Why is Cooley Law so despised?

[USC313]

There are plenty of T4's out there, but Cooley Law seems to be treated with the most vitriol on this board. Why Cooley, as opposed to say a Florida Coastal? Aside from what some posters believe is the sub-standard academics, I think it has something to do with the ridiculous name itself. Try saying "I go to C O O L E Y" out loud without laughing. Pretty tough.

[JeNeSaisLaw]

Their rankings that put them in the top 20. Florida Coastal, incidentally, gets a lot of flack too.

[Changed Name]

This very question has been discussed many, many times;  do a search and i'm sure you'll find what you're looking for.  For the most part, it seems that people think that Cooley's negative reputation has a lot to do with the fact that they have created their own ranking system (in which, of course, they are rather highly ranked).  This ranking system has some questionable categories, including square footage of library.  In an obvious attempt to simply "boost" their numbers, they include such distinctions.  All of this compounds to Cooley receiving negative publicity.  Other T4's do not try to game their own rankings, and as such, they don't receive as much negative publicity. 

[CoxlessPair]

I for one am jealous for the seats available in Cooley's library. I trace most of my hatred, nay, envy, of Cooley to that.

[john jacob]

Not just the rankings, which are laughable.

There are plenty of state T4's which are not too expensive, which are decent schools which stayed out of the USNWR rat race such as CUNY law and AK law.

Cooley is a private school which charges 25k or so a year, it flunks out a quarter of its student body, its student body is MASSIVE because it has 3 campuses, over three thousand students are enrolled at Cooley.

It's like a massive Chinese sweatshop in the legal market eating away your margins. The world would be a better place without Cooley imo.

[JeNeSaisLaw]

It's interesting. Though I view the idea of failing out so many people on purpose to be horrible, it's better than them not failing them out and then having them be saddled with 3 years of debt instead of just the 1.

[pig floyd]

This might help:

http://www.lawschooldiscussion.org/prelaw/index.php/topic,61966.msg1305808.html#msg1305808

Enjoy!

[veganvenus]

It's interesting. Though I view the idea of failing out so many people on purpose to be horrible, it's better than them not failing them out and then having them be saddled with 3 years of debt instead of just the 1.

I always chalked it up to trying to protect (to some degree) their bar passage rates.  The obvious alternative would be to not admit people they don't think will pass.  While the optimist might say that they think their first year is a better predictor of who will pass, my cynical side just sees it as grabbing one year's tuition money from people they would have otherwise rejected for this purpose.

[mqt]

Why is cancer so despised?  Understand that, and understand why Cooley is despised. 

[JeNeSaisLaw]

It's interesting. Though I view the idea of failing out so many people on purpose to be horrible, it's better than them not failing them out and then having them be saddled with 3 years of debt instead of just the 1.

I always chalked it up to trying to protect (to some degree) their bar passage rates.  The obvious alternative would be to not admit people they don't think will pass.  While the optimist might say that they think their first year is a better predictor of who will pass, my cynical side just sees it as grabbing one year's tuition money from people they would have otherwise rejected for this purpose.

Oh, you're definitely right. I was just looking at a positive (with respect to the well-being of the grads who do so poorly they'd never ably pay off their debt) consequence of their practice. It's unintentional I'm sure. Or, if not unintentional, not a reason for doing it -  just something they notice.