Some VERY Comprehensive Advice for High School Students Interested in Law School ... and for Their Parents Too

Dear Students and Parents of the Class of 2019:

We have gotten to meet quite of few of you over the past few weeks as discussed your educational and professional aspirations. It seems as though a great many of you – as has been true of many students in years past - are interested in law school.

The law still is great choice of career …provided you have a real idea of what to expect over the next seven of eight years

Despite what many of you may have heard about high levels of dissatisfaction among practicing attorneys, the law still provides the right kind of students with the chance to have a career that is both financially rewarding and intellectually fulfilling.

Over the past 17 years, we have assisted more than 1300 students in preparing for the LSAT. What we have found is that those who did their research and found undergraduate schools that prepared them for the rigors of a TOP-TIER law school have been substantially happier and substantially more successful than those who lacked a well-conceived professional development plan.

If you are SERIOUS about pursuing a career in law, Junior of high school year is NOT too early to begin formulating your roadmap to admission to the bar. Now is the time when you should begin exploring the undergraduate institutions that can assist you in attaining your long-term goals.

To assist you in this process, I have put together a list of school that I believe merit VERY serious consideration from those who aspire to a career in law. ALL of these schools have one thing in common: their students attain LSAT scores that are substantially better than the national average...substantially better.

I hope that over the next few weeks you actually take the time to look into some of these schools. See what they have to offer. Notice how they use their resources. Evaluate how these ten college programs compare to some of the "big-name" (and usually highly over-rated) schools.

Remember, as an attorney, you are marketing yourself to law firms and clients on the basis of your ability to research and solve complex problems. Every aspect of your resume from this day forward be a reflection of those abilities. Showing employers and clients that you had the courage and foresight to defy convention and find the BEST solution to the task of getting a great legal education is something that will pay dividends throughout your ENTIRE legal career.

But before we get to the list, a brief word on the law school admissions process.

At the outset, we can tell you - probably to your considerable relief - that the process of applying to law school is far less complicated and far less stressful than the process of applying to college. We are not saying that the experience is stress free. The LSAT is a tough nut to crack, some people struggle mightily with drafting personal statements, and thousands upon thousands of bright and motivated people lose lots of sleep waiting for acceptance (and rejection) letters.

What we are though saying is that the process itself is about as simple as it gets: submit your undergraduate and graduate (if you pursued a master’s degree) transcripts, a brief personal statement, letters of recommendation and LSAT scores to the Law School Admissions Council and wait to hear back from your list of schools. For grads of Harvard College, the process is a bit different, but still remarkably straightforward.

There is no Common Application. There is no Early Action or Early Decision option (though, as we shall explain later, you should apply as early in the admissions season as you possibly can). There are no extensive supplements that ask you to describe yourself in six words or to reveal which song you would choose to sing in a karaoke contest. As some of you already know from first hand experiences, these are actual prompts from actual applications to actual colleges.

Part of the explanation for the streamlined process is the simple fact that, unlike colleges, law schools have very little interest in the “holistic” evaluations of candidates. For law schools, it’s all about the essential numbers. There is a simple reason for this: law schools take their rankings (particularly those from US News and World Report ) very, very, very seriously.

The most well-known and influential ranking systems for law schools (principally US News and World Report) are heavily weighted toward a consideration of inputs - numbers that measure the strengths of people coming in to the school. Hence, most (and probably all) law schools focus on admitting applicants who help boost those rankings. If it sounds a bit cynical, it is. But if it makes you feel better, colleges are even more disingenuous in their admissions and recruiting practices than are law schools.

As a practical matter, a law school’s decision to admit you comes down to two things: undergraduate GPA and LSAT score. There is a bit more nuance to it - like your demographic background - but not really all that much. What this means for you, a high school student considering a career in law, is that you have to begin the process of determining your reasons for attending law school, the type of law you want to practice and - we are not exaggerating here - what city you want to live in after law school.

