Golden Gate University: Underrated or TTTToilet? Forum

[Capitol hillbilly]

People who are active in these forums are either all going to top 100 schools, or no one wants to admit their shame of attending a school like Golden Gate. After searching around, I can't find one single positive or even neutral comment about GG, although TLS.com has a pretty rosy review of the school. Has anyone had a good experience? I'm aware of the current job prospects, three students for every two positions, etc. I'm also aware of SF's insanely competitive legal job market, and Golden Gate is on the bottom. That being said, if someone (like me) could get a substantial scholarship to go to the Gate, is it worth considering? Anybody ever transfer to Hastings or UCD after the first year? Or should I wait a year and take the LSAT again if I don't get into any of the other area schools? I got a 158, and have a mediocre undergrad record (GPA non applicable, Evergreen State College.) Thanks for any advice.

[lolschool2011]

People who are active in these forums are either all going to top 100 schools, or no one wants to admit their shame of attending a school like Golden Gate. After searching around, I can't find one single positive or even neutral comment about GG, although TLS.com has a pretty rosy review of the school. Has anyone had a good experience? I'm aware of the current job prospects, three students for every two positions, etc. I'm also aware of SF's insanely competitive legal job market, and Golden Gate is on the bottom. That being said, if someone (like me) could get a substantial scholarship to go to the Gate, is it worth considering? Anybody ever transfer to Hastings or UCD after the first year? Or should I wait a year and take the LSAT again if I don't get into any of the other area schools? I got a 158, and have a mediocre undergrad record (GPA non applicable, Evergreen State College.) Thanks for any advice.

I have one anectodal offering for this thread.... a friend who went to Golden Gate and is now making 150/yr in San Fran. Not bad. (2 years out) 150 in San Fran is probably near poverty level though, but that's a different story.

[jarofsoup]

Big firms will not even look at you and most firms do not come to LOCI..

But there is a big alumni base in SF.

Edit: Dr.'s daughter transferd from Golden Gate to UC Berkeley(she ranked first in class). Alumni told me a lot of thier friends transfered to USF and Hastings.

[Capitol hillbilly]

Big firms will not even look at you and most firms do not come to LOCI..

But there is a big alumni base in SF.

Edit: Dr.'s daughter transferd from Golden Gate to UC Berkeley(she ranked first in class). Alumni told me a lot of thier friends transfered to USF and Hastings.

Ahh, that is just the type of info I was looking for, although I'm not sure what LOCI is. I've become used to hearing so many "do not go to any TTTT school ever, for any reason, even if it's free" opinions.

[jarofsoup]

Big firms will not even look at you and most firms do not come to LOCI..

But there is a big alumni base in SF.

Edit: Dr.'s daughter transferd from Golden Gate to UC Berkeley(she ranked first in class). Alumni told me a lot of thier friends transfered to USF and Hastings.

Ahh, that is just the type of info I was looking for, although I'm not sure what LOCI is. I've become used to hearing so many "do not go to any TTTT school ever, for any reason, even if it's free" opinions.

On campus Interiview (OCI) been waitlisted at schools got LOCI (Letters of Continued Interest) on my mind. I interned at a firm that had Golden Gate Grades most of them do not suggest it.

I would not go to Golden Gate for free. There are also a lot of big law paralegals that went to Goden Gate that I have come accross.

[sarahh]

I went to talk to an attorney in SF a while ago, and Golden Gate was the only school in the area she told me not to apply to. She said they almost lost their accreditation.

[ATR]

TTTT.

[BeautifulSW]

GGU did in fact find itself on probation regarding its ABA approval due to a pattern of low Bar passage rates. The California Bar Exam is notoriously difficult but several California schools always do well (the UC schools, Stanford, USC, Pepperdine, and the like). GGU had pass rates that looked more like those of the better CBE schools, like Empire and (at the time) U. LaVerne. The school has succeeded in bring its pass rate up and is off probation.

Whittier, Richard Nixon's school, wasn't it? got into trouble at the same time for the same reason. It too has since improved to the ABA's apparent satisfaction and is off probation.

