Thomas Cooley Students

[o2luz]

I'm looking to atten Thomas Cooley this Fall 2007.  Any students attending this fall?  Are there any current students from Cooley who can give me a heads up about the school?  Thanks

Sorry to hear you chose Cooley. First thing about Cooley is from the Dean all the way down the administration staff, they are rude and unhelpful.We pay inflated tuition to get into a school and they know it. If you have a problem, the usual response is" you should of though of that before". The professors I have had are great, but they do not offset all the B.S you have to put up with to stay here. They intentionally hold off grade posting so once your here, you have to stay. I discussed this with two other schools when trying to tansfer. Both told me this is typical of Cooley and the establishment.

[o2luz]

Looking to come to Cooley??? Nobody looks to come to Cooley we have to resort to Cooley? If you have a second option, take it. Cooley has a built in system which makes it super hard to transfer. Professors are great, and helpful. All the other employees are typical of Michigan lazy and useless. There are no jobs or decent females at this school.

[Lawny2685]

This is an e-mail and WARNING to all those students who are contemplating attending Thomas Cooley Law School. I attended Cooley in 1994 and was academically dismissed 1 year later as was 1/3 of my starting class. The odds are against you. The teachers are excellent, however, the teaching style is one taught with fear. It was the worst year of my life and was told by one of the professors that "i didn't have what it takes to be a lawyer." Students were leaving the school in the middle of the night based on embarassment that they failed out. The school ruined peoples lives, they ruined marriages and the professors and administration were not honest with the students. I invested time, effort and money in 1 year of law school and had nothing to show for it. Thankfully, for Florida Coastal School of Law in Jacksonville, FLorida, I applied, was accepted and graduated in 1999 with a GPA of over 3.0. When i first attended FCSL, the school was unaccredited, i had no other option, and achieved its accreditation prior to me graduating. I am now a practicing attorney in New York and am also licensed in Florida. I passed the NYS bar on the 1st try, the hardest bar in the country - so, i only wish that some student had warned me honestly and appropriately before i attended Cooley. I would not wish the pain i suffered to be inflicted on any other student. So, to the teacher that told me that "i didn't have what it took to be a lawyer" - if she could only see me now. To the students that have applied and been accepted by Cooley, please apply to Florida Coastal, Phoenix International School of Law or even Charlotte School of Law, they are all owned by the same owners, and attend a lawschool where you will learn the law and how to be a good lawyer without fear instilled in you.  The administration at FCSL gave me a chance and i try to promote them every chance i get. Good luck.

[ANBUDOM]

Uh, yeah, I had to laugh when I was looking up law schools about the ranking, too.  I think when I started 4 years ago they were in the "top 3", or whatever.  Silliness.  OTOH, about as silly and arbitrary as the rankings in USN & WR every year. Look, if you're not in a top 20 law school, does it really matter what ranking you are?  Michigan State University Law School went ape sh*t a couple of years ago when they moved from a 4th tier law school to a third tier (mainly because they changed their name from Detroit College of Law to MSU Law School).  The big three are class rank, Law Review, and moot court or mock trial experience. And even if you don't score on those three, you can still get a good job, you just have to hustle a little more.

While I don't think I'm the smartest person in the world, I am very driven.  I really want to succeed.  I may need help of the teachers to do that, I'll be honest. 

First, don't put yourself down when you haven't even started school yet.  Second, I noticed that even students that aren't terribly bright did well in law school (and in life) because they work really hard.  A lot of very talented kids are lazy as *&^% and it comes back to bite them in the ass later.  In law school you obviously need a certain minimum level of intelligence which no amount of hard-work will compensate for but otherwise you should be fine.  I think if you keep on top of your work and continue to be driven you should be just fine. 

Good luck! 

[Flashman]

This is an e-mail and WARNING to all those students who are contemplating attending Thomas Cooley Law School.

C'mon, man, that is pretty unfair to slam the school because of your poor performance back in 1994!  There are plenty of people who did not have the same experience as you.  You eventually passed law school, don't you think it is possible that you weren't ready for law school the first time?  I know I wouldn't have had nearly the same results if I had gone to law school right after college as I did years later.  The thing is, there ARE a lot of people at Cooley who are just not cut out for law school, but that doesn't mean they will never be able to be lawyers.

[Elkin26]

Hello:

After a google seach on opinions about Cooley Law, I found this interesting blog. I'm also starting Cooley Law in January and It seems to me, based on everything I have read so far, that the school gives an opportunity for those with non-traditional admissions formula material, yet it is a tough school. I wanted some insights about the school, etc. I have read some of the blog comments here and they have been all helpful. I am from South Florida (waay different than MI) and looks to me, although interesting, the change in environment should be a shocker to me. I wanted to know some information about the housing situation in Lansing. Is it better to live close to campus or in the outskirts? what's your typical rent out there? is it better to look for a roommate or you're better off being on your own? is Cooley the type of Law School that people are more of a "Cut-throat" type when it comes to studying among peers or does everyone there tries to help each other out? any "interesting" places to hang out (for someone in my late 20's), etc.

Any comments will gladly be appreciated.