Not to fret, we will explain all of it - and what you can to prepare yourself – throughout the coming month. But first things first: COLLEGE.

We loved college. To be perfectly honest, one we loved it a bit too much. We had a great time, learned from some incredible professors and met some amazing people.

We also know that our experiences may not have been typical, even for ten or twenty (or more - ouch) years ago. We selected majors we that we enjoyed, took courses that interested us and tried to engage in that thing that used to be called learning. We also took full advantage of the university experience and were involved in quite a few extracurricular activities and student organizations.

The point is that once upon a time, college was a place to engage in the process of learning. And learning truly is a process. To be done correctly, learning requires some guidance and mentoring. In our day (which really wasn’t all that long ago) students took courses to expand their respective foundations of knowledge and to develop skills in mathematics, critical thinking, writing and the like. Grades were important, but not critical.

Times, sad to say, have changed. First and foremost, college just ain’t what it used to be. Now this is not just a bunch of old farts waxing nostalgic for the magic of a bygone era or snotty intellectual snobs bemoaning the diminution of academic standards. It is a demonstrable fact that the college experience has evolved (or, more accurately, devolved) in recent years and the pace of that evolution is accelerating.

There are two clear and quantifiable trends that have had a profound impact on the academics of college - and these trends work to your significant disadvantage in securing admission to a “top” law school.

The first and most pernicious of these trends is something called “grade inflation.” In effect, a substantial percentage of the instructors at the college level have become far more generous in issuing grades than they once were. The bell curve is a thing of the past and A’s are extraordinarily common.

Now to a lot of people, this may sound simply awesome. You can go to college, do the minimum, and reasonably expect to receive great grades. The problem is, if you can do this, so can everybody else. This means that if you do slip up, get lazy (it happens to the best of us) or become ill and get a C, then all the people with A’s look a lot better than you do to law school admissions offices.

As we mentioned above, law schools are fixated with their own rankings, and this fixation can have the effect of making them unable - or unwilling - to forgive some perceived academic lapses on your part during your undergrad years.

Worse, grade inflation frequently means that students are unwilling to take a chance on a truly challenging course - or a gifted but challenging professor - because they don’t want to risk their GPA’s. We understand this impulse. Given the current state of affairs, it really is tough for us to argue against it. We don’t want you to become cold-hearted cynics, but managing you curriculum to maintain a high GPA is, in today’s academic climate, a sensible thing to do.

At the same time though, this race to the intellectual bottom worries us. First year of law school (particularly at the nation’s top programs) is intellectually demanding. If you have great grades and a super LSAT score, but have not really been challenged academically, then the transition to the demands of first year may be a tough one. More problematically, it means that the overall quality of the law - as practiced - faces a serious threat.

The second trend is also a bit disconcerting. Colleges (by no means all, but certainly most) are watering down their curricula. Even as standards for what constitutes “A” work are lowered, the types and variety of courses in important subjects is also diminishing. What this means is that colleges are devoting a decreasing portion of their resources to actual teaching. In fact, a great many colleges and universities place almost no real importance on the once vital area of undergraduate instruction.

Sure, universities have nice new buildings. Some schools have sushi bars in the cafeterias and rock-climbing walls in their student gymnasiums. These are nice perks. Students at one school we know of can select from more than eighty cable channels in every dorm room. Of course students at this same school can no longer major in international relations because the program was dissolved in order to - we kind you not - save money. Unlimited access to episodes “Jersey Shore” it seems has become a more important selling point for some schools than access to top professors. Sad.

Moreover, the resources that are actually devoted to instruction are being increasingly directed toward vocational programs like hospitality management and nutrition studies and away from traditional (and vital) programs like history, mathematics and philosophy.