A little later, I think it was, Western State University actually LOST its provisional ABA approval due to poor Bar exam performance and went back briefly to being the CBE school it used to be and ought, in my opinion, to have remained except that its owners had sunk a few million dollars into upgrading the facilities and such and so couldn't afford to cut tuition by two-thirds. WSU sued and the ABA settled, granting WSU an unheard-of second bite at provisional approval. WSU still doesn't seem to be blowing the doors of the California Bar Exam so I don't know what the future may hold for that school.

If I were faced with attending any of these schools at sticker, I admit that I'd make a run for the nearest CBE school and do the part-time program for one-third the tuition. Or become a CPA instead.

[jarofsoup]

GGU did in fact find itself on probation regarding its ABA approval due to a pattern of low Bar passage rates. The California Bar Exam is notoriously difficult but several California schools always do well (the UC schools, Stanford, USC, Pepperdine, and the like). GGU had pass rates that looked more like those of the better CBE schools, like Empire and (at the time) U. LaVerne. The school has succeeded in bring its pass rate up and is off probation.

Whittier, Richard Nixon's school, wasn't it? got into trouble at the same time for the same reason. It too has since improved to the ABA's apparent satisfaction and is off probation.

A little later, I think it was, Western State University actually LOST its provisional ABA approval due to poor Bar exam performance and went back briefly to being the CBE school it used to be and ought, in my opinion, to have remained except that its owners had sunk a few million dollars into upgrading the facilities and such and so couldn't afford to cut tuition by two-thirds. WSU sued and the ABA settled, granting WSU an unheard-of second bite at provisional approval. WSU still doesn't seem to be blowing the doors of the California Bar Exam so I don't know what the future may hold for that school.

If I were faced with attending any of these schools at sticker, I admit that I'd make a run for the nearest CBE school and do the part-time program for one-third the tuition. Or become a CPA instead.

Nixon recieved his BA from Whittier and LLB from Duke.

If you got a CBE school you do not have a hope in transfering out of it.

[bk1]

Massively underrated for sure. They should be T2 within a few years.

[jarofsoup]

Massively underrated for sure. They should be T2 within a few years.

Serious or sarcasm?

[CanadianWolf]

Don't waste your 158 LSAT at a Tier Four law school regardless of scholarship money barring unusual circumstances.

[Grizz]

TTTT.

[Capitol hillbilly]

TTTT.

Geez, like it's a four letter word! Oh wait...

[Capitol hillbilly]

Massively underrated for sure. They should be T2 within a few years.

Serious or sarcasm?

Indeed! Seriously? I visited the school last summer and tried to talk to some students, it seemed to have a nice library. Low bar passage is bad, but with admissions criteria of 151-154, it's obviously going to attract a lot of... underachievers.

[jarofsoup]

Massively underrated for sure. They should be T2 within a few years.

Serious or sarcasm?

Indeed! Seriously? I visited the school last summer and tried to talk to some students, it seemed to have a nice library. Low bar passage is bad, but with admissions criteria of 151-154, it's obviously going to attract a lot of... underachievers.

I almost applied to GGU, but the application is very demanding. It asks you "Why GGU?" I just could not answer that question.

[rman1201]

Massively underrated for sure. They should be T2 within a few years.

Serious or sarcasm?

Indeed! Seriously? I visited the school last summer and tried to talk to some students, it seemed to have a nice library. Low bar passage is bad, but with admissions criteria of 151-154, it's obviously going to attract a lot of... underachievers.

I almost applied to GGU, but the application is very demanding. It asks you "Why GGU?" I just could not answer that question.

Just shoot for honesty points and say "I couldn't get in anywhere else"

[Grizz]

Massively underrated for sure. They should be T2 within a few years.

Serious or sarcasm?

Indeed! Seriously? I visited the school last summer and tried to talk to some students, it seemed to have a nice library. Low bar passage is bad, but with admissions criteria of 151-154, it's obviously going to attract a lot of... underachievers.

I almost applied to GGU, but the application is very demanding. It asks you "Why GGU?" I just could not answer that question.

"I aspire to be in a large amount of debt with minimal job prospects in a city with a high COL."

[LttleBlakDress]

Massively underrated for sure. They should be T2 within a few years.

