Villanova’s Law School Punished for Grade-Inflation Scandal


For several years during the 2000s, Villanova University’s School of Law inflated the average grades and LSAT scores of its incoming classes, as was revealed in early 2011. The American Bar Association condemned the school’s actions last year, and now the Association of American Law Schools has weighed in with a public letter that the university has posted on its website. In the letter, the AALS characterizes the behavior as “shocking” and “deeply unethical”, adding that the “Law School’s misconduct not only could have misled potential law school applicants and others who were evaluating the quality of the Law School, it also stood in direct opposition to core values of the AALS and had serious negative ramifications for the reputation of legal education as a whole.” The AALS could have suspended or expelled the school from its association but decided that a two-year probationary period would suffice. During that time, Villanova is basically being asked to reflect on what it did. [AALS Letter to Villanova]