Don’t believe us? Well, we don’t blame you. It is pretty hard for someone - especially a high school student who has been told his or her entire life that college is the greatest thing ever - to simply accept the fact that most colleges have essentially abandoned undergraduate instruction. Well, we have proof. In fact, there is more and more proof emerging every day - largely in the form of books that summarize research findings on the sorry state of teaching and learning in college. Books like “Higher Education? How Colleges are Wasting Our Money and Failing Our Kids - And What We Can do About It” and “Academically Adrift” provide insights into the depressing inadequacies of the instruction at many (and perhaps most) undergraduate institution.

Of course, colleges are not entirely to blame for these trend. Students and parents could - and should - demand more from colleges and universities. The fact that they don’t is a bit disappointing, but it is also completely in keeping with human nature. Still, we place the bulk of the blame for the de-emphasis of undergraduate education on the colleges rather than the students and parents.

The simple fact is that there is a huge information gap (which is probably intentionally kept and maintained) between the providers and consumers of higher education. We find that gap disconcerting to say the least. We could go on, but that is not the point of this email.

And besides, others have covered this topic far better than we could ever hope to. So, for a truly comprehensive (and utterly shocking) description of the current (sad) state of the college experience in America, we suggest you check out the book Higher Education? How Colleges are Wasting Our Money and Failing Our Kids - and What We Can Do About It by Andrew Hacker and Claudia Dreifus.

Once more, this is not just a bunch of stodgy old farts bitching about the good old days. There are some really troubling signs emerging from the world of academia.

College is a great time. You should enjoy it. But you should also seriously think about what your priorities are for your four years, and for life after college. Of course, we also strongly believe that colleges also should start to consider what their priorities really are. Tragically, we think that may be a lost cause, and you are stuck with the adverse consequences. Sorry about that, by the way.

And again, our point here is not to complain or to dump on colleges. There are many great schools (hundreds of them in fact) and many wonderful professors. We are simply saying that you should take great care in selecting a college. Do some REAL research. There are more than 4000 colleges in the United States and Canada (don’t rule out McGill and some other schools in the Great White North). And - this is critical by the way - just because you haven’t heard of a school doesn’t mean it can’t be the right school for you.

Start to think about exactly what you want out of your legal (and pre-legal) education. If you have no interest in becoming a federal appellate judge, clerking for a Supreme Court Justice, doing high-level mergers and acquisitions work or participating in the negotiation of trade international trade agreements, then you probably don’t have to push yourself all that hard in college (or in your second and third years of law school).

If however you want to hunt in the tall weeds with the big dogs, you’re going to have to push yourself a bit. The choice is yours, and we are making no judgments (or even any recommendations) regarding the path you choose. We just want you to know what your options are, what those options entail and the likely (but by no means certain) consequences of those options.

Here is our list:

TOP 10 UNDER-THE-RADAR UNDERGRADUATE INSTITUTIONS FOR ASPIRING LAW STUDENTS

1. @University of Dallas

This is perhaps our favorite school for prospective law students. The faculty is world class and, more importantly, is actually devoted to undergraduate education. The school attracts and keeps professors who understand that their primary role is to teach – a shockingly rare concept in academia today.

Just as important, the curriculum is refreshingly devoid of the idiotic fluff that has spread through much of higher education like a pernicious virus. Students take real classes in real disciplines. Hence, students learn how to read and think critically and to reason and write persuasively.

Open to students and professors of all faiths, the University of Dallas is unashamedly and unabashedly committed to the study and development of the western tradition of liberal education, and the Catholic intellectual tradition. FYI – the curriculum of law school is predicated entirely on the western tradition of liberal education as well.

The school’s core curriculum emphasizes the study of the great deeds and works of Western civilization, both ancient and modern, and invites students to disciplined inquiry into fundamental aspects of being. A faculty to student ratio of 12:1 and an average class size of 17 allow thoughtful, meaningful dialogue between students and professors, resulting in an environment wherein students can develop critical thinking skills and push their intellectual capabilities.

