Some law schools have Performance Based Admission Programs. What do you think of these things?

I participated in one at Loyola New Orleans last summer-- I knew it was going to be hard, as they made very clear that the success rate was somehere around 8-10 % In my course, there were 100 students, and 12 made the cut. We took three weeks of instruction--two hours of class per day, six days a week, and had three exams. we had to get 3 Bs to pass without a curve, and I got 2 C+'s and a C.

There was a lot of fishiness to the program. The initial letter said it was a three hour course, but they told us on the first day that there was no credit allowed, and that the professors would not return our exams nor discuss them. I knew they had us by the balls-pardon the coarse phrase--so I hung on, even though a couple classes were canceled and some Loyola students made a little business by selling "Conditional Program Tutorials" for 65 bucks a hit. In the end, i received a thin rejection letter with three grades on it, no indication of what exams I earned the given grades on.

I warn against the real difficulty of such a course, but I IMPLORE ANYONE considering these programs to do their homework and read materials carefully. Also, If you come off a waiting list, don't assume that your participation in the program or your unsuccessful completion of it remove you from the waitlist or otherwise disqualify you for admission. I realized months too late that no language in any of Loyola's letters said I was rejected, and that the summer prog was my only hope of admission--I took it to mean such.

So do your homework before and during these kinds of things if you decide to do them.