Why does everyone make fun of Cooley? Forum

[audrey hepburn]

Okay so I heard of Cooley the first time on this forum and it seems as if everyone just makes fun of it all the time. I was just wondering if there's a particular reason...I mean there are a lot of T3 and T4 schools but it seems like everyone picks on particularly cooley. Any reasons why?

BTW, I'm not planning on going to cooley, but I just want to know why.

[colemf]

--LinkRemoved-- Thats why.

[SamSeaborn2016]

I don't really jump in on the Cooley beatings but the near-universal reason they are disliked is due to the absurd rankings Cooley puts out each year that measure things like library square footage.

[Luis Gomez]

Because they don´t have anything better to do.

+ Cooley provokes them with some irrational rankings in which they are top 20. Some more rational Cooley haters dislike the low admissions standard and the high drop put rate. Basically it is believed Cooley enrolls some students knowing they wont make it after the first year.

[sumus romani]

It is because they made up their own rankings and gave themselves a high place, above many very good schools. So Cooley, one might say, invites the criticism.


Edit: I was beat to it!

[audrey hepburn]

So because it has it's own weird ranking system- that's why it gets all the hate? i know it's funny how it puts itself on such a high ranking but is that why everyone makes fun of it?

don't a lot of law schools give out scholarships like candy counting on the fact that most students will lose them after the first year?

[audrey hepburn]

http://www.cooley.edu/rankings/overall2008.htm Thats why.

LOL that is hilarious, I must admit.

[Bert]

--ImageRemoved--

[Cactus]

Okay so I heard of Cooley the first time on this forum and it seems as if everyone just makes fun of it all the time. I was just wondering if there's a particular reason...I mean there are a lot of T3 and T4 schools but it seems like everyone picks on particularly cooley. Any reasons why?

BTW, I'm not planning on going to cooley, but I just want to know why.

I believe it's rooted in Cooley's rejection of the USNR for law schools, the tier system, and convention all together by creating their own "ranking list" construed in such a way where they would sit, as king, atop of a hill made of nothing more than fraudulent preposterousness.

[TrackTony88]

These are all factors that the Rankings Cooley Ranked themselves in...also consider they also have I beleive 4 different campuses.

Total Volumes in Library - The most common expression of the extent of a law school library is the total number of volumes in its collection. Generally, the larger the collection the better the library serves as a resource to students and faculty.

Total Titles in Library - The number of titles evidences the breadth of a collection. Generally, the greater the number of titles, the better the library serves as a resource to students and faculty.

Total Serial Subscriptions - The number of serial subscriptions measures the extent of a library's periodical collection. The larger the number of serial subscriptions, the better a library provides access to current legal materials and keeps those materials up to date.

Number of Professional Librarians - Access to professional library staff is important for students and faculty, as well as for the legal community in which the library is located. A large professional library staff assures a quality library collection and that students and staff will have knowledgeable resource persons when research questions arise. Previous Official Guide editions used the “number of library professional staff.”

Library Hours per Week with Professional Staff - Access to library professionals normally occurs only when a library is open for business. Thus, the more hours a library is open and staffed by professionals, the better it serves its research support and resource function. Previous Official Guides reported these hours, but the 2004 and later editions have only the “hours per week the library is open." The authors computed the 2004 ratio of hours with and without professional staff, assumed that ratio continued in the current year, and computed a new allocation of hours on that basis.

Total Library Hours per Week - Law school libraries serve as study centers for students. Access to a quiet place to study and at least some of the collection is particularly important to students.

Library Seating Capacity - To study, a student needs a place to sit. The more crowded a library, the more likely it will not be able to serve as a resource to the entire student body.

Number of Networked Computers Available for Use by Students - The recent explosion of technology-based research vehicles has made access to computers and the Internet an important factor. The greater the number of stations available to students, the better a school serves its students. Previous Official Guide editions used the “number of student computer work stations.”

Library Total Square Footage - In general, the roomier a library, the better it serves. The physical size of the library assures adequate study space, sufficient shelving to make the collection accessible, comfortable offices and meeting space, and separate computer laboratory space.

Non-Library Total Square Footage - A large physical plant assures that a school has adequate classroom space, faculty offices that help to recruit and retain good faculty members, room for student organizations, suitable space for the administration of the school, and a comfortable
environment for legal studies. Generally, the bigger the facility, the better a school is able to operate a high-quality program.

