legend -- First of all, I never put all the blame on Western State, I'm not sure how you got that idea. I mentioned earlier that I could/should have focused more and done better. But I also mentioned that I could have picked a better choice in a law school considering the attrition rate and "foundation points" program. I also did get through first year exams, but I was dismissed after my third semester (which is the first semester of 2L).
Also, the 33.3% attrition you mentioned is only for the first year, which I successfully passed. The 50% attrition that I mentioned includes the first, second, and third years, and I never said that it was mandatory that they kick out 50%, just that it's mandatory that they kick many of their students out. The majority of the 22 you mentioned that left for "other" reasons were because of Western State, including their foundation points program, so even though those students had above a 2.0, they probably didn't have any, or one, foundation points so they transferred to a CBE school or a neighboring ABA school that would let them in. Very few students from the "other" reasons category transferred because they had all of their foundation points, a great GPA, and transferred to tier-1 and tier-2 law schools. I should have transferred after my first year, since I had above a 2.0, but since I already had some foundation points I believed that I could have fulfilled that requirement, which turned out to be a mistake.
Actually, in Western State's eyes, it does make practical sense to kick out students because the main reason they're ABA accredited is their bar-passage rate. So they let in a large amount of students (more students then there is parking available), then they are able to get that federal aid money, then dismiss many of them in order to keep their bar-passage rate high. They also entice students by providing scholarships knowing that most of the students will not be able to keep those scholarships. If you look at the highest attrition rates in the country, you'll see that Whittier and Western State are consistently in the top 5. Both law schools are located close to each other in Orange County, California but usually Whittier has a higher attrition rate their first year. The foundation points program allows Western State to keep their first-year attrition rate lower than Whittier's while still being able to dismiss just as many, if not more, students to keep their bar-passage rate high.
I'm sure that there are dismissed students at Western that wouldn't have passed the bar the first time and should be dismissed, but I honestly do believe that Western dismisses many students that are actually able to pass the bar. Look at the statistics for the bar exam by law school after Western State started their "foundation points" program:
http://admissions.calbar.ca.gov/Examinations/Statistics.aspx#statsGBX. You'll see that Western State is up there with schools that are actually ranked much higher. In fact, the latest information available as now, which is for the February 2012 bar exam, shows that Western State's bar passage rate was higher than every other ABA-approved CA law school. That means Western State did better than Stanford, Berkeley, UCLA, USC, UC Davis, Loyola Marymount, Pepperdine, etc. I highly doubt that Western State has a better law program than those schools. They are so afraid of losing their accreditation that they dismiss more students than they should, IMO.
I am absolutely not saying that I got dismissed because Western State is unfair, which would put all the blame on the law school, but I do believe that Western State needs to do something about their "foundation points" program and/or the way they evaluate their students.
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