you so much. I am actually working on this as we speak.

[gorgeouslawgirl]

I'm pretty sure the school is violating the americans with disabilities act, you should look into that.

Also does LSAC offer special accommodations for for ADD LSAT takers? Cause I am diagnosed ADD, first diagnosed at age 7, and some extra time or something would be incredibly helpful

Yes, they are supposed to actually acknowledge and provide accommodations. Of course, they did provide me with accommodations, but it came from God blessing me with the guts to stand up to them, present a strong case, and, finally, them realizing that I had a valid point. All of my documentation from primary physicians and surgeons did not even help.

So, make sure you are willing to fight the forefront for your disabilities, because they are hard to receive from the LSAC. If this later side illness, ADHD, would have been diagnosed earlier, more time could have been provided.

Thank you for your reply.

[Deuce]

but just going off the title of the thread, the answer is yes.

[Grizz]

Thats what the rest of my post asked- if she was willing to just stop going or whether she was set on a transfer.

The problem is, there is no law school worth going to that will take her with those grades. No disrespect intended to the OP, but if I may be frank, Ave Maria is a law school on par respect-wise with Cooley. It is really a joke of a school, and no semi-respectable law school is going to even sniff at an Ave Maria student seeking with those kinds of grades.

Came ITT to post this. OP, you shouldn't have gone to Ave in the first place. Drop out. You're grades aren't gonna let you transfer anywhere worthwhile.

[dr123]

I'm pretty sure the school is violating the americans with disabilities act, you should look into that.

Also does LSAC offer special accommodations for for ADD LSAT takers? Cause I am diagnosed ADD, first diagnosed at age 7, and some extra time or something would be incredibly helpful

Yes, they are supposed to actually acknowledge and provide accommodations. Of course, they did provide me with accommodations, but it came from God blessing me with the guts to stand up to them, present a strong case, and, finally, them realizing that I had a valid point. All of my documentation from primary physicians and surgeons did not even help.

So, make sure you are willing to fight the forefront for your disabilities, because they are hard to receive from the LSAC. If this later side illness, ADHD, would have been diagnosed earlier, more time could have been provided.

Thank you for your reply.

I'm ADD I have no hyperactivity issues. Do you have the links to the LSAC disability accomidations?

[MrAnon]

Leave Ave Maria and leave law. It sounds like you have a number of issues to work out and scrapping for your place in the legal world just does not make sense in the middle of all of it.

[smittytron3k]

it's totally irrelevant whether you have ADD. you have a serious autoimmune condition and your school refused to give you reasonable accomodations. did you put your request in writing? did you save your correspondence with them? if i were you i would drop out of law school ASAP and ask for your tuition back, and use the threat of an ADA lawsuit as leverage. whether or not you should reapply to law school is a question that i can't answer, but if you did, "i am disabled and my former school refused to give me reasonable accomodations, my grades suffered, and i left" is as good of an explanation as any.

as an aside, i think you should not go the ADD/ADHD route (because you are not diagnosed and because those diagnoses are treated with a great deal of skepticism) but if you had been diagnosed with one of those conditions it would be a disability requiring reasonable accomodations. the suggestion that you need to be deaf, blind, or paralyzed to have a disability would be comical if it weren't so tragically widespread.

[DeeCee]

it's totally irrelevant whether you have ADD. you have a serious autoimmune condition and your school refused to give you reasonable accomodations. did you put your request in writing? did you save your correspondence with them? if i were you i would drop out of law school ASAP and ask for your tuition back, and use the threat of an ADA lawsuit as leverage. whether or not you should reapply to law school is a question that i can't answer, but if you did, "i am disabled and my former school refused to give me reasonable accomodations, my grades suffered, and i left" is as good of an explanation as any.

as an aside, i think you should not go the ADD/ADHD route (because you are not diagnosed and because those diagnoses are treated with a great deal of skepticism) but if you had been diagnosed with one of those conditions it would be a disability requiring reasonable accomodations. the suggestion that you need to be deaf, blind, or paralyzed to have a disability would be comical if it weren't so tragically widespread.

+1. Stick with reasonable accommodations for Crohn's since your doctor visits and diagnosis will be well-documented and Crohn's would be very hard to argue against.

[BaronDetroit]

I don't know how your school does it- but any accomodations for a particuliar disability need to be made at the very beginning of the semester. There should certainly be no surprises arising. Why didn't you clear this up earlier? I don't know of any disability that launches itself at a person in the middle of a semester or directly after poor exam performance.

My suggestion would be to patch up the grades as best as possible. Do better next semester and then maybe transfer to somewhere you would feel more comfortable.

[DeeCee]

I don't know of any disability that launches itself at a person in the middle of a semester

This is exactly what happened to my cousin (all of a sudden, she had problems she didn't know she had). Same with my mother, she was out of work for weeks in the hospital with UC that she never knew she had. I agree that disabilities have to be on file in the beginning, though I'm not sure with this disease that's entirely possible.