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At war with the registrar

Posted: Sat Jun 05, 2010 11:04 am
by CMR
Is anyone else having issues with the registrar? I've had an absurd amount of problems. The worst part is the people who are caught in the middle - my registrar rep (we're assigned to reps alphabetically by name) is an awesome person (if not too responsive at times), but has to abide by absurd administrative rules and regulations that are making the whole process a nightmare for me. No joke - I started collecting and requesting materials in mid-April, and I'm still badgering them to release certain documentation.

The latest fun and games involve my class ranking - as I was a May starter, my first year ranking was calculated in December. I chose the early start date in part because I had heard horror stories regarding the release of transcripts, and wanted to give myself plenty of time. Now, they're refusing to release rankings for my first year under the premise that doing so would be inaccurate, and forcing me to wait until July when my final transcript will be ready. I've tried to explain that a ranking isn't inaccurate if it explicitly states the terms to which it applies, and the rep obviously understands that and realizes the facial absurdity, but her hands are totally tied.

The funniest part is, much to a great deal of outrage in another thread, I was on the fence about transferring - I chose this school because it's in my hometown, my sister just had her first kiddo, etc. But the behavior of the school since I began collecting materials just to test the waters has totally motivated me to move on.

Re: At war with the registrar

Posted: Sat Jun 05, 2010 11:10 am
by Locke N. Lawded
CMR wrote: The funniest part is, much to a great deal of outrage in another thread, I was on the fence about transferring - I chose this school because it's in my hometown, my sister just had her first kiddo, etc. But the behavior of the school since I began collecting materials just to test the waters has totally motivated me to move on.
This kind of behavior is pretty much par for the course when you try to transfer out. If you are a top student, they obviously don't want to lose you, so they set up all kinds of artificial barriers to discourage transfers.

Something else to watch out for is that most transfer students will have trouble registering for OCI (not that there are a ton of jobs coming out of OCI right now) and will likely not be eligible to join law review or any secondary journal that has already held the write-on competition.

These are all dirty tricks law schools love to play just to maintain their USNWR rankings...not fair, but something you have to deal with.

Re: At war with the registrar

Posted: Sat Jun 05, 2010 11:12 am
by JOThompson
I'm sorry to hear about your transfer woes. Based on a chat with my friend, I think this sort of transfer barrier isn't unusual at that school. All you can do is continue to be persistent.

Re: At war with the registrar

Posted: Sat Jun 05, 2010 11:18 am
by CMR
Locke N. Lawded wrote:
CMR wrote: The funniest part is, much to a great deal of outrage in another thread, I was on the fence about transferring - I chose this school because it's in my hometown, my sister just had her first kiddo, etc. But the behavior of the school since I began collecting materials just to test the waters has totally motivated me to move on.
This kind of behavior is pretty much par for the course when you try to transfer out. If you are a top student, they obviously don't want to lose you, so they set up all kinds of artificial barriers to discourage transfers.

Something else to watch out for is that most transfer students will have trouble registering for OCI (not that there are a ton of jobs coming out of OCI right now) and will likely not be eligible to join law review or any secondary journal that has already held the write-on competition.

These are all dirty tricks law schools love to play just to maintain their USNWR rankings...not fair, but something you have to deal with.
Thanks for the heads up - fortunately, OCI won't be too much of a loss at my current school. I've already received the LR invite, and haven't officially withdrawn regardless, so I should be in good shape. I'm being especially careful not to burn any bridges since I've developed such a great relationship with our associate dean while RAing - I try to keep him constantly informed just in case I end up staying. Him and the other professor for whom I RA are the one reason I'd even consider staying...I've already helped with several publications (no recognition, reasonably enough), edited a book, etc.

My proverbial straw was that they forced me to email the admissions department of each school to which I applied and request that they contact our Dean of Professionalism (or something like that) acknowledging I had disclosed my DUI as a condition to release of my transcript.

JOThompson, thanks. I heard of some of this before, but the disclosure and the ranking thing are entirely new to me and anyone to whom I've spoken about it.

Re: At war with the registrar

Posted: Sat Jun 05, 2010 11:18 am
by CanadianWolf
Are you willing to identify your current law school ? If not, then is it a Tier 3 or Tier 4 School. Are you a scholarship recipient ? Did the school offer any type of incentive to stay ?
Do you know your class rank ? Was your law review invitation based on your class rank ?

Re: At war with the registrar

Posted: Sat Jun 05, 2010 11:22 am
by CMR
CanadianWolf wrote:Are you willing to identify your current law school ? If not, then is it a Tier 3 or Tier 4 School. Are you a scholarship recipient ? Did the school offer any type of incentive to stay ? Do you know your class rank ? Was your law review invitation based on your class rank ?
T4...you can easily identify it by searching my prior posts, but I'm trying to be a bit more wary of using the name since the last thread I created is now fairly high on google :). I'm on 60% scholarship, and haven't received any incentive to stay. I was top 3% of about 400 students (based on prior rankings, I should stay right around there or perhaps top 2% once my transcript is finalized), and the LR process at our school is kind of convoluted; calling it an "invite" isn't entirely accurate...I booked R&W and got invited to a class that allows you to qualify for LR (it's pretty much an autoadmit if you get in the class, and considering the school and the size of the LR isn't really anything to crow about).

Re: At war with the registrar

Posted: Sat Jun 05, 2010 4:33 pm
by A'nold
I can't believe that disclosure thing. There is no way that benefits anybody and it just obviously there to try to screw you over. That's pathetic, actually.