The worst thing to do in a crisis is to allow it to drag on. And that’s what Villanova Law is doing. The school recently admitted that it lied to the ABA about its admissions statistics. I postulated that the school may have inflated its LSAT or under-reported the number of students it enrolled each year. Apparently, the ABA is now saying that the school lied about its GPA and LSAT scores.
Law schools juice their numbers. But before today, no school has admitted that they flat out lied. As reported on legal tabloid Above the Law, second-tier toilet Villanova Law just admitted to knowingly reporting false admissions stats to the American Bar Association, the accrediting body for law schools. Dean John Y. Gotanda emailed the school’s alumni with the following letter:
Last week, the Ohio Supreme Court issued an opinion in In re Application of Griffin denying an applicant’s admission to the bar on the sole basis that he did not have a plan to pay back $170,000 in student loans. The Court’s opinion–delivered “per curium” because no justice signed his or her name to this shameful opinion–is manifestly unjust, unfair, and out of touch. The Ohio Supreme Court should overturn this embarrassing ruling immediately.
In a lengthy seven-part article, the New York Times asks, “Is Law School a Losing Game?” Answer: yes. Why is it a losing game? Student loans, of course. Lots of them.
This article comes as no surprise to law students and recent graduates. Law schools publish deceptive employment statistics, and prospective students, in reliance on those numbers, take out hundreds of thousands of dollars in student loans to attend. Many law students who graduate with a six-figure debt burden are subsequently unable to find high paying jobs (or even moderately paying jobs) sufficient to justify their debts. This happens year in and year out.
