University of Illinois College of Law Class of 2016 Forum

[Dean_Ray]

Season’s Greetings!

In my capacity as Assistant Dean for Admissions and Financial Aid at the University of Illinois College of Law, I am starting a new thread to share news about Illinois Law and to answer questions from applicants, prospective applicants, and admitted students.

Illinois Law is a voluntary participant in the inaugural LSAC/ABA Pilot Matriculant Certification Program. Late last week, we received the following official certification for our 198-member Class of 2015:

25% Median 75%
LSAT 158 163 165
UGPA 3.23 3.55 3.73

We are looking forward to recruiting another strong class, and I look forward to answering your questions!

[ndirish2010]

Hope this goes better than the last time...

[BarbellDreams]

If those were the numbers at the time that I was applying I likely would have been at UIC right now with $. I didn't even bother sending an app when I was applying given the old "numbers".

[owlie]

Hope this goes better than the last time...

+1

[BigZuck]

Hello Dean Ray! My question is will you please address Ajax Adonis' question from your last thread? And if not, then why not? His question is posted below. Thanks in advance!


Dear Dean, would you please address the following post? http://insidethelawschoolscam.blogspot. ... s.html?m=1

Thank you,

AA

[Dean_Ray]

Prospective applicants may be particularly interested to learn about the College’s new Chicago Program (through which students can take classes in Chicago in the spring of their third year) and additional scholarship opportunities (including full- and half-tuition scholarships) celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Morrill Act, which founded the nation’s land-grant system of colleges and universities.

We are continuing to review applications and will be traveling to cities and universities around the country in January and February to meet with prospective applicants. I will post our travel schedule throughout the New Year. Any applicant whose status is currently listed as “Complete – In Review” will receive a decision via email in early January. As always, please feel free to ask questions about Illinois Law here, or contact the Admissions Office at law-admissions@illinois.edu.

[Dean_Ray]

Hello Dean Ray! My question is will you please address Ajax Adonis' question from your last thread? And if not, then why not? His question is posted below. Thanks in advance!


Dear Dean, would you please address the following post? http://insidethelawschoolscam.blogspot. ... s.html?m=1

Thank you,

AA

I appreciate the opportunity to clear up a misconception about a prior post.

As I noted in my post, we counsel prospective applicants to Illinois who are considering re-taking the December LSAT to weigh the likelihood of a significant increase in their LSAT score with the prospect of being considered later in our admissions cycle. (Because we consider LSAT scores as only one of many factors, retaking the exam often will not materially alter a student’s chance of admission at Illinois – even with a higher score.) The ultimate assessment is, of course, up to each individual student.

[Paul Campos]

Hello Dean Ray! My question is will you please address Ajax Adonis' question from your last thread? And if not, then why not? His question is posted below. Thanks in advance!


Dear Dean, would you please address the following post? http://insidethelawschoolscam.blogspot. ... s.html?m=1

Thank you,

AA

I appreciate the opportunity to clear up a misconception about a prior post.

As I noted in my post, we counsel prospective applicants to Illinois who are considering re-taking the December LSAT to weigh the likelihood of a significant increase in their LSAT score with the prospect of being considered later in our admissions cycle. (Because we consider LSAT scores as only one of many factors, retaking the exam often will not materially alter a student’s chance of admission at Illinois – even with a higher score.) The ultimate assessment is, of course, up to each individual student.

Email dated July 24, 2012:

Carroll, Jennifer M

Carroll, Jennifer M
jmcarrol@illinois.edu



Add to contacts
To: [redacted]

[Name],



We still have room is our entering class, and would love to review your application. Your score credentials are impressive. If everything else in your file looks good, we could offer you admission and process you fairly quickly. Our application is free, so you can go into LSAC.org at any time to complete it.



Please let me know if you have any further questions about Illinois or our application process.



Thanks,



Jenny



Illinois Law Modern Prof.jpg

Jennifer M. Carroll, JD
Interim Director of Admissions and Financial Aid
University of Illinois College of Law
(217) 244-6415
jmcarrol@illinois.edu

[WanderingPondering]

Can you comment on the schools employment score? 46% (not counting school funded jobs) is not necessarily encouraging, even in this economy.

[Dean_Ray]

Can you comment on the schools employment score? 46% (not counting school funded jobs) is not necessarily encouraging, even in this economy.

Thanks for the question regarding our Class of 2011’s employment statistics. The statistics have been independently verified, and show this class as having an 80 percent employment rate as of February 15, 2012. We encourage you to review all of our employment data at http://www.law.illinois.edu/career-serv ... yment-data. Students from the Class of 2011 have secured positions in a number of large firms, and we have a deserved reputation – as recent studies have indicated – of training graduates who have a strong track record of success in these types of firms. In fact, we recently scored in the top 25 law schools in one such study.

