Post by pennlawfor2020? » Wed Sep 27, 2017 5:44 pm

Penn Law does not support minorities.





At other law schools I interviewed at, the minority students told me that they had so much support from the administration. For example, the administration would meet the students and ask if there was anything they could do to help. And that it was not just words, there were actions as well.



At Penn Law, that is not the case. The school says they are willing to help (during the initial meeting they have with all of the affinity groups), but they do not help.



The greatest example of this is Professor Amy Wax. She says and writes things that are truly racist (there is no doubt about this) and just plain homophobic. It's not about her being conservative. There are many conservatives out there, and many conservative professors, but they aren't racist.



And there were even incidents in her classroom with minority students. Yet, they allow her to keep teaching 1Ls, the most important year of law school. No one is advocating for her to be fired, people just want her removed from the mandatory 1L schedule. However, the administration is still willing to allow students to be traumatized by her. If you go to Penn, there is a 33% chance you'll be taught by here. Don't roll the dice.



The administration will half-heartedly try to fix the problem. At least starting this year, they are having a counselor come to the school part-time. But they won't address the root cause.



Second, today, Heather Mac Donald came to speak at the law school. The school bent over backwards to accomodate her stay. There was security at the entrance, they closed one entrance, they blocked students from going to see faculty offices by the talk. This was heart breaking to see.



To top it off, FedSoc made people RSVP to the event, but some students, who had RSVP'ed, were turned away.



Third, Penn Law touts "collegiality" as a way for people to say really offensive things, in the name of "academic freedom."



There are many other reasons not to consider Penn Law other than the problems with race (which is applicable to non-minorities too):

1. Not many student spaces

- Most of the spaces in the law school are taken up by various offices, classrooms, etc. If you want to sit down in some place other than the library, you are limited to a few spaces.

- The administration will periodically close down those few spaces for events and for renovation. And they'll do it at the most inopportune times, like around finals. And there is never any notice.



2. The administration seems not to care. Truly, it seems like they are playing "law school."

- The entire year, even the winter, it is freezing in all of the classrooms. Even the guys are cold.

- One time last year, it was around 40-50 degrees outside, and one of the classrooms was 60 degrees.

- When SEPTA went on strike, we did not receive an email from the administration until the THIRD day of the strike about possible transportation options. And they had the audacity to start out by saying, "It's day TWO of the strike..."



3. Heavy casebooks? Suffer from back pain by lugging your books back and forth from home to school for the first couple of weeks of school!

- The administration will not give out lockers until a few weeks in, so the 1Ls have to suffer with carrying their books. All other schools I know of do not do this.

- The administration lied last year and said that some of the 2Ls were using the lockers for OCI, which is why they couldn't provide them for us for the first week of schools. Spoke to the 2Ls, turned out to be false. OCI even ended earlier than when school began.



4. Unprofessionalism.

- Many broken links on the Penn Law page. Many spelling errors.

- The school, including the Dean of Student Affairs, Registrar, and CP&P, will reply all to sensitive emails, or will accidentally include the "all students" email list, so that everyone in the school knows your business.

- CSR Presidents communicate from their gmail account, which just seems weird to me.

- The Registrar, though, is by far the worse. You won't know about your classes for the next year until close to OCI. Because you sign up in the summer, and they have not finalized their list of classes yet, you can't see the grade distributions, unless you're in Philly. What are you doing the entire year??



5. Facilities

- Rats. Rats. Rats. One interrupted our class, so you know it's a problem when a rat decides to venture out among 100 students in broad daylight.

- Roaches.

- Peeling Paint everywhere

- Leaking Roof. By the main entrance of the school, every time it rains, a part of the roof leaks. All they do is put a few buckets to catch the water, but they haven't attempted to fix the main problem. Then they paint over the messed up roof when it's time for parents and partners day.

- Blinking lights in many of the classrooms. In Fitts, there is a light that goes on and off continuously. Seems petty, but when sitting in Fitts for an hour, you start to develop a headache. This has been an issue since ASW.

- Some of the desks in the classroom have broken outlets. So your computer will shut down while in class, and not a thing you can do about it. Worse yet, you're taking finals, and can't get a comfortable seat.



6. Where is the money going to? Seriously, a lot of the equipment and rooms in that school are sponsored by alumni.

- Chairs in the library were very disgusting and uncomfortable for years, they finally just replaced some of them, but not all.

- When there are mandatory lectures during lunch, they will provide a bagged lunch, but say bring your own beverage.

- Transcripts, whether official or unofficial, cost 10.00. So if you're applying to 50 internships, the inadequate registrar's office profits 500.00.

- Even during informal orientation, you had to spend money to participate in those events. For some events, the school was like, go out and explore Philly! Go buy food at a food truck you don't have.

- Every school campus I've been to has an around the clock shuttle. Penn's starts at 5:00, even though it's a big campus.



7. Disability Access.

- If you have a disability where you can't take any stairs, good luck getting around. For a good portion of last year, the elevators were broken by Gittis. Plus, to access different parts of the building, you have to take different elevators. So it makes it difficult to get around.



8. Housing

- Penn will not help you with housing. Last year, there was a shooting over by the 52nd street station. Two police offers were shot, one person was killed. Penn Safety did not inform us of this incident until the next morning. It would have been good to know because the guy was running from 52nd street all the way to 47th. The school knows students live over that area. Otherwise, why would you have the Penn Bus go all the way to 48th street. And even if it was logical to conclude students don't live there, it's a major subway stop.

Story came out where Penn Safety said they advised students to not live west of Farragut Street (45th Street). But then why does the bus go to 48th street? Why was this never mentioned? That story was the first time anyone heard about that from the administration.





When picking a school, be aware of this. Ask questions. Figure out when people are bs'ing you. People will say all the great things about the school, but will never mention the bad, even when it's a one on one conversation.



Obviously, there are positives to Penn. But maybe the above negatives will be helpful in evaluating your decisions.