DARTMOUTH – The University of Massachusetts’ new public law school recently announced that it has exceeded its application and enrollment goals for the fall semester.
The law school at UMass Dartmouth said it received more than 400 applications and 127 students have enrolled for this fall. The school has also received almost 1,000 inquiries about enrolling for the fall of 2011.
University officials said they were impressed by the number of students who applied, considering that the former Southern New England School of Law was accepted into the UMass system by the Mass. Board of Higher Education less than four months ago.
“There has been an overwhelmingly positive response and we are looking forward to welcoming the first class of the University of Massachusetts School of Law-Dartmouth in September,” UMass Dartmouth Chancellor Jean MacCormack said in a statement.
The new public law school was established when UMass Dartmouth took over SNESL. Its leaders agreed to donate the school’s estimated $22.6 million in cash and real estate to the state university system.
By merging, officials from UMass and SNESL hope there will be able to marshal the resources to get the law school accredited by the American Bar Association, which had denied SNESL’s applications in 1997 and 1999. UMass Dartmouth says it plans to seek provisional accreditation from the ABA in 2011.
The UMass Dartmouth School of Law is also in the process of awarding Public Interest Fellowships to 25 students interested in serving in public interest law. The fellowships would cut the students’ tuition in half in exchange for working in the public interest for the first four years of their careers.
Tuition for the new public law school is set at $23,565 for in-state students and $31,209 for out-of-state students – well below the tuitions of many private law schools in the region.
“We have always believed that there was a need for a public law option in Massachusetts, and the level of interest and excitement that we are seeing certainly validates that belief,” UMass President Jack Wilson said. “UMass Law is clearly on the path to success.”