UD received an “A” in the third annual “What Will They Learn” college ratings announced by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA), which bases its ratings in large part on how many of seven specified core course requirements an institution requires in its curriculum. This is NOT a garbage in–garbage out school, but instead a place where undergraduates do something almost unheard of in higher education today: they learn. This explains why the University of Dallas was named one of 19 schools in the nation that best prepare undergraduates for the workforce.

Approximately 80% of the University of Dallas student body currently receives financial aid of some sort in the form of merit- or need-based award packages.

Learn more at: https://www.udallas.edu/

2. St. John’s College – Annapolis

The strength of St. John’s College as a training ground for law school stems from its curriculum – and the fact that ALL students must complete it.

All degrees granted by the college are in BA’s Liberal Arts. Students do not major in a specific field, but instead take a set schedule of courses that would correspond to a double major in history of mathematics and science/philosophy (ethics, metaphysics, and political theory). Minors would correspond to classical studies and comparative literature. The emphasis is on critical thinking – exactly the skill that it takes to succeed in law school.

The curriculum is interdisciplinary and includes:

Four years of seminar

Four years of language

Four years of math

Three years of laboratory science

Two years of music

Seminar readings include works of literature, philosophy, theology, political science, and history. The course of study is roughly chronological, beginning with the Greeks in freshman year and continuing to the 20th century in senior year.

The school’s academic culture is such that it inculcates its undergrads in a culture of learning: in the course of their careers, nearly 70 percent of St. John’s graduates pursue advanced education.

One reason that St. John's College is not particularly well known outside of the world of higher education us that the institution has chosen not to participate in any collegiate rankings surveys. In fact, the school has specifically asked U.S. News and World Report not to include the college in publication, and the school has not sent information for use in the US News rankings.

We are also impressed that all financial aid awards are based on need. About 75% of the students receive some form of assistance, and about 65% receive grant aid from the college in addition to loans, jobs, and grants under federal programs.

Average Total Aid Package - $33,873

Average Loan - $6,937 ($3,500 freshman, $4,500 sophomore, $5,500 junior & senior)

Average Grant Assistance - $29,283 ( college, federal, and state)

Work Expectation - $2,600

Percent need met through grant aid - 75%

Percent need met through loans/jobs - 25%

Learn more at: https://www.sjca.edu/

3. Rhodes College

If you haven’t heard of Rhodes College, then you really haven’t really done your homework on outstanding colleges. If you are considering hiring a private college admissions adviser and he or she isn’t fully versed on this outstanding gem of American Higher Education, do NOT hire that person. If your school’s college advisor isn’t in regular contact with the outstanding admissions staff at Rhodes, feel free to disregard any further advice that this person gives you on the college selection. Rhodes is THAT good.

Rhodes teaches undergraduates – PERIOD. That’s all. Hence, professors at Rhodes focus on guiding the intellectual development of their students. It is sad and stunning that this is such a rare thing in American academics. Better still, Rhodes excels at chosen task of teaching undergrads. Its students are admitted to graduate and professional schools at rates that are the envy of ANY of the Ivies.

Particularly impressive is the Search for Values in the Light of Western History and Religion Curriculum. The program is an interdisciplinary study of the ideas, beliefs, and cultural developments that have formed western culture. Created by the Rhodes faculty in 1945, it draws faculty from ten departments and over fifty percent of Rhodes′ students participate. The critical reading, analytical and reasoning skills that the program develops are a near perfect fit the skill set students will need to excel in law school.

Also impressive is the school’s real commitment to student writing. Students must write often and are taught to write well at Rhodes – and there is NO downside to becoming an effective writer.

As far as financial aid, more than 93% of Rhodes students receive some form of financial assistance (fellowships, scholarships, grants, loans, work-study). In fact, many families with incomes over $100,000 per year receive need-based aid.

