<p>I don't recall seeing anything here about this, so I thought I post this link -- New UC Irvine law school is going to be tuition free for its first entering class. It hopes to attract top students.
SoCal</a> law school tempts students with free tuition - Yahoo! News</p>
<p>Yeah, all the students better hope it gets accredited (which I’m sure it will, its a UC). That’s one of the reasons its free. I would like to see who comes to recruit, what types of activities are offered, etc.</p>
<p>There’s no such thing as a free lunch. The best students have other options, and will get money from established schools. Good students also have other options. Until a school has a bar admission rate and some history assisting new grads to find employment, a new school is always a gamble. Being accredited isn’t enough, nor is having a good marketing plan. </p>
<p>Realistically, the students are investing three years of prime career or academic life when they go to law school. Even if tuition is free, they are losing three years’ of salary that they could have earned in their careers if they didn’t go to law school at all (plus they will always have book and living expenses including health insurance…even with free tuition, law school is expensive). Alternatively, if they went to established schools with statistics on bar pass rates, employment and an alumni network, their degrees may be more marketable. </p>
<p>It might be comparable to investing your education dollars in a start-up penny stock or a blue chip stock which is obviously more expensive. Yes, the penny stock might hit it big…or not. There are a lot of law schools already, and its somewhat doubtful that a new school is going to jump into the top tiers quickly even if accreditation appears likely. I’m sure they’ll fill their class of 60 very quickly though, and wouldn’t be surprised if the school did get into the top 50 within 10-20 years.</p>
<p>Actually, I’ve read that the school might very well be in the top 20 law schools the first year it is ranked, simply because of the huge number of citations attributed to founding faculty. Chemerinsky has been quoted several times saying this is the goal, including in the article above.
This may be artificial, but the rankings do hold some influence over how prospective students will perceive the school.</p>
<p>And realistically, the chances of the law school not being accredited at a school like UCI with Chemerinsky as founding dean are slim to none.</p>
<p>Two of my classmates applied to this program and one of them did quite well on the LSAT, he said he is willing to take a chance based on the large scholarship they are offering so im sure they will fill quickly… My question is… how are they going to get people in for the second round since the free tuition was only for the entering class and it takes two years to become accredited so they will not be accredited yet when the second class starts</p>
<p>i believe for the second class, there will be financial benefits, though perhaps not as large, as an incentive.</p>
<p>also, they’re going to apply for provisional accreditation and get it during the first year so the second year they will have it (i believe this is what they said at an info sesh i attended)</p>
<p>what kind of initial admission standards do you guys think we will see with this school?</p>
<p>i’ve heard its gonna be quite competitive-- for their entering class, they’re gonna want to bring in highly academic and motivated students to build a good image for the university. especially since all applicants will be vying for the free tuition, that creates even more competition.</p>
<p>good idea to go here or not?</p>