Law Schools

Bumps Or No Bumps, A Free Ride At Law School Is A Free Ride

Just hope your ticket comes with a transfer.

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Stressed Man Looking How his Money Fly Vector CartoonThe fate of Golden Gate Law School has been lacking luster for a while now. Back in 2015, we noted that Golden Gate took on a massive $460,870 debt-per-job burden.  In 2018, we saw the ABA cracking down on it for admitting students that weren’t adequately prepared to graduate and pass the bar. Things got so bad that the sentence “The school will be open for at least another year” was good news compared to the alternative of voting to close its doors and be done with it.  But as easy as it is to get wrapped up in the institution’s perspective, let’s not lose sight of what’s really important: the students. Golden Gate gave their 2022 class twenty full-ride scholarships — what will happen to them if and when the doors close? From ABA Journal:

“We also want to let you know, in the clearest possible terms—no matter what course is chosen for our law school—that GGU Law will continue to operate during the academic year 2023-24 and beyond as necessary to ensure at a minimum that all currently enrolled and entering students will continue to receive their scholarships and be able to receive an ABA-accredited degree,” the letter states.

Kevin Johnson, dean of University of California at Davis School of Law, told the ABA Journal they have three transfer students coming from Golden Gate.

Generally, I would commend a program for tightening up its belt and making good on its promise to help the students it accepted succeed at its curricula. But this a special case — diverting resources to help their students transfer out would be the golden outcome! Golden Gate Law is current ranked #180-196 by USNWR. If we were generous and grant it being ranked 180, transferring from GGLS to UCDavis, which is ranked #60, is a 120 jump in rank! Even if the jump isn’t large for the rest of the class, the data suggests that pretty much any other law school would better position Golden Gate’s students for success at school and on the bar. That said, it looks like transferring will be the game plan even if the school decides not to change its focus.

Glasgow and other Golden Gate Law students interviewed by the Journal say they plan to stay put. Their tuition is free, and if the law school closes before they graduate, they are somewhat confident an ABA-approved teach-out plan will include schools that will accept them as transfer students, based on details from Rule 29, which covers teach-outs, in the ABA Standards and Rules of Procedure for Approval of Law Schools.

Transferring isn’t without its problems, though. Cost of living is an issue that most transfer students have to consider. I doubt that’s a problem here — California has the 3rd highest cost of living in the US. What should give pause is the credits the students already earned. Even if the schooling was free, having to sit through another round of Contract, Tort and Criminal Law is a hell of a sunken cost. More enterprising students could see it as a change to have a leg up on the competition since you’re presumably already familiar with the content, but I think that most people in their right minds would lament that they have to re-read International Shoe instead of catching up on Netflix.

Golden Gate Law Students With Free Tuition Plan To Stay At The School Despite Concerns [ABA Journal]

Earlier: Law School Braces For Vote That May Close Its Doors Forever

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Law School Won’t Close Next Year, But The Year After That Looks A Little Bleak

Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s.  He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who cannot swim, a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at cwilliams@abovethelaw.com and by tweet at @WritesForRent.

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