NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE via COLLEGIATE PRESSWIRE)--Aug 11, 2003--New York Law School, one of the oldest independent law schools in the United States, will welcome an academically strong and diverse class of 530 students when classes begin August 25.
The median LSAT score for the class is 155, up from 150 a year ago, and the median undergraduate GPA is 3.22. Based on their academic credentials, 45 students in this class have been invited to participate in the school`s Harlan Scholars honors program, which is named for John Marshall Harlan, a 1924 New York Law School graduate who served as an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1955 to 1971.
''This is clearly one of the more competitive classes to start at the school,'' said Bill Perez, assistant dean for admissions.
The school received more than 6,000 applications for admission, a 40 percent increase from the previous year, Perez reported. ''That`s a phenomenal increase,'' he said. ''It`s probably one of the largest one-year increases of any law school in the country.''
Although law school applications are on the rise nationally, Perez attributes the significant jump at New York Law School to its location -- it`s in the heart of Manhattan`s TriBeCa neighborhood, just a short walk from the City Hall, numerous city agencies, and several state and federal courthouses -- as well as its strong faculty and academic offerings.
The class includes 69 students enrolled in the school`s evening division. Women outnumber men, making up 51 percent of the overall class. Twenty-four percent are students of color, including 8.8 percent Asian American, 6.5 percent Black/African American, 3.8 percent Hispanic/Latino, and 4.8 percent who identified themselves as other/mixed ethnic background.
The students are also diverse geographically, representing 37 states and five countries. While many of them earned their undergraduate degrees from schools in the Northeast, including Columbia, NYU, Yale, Cornell, and Brown, others come from far outside the New York area, including such schools as the University of Michigan, the University of California-Berkeley, the University of Notre Dame, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and the University of Florida.
This class will be the first to have the assurance that their tuition will remain consistent throughout their enrollment, as the school is one of the first in the country to adopt a flat tuition structure. Perez expects the flat tuition will be a major selling point to prospective future students.
''I think we`ll be hearing a lot about flat tuition next year,'' Perez said. ''Certainly next spring when we start admitting people for 2004, and we have students here who are starting to focus on getting their financial aid together for the following year, the feedback they`re going to give next year`s entering class is going to be: `This is cool. You can actually plan three or four years ahead. The school`s not going to pull a surprise punch on you.` That`s when we`re going to start seeing the effect of it.''
ABOUT NEW YORK LAW SCHOOL
Located near the centers of law, government, and finance in New York City, New York Law School is one of the oldest independent law schools in the United States. Its faculty of noted and prolific scholars has built the school`s curricular strength in the areas of tax law, labor and employment law, civil and human rights law, media and information law, urban legal studies, international and comparative law, and interdisciplinary fields such as legal history and legal ethics. The Law School enrolls 1,400 students and has more than 11,000 graduates.
|