Learn more at: https://www.rhodes.edu/

4. Grinnell College

Like many of the other schools on this list, Grinnell has one key attribute that makes it so well-suited to students interested in law school: it is an institution devoted exclusively to undergraduate education. Its teachers are at Grinnell to teach. In fact, at the center of a Grinnell education is intensive mentoring of students by the faculty. This mentoring begins in the First-Year Tutorial, a required course at Grinnell College. Faculty members from all academic departments teach the tutorial and their topics vary widely, but every tutorial emphasizes the same concepts: writing, critical thinking and analysis, oral discussion skills, and information literacy. Each tutor also serves as adviser to the tutorial students until they declare a major field of study. The tutorial is usually limited to 12 students, making it smaller than the average class, though similar in intensity to the rest of the curriculum.

Grinnell’s first year student experience is guided by three core principles:

1. The student should develop his or her command of written English, not only in the tutorial, but also in at least one other suitable course as well.

2. The student should develop his or her knowledge of mathematics, a foreign language, or both.

3. The student should take courses in each of the three main divisions of the curriculum—humanities, science, and social studies—and should take no more than two full courses in any one division in any semester.

In short, Grinnell demands results, and provides the students with the resources and the guidance necessary to achieve those results.

Grinnell is actually quite generous with financial aid for a school of its size. In 2011-12, the school allotted more than $40 million for scholarships, grants, and other aid. Furthermore, more than 85 percent of Grinnell's students received some type of financial assistance. Impressively, most financial aid is awarded on the basis of need; however, need is not considered when determining a student's eligibility for admission to Grinnell. If a student qualifies for admission, Grinnell (to its credit) makes every effort to meet the demonstrated institutional financial need.

Learn more at: https://www.grinnell.edu/

5. Wofford College

What makes Wofford so appealing is that it is one of the few schools in the nation that understands that students should emerge from college with some actual skills rather than just a meaningless credential. The school attracts (and keeps) faculty members devoted to assisting students develop critical thinking and writing skills within the context of a liberal arts education. The proof of Wofford’s excellence is in results – very high LSAT and MCAT scores.

Also impressive is the Summer Program offered by the school’s Mungo Center for Professional Excellence. The four week program teaches students, through instruction and experiential learning opportunities, to:

? Define a leadership model and articulate it to others.

? Develop solutions within a group setting.

? Model problems and solutions using MS Excel.

? Prepare, develop, and present a topic to any audience.

? Effectively write executive summaries, emails, letters, and memos.

? Discuss potentially volatile global issues.

? Manage a project using proven project management skills and software.

? Network with others, known and unknown, as a means to establish and maintain relationships.

? Learn from first hand experiences provided by industry professionals.

? Identify and leverage your strengths, as well as appreciate and harness the strengths of others.

? Function in any environment with confident etiquette skills.

? Create and exercise a personal finance strategy.

? Manage time, including planning on a daily, weekly and monthly basis.

? Develop and learn interview skills.

? Collaborate as a team to solve a problem for an organization.

? Understand the basic steps of design thinking and apply it to their solution development.

? Create an effective resume and interview with exceptional effectiveness.

These are, by the way, exactly the skills will assist students as they move from college to law school and from law school to the professional arena.

Learn more at: https://www.wofford.edu/

6. Centre College

As is the case with many of the schools on this list, Centre is better known among graduate school admission personnel than it is among the population at large. This is truly unfortunate. As was the case with Rhodes, if you haven’t explored the opportunities afforded by Centre College, then you really haven’t sufficiently explored enough of America’s outstanding schools. Moreover if your highly paid private college admissions adviser isn’t aware of the tremendous opportunities afforded by a Centre education FIRE that person.

Centre is a liberal arts school devoted exclusively to the education of undergraduates. Its faculty are hired and retained only if they demonstrate the desire and the ability to commit themselves to the intellectual development of undergraduates.

