Drake University announces law school scholarship program with three HBCUs
In an effort to increase diversity, graduates of three Historically Black Colleges and Universities will receive scholarships covering at least half of tuition upon admission to Drake University Law School in Des Moines, Iowa.
The HBCUs participating in the program are Lincoln University of Jefferson City, Missouri; Kentucky State University of Frankfort, Kentucky; and Lincoln University, located southwest of Philadelphia.
Six percent of Drake’s law students are black, according to Iowa Public Radio.
The agreement is scheduled to start this fall, according to a Drake press release, and will run through 2020. Students admitted from the three HBCUs will receive law school scholarships covering at least half of tuition. Tuition at the private law school for 2017-18 is $40,500, according to its website.
The school’s median undergraduate GPA is 3.33 and median LSAT score is 153, according to 509 Report data for 2016 (PDF). Of the 79 Drake Law School graduates who took the Iowa bar in July 2016, 77.2 percent passed (PDF), the Iowa Judicial Branch notes.
Drake Law School Dean Jerry L. Anderson said in an email on Tuesday that the school had an 82 percent pass rate in July 2016 among first-time test takers. Of the 108 graduates in the school’s class of 2016, 59 percent had full-time, long-term jobs requiring JDs, according to the law school’s ABA Employment Summary (PDF).
“As Drake University continues to prepare students for successful careers and meaningful personal lives, it is vital that we attract dedicated and passionate degree-seekers from all racial and socioeconomic backgrounds,” Provost Sue Mattison said in the press release.
The agreement also involves Drake’s pharmacy program, the release stated.
