<p>Look, if youre considering attending Roger Williams, chances are its the only school you got into (other than Cooley). But youve read everything there is to read about Cooley so you know that you shouldnt go there. You dont particularly want to be a lawyer, but you sure as hell dont want to get a job so you look at Roger Williams.
But Roger Williams…theres not much information out there. So its a bit of a mystery. You hope for the best then.
Save your $50,000. May seem worth the gamble if youre right out of college and dont have a good sense of money but youll be paying that **** off for the next 20 years (unless you take drastic actions which Ill leave up to you to figure out).
Lets look at the information that does exist about this school. Theres two threads on the Law School Discussion board (forgive the cross-board references). Both of them have the word “scam” in the title. Maybe that just happened to be the Word of the Day but its certainly an apt term to use for this school.
Then you can search this board for “roger williams”. Youll find threads with such titles as “worst law school”, several about Cooley, and one must-read thread simply called “Roger Williams”. Theres some quality information in that thread.
I went to the school and Im telling you the place reeks of scam. Youll find below a mere taste of the…well, I dont want to say “scam” again…lets go with fraud.
For several years the incoming class was about 100 people. Then they decided to double that number. Twice the students means twice the tuition. But as far as I know, there was no signifigant increase in faculty, classroom space, hours etc. If theres double the number of students, surely you would need more faculty.
Not so. Because they knew that half the class would not go on the second year. They devised a scheme where every class has to have a C- average. Something like that. C to C-. So if the professor gives a lot of A’s, hes going to have to give a lot of F’s and you know how it is. So practically speaking, everybody in the class gets low Bs at best. The overwhelming majority get Cs or worse.
Thats a problem. You go to a crap school, you at least want to have good grades to show. You wont get them at this school. But thats not the greatest concern.
They have a requirement that your GPA has to be over a C+ to continue after the first year. Might be a C. Most schools that Im aware of have like a C- requirement with none of that “every class has to have a C average” *<strong><em>.
Anyway, do the math. If every class has to have a C+ average about half the class is going to be over that, half is going to be below. And if you have to have a C+ or better average to go to the second year, that means half the class is going to have to quit.
I know of no school that does this with the possible exception of Cooley (which also has an outrageous turnover rate). If you want to take your chances that youll be in the necessary top 50% (either because youre really sharp or a better cheat than the rest of them – cheating is rampant) then you might want to enroll.
If youre one of the fortunate few who completes the first year, youre basically in the clear (as is the case with all schools). That is until you graduate. The only schools that have lower average salaries than those of Roger Williams graduates are in the deep South. And I guess if you factor in the lower standard of living there…Roger Williams could very well be the worst.
Theres a site somewhere that ranks the schools based on how many years it will take you to repay the loans. Takes into consideration the tuition, average salary, things like that. Cooley was last. Roger Williams was second to last. Average time for repaying the loans – over ten years. Thats for somebody who graduated.
Then you have a lot of scandals, newspaper investigations, etc that you can look into if youre not yet convinced that this is not a school you should be attending. You can also go to the faculty page on the school’s website to see pictures and such of professors who were fired/quit YEARS ago. Maybe one day theyll update.
Oh right, and about the faculty. Some were excellent, some were shockingly bad. I dont mean your run of the mill, everyday, doesnt-care-about-teaching bad…I mean bad. Awful. Totally incompetent. And youll be graded by these clueless *</em></strong>ers. Good luck with that.
As for the students…from my experience youre going to see a lot of idiots. Mindbogglingly stupid people. People who you would have never guessed would be in law school. And really…it is not a legitamate school. Theres also a few decent people, of course.
Naturally, some people graduate. If nobody graduated, the place would get shut down and then their scam would be over and theyd have to think of some other way to make money. Like a pyramid scheme or…I dont know…some kind of insurance fraud. And of course some people get good jobs after their time there. But thats purely coincedental.
So as for Roger Williams University School of Law…Im afraid that it does not receive my endorsement. Anyone thinking of enrolling should really stop and do some serious thinking. If you cant go anywhere other than there or Cooley, get a job in a law firm and apply next year to half-way decent schools. Or consider different programs to enroll in. Medicine, psychology, get a master’s in your undergraduate subject…or something else entirely…theres loads you can do. Or just get a job.
But if you go to RWU chances are very good that youre going to either flunk out with a $50,000 debt to take care of, or youre going to graduate and be an attorney making $40,000 a year with a $150,000 debt. If youre a glutton for wage slavery, Roger Williams is your choice. They should consider that as their new slogan.</p>
<p>I heard that Roger Williams was going to start accepting dolphins to raise their UGPA and LSAT scores. Also, dolphins don’t complain when they can’t find work or pass the bar.</p>
<p>I’ll get slammed for this, but your advice of, “Anyone thinking of enrolling should really stop and do some serious thinking. If you cant go anywhere other than there or Cooley, get a job in a law firm and apply next year to half-way decent schools.” is applicable to almost any law school.</p>
<p>Before you go to a law school, you should be well aware of its geographic placement, %age of grads in the area you want to be in (private practice, corporate, public interest), the salaries that grads of those schools can expect, the amount of debt you will take on, and how much you will need to make each month to repay your debt comfortably. That information is found through three sources: US News, Graduate edition, in the back, the school’s website, and a calculator. All should be relatively easy to obtain.</p>
<p>While your experience sounds horrific, I cannot sympathize with anyone who does little or no research before accumulating so much debt. You would not buy a house without some research, and you certainly wouldn’t buy one in Oklahoma if you want to live in North Carolina, nor would you buy a small, delapidated house with termite issues when you want a showplace that will last forever. Law school should be no different - but I think that “Bitter” is trying to make that point. It goes beyond RW though, to ANY law school. Tuition would buy a house or condo in most parts of the country; tuition + lost salary for three years could buy some insanely nice homes outside of the high-priced city areas. It’s a lot of money, it’s a lot of time, and it’s a grueling few years. Do your research! </p>
<p>(Thanks, Bitter, for your take on this.)</p>
<p>Dolphins? They are pretty smart…They would probably not accept the Roger Williams invitation. Give them more credit than that.</p>