UCLA Law Dean Russell Korobkin on the LSAT

From a New York Times article yesterday:

"The LSAT has its problems, but it at least provides schools with a way to compare students who come from different undergraduate schools who pursue very different courses of study that are subject to different degrees of grade inflation," Mr. Korobkin said in an email.

Seems quite right to me. Of course, according to the Times, he's the dean at "U.C.L.A.," so maybe they're not actually quoting the UCLA dean. (Plus wouldn't the U.C.L.A. dean only know about the L.S.A.T.?)

Comments

[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

Ahh, took me a second to catch on. But then you are the Gary T. Schwartz professor, not the Gary T Schwartz one, so I am confused about who posted this.

[dwb68]

it was too subtle for me. I did not get it until i read your comment, lol.

[Frank Drackman]

Same reason National Foo-baw League Teams measure Fo-Fo times, BP's (Bench Press, not Blood Pressure) Vertical Jumps, and their version of the IQ, the Wonder-lick, All things being equal (they never are) and if current trends continue (they never do) the Faster/Stronger/Smarter guy is usually better.
Now explain how Senescent Joe ever made it out of Scranton....

Frank

[santamonica811]

Cool burn. Now do Trump. Hell…now do Herschel Walker, an actively stupid human being who may be the least intellectually-qualified serious Congressional candidate in ___ (Years? Decades? Forever???)

[Frank Drackman]

And would kick Senescent Joe's Ass in a Wonder-lick (Cambodia, Colombia, what's the difference? they both speak Spanish!) Funny how D's are so eager to run against "45" (HT Maxie Waters, another "Genius") but trying every maneuver to keep him from running. (Biggest factor against DiSanto?? seems to be the favorite of the Mainstream R's, kiss of Death, ask Jeb(!)

Frank (!) (see, the (!) doesn't help)

[Krychek_2]

Senescent Joe may go down in history as one of our most effective presidents. He had several major legislative accomplishments this session in Congress and was a significant factor in turning the mid term red wave into a trickle. You just keep snickering and he’ll just keep getting stuff done.

[Michael P]

Using the Constitution as toilet paper and future taxpayers as a credit card should not be anybody’s idea of an effective presidency, but here you are.

[Noorondoor]

He basically buys the votes of blacks and Hispanics with the money of white people.

[Frank Drackman]

While locking up both races with alacrity (love that word), hey, Stupid is as Stupid does. Does seem like Black Males and His-panics in general are figuring it out.

[Don Nico]

Old Slow Joe has marketed a disastrous foreign policy, gleefully engaged in a proxy war with Russia, drove Putin into the arms of Mr. Xi, made a scramble of US relations with China, tried to buy votes with "loans forgiveness," presided over generating the highest inflation rate in decades, one can go on.
His Presidency is a catastrophe for all but the recipients of his hand-outs.

[Frank Drackman]

Last POTUS to have as an embarassing Debacle as Sleepy/Senescent's (OK, he was just "Sleepy" then) Cluster Fuck in Kabul was Gerald Ford (Jimmuh Cartuh's 1980 "Hostage Rescue Mission" is a close 3rd) in 1975. In both of their defenses, their Predecessors didn't help matters.
And Great, he only lost the House by 1 Vote, if he'd lost by 101 Votes, be the same difference, Fancy Nancy out on her (admittedly tight) Ass

Frank

[Dr. Ed 2]

Dementia Joe is another James Buchanan -- and I trust you know what Buchanan got us into...

[bevis the lumberjack]

If you ignore the fact that his fingerprints are all over the worst inflationary period since Carter, who gets the historical blame for that one even though it wasn’t his fault.

And unless Biden’s energy clusterfuck gets slowed down/stopped he’s going to completely screw up our grid and the long term price of energy.

Effective ain’t the word for it.

[BravoCharlieDelta]

You're only saying that because he's black.

What's so funny is how far you people lower the standards for judges (PB&J anyone??), employees, ceo's, board of directors, and now law schools to accommodate blacks but you can't fathom doing the same for a black Senator if he's gone off the plantation.

Meanwhile, many of the black Congresspeople on the Democrat side are genuinely some of the most stupid and evil people I have ever seen.

