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they offered me a 15k a year scholarship as oppose to no money from another T3/T4. Is the education received at cooley as bad as it sounds?

playboyhunk wrote:they offered me a 15k a year scholarship as oppose to no money from another T3/T4. Is the education received at cooley as bad as it sounds?

rad law wrote:

playboyhunk wrote:they offered me a 15k a year scholarship as oppose to no money from another T3/T4. Is the education received at cooley as bad as it sounds?

lol I'm sharing that popcorn with you on this one.

OP: What most people are bound to tell you (in not a very subtle way) is that Cooley is a diploma mill. You might not being going neck-deep into debt but your status as an attorney is not going to be grounded in a solid educational foundation.

As far as that education goes, I sincerely believe that you learn as much from your peers and professors as you do from the classes. Both groups of people are going to be better qualified at other schools. I wouldn't attend but thats because I plan on my education being my livelihood.

playboyhunk wrote:they offered me a 15k a year scholarship as oppose to no money from another T3/T4. Is the education received at cooley as bad as it sounds?

If your only choices are Cooley and T3/T4s at sticker then you should retake the LSAT and try another admissions cycle.

Also, Cooley scholarships come with stipulations that are very hard to maintain.

dude cooley is a crap house diploma mill with no respect. I would rather contemplate suicide than go there. Re take lsat and apply again.

Bildungsroman wrote:

playboyhunk wrote:they offered me a 15k a year scholarship as oppose to no money from another T3/T4. Is the education received at cooley as bad as it sounds?

If your only choices are Cooley and T3/T4s at sticker then you should retake the LSAT and try another admissions cycle.

Also, Cooley scholarships come with stipulations that are very hard to maintain.

Hold on there guy. What t3/4's are we talking about here? I mean, does OP want to work in MS and he got into Ole Miss?

A'nold wrote:

Bildungsroman wrote:

playboyhunk wrote:they offered me a 15k a year scholarship as oppose to no money from another T3/T4. Is the education received at cooley as bad as it sounds?

If your only choices are Cooley and T3/T4s at sticker then you should retake the LSAT and try another admissions cycle.

Also, Cooley scholarships come with stipulations that are very hard to maintain.

Hold on there guy. What t3/4's are we talking about here? I mean, does OP want to work in MS and he got into Ole Miss?

Just my opinion, since I'm so debt averse and I think at a certain point the potential increase in earnings with a JD is not enough to justify the debt taken out. T3/T4 isn't my cutoff for that, but I think T3/T4 as a category generally don't offer enough benefits to justify paying sticker for them.

On the upside, you could convince family members you went to Michigan.

I was talking to my uncle at a family reunion one time, who said his son (my cousin) was dating a lawyer who just graduated from Michigan. Since Michigan was my top choice at the time, I found this girl and asked her about law school experience, and she said "Oh I didn't go to Michigan, I went to law school in Michigan." Turns out she went to Cooley. Sad day for me (and all involved parties).

I'm not recommending going to Cooley, but I do think that Cooley's bad reputation is more about the school itself and the way it promotes itself than the students it churns out. It's still a TTTT school.

romothesavior wrote:On the upside, you could convince family members you went to Michigan.

I was talking to my uncle at a family reunion one time, who said his son (my cousin) was dating a lawyer who just graduated from Michigan. Since Michigan was my top choice at the time, I found this girl and asked her about law school experience, and she said "Oh I didn't go to Michigan, I went to law school in Michigan." Turns out she went to Cooley. Sad day for me (and all involved parties).

Same thing, Romo.

rad law wrote:

playboyhunk wrote:they offered me a 15k a year scholarship as oppose to no money from another T3/T4. Is the education received at cooley as bad as it sounds?

I laughed hysterically when I saw this picture.

Interesting that nobody's called flame on this thread yet...

.

You learn the same shit in Cooley as you would at Yale.

I sincerely doubt this. Sure, you cover some of the same basic 1L subjects (but almost certainly from a radically different approach), but the overall education is going to be vastly different.

romothesavior wrote:On the upside, you could convince family members you went to Michigan.

