1L at Louisville taking questions Forum

[bizjunkie4]

Have I seen you on campus?

If Clint Eastwood ran into Col. Sanders on campus, surely someone would notice...

[jjones73]

LSAT: 157
GPA: 3.14
Two great recs, community service background

What do you think my chances are? Part time preferred due to family issues.

[bizjunkie4]

LSAT: 157
GPA: 3.14
Two great recs, community service background

What do you think my chances are? Part time preferred due to family issues.

As a 1L student, I'm not sure how qualified I really am to prognosticate about your "chances" of admission. My guess would be as good or poor as anybody's. It seems like your LSAT is in the right range, and your grades are a tad low. Perhaps the part-time preference will help, and perhaps you'll get in full-time too. This probably doesn't help you much, but you should know in a few months either way. You also can check lawschoolnumbers, although I would be wary about treating those stats as factual.

[deadpanic]

Couple more if you get a chance:

1. You mentioned the Highlands neighborhood. It seems like a pretty cool place; where is this in regards to the campus?

2. Would you say there are a lot of non-traditional students in your section? I'm 25 and single. Are there any events for law students? I know some law schools have social parties on certain nights.

3. As far as placement, I figure most end up staying in Louisville. Does it have any further reach than Louisville/surrounding towns?

Thanks. I appreciate your feedback.

[ochrymb]

Like the question, deadpanic. What reach/power does Louisville have in Kentucky and outside the commonwealth?

[bizjunkie4]

Couple more if you get a chance:

1. You mentioned the Highlands neighborhood. It seems like a pretty cool place; where is this in regards to the campus?

2. Would you say there are a lot of non-traditional students in your section? I'm 25 and single. Are there any events for law students? I know some law schools have social parties on certain nights.

3. As far as placement, I figure most end up staying in Louisville. Does it have any further reach than Louisville/surrounding towns?

Thanks. I appreciate your feedback.

Answers below
1. About four miles from campus. And yes, a very cool area.
2. Maybe one-quarter of all students are "non-traditional" although I'm not sure if there is a definition for that term. If you are 25 and single, you will fit right in. There are bunches of social events to kick off the year. Ad hoc parties, bar crawls, trips to basketball/football games, etc., also are common. At the end of our last final in December, a large number of people from our entering class went to bar to eat lunch and drink, do tequila shots, etc. Also, unlike a smaller town, there are lots of opportunities to get involved in social groups, theater, opera, churches, community sports teams, etc. outside of law school (with all your spare time, ha ha)
3. To be honest, the reach isn't great outside Kentucky and Southern Indiana, although there are a surprising number of students (at least to me) who are here from outside Kentucky, mainly the Deep South and the East Coast. I think you would need strong community ties in those other places, or really good grades, to find work without sledding uphill.

[fonzerelli]

BizJunkie, I noticed you're actually on the U of L Law admissions site... right under B. Hamilton and the rest. Are you given some admissions authority here? How did you get this gig? Great job regardless....

[bizjunkie4]

BizJunkie, I noticed you're actually on the U of L Law admissions site... right under B. Hamilton and the rest. Are you given some admissions authority here? How did you get this gig? Great job regardless....

Nice bit of research, fonz. Yes, my image appears on the admissions page, and no, I do not have ANY authority to act on behalf of the admissions department, the school, or anyone else at the university. The school asked a variety of first-year students to write a blog about their 1L experience. I volunteered, and the school agreed to promote the effort, partly, I believe, due to my experience as a professional journalist before entering law school. I maintain complete editorial control of the blog, and receive no compensation from the school for my efforts. My account on Google AdSense stood at roughly 80 cents the last time I checked. At the end of the year, perhaps I'll be able to cash it out and buy a latte. My motivation for posting at TLS is mainly due to a sense of loyalty to the site, and to the people who helped answer all of my questions a year ago when I was in your position. Hope that helps.

Shameless self-promotional plug: http://uofllawschool.blogspot.com/

[fonzerelli]

BizJunkie, I noticed you're actually on the U of L Law admissions site... right under B. Hamilton and the rest. Are you given some admissions authority here? How did you get this gig? Great job regardless....

