Michigan Law School, a state school, charges $46,586 per year in tuition. It then conservatively expects students to incur another $18K-plus in living expenses to bring the price tag for one year’s worth of a Michigan legal education to $64,716 for in-state residents. That prices out to $194,148 for the full three years, and that’s assuming that Michigan doesn’t raise tuition while you are there.
And Michigan is one of the few places that can, more or less, claim that it’s worth it. To be sure, it’s not worth it for all the students. Remember, Louisville Law Dean Jim Chen just told us that people need to make three to six times their law school’s yearly tuition in annual salary if they go to school on loans and want to one day be financially sound homeowners. Some Michigan grads are banking upwards of $279,516, but certainly not all.
Still, one would expect a significant amount of that high tuition goes toward making Michigan Law what it is, and keeping the professional opportunities rolling for Michigan graduates.
Apparently, keeping Michigan Law what it is involves paying Michigan Law Dean Evan Caminker quite a tidy sum….
Continue reading “Michigan, Your Law Dean Earns How Much a Year?”
Way back in 2008, I noted with skepticism the University of Michigan’s “Wolverine Scholars” Program. I wasn’t the only one. The initiative allowed Michigan undergraduates with very high GPAs to get into Michigan Law without having to take the LSAT.
The program seemed like a pretty obvious attempt to game the U.S. News rankings. It’s so obvious that the now disgraced former Dean of Admissions for Illinois Law, Paul Pless, who had a similar program at his school, had this to say about it:
I started a new program for U of I undergrads to apply in their junior year and we don’t require the LSAT. We have additional essays and an interview instead. That way, I can trap about 20 of the little bastards with high GPA’s that count and no LSAT score to count against my median. It is quite ingenious.
Pless was talking about Illinois’s iLeap program, which was substantially similar to the Wolverine Scholars program at Michigan.
The Pless quote came out earlier this month, as the admissions director was being ushered under the bus by Illinois Law as the “lone gunman” for its embarrassing admissions scandal.
With the spotlight on a Big Ten school that manipulated admissions statistics for years, Michigan very quietly canceled its Wolverine Scholar Program.
There’s been much less fanfare about the end of the program than there was about its start. In fact, we obtained FOIA documents that contain various emails from Michigan Law Dean Evan Caminker and Dean of Admissions Sarah Zearfoss.
They talk about the program, and the how “the blogs” are covering it….
Continue reading “The Life and Death of the Michigan ‘Wolverine Scholars’ Program”
What an awesome venue. They should try playing football there or something.
Well, Michigan Law Dean Evan Caminker got what he wanted: Ohio Senator Rob Portman addressed gradating 3Ls, at senior day. But conscientious members of the Michigan Law community didn’t have to stomach it if they didn’t want to. There was a walk-out during Portman’s speech, and some reports claim that over 100 students (out of 400) joined in.
Michigan students who support civil rights and marriage equality should feel proud. They’ve brought national attention to this issue. And they did so without “ruining” graduation for anybody else. There’s video of the walk-out up on Perez Hilton, and it doesn’t appear that the protesting Michigan students were unduly disruptive to those who wanted to hear Portman speak.
While it is sad to see the class split like this, perhaps the Michigan administration will invite a less divisive speaker next year. Given the position Michigan Law put its LGBT community in, I’m not sure how this could have turned out much better…
Continue reading “Michigan Law Commencement Walkout”
Michigan Law Dean Evan Caminker has issued what appears to be his final decision about the Rob Portman fiasco. The Dean has listened to all the relevant constituencies and decided that pulling Rob Portman might cause more long term harm. And so Portman is going to be allowed to speak. Dean Caminker announced this in a letter to concerned Michigan Law alumni.
Maybe Dean Caminker is right. I mean, look at what’s happening with King & Spalding. And, to my mind, a big Senior Day protest involving LGBT and straight students at Michigan Law will really show the community just how many people support the cause of equal human rights. So some good may still come out of all of this.
But perhaps the most important thing that has happened here is that Michigan Law and Dean Caminker have learned a lesson about just how far outside the mainstream the anti-marriage-equality people have strayed. This issue seems to have moved beyond our normal partisan debates about debt ceilings and which sovereign nation we should be meddling in this week. This issue is starting to transcend, and I bet Michigan will remember that next year….
Continue reading “Closing the Loop on Michigan: Rob Portman Is Speaking, But I Bet This Won’t Happen Again”
We told you yesterday that Michigan Law has decided to invite Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) to speak to its 3L class for senior day. We told you that many Michigan Law students have objected to the choice of Senator Portman, because of his strong anti-gay rhetoric on the issue of gay marriage.
We told you that Michigan Law Dean Evan Caminker — the hottest law school dean in America, by the way — didn’t respond to our request for comment. We wondered, though, if he would dig in his heels against the LGBT community at his school, or if he would try to be sensitive to the concerns of minorities at his school who would like to enjoy basic civil rights.
