Offer of Free Law School Allows UC Irvine to Be Choosy
The University of California at Irvine says its new law school is now the most selective in the nation.
The school accepted only 110 out of 2,741 applicants to fill its 68 first-year positions, for an acceptance rate of 4 percent, according to a press release posted by the Wall Street Journal Law Blog. The acceptance rate means the school is choosier than Yale Law School, which accepts 7 percent of its applicants, and Stanford Law School, which accepts 9 percent.
How did the new law school achieve such impressive numbers? “Well, it probably didn’t hurt that the school was offering free tuition for all three years to all the members of the first class,” according to the Wall Street Journal Law Blog.
UC Irvine’s new dean, Erwin Chemerinsky, told the Daily Journal (sub. req.) that the 4 percent number “by itself it doesn’t tell you enough.” But he said the percentage is significant when combined with other numbers: The incoming class has a median grade point average of 3.65 and a median LSAT score of 167.
Students attending the top 20-ranked law schools by U.S. News & World Report have a median GPA of 3.73 and a median LSAT of 169, the story says. UC Irvine’s numbers would put the school above the 16th-ranked law school, the University of Texas at Austin.