Thank you all

[T. Durden]

i'm always amazed by the # of people who willingly line up to attend these no-name profit-generating centers. i don't think that the current lot of 0Ls appreciate the difficulty that is finding a relatively reasonable job in the current legal market. what you are looking at is this: a prestige-heavy oversaturated market in which a premium is placed on the caliber of the law school that you attend. without satisfying this initial entry level requirement for law firm work, you are essentially dooming yourself to a no-holds-barred scrap for the 50g / yr job that sucks the least. nyc is now apparently full of temp-for-hire lawyers who work in the basements of law firms doing doc review and other mind numbing tasks on a per hour basis. the pay is not flattering. others resort to administrative governmental work (not by choice), ambulance chasing, and public defending. and i think thats it fair to say that i'm not just picking on cooley here. i'm a 3L at a t20 and even now a large % of our class is without employment. i have friends in t14 schools (the lower end of the spectrum, admittedly) who have had to resort to undesirable secondary markets to find employment. i know others at t50 schools who are more or less SOL. simply stated, it's brutally competitive out there - even for those of us who are at real law schools. so why do yourself the disservice of attending an institution like cooley? it's no secret that they admit anyone with a pulse. apparently the tuition is absurdly high and 1/3 of the 1L class is purposely dismissed by the administration each year. your only real hope for doing something substantial coming out of cooley stems from 2 possibilities: 1) you finish at the very top of your 1L class and transfer into a reasonable tier 1 school, or 2) you finish magna cum everything and happen to be related to someone at a law firm. so what are you looking for? a situation in which you take a 50g a year loan from a private provider for the chance that you might end up in the top 1% of those who actually "make it?" it's like russian roulette but only with mind numbingly stupid odds.

so why do it? are the 0Ls here really that blind to the reality of the current situation? and i'm not trying to pick on cooley, i'm tempted to go as far as to say that really any law school at full price outside of the t14 just isn't worth it given the current market. it's tough out there! take note...

[McLovin]

i'm always amazed by the # of people who willingly line up to attend these no-name profit-generating centers. i don't think that the current lot of 0Ls appreciate the difficulty that is finding a relatively reasonable job in the current legal market. what you are looking at is this: a prestige-heavy oversaturated market in which a premium is placed on the caliber of the law school that you attend. without satisfying this initial entry level requirement for law firm work, you are essentially dooming yourself to a no-holds-barred scrap for the 50g / yr job that sucks the least. nyc is now apparently full of temp-for-hire lawyers who work in the basements of law firms doing doc review and other mind numbing tasks on a per hour basis. the pay is not flattering. others resort to administrative governmental work (not by choice), ambulance chasing, and public defending. and i think thats it fair to say that i'm not just picking on cooley here. i'm a 3L at a t20 and even now a large % of our class is without employment. i have friends in t14 schools (the lower end of the spectrum, admittedly) who have had to resort to undesirable secondary markets to find employment. i know others at t50 schools who are more or less SOL. simply stated, it's brutally competitive out there - even for those of us who are at real law schools. so why do yourself the disservice of attending an institution like cooley? it's no secret that they admit anyone with a pulse. apparently the tuition is absurdly high and 1/3 of the 1L class is purposely dismissed by the administration each year. your only real hope for doing something substantial coming out of cooley stems from 2 possibilities: 1) you finish at the very top of your 1L class and transfer into a reasonable tier 1 school, or 2) you finish magna cum everything and happen to be related to someone at a law firm. so what are you looking for? a situation in which you take a 50g a year loan from a private provider for the chance that you might end up in the top 1% who actually "make it?" it's like russian roulette but only with mind numbingly stupid odds.

so why do it? are the 0Ls here really that blind to the reality of the current situation? and i'm not trying to pick on cooley, i'm tempted to go as far as to say that really any law school at full price outside of the t14 just isn't worth it given the current market. it's tough out there! take note...

TITCR.

[Bob Loblaw Esq.]

i'm always amazed by the # of people who willingly line up to attend these no-name profit-generating centers. i don't think that the current lot of 0Ls appreciate the difficulty that is finding a relatively reasonable job in the current legal market. what you are looking at is this: a prestige-heavy oversaturated market in which a premium is placed on the caliber of the law school that you attend. without satisfying this initial entry level requirement for law firm work, you are essentially dooming yourself to a no-holds-barred scrap for the 50g / yr job that sucks the least. nyc is now apparently full of temp-for-hire lawyers who work in the basements of law firms doing doc review and other mind numbing tasks on a per hour basis. the pay is not flattering. others resort to administrative governmental work (not by choice), ambulance chasing, and public defending. and i think thats it fair to say that i'm not just picking on cooley here. i'm a 3L at a t20 and even now a large % of our class is without employment. i have friends in t14 schools (the lower end of the spectrum, admittedly) who have had to resort to undesirable secondary markets to find employment. i know others at t50 schools who are more or less SOL. simply stated, it's brutally competitive out there - even for those of us who are at real law schools. so why do yourself the disservice of attending an institution like cooley? it's no secret that they admit anyone with a pulse. apparently the tuition is absurdly high and 1/3 of the 1L class is purposely dismissed by the administration each year. your only real hope for doing something substantial coming out of cooley stems from 2 possibilities: 1) you finish at the very top of your 1L class and transfer into a reasonable tier 1 school, or 2) you finish magna cum everything and happen to be related to someone at a law firm. so what are you looking for? a situation in which you take a 50g a year loan from a private provider for the chance that you might end up in the top 1% of those who actually "make it?" it's like russian roulette but only with mind numbingly stupid odds.

so why do it? are the 0Ls here really that blind to the reality of the current situation? and i'm not trying to pick on cooley, i'm tempted to go as far as to say that really any law school at full price outside of the t14 just isn't worth it given the current market. it's tough out there! take note...

On the plus side, you do get to tell all of you relatives that you attend "Thomas Cooley LAW school." 

After you tell them, there is the slight pause...

As you close your eyes, you wait for your great aunt Norma's response, praying that she did not hear you say Thomas Cooley .

Then, the moment you have waited your entire life for: "ohhhhh my, LAW school."

[T. Durden]

ah yes, the proverbial great aunt nora

god forbid that she go unappeased

hahahah man.. comedy