Of the 152 Class of 2011 alums classified as employed, 19 have jobs funded in part by the University of Illinois. Many of these positions are fellowships designed to launch students into public interest careers. These fellowships have a strong track record of helping recent alums build long-term careers in these areas. As the law school of a land grant university, we take public interest and government work seriously.

However, these statistics reflect what we all know -- we face a very tough legal economy. Here at Illinois, we have recently taken measures to make our students even more competitive in the marketplace. We’ve staffed our career services office with practicing lawyers who worked at leading law firms in the United States. We have launched a nationwide outreach and mentoring program to better assist students looking outside of Illinois. We have expanded our Chicago-based class offerings, so that our 3Ls can take classes and work in Chicago, allowing better access to smaller and mid-sized firm opportunities. Our students receive regular communications from our Career Planning office, have easy access to career services staff (including the head of our office), and receive personalized attention for as long as they need it – even after they graduate. Our Executive Assistant Dean for career services, Greg Miarecki, is a former partner from Winston & Strawn, and regularly speaks with prospective students. He will be on the road with me during the coming months, and he often takes calls from students. I would be happy to put you in touch with him directly. Thanks very much.

[sprinky07]

Dean Ray,

Does UIUC normally try to fill a certain percentage of each matriculating class with residents of Illinois like other state funded law schools such as UVA?

Also, I remember reading (from a second-hand source so I could be completely wrong) that UIUC law faces a substantial fine because of past transgressions. If this information is accurate, will this fine be paid for using money that is normally devoted towards scholarships for prospective students?

Thanks!

[LSTfan]

.

[Ludo!]

Dean Ray, I appreciate what you're trying to do here. But it's much better to just be honest and straightforward. The users here are generally pretty smart and informed. They know how to realistically look at employment statistics.

[mattviphky]

Hope this goes better than the last time...

This thread had potential to be really informative. If we got some real dialogue going, then I think people would flock to this thread.

[Ludo!]

The Pless threads used to be great. Obviously what he did at Illinois was terrible but he was really helpful on TLS. He used to say exactly when acceptances were going out, how many admits, denys and waitlists, etc. It took so much stress out of the process.

[XxSpyKEx]

Hope this goes better than the last time...

This thread had potential to be really informative. If we got some real dialogue going, then I think people would flock to this thread.

The problem is that Dean Ray's responses to questions are more as a cheerleader for U of I, rather than informative responses (this is referring to the other thread as well). Truly informative responses would be brutally honest, even if it doesn't put the school in the best light possible--attending U of I Law might not be the best decision for a lot of prospective law students. Dean Ray should be forthcoming about that by doing things like giving complete, accurate, and honest job statistics in response to questions re: job prospects. (Frankly, I think there wouldn't be such a large need for things like LST, and there would be a lot less pissed off students/alums, if all law schools were more honest about employment statistics.) IMO what Dean Ray is doing here, so far, is not helpful to anyone but her law school. Obviously, you're free to disagree.

[JXander]

Admitted via email/status checker as of 1-7-12! So very excited!

(See my profile for numbers)

[BigZuck]

Admitted via email/status checker as of 1-7-12! So very excited!

(See my profile for numbers)

This makes me happy on a lot of levels.

[JXander]

Offered a 25% tuition scholarship within the acceptance email (how did I miss that...?) yesterday.

[BigZuck]

Offered a 25% tuition scholarship within the acceptance email (how did I miss that...?) yesterday.

Congrats!

[mrjohnsterman]

Offered a 25% tuition scholarship within the acceptance email (how did I miss that...?) yesterday.

Congrats. If you strongly consider UI then I would suggest asking for more money in a few monhts, I got originally offered 25% and was offered 50% in April and 75% by the summer.

[ajax]

Dean Ray,

Does Illinois have a similar video for law school?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... D2v0f6SX5I

[454]

Hello, I am a coward.

I want to disobey the moderators and do exactly what I know I shouldn't do, but I would rather hide my identity to avoid suffering consequences, so I make new accounts to use for my long angry trolling screeds. This selfishness and disrespect makes me a failure in real life, but I still try to get away with it here.

Please feel free to ignore everything I say, because I am a jackass.

Thank you!

[vanwinkle]

User "454" banned for trolling, being an alt of javancho/scammedhard.

People who alt think we can't tell who they are. They're usually wrong.

[RetakeFrenzy]

Offered a 25% tuition scholarship within the acceptance email (how did I miss that...?) yesterday.

Congrats. If you strongly consider UI then I would suggest asking for more money in a few monhts, I got originally offered 25% and was offered 50% in April and 75% by the summer.

Thanks for sharing! Want to hear more about this