Here’s something else – institutional culture matters. Centre takes justifiable pride in its long history of producing leading jurists – including two distinguished members of the United States Supreme Court. The school has an actual Pre-law Advising Program that actually is more than just window dressing and puff (which is what most such programs actually are. At Centre, the two faculty pre-law advisors work with students from their freshman year to help them explore the law as a profession and to assist them in the application process during their junior and senior years.

The broad-based skills that law schools emphasize—effective writing and speaking, analytical ability, and a general exposure to the social sciences are also essential goals of Centre’s liberal arts curriculum. For this reason, Centre graduates have an enviable record of success in gaining admission to law schools and of performing well once they get there.

Learn more at: https://www.centre.edu/

7. Trinity College – Connecticut

At Trinity, teachers teach. As explained several times in this discussion, the colleges that make undergraduate education a true institutional priority are, sadly, few and far between. Schools that place emphasis on educating undergrads (as opposed to taking tuition and providing little more than an empty credential) place their graduates at a strong competitive advantage in graduate and professional school.

We are favorably impressed by the overall academic experience that Trinity provides to its students. A key characteristic of that experience includes the First Year Program, which acclimates first-year students to college learning through a small-group seminar class involving intensive discussion and writing, academic advising from the seminar professor and mentoring from an upperclassman. These first year seminars are designed to train students to write, discuss, and think critically. In the seminars, students explore an intellectually challenging topic with 14-15 of their classmates. The upper-class mentor supports the students in each seminar, providing general academic assistance, including writing help, library access, and advising.

Additionally, all Trinity students must meet distribution requirements in five categories: the Arts, Humanities, Natural Sciences, Numerical and Symbolic Reasoning, and Social Sciences.

Approximately 40 percent of students receive need-based financial assistance from Trinity, and an additional 5 percent receive further financial assistance from federal, state, and private funds. Each year, the school commits some $30 million to fund to financial aid awards.

Learn more at: https://www.trincoll.edu/Pages/default.aspx

8. Swarthmore College

We love – LOVE – this school. It attracts an amazing collection of intelligent, ambitious and hard-working students as well as a faculty that is as accomplished as any in the world.

From their very first day on campus, Swarthmore undergraduates are exposed to the type of academic training that will prepare them for the intellectual rigors of law school. Mandatory first-year seminars help students develop the learning skills that will support them throughout their college experience, while introducing them to a particular field of study.

Over the course of the semester, students in first-year seminars develop skills such as analytical thinking, critical reading, construction and presentation of sound academic arguments, academic writing, information literacy and how to get the most out of the library, independent research, and facility working collaboratively with peers … kind of like what law students and lawyers are expected to.

We are also favorably impressed by the school’s honors program. The program, in which about one third of undergraduates participate in, is built on the idea that engaging in dialogue is the best way to truly master material. One hallmark of the program is the small seminar-style classes in which each student has a chance to speak, as well as the chance to lead discussions.

Another distinctive feature is the exchange between students and external examiners who come to campus to meet with seniors, both to assess their work and enter into a dialogue about it. This type of approach to education is a superb way to prepare oneself for law school.

Also significant is the fact that Swarthmore is very generous with need-based financial aid. Most colleges and universities have essentially eviscerated need-based aid programs in favor of merit-based aid. They have done so not out of principle, but in a cynical and shallow attempt to attract “better” students in the hope of gaming the USNews and World Report rankings. In all honesty, college marketing, recruitment, admissions and financial aid practices are, as our students would say, sketchy. Not so at Swarthmore.

About 54 percent of the student body receives scholarship assistance on the basis of demonstrated financial need, and a total of 70 percent of Swarthmore students shared more than $36 million in scholarships, loans, and work opportunities during the 2011-2012 academic year.

At Swarthmore admissions and financial aid decisions are made independently for U.S. citizens and permanent residents. Most impressively, Swarthmore financial aid awards are designed without loans so as to enable our students to graduate debt-free; of course, some families do still borrow to pay their shares of tuition, fees, room and board.