Nice bit of research, fonz. Yes, my image appears on the admissions page, and no, I do not have ANY authority to act on behalf of the admissions department, the school, or anyone else at the university. The school asked a variety of first-year students to write a blog about their 1L experience. I volunteered, and the school agreed to promote the effort, partly, I believe, due to my experience as a professional journalist before entering law school. I maintain complete editorial control of the blog, and receive no compensation from the school for my efforts. My account on Google AdSense stood at roughly 80 cents the last time I checked. At the end of the year, perhaps I'll be able to cash it out and buy a latte. My motivation for posting at TLS is mainly due to a sense of loyalty to the site, and to the people who helped answer all of my questions a year ago when I was in your position. Hope that helps.

Shameless self-promotional plug: http://uofllawschool.blogspot.com/

Ha! Well they should at the very least give you all the free coffee you'd like. Nicely done - very informative.

[MU2009]

What do you make of the Cooleyesque 23% 1L attrition rate? This seems incredibly high.

[bizjunkie4]

What do you make of the Cooleyesque 23% 1L attrition rate? This seems incredibly high.

This is a good question, although I'm not sure where you are getting these numbers. I believe US News puts the attrition rate in the low teens, at least for first-year students. Here are a couple of pot-shot theories either way...

1. Top students here transfer to other law schools that are higher on the rankings totem pole.
2. We're close to a military base -- Fort Knox -- and a good number of students here have spouses in the military. It's common for those people to move when their spouses are transferred, even in the middle of law school.
3. The grading curve here is pretty harsh compared to other Tier 2 schools. There has been a lot of pushback against grade inflation by the faculty, and as a result there may be a large number of 1Ls who simply can't cut the mustard, even with our relatively generous 2.0 minimum GPA to stay off probation.

Other pot-shot theories: the recent closure of our "night division"; too many students admitted who shouldn't be in law school in the first place; I will try to check with the dean of admissions and see if I can come up with a "real" answer.

[bizjunkie4]

What do you make of the Cooleyesque 23% 1L attrition rate? This seems incredibly high.

This is a good question, although I'm not sure where you are getting these numbers. I believe US News puts the attrition rate in the low teens, at least for first-year students. Here are a couple of pot-shot theories either way...

1. Top students here transfer to other law schools that are higher on the rankings totem pole.
2. We're close to a military base -- Fort Knox -- and a good number of students here have spouses in the military. It's common for those people to move when their spouses are transferred, even in the middle of law school.
3. The grading curve here is pretty harsh compared to other Tier 2 schools. There has been a lot of pushback against grade inflation by the faculty, and as a result there may be a large number of 1Ls who simply can't cut the mustard, even with our relatively generous 2.0 minimum GPA to stay off probation.

Other pot-shot theories: the recent closure of our "night division"; too many students admitted who shouldn't be in law school in the first place; I will try to check with the dean of admissions and see if I can come up with a "real" answer.

Just walked out of the admissions office, armed with the "real" numbers for first-year attrition. These are straight from the dean of admissions at Louisville.
2008: 6.8 percent
2007: 15 percent (apparently a very large first-year class this year)
2006: 6 percent

I suppose the lesson here, if there is any lesson, is that you should be wary of numbers from a single year, and more wary of numbers from a source that, well, may not be accurate. The dean also mentioned, for what it's worth, that in the last year we had one (1) student who left the school due to academic problems. Any further questions, comments, etc., please fire away.

[deadpanic]

Thanks for clearing that up biz.

I have another question in regards to stats as well. How is OCI? From the looks of LawSchoolNumbers.com U of L doesn't have many, but this site also had the high, and apparently inaccurate, attrition rate as well. They have 19 (for '07-'08) listed while others have numbers such as these:

UK - 46
Ole Miss - 38
Memphis - 25
Samford - 27
Mercer - 41

[MU2009]

Just walked out of the admissions office, armed with the "real" numbers for first-year attrition. These are straight from the dean of admissions at Louisville.
2008: 6.8 percent
2007: 15 percent (apparently a very large first-year class this year)
2006: 6 percent

I suppose the lesson here, if there is any lesson, is that you should be wary of numbers from a single year, and more wary of numbers from a source that, well, may not be accurate. The dean also mentioned, for what it's worth, that in the last year we had one (1) student who left the school due to academic problems. Any further questions, comments, etc., please fire away.

Thanks for clearing this up and in such a timely manner. FWIW I got my numbers from this site..
http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog ... -ra-1.html

Apparently that is not accurate and shouldn't be looked at when examining attrition rates. Does anyone know the best place to find such rates? I have tried to look at the individual school websites but usually this is hit or miss as some post their attrition rates while others do not.