Well, Dean Caminker decided to dig in, and in so doing kind of totally missed the point…
Continue reading “Dean Caminker Digs In To Support Anti-Gay-Marriage Commencement Speaker At Michigan Law”
What’s more strange about that headline? That Michigan Law would invite a guy who stands against the civil rights of certain members of the Michigan Law community, or that Michigan Law would invite a representative from Ohio to speak to its outgoing students?
I’m going with the latter. Rob Portman graduated from the University of Michigan Law School in 1984, but he has gone on to become the junior senator from Ohio. Ohio! In related news, Bo Schembechler was born in Ohio and went to college at Miami of Ohio, but I don’t think he was ever the keynote speaker during an Ohio athletics Hall of Fame ceremony.
Sadly, the fact that Michigan invited a guy who has taken a strong stance against the civil rights of gay people probably isn’t that out of the ordinary. Sure, at some point these anti-gay-marriage people will look as tolerant as pre-conversion George Wallace in front of a desegregated schoolhouse. But right now these enemies of love get to walk among us as regular people.
Guys at my high school used to have ignorant and flawed views about gay people all the time. It was no big deal.
But some students at Michigan Law are trying to make it a big deal. And that’s pretty exciting….
Continue reading “Michigan Law School Invites Ohio Senator With ‘Anti-Gay Politics’ To Speak At Senior Day”
Congratulations to Professors Eve Brensike and Richard Primus, who pummeled the competition and waltzed off into the moonlight with the title of Above the Law’s Legal Eagle Couple of the Month for May. These liberal lovebirds have bleeding hearts — because Evan “McDeany” Caminker pierced them with Cupid’s arrow!
LEWW salutes Professors Brensike and Primus, their delectable Dean, and the entire University of Michigan Law School. ATL readers, go donate to a worthy cause on their behalf! Or just buy them a salad spinner!
Earlier: Legal Eagle Wedding Watch: May 2007 Couple of the Month
Lawyers are taking over the NYT weddings section like mold on warm cheddar! Once again, we had a tough time picking three contestant couples from the horde of JDs this week. An unusually high number of law firm partners (and a GC) tied the knot (see here, here, and here for some that didn’t make the cut), and partly as a consequence, some younger associate-level couples were left out in the cold. LEWW even had to suck it up and cut one of our law school classmates from the finals!
Here are the carefully selected contestants:
1. Soogy Lee and Nathan Taft
2. Alyssa Qualls and John McCormick
3. Eve Brensike and Richard Primus
Continue reading about this week’s couples, after the jump.
(And if you haven’t already voted, don’t forget about the April Couple of the Month race — we’ll close the poll soon.)
Continue reading “Legal Eagle Wedding Watch 5.6: Ann Arbor Amour“
We have contacted the two winners of our hottest law school dean contest, Asha Rangappa of Yale and Evan Caminker of Michigan, to obtain comment from them on their victories.
We haven’t heard back yet from Dean Rangappa. But Dean Caminker provided us with this short and sweet statement, via email:
It was a team effort; everyone gave 110% and just wouldn’t quit.
Brevity is the soul of wit. And Dean Caminker is gracious as well as gorgeous.
Congrats again, Dean Caminker!
Earlier: Prior coverage of Law School Dean Hotties (scroll down)
Turnout has been great in our three Law School Dean Hotties contests. In the women’s race — currently led by Asha Rangappa and Leah Jackson, with 39 and 31 percent of the vote, respectively — almost 7,000 votes have been cast. (Thanks, Fark!)
Things have also been busy on the men’s side. In the main contest, in which over 1,000 votes have been cast, Dean Evan Caminker of the University of Michigan enjoys a commanding lead (40 percent). The B-bracket race is the closest of all three contests: Walter Dickey (29 percent) has a small lead over Bryant Garth (26 percent). But pretty much all five contestants are in the running.
Now it’s time for us to announce when the polls will close. Voting will conclude on Wednesday, October 18, at 3 PM (Eastern time). This means that two more full days remain in which the candidates (and their supporters) can campaign.
As in our ERISA Hotties Contest, we will gladly accept and disseminate any campaign messages from the candidates. Just send them to us by email, and we will publish them in ATL. Thanks, and good luck!
* It’s finally here: Ohio State vs. Michigan. And the respective law school deans are getting in on the wagering. Dean Nancy Hardin Rogers of Ohio State and Dean Evan Caminker of Michigan cleverly weave law with the age-old rivalry. Dean Rogers asks: “A burning question among the national media is whether the outcome in Columbus on Saturday will have res judicata effect between these two teams, or whether the loser will be able to appeal for a trial de novo at the National Championship game in January.” [
