OHBOY! More whiny students filing lawsuits against schools

ixnay · August 31, 2003, 18:54

http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld...al/6600692.htm

Quote:

RALEIGH, N.C. - A high-school senior who scored a perfect 1,600 on his SAT won't start his freshman year next week at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill after a judge denied an injunction that would have forced the school to admit him.

Mark Edmonson was admitted to UNC-Chapel Hill in April, but he lost his spot in the freshman class in July after finishing the school year with a failing grade in one class and earning several C's and at least one D in other courses.

Edmonson, 19, of Greensboro, sued the university last week in Orange County Superior Court for a spot in the freshman class, claiming breach of contract.

He also asked for a temporary injunction that would have allowed him to attend the school while the lawsuit made its way through the courts.

Judge John R. Jolly Jr. denied the injunction request Thursday.

The Edmonsons received a fax informing them of the decision.

"Our reaction, of course, is extreme, extreme disappointment," said Barbara Edmonson, Mark's mother. "I think the judge was extremely fair. He said he wanted to take his time and review all the material, and I think he did that."

Edmonson, who graduated from Northwest Guilford High School, received a letter in July asking him to explain a slump that dropped his grade point average from a 3.8 to a 3.5 and he had several conferences with admissions officers.

"It just seemed to us that everything he said, they took the wrong way," Barbara Edmonson said.

After the first meeting, Mark Edmonson sent an e-mail to Herb Davis, associate director of undergraduate admissions, that described his senior grades as "abysmal."

He said he performed poorly because he had become "disillusioned with the high-school experience."

Edmonson's mother said her son struggled with calculus and had a difficult time adjusting to a change in medications.

Her son did better by the end of his senior year, she said.

After hearing from UNC in April, Mark Edmonson told Babson University in Wellesley, Mass., to take him off its waiting list. He was denied admission to Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass.

He had paid his tuition to UNC, secured a dorm room and went through orientation.

Admissions officers then informed him that he had failed to continue to achieve at the level that had enabled his admission offer and rescinded his acceptance.

Goddamn, what a moron. I hate these people WITH THE FIRE OF A THOUSAND SUNS.

MichaeltheGreat · August 31, 2003, 19:23

Actually (although the fine print in the admissions agreement presumably covers the uni's ass), this isn't a moronic suit.

It's not as if he applied and was turned down, then sued to be admitted because in his mind he should have been. That would have been moronic.

The guy was admitted, and more importantly, *paid* tuition and then dropped off the waiting list at another school in reliance on his valid, existing, admissions contract with the uni.

Boris Godunov · August 31, 2003, 19:27

However, since most schools explicitely reserve the right to rescind admissions pending review of final semester of high school grade reports, his suit would appear to be without merit.

Ming · August 31, 2003, 21:09

Then the money grubbing schools shouldn't ask or take any money until it's a done deal.

Boris Godunov · August 31, 2003, 21:12

Or how about students not slough off in their final semester of high school, showing colleges that they'll become irresponsible and lazy when it seems convenient for them?

Note the school didn't just drop him--they wanted an explanation. He responded that he was "disillusioned with the high-school experience." Yeah, sounds like another way of saying "I figured the coast was clear and I could slouch now that the pressure was off."

st_swithin · August 31, 2003, 21:19

I dropped out of UCLA the last half of my senior year when Michael Ovitz ponied up $10mil to buy his dropout son, Chris, admission there.

I figured that if someone could afford to buy a UCLA degree for $10mil, I can't afford to go there.

Some of us rake in the bucks just below the poverty level.

Ming · August 31, 2003, 21:20

I have no problem with them telling the lazy bum that he was no longer welcome. I do have a problem with them taking his money before that point. As long as the school can still turn a student down, it shouldn't take a dime from the kid.

Spiffor · August 31, 2003, 21:37

Quote:

Originally posted by Ming
I have no problem with them telling the lazy bum that he was no longer welcome. I do have a problem with them taking his money before that point. As long as the school can still turn a student down, it shouldn't take a dime from the kid.

MichaeltheGreat · August 31, 2003, 22:57

Exactly.

Had they not taken his money, and sat on it, and no doubt been bureacratically slow about refunding it, I'd have no sympathy for the slacker.

st_swithin · August 31, 2003, 23:03

Point.

