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« TLS Profiles - TLS Programs - TLS Stats - Rankings The University of Pittsburgh School of LawWritten by Hadi Sedigh
Admissions and Tuition: Receiving over 2,100 applications for fewer than 240 seats in a typical year, the University of Pittsburgh law school must be fairly selective in granting admissions offers. For the entering class of 2009, the school received 2,181 applications, admitted approximately 800 applicants, of which 235 accepted admissions offers and matriculated. The LSAT scores of this entering class at the 25th and 75th percentiles were 157 and 161, while the undergraduate GPAs of the class at the same percentiles were 3.18 and 3.63. Generally speaking, students with numbers that fall within these ranges should be competitive in future application cycles, while students with numbers near or above the 75th percentiles should have a good chance of receiving sizable scholarships. Applicants with numbers near or below the 25th percentiles, on the other hand, would be wise to ensure that they submit their applications early on in the cycle, as Pittsburgh Law conducts its admissions cycle on a rolling basis. Such applicants should also aim to highlight in their application any diversity that they may bring to the student body of Pittsburgh Law. As previously mentioned, the University of Pittsburgh law school offers a relatively low rate of tuition to Pennsylvania residents. For the 2009-2010 academic year, residents paid $24,368, while non-residents were charged $32,364. Fortunately for non-residents, who comprised nearly half of the entering class of 2009, most should be able to take advantage of resident rates after their first year at the law school if they are financially independent. Academics and Curriculum: As is standard practice, students at the University of Pittsburgh Law School enroll in a required set of core courses in their first year, including Torts, Property, Civil Procedure and Legal Writing. Following this first and most rigorous year, students are mostly free to pursue their interests by choosing from among more than 100 elective courses to fulfill their 88 credit-hour requirement. Aside from required and elective courses, students at Pittsburgh Law also enjoy access to a wide variety of other academic opportunities, including several clinical programs, certification programs, and joint-degree programs. Clinical opportunities, which give students the opportunity to gain practical legal experience through real court cases, include the Tax Clinic, the Environmental Law Clinic, the Civil Practice Clinic, and the Elder Law Clinic, among others. Certification programs, which allow students to gain specialized expertise in a particular area of the law by enrolling in focused courses, are offered in the areas of international law, intellectual property, and environmental law, among others. Joint-degree programs, which allow students to merge law with other academic fields, include, among others, the JD/MBA program with Pitt and Carnegie Mellon University, the JD/MPH with Pitt’s Graduate School of Public Health, and the JD/MS with the Heinz School of Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University. Quality of Life:
Employment Prospects and Bar Passage: Although a large majority of the University of Pittsburgh law school students typically stay in the state to begin their practice of the law, employment prospects outside of the state are also available. Along the entire East Coast, and especially in DC and New York, Pittsburgh Law students are consistently able to land jobs as many firms from the coast visit Pittsburgh to interview top students each year. Students looking to find jobs in the South or West, on the other hand, may be in for a much tougher job search and will likely have to rely heavily on the referrals of the school’s alumni network. Nevertheless, up to 94% of Pittsburgh Law grads are typically employed within 9 months of graduation, thanks in large part to the efforts of the school’s Career Service’s Office. Typically, between 65% and 75% of graduates begin their practice of the law in the private sector, while about 10% take on judicial clerkship opportunities each year. For those who choose to enter the private sector, the median first-year salary has risen to $95,000 in recent years. In terms of bar passage in the state of Pennsylvania, where most of the school’s graduates take the exam for the first time, Pittsburgh Law students generally succeed at a greater rate than the overall state passage rate. For the most recent exam, 89.5% of Pittsburgh Law students passed, while only 83.0% of all test-takers in the state passed. Synopsis: For residents of the state of Pennsylvania and for applicants who hope to find employment in and around the state, the University of Pittsburgh School of Law is a great place to pursue a legal education. The school offers a variety of learning opportunities in and out of the classroom, ensuring that graduates of Pittsburgh Law are prepared to enter the legal field upon leaving the school. Contact Information: University of Pittsburgh School of Law Quick Reference: U.S. News ranking: 71st |
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For over a century, the University of Pittsburgh School of Law has educated many of the most influential lawyers in and around the Pittsburgh area. Through its wide variety of elective courses, clinical opportunities, and concentration programs, the school ensures that its students can tailor their legal education to their interests and that they are prepared to practice in any field of the law. For residents of the state of Pennsylvania, the school is an especially attractive option, since its public standing allows it to offer in-state tuition to such applicants. Applicants interested in working in and around Pennsylvania should give the school serious consideration as well, as the University of Pittsburgh School of Law has long established its ability to place its students into many of the top law firms of the state. 
Various factors contribute to the high quality of life enjoyed by students of the University of Pittsburgh law school. Housing around the law school campus is plentiful and affordable, as students are usually able to find apartments for $600 or less in close proximity of the school. Those living a bit further from campus need not worry about transportation, as Pittsburgh Law students can ride the city’s buses for free with their student IDs. When law students feel the need to unwind, they can visit one of Pittsburgh’s many bars and clubs, and the school sponsored weekly Bar Review allows them to visit these bars and clubs with their fellow law students on a weekly basis. Various eateries and cafes are also found near the Pitt campus, at which students can pass free time before and after classes. All this, added to the collegial environment and lack of cutthroat competition at the law school, ensures that students at the University of Pittsburgh law school can enjoy a high quality of life while pursuing their legal studies.