[Frank Drackman]

Watched the #34's (In Jaw Jaw we don't call him by that other name) supposedly "Unhinged" rant about Werewolves/Vampires..
It was actually a well delivered sophisticated bit, about this stupid movie (I've seen it several times, but then, I'm Stupid) and he explained it well, he's watching a movie about teens with a vampire, watching a guy on TV, who is supposed to be able to kill Vampires (get it??)
Great dig at Senator Warlock "Vampire lookin good in that Black Suit.....sound like Senator Warlock!"
Punch line is the Vampire can't be killed by Garlic, Cross, or Holy Water, only "Faith"
"We Gotta Have Faith"

More inspiring in 2 minutes than that Anti-Semite Shitbird Warnocks 20+ years in the Black Moose-lum Pulpit,

Frank "Voting for #34 for the 3rd time" (Legally, it's Jaw Jaw we always have more erections)

[ragebot]

Anyone with an IQ above room temperature knows Fetterman is the dumbest shit ever to be in the Senate.

[Frank Drackman]

Mazie Hirono's Kimono is all asunder-o at loosing her top place on the dumbass list.

[dwb68]

In a competitive marketplace, there is a market for rankings. I am sure a lot of sellers on Amazon would like to do away with reviews too.

I had a chuckle at the quote “George Mason’s Antonin Scalia Law School has gone up 11 spots in the last year, he said. This was done by improving metrics that matter to U.S. News, such as admitting students with higher LSAT scores, graduating them with less debt and improving the pass rate on the bar exam, he said.”

As if graduating people with a higher pass rate and less debt are bad things??

Law firms are not looking for holistic candidates who will make a difference. They are looking for motivated associates who rack up billable hours, while at the same time virtue signalling about making a difference (ala the Bankman-Fried ESG model). If someone really wants to make a difference in the world, the first thing they should do is kill all the lawyers**. Or go into Environmental Science. heaven knows we need smart people with writing skills to explain this to the commoners.

If Law schools *really* wanted to “increase access to law school” they would figure out how to admit and educate 50% more students at the same price. I tend to suspect places like Harvard and Yale avoid doing exactly this because it dilutes their prestige – part of which is the scarcity of graduates. Imagine for example if people knew that diamonds were quite common.

Sadly, today's generation of law school graduates probably dont this. There is very little new under the sun, including the impulse for people looking to be King to promise " seven half-penny loaves sold for a penny: the three-hoop'd pot shall have ten hoops; and I will make it felony to drink small beer: all the realm shall be in common; and in Cheapside shall my palfrey go to grass"

These days its not three-hooped pots, its student loans.

[dwb68]

** the asterisk references the 2nd to last paragraph

[Dr. Ed 2]

Law schools are once removed, but the explicit purpose of the ABA was to reduce the number of lawyers so as to increase lawyer's income.

A century later, this has been accomplished.

[Lady Dada]

This isn’t true. We saw the results after the crash of 2008, when we were flush with new law grads fighting over a much smaller number of jobs. The AMA does limit the number of medical school graduates per year, but the ABA does not limit the number of lawyers in any way. I actually think it wouldn’t be a terrible idea. There are way, way, way too many lawyers, which explains our extremely litigious society.

[princess jasmine]

LSAT good, if for no other reason than than high scorers are more likely to behave ethnically ethically.

[Frank Drackman]

Did Barry Hussein take the LSAT?? be interesting to see his score, probably pretty high, as they don't deduct for stuttering

[princess jasmine]

What can I say? I'm a flawed man.

[Dr. Ed 2]

"UCLA School of Law professor Russell Korobkin has been appointed to serve as the law school’s interim dean.

See: https://law.ucla.edu/news/korobkin-named-interim-dean-ucla-law

What am I missing here?

[dwb68]

"U.C.L.A." vs "UCLA"

"U.C.L.A." does not exist. I think. I didn't get it either until I read the first comment, which gave a hint.

[Michael P]

What is next? People from Ohio State University complaining about missing articles?