Learn more at: https://www.swarthmore.edu/

9. Bucknell University

Another relatively hidden gem in American higher education, Bucknell offers a curriculum that combines a commitment to the traditions of a liberal arts education with a pragmatic dedication to assisting students in the development of real-world skills. The College of Arts and Science offers The Common Learning Agenda, a program of learning that was developed by to give students the opportunity to acquire the education they will need in order to live and work successfully in the 21st century.

The various components of the Common Learning Agenda help in different ways to realize this goal, but they all address a concern for how students learn as well as for what they learn. The six components are:

1. Foundation Seminar

One course of 15 or so students required of all students in their first year.

2. Disciplinary Breadth

a. Humanities - four courses (no more than two in one department)

b. Social Sciences - two courses (in different departments)

c. Natural Sciences and Mathematics - three courses (two laboratory sciences and one other course in natural sciences, mathematics, or computer science.)

3. Broadened Perspectives for the 21st Century

a. Perspectives on the Natural and Fabricated Worlds - one course

These courses focus on the influence and impact of technology on society and the environment or principles that help us to live harmoniously with the natural world.

b. Perspectives on Human Diversity - one course

These courses address themes of human diversity either within or across national borders.

4. Disciplinary Depth

A departmental, interdepartmental, or college major.

5. Capstone Experience

One integrative course or equivalent experience during the senior year.

6. Writing Competency

The system serves students well in the world beyond college. According to the PayScale College Salary Survey, Bucknell alumni rank fourth nationally in mid-career salaries among liberal arts schools.

Bucknell is also relatively generous with financial aid. About 50 percent of students receive financial aid from Bucknell, and 62 percent receive financial aid of some form. The average total need-based aid package for a student in the Class of 2016 with demonstrated financial need is about $28,000, which includes grants and scholarships, loans and work study. The average total federal student loan indebtedness upon graduation is about $21,000.

Learn more at: https://www.bucknell.edu/

10. Union College

Union has, for more than two hundred years, quietly been one of the very best schools in the United States. The current strength of the school stems from its core curriculum and from two programs mandatory for all Union students: The interdisciplinary First-Year Preceptorial and the Sophomore Research Seminar.

Each first-year student at Union takes the Preceptorial during the fall or winter term of the first year. Faculty members from all disciplines teach the courses, which focus on developing students' critical reading, thinking and writing abilities.

Through reading, writing and discussing important ideas from diverse perspectives, students develop an appreciation for the habits of critical inquiry, learn to assess diverse points of view, and are taught to cope intellectually with the concept of ambiguity. All of this takes place in an environment that is designed to cultivate skills in analytical reading, clear and vigorous writing, and convincing argumentation.

A focus on writing is the most significant element in FYP. Students are expected to complete frequent writing assignments that receive written faculty response. Speaking, whether through participation in discussion, debates, formal presentations, or the use of "student discussion leaders," is also be an important part of the course.

This skill set, which is vital to success in law school, is enhanced by participation in the Sophomore Research Seminar. The SRS is designed to give all students an early experience in thinking like a researcher before or alongside their major program of study. Union teaches its students that thinking like a researcher means taking the raw materials of any subject or topic, analyzing them critically and creatively, and developing a reasoned argument or theory grounded in evidence.

The SRS deliberately challenges students to conduct research in a field that may not be in a student’s own area of study, and students are expected to find the best way to present their original research in a coherent, persuasive, and pleasing form, typically in the form of a 12-18 page research paper. Such a program will serve prospective law students quite well as they pursue their JD degrees.

Union does have a comprehensive financial aid program that includes more than $40 million in aid from Union's own resources and from federal, state, institutional and other agencies. More than $32 million in scholarships are awarded directly from Union each year, generally as merit awards. Over all, more than 60 percent of all Union students receive some kind of financial assistance.

Learn more at: https://www.union.edu/