[bizjunkie4]

Thanks for clearing that up biz.

I have another question in regards to stats as well. How is OCI? From the looks of LawSchoolNumbers.com U of L doesn't have many, but this site also had the high, and apparently inaccurate, attrition rate as well. They have 19 (for '07-'08) listed while others have numbers such as these:

UK - 46
Ole Miss - 38
Memphis - 25
Samford - 27
Mercer - 41

I only have one year of experience with OCI, and they haven't even started yet, but I would say that, based on conversations with upper-level students and practicing attorneys, you might want to throw OCI out the window this year, and maybe in 2011 as well. The economy has forced many firms to change their strategies. Also, OCI is based in large part on the community where the school is located. Thus, it's pretty easy for Mercer to score a bunch of OCIs in Atlanta. Obviously, this changes if you are Cornell, Yale, etc. I can't speak for other schools, but my impression of career services here in Louisville has been very positive so far. There are about a dozen OCIs scheduled for students this spring (see details at this blog post: http://uofllawschool.blogspot.com/) along with several career days on campus where military and government agencies will be coming from Fort Knox and Frankfort, respectively. I think it's fair to say that, for many students, it would be foolish to rely on OCIs for a summer job. Most firms at our school want students in the top half or third of the class also. Hope that helps.

[alisonls]

Does anyone know if it is possible to be re-considered as a Resident for tuition purposes for your second and third years? I am a permanent resident of Ohio and have been admitted to UofL. I've been told that a pro to attending a public school is that you can get in-state tuition after 12 months of residency, but it just seems more difficult (nearly impossible) after reading UofL's policies.

Thanks very much!

[deadpanic]

Does anyone know if it is possible to be re-considered as a Resident for tuition purposes for your second and third years? I am a permanent resident of Ohio and have been admitted to UofL. I've been told that a pro to attending a public school is that you can get in-state tuition after 12 months of residency, but it just seems more difficult (nearly impossible) after reading UofL's policies.

Thanks very much!

I'm also curious about this.

I read on TLS that it was fairly easy at UK so I was hoping the same would be true for U of L.

[bizjunkie4]

Does anyone know if it is possible to be re-considered as a Resident for tuition purposes for your second and third years? I am a permanent resident of Ohio and have been admitted to UofL. I've been told that a pro to attending a public school is that you can get in-state tuition after 12 months of residency, but it just seems more difficult (nearly impossible) after reading UofL's policies.

Thanks very much!

I'm also curious about this.

I read on TLS that it was fairly easy at UK so I was hoping the same would be true for U of L.

This is a topic for which I would not rely on TLS chat posts. You should call the admissions office at the school, ask to speak to someone about the residency policy, and get your answer. I would imagine it will be the same for UK and U of L, since these requirements are, at least in my experience, based on state higher education guidelines, not university-specific rules. Make sure to note that you are applying for a professional degree, because the standards sometimes are different for undergrad.

[deadpanic]

Just talked with a 2L who said you must live in Kentucky for a full calendar year, and it cannot be education related. Therefore, you would have to defer for a year if you were out of state to get in-state tuition.

I will follow up with the admissions office this week and report back to confirm, but if that is the case, Louisville just went from my #1 choice to not even a consideration.

[alisonls]

thanks for the info everyone. deadpanic, that is very helpful and if you could post what you hear from the admissions office i would greatly appreciate it.

[glmn01]

Hey guys. I know most of the "will I get in" questions have been answered but to those out there who might still be wondering, I have a 155 LSAT and a 3.75 GPA and just got in to U of L Law. I would (just like everyone else!) consider my resume, personal statement, and LOR's to be exceptional and I feel like they probably helped offset my 155 score.

[deadpanic]

Talked with admissions yesterday and they confirmed that if you are out of state you will have to pay that for all 3 years. Pretty bad news for us out of staters.

[ochrymb]

Placed on "hold" today. Anyone have any insight into the "hold" process at UofL?

[Volnatic]

I was accepted. Good news for sure. Look forward to meeting all my fellow 1L's

[AsylumPB]

I was accepted. Good news for sure. Look forward to meeting all my fellow 1L's

when did you submit? i am still awaiting a decision. i have to admit, it does sting about the residency requirements. that means i would have to pay about $90k in tuition alone b/c i don't think i will get any $$