Loyola College of Law is offering a program, unbeknownst to many, that allows juniors to forgo their senior year and go straight to law school.
It is called the Early Admittance Program and it is offered to undergraduate students that have completed three-fourths of their degree requirements and are studious enough to get a better grade point average and score on the LSAT than most other Loyola Law applicants.
The American Bar Association allows law schools to admit undergraduates with at least three-fourths of their degree requirements so long as they are “from an institution that is accredited by an accrediting agency recognized by the Department of Education.” The ABA three-fourths ruling is an often overlooked ‘shortcut’ that appeals to ambitious students.
“They have to have higher credentials to be admitted than those who will be coming in with a degree,” says Michele Allison-Davis, Dean of Admissions at Loyola College of Law.
The presumptive admission level (or, basically, the cut-off) is a 155 (out of 180) on the LSAT and a 3.4 GPA. According to Davis, up until eight or nine years ago the cut-off for the early admission program was a 3.9 GPA. and a 165 on the LSAT. Since then, those have been reduced to a 3.6 GPA. and a 158 LSAT score.
A look at how many Loyola Law students have actually taken advantage of this program over the years would explain why Loyola Law has since lowered their requirements for enterprising youth.
Out of the 249 students who make up the latest incoming class of first-year law students, only one took part in the program.
“It’s not a very popular program. I don’t know why,” said Davis. “We’ll have a lot of years with none and then most years we usually have one or two.”
It’s like that every year. But this isn’t unusual. In 2007, the Law School Admission Council reported that all law school applicants aged 21 and under comprised but 2 percent of all applicants.
Despite the limited margin this demographic resides in, law applicants 21 or younger are the second least likely to not be accepted by any law school. In first are 22-24 year olds, which amount to almost 50 percent of all applicants, according to LSAC.
“A lot of times we get applicants who are older. Maybe they’ve come back to school the finish their undergrad but they don’t want to take that last year,” said Davis. “Sometimes it’s just young people in a hurry.”
According to the LSAC, the older the applicant, the less likely they are to get into any law school.
The Loyola Law School will accept any person 75 percent done with their degree. According to Davis.
Loyola Law’s most recent entering class represents 125 colleges.
Young and ambitious undergraduates are at an advantage if they are serious about getting a law degree.
At an even greater advantage are Loyola undergrads.
“They have an advantage in the sense that we know Loyola,” said Davis.
The law school is more familiar with the difficulty of the different academic tracks offered at Loyola and the faculty that teaches them.
Therefore, letters of recommendation have more credibility.
“And we like to admit our own students,” said Davis.
Any law applicant accepted by the early admittance program is eligible for a program offered at Loyola Law School.
This includes the Combined Degree Programs that allow students to earn their Juris Doctorate and a master’s degree in Business Administration.
Public Administration, or Urban or Regional Planning at the same time. In theory, a hard working student, if they finish their senior year by taking summer classes, could earn all three degrees in seven years.
But according to Davis, to his knowledge, nobody has ever attempted to do so.
Jean Paul Arguello can be reached at [email protected].
