Bloomberg Law performed a survey recently that found that location was the most important factor that potential students considered when applying for law school.
Bloomberg surveyed 1,000 practicing attorneys, law students, faculty, and librarians, and 71% percent of respondents chose location as their primary concern. In each of those groups, location was the most popular choice. Traditionally the assumption has been that prestige or ranking would be a student’s main focus, but in fact, only half of all respondents chose ranking as a factor, and only 35% considered the school’s prestige. Other factors in the survey include cost of tuition, scholarships/financial aid, campus culture, courses offered, and networking opportunities. Respondents were asked to choose all factors that applied to them.
Ranking and prestige are popular topics for discussion—the annual report of the best law schools from U.S. News & World Report is always hotly debated—but in the end, it seems people care more about being in a good city that’s affordable and could potentially be a long-term home for them after graduation. Proximity to family members as well as alumni networks and other professional connections from undergraduate studies could also be factors.
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Yale Law School has created the Hurst Horizon Scholarship Program to provide free tuition for students in great need of financial assistance.
The school has a history of providing need-based assistance to its students and this new program will further that mission. Launching in Fall 2022, the program will offer full-tuition scholarships to 45-50 students that meet the financial requirements.
“The Hurst Horizon Scholarship Program will free students with the greatest need from financial worry during law school and open up a world of possibilities so that they can be a powerful force for change in society,” said Dean Heather K. Gerken.
The program will offer aid to J.D. students whose family income is below the federal poverty guidelines and whose assets are below $150,000. Yale Law is only one of two law schools in the country that provides aid based solely on financial need, with 73% of its students receiving scholarship grants in the 2020-2021 school year. The school is running an ongoing fundraising campaign in the hopes of expanding eligibility requirements for future students.
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Walmart has donated $210,000 to the Center for Racial Justice and Criminal Justice Reform at the University of Arkansas Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law. The donation will help develop an enhanced community policing project that aims to foster better collaboration between local law enforcement and the surrounding communities.
Some of the project’s goals are to remake and improve law enforcement outreach, develop training materials, assessment tools, and best practices, and to start a pilot program in northwest Arkansas.
The project was born from a 2020 task force report on policing from the Arkansas governor’s office. The report suggested that law enforcement needed to work harder to gain the trust of local communities and to increase understanding of the law.
Walmart will serve as community policing collaborator that will use standards set by the program to interact with law enforcement. Students will research best practices nationwide to implement into the program and draft procedures and training literature. The pilot locations will then use these materials to gather data and inform the permanent implementation of the program, with the final goal being a nationwide adoption.
