A new law school is opening at the University of California Irvine next fall. And it’s waiving tuition for three years to lure top applicants:
The financial carrot is part of an ambitious strategy by Erwin Chemerinsky, a renowned constitutional law scholar and dean of the new school… to attract Ivy League-caliber students to the first public university law school in the state in 40 years.
Scholarship winners will be chosen for their potential to emerge three years later as legal stars on the ascendance. Only the best and brightest need apply, but the school hopes to offer full scholarships to all 60 members of its inaugural class in 2009. Subsequent classes will be on a normal tuition basis.
“Our goal is to be a top 20 law school from the first time we are ranked,” Chemerinsky said. The school hopes to enroll 600 students and employ 40 to 50 professors.
The new school has already seen its first scandal, as dean Chemerinsky was hired away from Duke University, but then fired for his liberal politics. Protests led UC Irvine to rehire Chemerinsky.
Via The Associated Press.
Top 20 from the first time you’re ranked, eh? Have you seen the schools that are in the top 20 now. All of them are schools that rank above UCI in almost every notable category and have had law schools for 50 or more years. Part of that ranking takes into consideration an alumni base. You know, they people that will hire you…
Good luck cracking the top 100. In this economy, do you really think that recruiters are going to come after some new gimmick school’s initial class of only 60 students when they can have the cream of the crop at UCLA or USC, which are already top 20 schools?