I was talking to my uncle at a family reunion one time, who said his son (my cousin) was dating a lawyer who just graduated from Michigan. Since Michigan was my top choice at the time, I found this girl and asked her about law school experience, and she said "Oh I didn't go to Michigan, I went to law school in Michigan." Turns out she went to Cooley. Sad day for me (and all involved parties).

he he.

To OP: yes.

You will probably not be able to keep your scholarship, or get a job afterward, but they do have a huge library that is open almost all of the time and a large enrollment size (which "reflects its success in attracting students, its appeal to those interested in legal education, and its ability to carry out its institutional mission.). By some rankings those would suggest that it is the 12th best law school in the nation.

yes

cinefile 17 wrote:yes

TCR.

TLS has this amazing feature!!! The feature is called "search forum." OP, you should use it sometime. My god, ANOTHER Cooley thread.

oh btw...the flames burn so bright in this thread.

Red Scare wrote:You will probably not be able to keep your scholarship, or get a job afterward, but they do have a huge library that is open almost all of the time and a large enrollment size (which "reflects its success in attracting students, its appeal to those interested in legal education, and its ability to carry out its institutional mission.). By some rankings those would suggest that it is the 12th best law school in the nation.

I also hear there is plenty of seating. A place to sit in the library > employment.

I don't have any personal experience with Cooley, but I do attend a T4 with scholarship. Many people told me that I should be cautious about losing my scholarship. The truth is, I came in to law school more prepared than the rest of the student body. I had solid undergrad and a solid LSAT (8 - 10 points above median for the school). Keeping my scholarship has not been an issue at all. Is the curve rough? Yes. Do I have friends who have failed out? Yes. But the majority I know with scholarships have kept them (because they came in with solid undergrad and solid LSAT and were more prepared for law school than their peers).

Is the quality of education bad? I don't think so. Of my four professors in my first semester, 2 also taught at a T7. One taught at a T1. Only one of the profs taught exclusively at the TTTT (and he was still an excellent professor). Are there differences between a TTTT and Yale? Of course. A significant part of the law school experience is based on class discussion. Your classmates at Cooley (on average) will not be rocket surgeons or brain scientists. But the faculty are probably fine (again I don't have actual experience with Cooley). And if you put in the effort you will learn the material.

Are the job prospects good? Probably not. But if you have a hefty scholarship then you don't need to make 120k a year when you get out. And if you have a scholarship offer that probably means you are well prepared for the "rigourous" Cooley education. And if you work your ass off there is a good chance that you can be near the top the class. And you still won't get a rockstar biglaw job. But probably you won't end up homeless and ravaged by wild dogs either.

romothesavior wrote:On the upside, you could convince family members you went to Michigan.

I was talking to my uncle at a family reunion one time, who said his son (my cousin) was dating a lawyer who just graduated from Michigan. Since Michigan was my top choice at the time, I found this girl and asked her about law school experience, and she said "Oh I didn't go to Michigan, I went to law school in Michigan." Turns out she went to Cooley. Sad day for me (and all involved parties).

Haha, this is hilarious.

romothesavior wrote:On the upside, you could convince family members you went to Michigan.

I was talking to my uncle at a family reunion one time, who said his son (my cousin) was dating a lawyer who just graduated from Michigan. Since Michigan was my top choice at the time, I found this girl and asked her about law school experience, and she said "Oh I didn't go to Michigan, I went to law school in Michigan." Turns out she went to Cooley. Sad day for me (and all involved parties).

Hahaha I love when people abuse the Ivy League "I went to school in New Jersey, Boston, etc." line.

nahgems wrote:But probably you won't end up homeless and ravaged by wild dogs either.

Thomas M. Cooley Law School: You probably won't end up homeless!

It probably isn't as bad as what people on TLS profess it to be. That said, I'm not sure it is (that) much better than what is proposed--so don't go. Get a legal assistant job for a few years, study harder for the LSAT, and then apply again if you are looking to take the next step in the legal field. A Cooley grad is unlikely to earn much (if not any) more than a solid legal assistant position, and with the latter you'd take on no debt (and be making money!) There are going to be a number of celebrated success stories coming out of Cooley that would lead one to believe that the school is a viable option, but the mentioned advice above is a much more rationale approach to beginning a career in law given your current situation. Either way though, good luck with whatever you end up choosing to do.