:) Smiley · August 31, 2003, 23:41

Then again, you'd think when someone's got a couple dozen grand on the line, that ought to be incentive enough not to slack.

Sikander · September 1, 2003, 00:04

This suit has more merit than most stupid suits we discuss. He'll almost assuredly lose, but the defendent will have their name dragged through the mud a bit which seems reasonable in this instance.

monolith94 · September 1, 2003, 00:22

"Then again, you'd think when someone's got a couple dozen grand on the line, that ought to be incentive enough not to slack."

It's more than a couple of thousand... It's their education!

Boris Godunov · September 1, 2003, 01:31

Quote:

Originally posted by MichaeltheGreat
Exactly.

Had they not taken his money, and sat on it, and no doubt been bureacratically slow about refunding it, I'd have no sympathy for the slacker.

Wait...so assuming they refunded the money (which I don't think is an issue, they would have to), what's the problem?

He breached his contract. They admitted him on the notion he'd maintain his grades, and he failed to uphold his end of the bargain. So they say, "Sorry, you're out," and return his dough. I don't have any problem with that.

Imran Siddiqui · September 1, 2003, 01:43

Well I agree they should refund the money.

The other thing is that this kid ends school with a 3.5 GPA and 1600 SAT score. It seems silly that UNC-CH would not accept a person of such credentials ESPECIALLY considering that he goes to school in NC. Yeah, he slacked a bit, but a NC native with those total scores not getting in? That's a bit... well... strange (considering the median scores of entry candidates at the school).

Of course, this case has some merit. He can DEFINETLY say that he detrimentally relied on the promise of admission by removing himself from another school's waiting list. It's a much closer call than other suits people post about.

Kaak · September 1, 2003, 03:02

Quote:

Originally posted by st_swithin
I dropped out of UCLA the last half of my senior year when Michael Ovitz ponied up $10mil to buy his dropout son, Chris, admission there.

I figured that if someone could afford to buy a UCLA degree for $10mil, I can't afford to go there.

Some of us rake in the bucks just below the poverty level.

I hope you are kidding. otherwise that is one of the dumbest things i have ever heard...

Drake Tungsten · September 1, 2003, 04:05

I blame this all on James Moeser. What a ****ing disgrace.

uh Clem · September 1, 2003, 10:48

I was "disillusioned with the high-school experience" about three and a half years earlier than he was.

Drogue · September 1, 2003, 11:13

Same thing happened to me. I got disillusioned with high school in my final year, slacked too much, ended up with AABB instead of AAAA and thus missed my place at Oxford (needed AAA). However I also have the problem that the exam board ****ed up marking one of my papers, and (according to an independant examiner who marked it) I should have got about 50 marks higher, getting me an A and my place. I did slack, and I probably don't deserve to go, but I did enough, and I should have got the grades, if it wasn't for this stupid exam board who give their examiners 3 minutes to mark a paper that took 1 and a half hours to take. 3 Minutes to mark 20 A4 (US letter) sized pages. That isn't possible! Sorry for the rant, it just makes me sick that we do 2 years of work, take 42 exams (in my case) and then because there aren't enough markers (we have a big teacher and examiner shortage here) they are given 3 minutes to mark something that would take 10 minutes just to read properly.

Boris Godunov · September 1, 2003, 11:31

You can't appeal a mismarked paper? That would seem ridiculous.

Drogue · September 1, 2003, 11:43

I have done, it was marked up from a U to an E - 27/90 to 36/90 (they never mark up much, this was the most any paper at our school has been upgraded by) but after asking an economics examiner and teacher (at a different school, guy happened to have worked with my dad once) to mark it for me independantly, and he said he would give it 80+, an A. I need 69/90, which is a mid B from that paper to get an A overall and my offer for Oxford. Whether I deserve it or not, I feel cheated that I did well on a paper I loved and for some inexplicable reason they gave me an unclassified, whereas I got 66/90 on a paper I hated. The questions were great, and the biggest one was on the same thing my Oxford interview was about. I thought I'd done really well after, somethign I don't normally feel after an exam. It just shows how much a lottery there is with examiners. Last summer I got higher grades than I deserved, this summer far far lower. It's how it goes in this country now