Serious or sarcasm?

Indeed! Seriously? I visited the school last summer and tried to talk to some students, it seemed to have a nice library. Low bar passage is bad, but with admissions criteria of 151-154, it's obviously going to attract a lot of... underachievers.

IMO GGU has the best location of any of the Bay Area law schools. Unfortunately, everyone I know who went there ended up working as an ADA in Sonoma county or something similar.

[Grizz]

Massively underrated for sure. They should be T2 within a few years.

Serious or sarcasm?

Indeed! Seriously? I visited the school last summer and tried to talk to some students, it seemed to have a nice library. Low bar passage is bad, but with admissions criteria of 151-154, it's obviously going to attract a lot of... underachievers.

IMO GGU has the best location of any of the Bay Area law schools. Unfortunately, everyone I know who went there ended up working as an ADA in Sonoma county or something similar.

$5 says that they aren't even hiring now.

[androstan]

Serious or sarcasm?

Indeed! Seriously? I visited the school last summer and tried to talk to some students, it seemed to have a nice library. Low bar passage is bad, but with admissions criteria of 151-154, it's obviously going to attract a lot of... underachievers.

I almost applied to GGU, but the application is very demanding. It asks you "Why GGU?" I just could not answer that question.

"I aspire to be in a large amount of debt with minimal job prospects in a city with a high COL."

Accepted, no scholly. We can't wait to see you in the fall.

[helloperson]

A family friend went to a non-ABA accredited school in California way back in the day. He's argued before the CA Supreme Court and numerous times before the CA Courts of Appeal.

Anyway, what school you go to and your grades really reflect how hard it will be to get your foot in the door. If you're an incredibly talented individual born to practice law and you, for whatever reason, don't go to a T20, you can still be successful, but, in my personal opinion, clawing your way into the legal profession from such a position of disadvantage will probably be even more difficult than getting good grades at a top school in the first place.

If you have an existing network set up that is ready to give you a job when you get through law school, either through professors you know really well or family friends or friend's family, then don't worry as much about it. If you don't have that network, then GFL; you're in for a tough ride.

[JMACD]

I have a friend who graduated from GGU a couple years ago. He now works as a public defender a couple hours north of SF and recently opened his own personal injury office and is doing well. But he did say the only reason he went to GGU is he didn't know any better and he would not have gone there knowing what he knows now.
And he also said big firms would literally not even talk to him.

[ilovesf]

This may not be helpful, but I am a SF resident and would not apply to GGU because of its extremely poor reputation. On the other hand though, my step father is a partner at a mid-size firm in SF and he is a GGU graduate. Of course he went there a long time ago in a different economy and whatnot, but he says he would still interview a GGU grad and consider them. GGU actually has a ton of grads working in respectable places in SF, however most of those people are older and are not recent grads. He was accepted to UCLA law, but went to GGU because he is from the bay area and his father died and he needed to stay with his mom to take care of her. I still think GGU is TTT, but it isn't the end of the world either. Whichever school you decide to go to, you just have to be realistic about what kind of job you will get afterwards.

[bk1]

Serious advice for OP:

GGU is bad, like really bad. I would only even consider it on a full scholarship with no stipulations.

1. Don't plan on transferring. It is possible to go to Davis or Hastings but it is highly unlikely. You cannot guarantee you will have the grades required to do so (being top 10% or better, something of which you have a 10% or less chance of doing). On top of that, paying sticker at Davis/Hastings as a transfer student is also a very bad position to be in.

2. TLS's review of even bad schools tends to be fairly nice. Those reviews are the official face of the website and don't like to take nearly as hard a line as posters on this site do. TLS doesn't really want to deal with the backlash that may come from students/administrators of that school that could happen if a seriously scathing article was posted.

3. Take the LSAT again. This is always the best advice. Try to at least get Davis or Hastings (which are pretty bad ideas at sticker) or a large to full tuition scholarship to somewhere like USF or Santa Clara.

Massively underrated for sure. They should be T2 within a few years.

Serious or sarcasm?

I thought it was pretty obvious sarcasm, but the internet does obscure that sort of thing.