Total Law School Square Footage - The overall picture of a law school's physical plant can be obtained by consideration of both its library and other facilities. A large physical plant not only provides a better frame of reference and infrastructure for legal education, it also demonstrates the viability of the institution as a legal and financial enterprise.

Source: --LinkRemoved--

[Luis Gomez]

To me the worst thing about Cooley is the amount of 1L students who leave 30k in debt with no diploma and a lost year.

That said I think people are conscious of their low chances of staying for a 2nd year and that there most be a place to gamble your future away. Some students who could only get into Cooley, make the cutoff, graduate and pass the bar.


This is my 400th post.

[audrey hepburn]

so for students that to graduate from cooley, do they have really horrible job prospects, even if they are in the top 10% of their class?

[Bert]

so for students that to graduate from cooley, do they have really horrible job prospects, even if they are in the top 10% of their class?

According to USNWR, 3/4s are employed 9 months after graduation, and we all speculate that the definition of "employed" is fairly loose.

[Bert]

I like how they refer to the law school as "a large physical plant"

[HBK]

I like how they refer to the law school as "a large physical plant"

Like a tree, to which many of our students have had their intelligence compared.

[Luis Gomez]

so for students that to graduate from cooley, do they have really horrible job prospects, even if they are in the top 10% of their class?

From what I know, students usually enter low paying options and many do not find a job soon. They sometimes receive temp positions on the law school staff. They have three campuses and jointly the biggest entering class so this result is expected.

[amputatedbrain]

http://www.cooley.edu/rankings/overall2008.htm Thats why.

Man, I'm gonna have to withdraw from Stanford now that Hastings is beating them in the Cooley Rankings

[FlightoftheEarls]

This quote has circulated throughout TLS for quite awhile now, so I feel it's appropriate to bring it back up from time immemorial to end this thread:

Because it produces its own ranking system, wherein it considers itself (and asks us to consider it) a Top Law School.

You know at the bar, where there are a group of relatively unattractive women? You wouldn't usually just start calling them "fat" or "ugly," because it is rude and in poor taste. But if one of them is wearing a tube top and teeny shorts that say "SEXY" on them, you'll probably point out to your buddies that she is, in fact, atrocious?

Cooley wears "SEXY" shorts.

Jayzon will go down as a legend for this one.

[darknightbegins]

I bag on it because of the attrition rate. Last I checked it was something like 30 percent, or near it. You have got to tighten up your admissions if you are droping nearly a third of first year students.

[Cupidity]

Thank you for the sexy shorts post, was going to request it.

[thearchduke]

Cooley uses 32 factors to establish their rankings, each weighted equally. Let's examine some other, non-library size criteria (LinkRemoved) that they also picked to boost their ratings:

Total J.D. Enrollment - I wonder why the run-away winner of largest law school by enrollment would use Total JD enrollment as a factor?
Total Minority Enrollment - Hmmm, I'm sensing a pattern...
Total Applications - Oh. There. That's a pattern. And by the way, not having an application fee helps.
Median Percentile Undergraduate Grade Point Average - Not middle 50%, no, just the median. This means, you can let in 49% of a class that failed out of undergrad and will do so again in law school, then take their money for 1L first semester, as long as that 50th percentile and above is a reasonable GPA.
Median Percentile LSAT Scores - Ditto.
Number of Full-Time Faculty and Number of Part-Time Faculty - 3 campuses, close to 4,000 students, twice as many as Georgetown or Harvard (#2 and #3)? They better fucking have plenty of full-time and part-time faculty.
Total Teaching Faculty and Number of Minority Faculty - Whuh? Didn't they just count this? Oh, I see. Cooley wants to emphasize bull-shit categories that favor them, so they just repeat them redundantly, for emphasis.


There are certainly other categories that Cooley includes (the ten ways to count their libraries), some of which are even reasonable. Anyway, as you can see, they have created a flawed methodology for ranking, much like US News and World Report has. But it's insulting to anyone's intelligence that such a list should ever have been created. So, that's a good reason not to like Cooley. They take people's money even when they don't stand much of a chance to graduate or get a job later, and I think that's a little dishonest and a shame.

Finally, I would recommend against trying to write a long post on this forum - the text editor goes berserk after you get out of the first twenty lines...