Illinois Law Restates Its Numbers: The Deception is Deeper Than We Thought

The University of Illinois College of Law has had to restate the LSAT scores and GPAs of its admitted students for the last three years. If you've been following the story, you know that Illinois Law had previously admitted that it misstated admissions data for a year. Some of you really want to talk about how Illinois has been lying all this time. It's like some of you think that the ABA is actually going to do something to punish Illinois....

We mentioned last night that the University of Illinois College of Law has had to restate the LSAT scores and GPAs of its admitted students for the last three years. If you’ve been following the story, you know that Illinois Law had previously admitted that it misstated admissions data for a year.

I haven’t made that big of a deal about this new restatement because it just doesn’t surprise me: if a school lied once, it probably lied many, many times.

Also, I mean, what are we really learning here? That Illinois Law could have higher standards for admitting students? Every law school could. This is news?

But, some of you really want to talk about how Illinois has been lying all this time. It’s like some of you think that the ABA is actually going to do something to punish Illinois….

I don’t expect the toothless American Bar Association to punish Illinois in any significant manner. But we might as well take a look at the depth of Illinois Law’s deception. Here’s the letter that went out from the law school:

Dear College of Law Community:

I write with an update on the ongoing investigation relating to student profile data at the College of Law.

I have previously reported to you that profile data (median LSAT and median GPA) for the class of 2014 disseminated by the College of Law were inaccurate, and that the College has since posted accurate, verified data on its website. Ten years of profiles have been rigorously reviewed, and the inquiry has now determined that student profile data for the classes of 2011, 2012, and 2013 were also inaccurate. The accurate, verified data for these classes (and the previously reported data, indicated in parentheses) are as follows: Class of 2011: LSAT 165 (166) and GPA 3.6 (3.6); Class of 2012: LSAT 165 (166) and GPA 3.7 (3.8); and Class of 2013: LSAT 167 (167) and GPA 3.6 (3.8).

The College is continuing to cooperate fully with the investigation and will report additional findings once they become available.

Sincerely,
Bruce

Bruce P. Smith
Dean and Guy Raymond Jones Faculty Scholar
University of Illinois College of Law

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Here’s the thing. Do you guys really think that the only people who are doing this are Illinois and Villanova? Do you really think that the ABA — an organization that won’t force law schools to be accurate about graduate outcomes — has the stomach to find the truth about incoming classes?

Do you think that law schools that have become so comfortable playing fast and loose with the numbers even recognize that it is wrong to misstate statistics?

I don’t know, pile on Illinois if you want to. But the ABA is an organization that isn’t committed to making schools tell the truth, so I think the intelligent assumption is that all law schools are lying or inflating their statistics in some way.

U of Illinois Corrects LSAT and GPA Stats for Additional Law Classes [ABA Journal]

Earlier: Another Law School Caught In A Lie
Lawyer Undersupply? Barriers To Entry Protect Idiot Consumers Of Legal Services Too.

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