University of Iowa law school enrollment spiking

Just a few months after the University of Iowa College of Law took unprecedented steps to boost declining enrollment - including decreasing tuition - the law school is looking at a 'fabulous” pool of applicants.

The college has received nearly 1,500 applications compared with nearly 800 last year, said Dean Gail Agrawal. The school had accepted 105 deposits from would-be law students around this time last year - 95 of whom ended up enrolling - compared with nearly 170 deposits to date, Agrawal said.

Those numbers could go up or down as applications continue to trickle in. The college also this year is considering applications from students who take the Law School Admissions Test in June.

'So those numbers are still in flux,” Agrawal said.

She credits the increase in interest to the tuition decrease, recruitment efforts and programmatic changes the law school made in response to its declining enrollment.

The Board of Regents in December approved a rare 16.4 percent reduction in tuition for resident and non-resident students, which translates to a drop from $47,252 to $39,500 for non-resident Juris Doctor students.

The law school also began offering a '3+3” admissions program that lets undergraduate students shave a year off their bachelor's degree by applying to law school early. If accepted, students can use the first year of their three-year law program to complete their four-year undergraduate degree.

That program not only is available to UI students but to students at seven other undergraduate institutions in the state. Partners include the University of Dubuque, Clarke University, Coe College, Wartburg College, Buena Vista University, Morningside College and Iowa State University.

And Agrawal said the law school has been in discussions with other Iowa institutions who might join the group.

'The College of Law and our partner institutions are trying to make the choice to come to law school easier for those who aspire to become lawyers and are truly motivated to study law,” Agrawal said.

For the first time this academic year, the UI law school also participated in a distance learning program that increased course offerings for UI students. Partnering with Ohio State University, a UI law professor in the fall taught a class that used cameras, microphones and video monitors to include OSU students. In the spring, UI students could take an OSU course using the distance learning technology.

'And we did a better job of recruiting,” Agrawal said. 'So we are feeling terrific about this year.”