[dwb68]

NYT needs to work on Grammarly equity and inclusion

[Dr. Ed 2]

I think it largely has to do with which style guide you use, and a reporter would be using the AP Style Guide. Lawyers use "Blue Book", I use APA because I am in Education, except that APA defaults to Blue Book "for legal citations" without defining it, which makes things really interesting when you are working with statutes, as APA also wants you to use the name of the statute.

I know there is someone here who doesn't think I've ever taught -- whatever -- what I usually do is simply ask my students to be *consistent* and use whatever style they feel comfortable with, just consistently use the one.

It's also the extent to which it is an abbreviation or an acronym -- UCLA is known, but what about UMD (UMass Dartmouth)? UMD would like to think they are as well known as UCLA, but they aren't -- and I'd wrote it out. (In situations where it was relevant that UCLA was part of the U-Cal system, I'd write that out too.)

[dwb68]

Its not a "style".

Universities are picky about their branding and names.

[Dr. Ed 2]

Universities can be as picky as they wish, I don't work for their public relations department and (unless I am sadly mistaken) the "University of California at Los Angeles" is the official name of UCLA.

Hence while I am free to refer to the school as UCLA or "the Bruins", I am also free to refer to it as the University of California at Los Angeles" or various abbreviations thereof. Even if it does piss off the public relations folks there.

One other thing -- I was incorrect above, the NYT has its own style manual, it does not use AP style. NYT does some funky things like require the "Mr." in front of names. It well may *require* the U.C.L.A. usage -- I don't have access to a copy to check.

[AmosArch]

Basically its just going to shift focus to extra curriculars and soft experiences. Exactly the sort of thing the rich and/or privileged excel at.

[Noorondoor]

Without the LSAT, schools will have to assess a 4.0 at Howard or Spellman, which basically means that the student is qualified to work at McDonald's, against a 3.6 from MIT or Carnegie Mellon.

[Frank Drackman]

You ever worked at Mickey D's?? it's not all Quarter Pounders and Big Mac's

[Dr. Ed 2]

I'd take the kid who (successfully) worked at Mickey D's in a bad neighborhood over the kid from Harvard. Yes, you are going to have to teach him some grammar -- and explain that referring to judges as M*therfuckers or Whores is verboten.

He/she/it has had to deal with stuff like this: https://www.foxnews.com/us/new-york-city-man-terrorizes-mcdonalds-customers-axe-wielding-rampage

[Noorondoor]

To the extent that inner city McDonald's workers have to deal with stuff like that, it's because of the people THEY vote for and the offenders overwhelmingly share their skin color.

[Dr. Ed 2]

I'm not justifying it, just saying that someone who is bright enough to realize that he doesn't have to stay there and a hard worker enough to find a way out has personal strengths to draw on that the prep school kid will never have.

Donald Regan dropped out of Harvard Law to join the Marines, and worked his way up to LTC. After the war, he interviewed with Merrill Lynch & Co for a position as a management trainee. When asked if he had any particular skills, he responded "killing people, I've gotten pretty good at it over the past few years."

He'd been involved in five major campaigns, including both Guadalcanal and Okinawa. But he never got his JD -- from Harvard or anywhere else, all he had was his AB (BA) from Harvard.

He went on to be Reagan's Secretary of the Treasury.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Regan

[darkknight9]

It may not be as popular of an issue at UCLA or wherever the article is referencing but I'd like to ask: is UCLA going to follow Berkley, Harvard, etc and remove themselves from the annual college rankings "Harvard, Berkeley and Yale have all had enough of the U.S. News & World Report’s college rankings"?

[Frank Drackman]

Be terrible if they had to rate students based on performance. Nice thing about med schools, good board scores (I Know, they're trying to make those "Optional" too) from East Dumb-Fuck U. will get you in over bad scores from Johns Hopkins. OK, close, and they'll probably go with the local stud, or whoever gives the best BJ (Lots of hot XX studs now a days, while most of the Admissions Committees are creepy old guys, I know, I was one)

Frank

[Don Nico]

When your not #1, you might as well declare yourself absent.

[Leo Marvin]

I just noticed Russell Korobkin isn't a Conspirator any more. When did that happen? I've been showing up every day eagerly awaiting his next post, and now I learn he snuck out the back door? I'm outraged!