oL at Western State

[livinglegend]

I know nothing about Western State as I said before or their grading system. As for the bar stats the February results are not as accurate for schools since those are generally repeaters, but the point is taken their curriculum improves bar passage. I couldn't imagine a school wanting students to fail out they are paying exorbiant amounts of money and if a professor truly believes they could pass the bar I imagine they would not force them out, but if that is the system that is the system. I know at my school everyone said the bottom 10% failed out, but that wasn't true it was just a rumor.

However, I never set foot on the Western State campus and if they in fact are forcing paying students that could pass the bar out of school then it is a stupid system.

[Cher1300]

Legalfielder:  Western State does use a curved grading system, but the median for the curve is set pretty low at a 2.4 - at least that's what it was for all my first year classes.  The attrition rate is also attributed to transfers - a few students in my class that were going to be on FLP probation transferred out so they wouldn't risk being dismissed at the end of this semester.

Livinglegend:  While I don't believe they want their students to fail out, they are weeding out those students who may or may not pass the bar in order to keep students who's chances of passing the first time are much higher.  Since this system is not used by any other law school, it is a questionable one.  If a student has a cum of a 2.5, but only two or three foundation points, it hardly seems fair to dismiss them based on that system alone after one year of law school because it's really impossible to say for sure whether or not they'll pass the bar on their first try, and that is my biggest issue with it.   

[LegalFielder]

Cher1300:  That interesting because I knew someone who went to Western State as well. I was informed that there is no set curved grading system at Western State, unless a professor chooses to do so (most don't). Since there is no curve, there are a disproportionate number of students at Western State who receive lower than a 2.5 gpa (foundation point gpa minimum).  If there was a set curve for a classes with a median of 2.4, then there would be a lot more students at Western State.  Also, students transferring out because of the FLP is not a good sign for any law school that would have such a system.