Top Law Schools

The UC Regents approved tuition/fee hikes today for law students, except for those at Hastings, which sets its own rates. You'll notice an Irvine tuition rate, though as everyone knows, the Class of 2012 doesn't have to pay.

Irvine's rate is set higher than UCLA's, and Davis is scheduled to catch up to UCLA in 2010-11 at $39,992. Berkeley is tentatively scheduled to go to $47,718 in-state in 2011-12. The rates for 2009-10 correspond to what the schools have been telling students.

2009-10 (in-state)
Berkeley: $35,847
Davis: $34,005
Irvine: $35,784
UCLA: $35,274

2009-10 (out-of-state)
Berkeley: $48,091
Davis: $44,951
Irvine: $46,424
UCLA: $45,914

The document also includes the following proposals for 2010-11 and 2011-12 in-state tuition, which have to be reviewed again next year:

2010-11
Berkeley: $41,384
Davis: $39,992
Irvine: $40,309
UCLA: $39,992

2011-12
Berkeley: $47,718
Davis: $43,712
Irvine: $43,921
UCLA: $43,811

Source: http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/r ... y09/j2.pdf

Explanation:
Law (Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles – 15.8 percent - 25 percent increases in 2009-10). The Berkeley, Davis and Los Angeles Law programs lost considerable ground with their competitors when deep reductions in State subsidy occurred in the early part of this decade. As those cuts have had long-lasting effects, it is necessary that fee increases for these programs be higher than those approved for other programs in order to fund faculty salaries and otherwise support their academic programs as they strive to regain their competitiveness.

Berkeley and Los Angeles, whose proposed increases are consistent with those included in prior multi-year plans submitted by these programs, propose to use a portion of the revenue generated by professional degree fee increases to significantly expand their financial aid programs, in addition to supporting their academic programs. Irvine, whose first law school class will enroll in Fall 2009, plans to use new professional degree fee revenue as a significant part of its total financial aid funding.

Davis proposes to use its new professional degree fee revenue to build the program’s academic program, e.g., by attracting quality faculty and ensuring access for students. In 2008-09, Davis proposed smaller professional degree fee increases than Berkeley and Los Angeles; with its latest multi-year plan, Davis Law proposes catching up to Los Angeles’ resident professional degree fee levels by 2010-11. Davis Law notes that the professional degree fee increases proposed in its multi-year plan will not allow the program to meet all its needs; in the short term, Davis Law will need to spend down reserves to meet program needs. If the proposed professional degree fee increases are not approved by the Regents, Davis Law would need to take additional undesirable steps to close the program’s budget gap: eliminating significant curricular offerings, faculty research support programs, international law programs, and campus collaborations; discontinuing or significantly curtailing its highly successful academic and public service programs; eliminating merit-based recruitment and retention scholarships; or delaying or canceling scheduled enhancements to its Loan Repayment Assistance Program.

Multi-year plans for all UC law programs discuss the programs’ strong commitment to financial aid; Los Angeles Law, for example, has significantly increased its maximum grant to the neediest students and will more than triple its Loan Repayment Assistance program this year. Each of the mature law programs offers a Loan Repayment Assistance Plan (LRAP) program; Davis was the first public law school in California to offer such a program, and Berkeley’s LRAP program is among the most generous in the nation. Irvine Law will combine private scholarship money with financial aid dollars generated by professional fees to provide full tuition and fee scholarships to its founding class of students; in addition, Irvine is developing an LRAP program modeled on Berkeley’s program.

This is very interesting, as well as unsettling. Do you think Hastings will just copy whatever Davis does?

^idts, hastings does their own thang.

will you return with more uc info, ucinfo?

Damn there goes my master plan of getting UCLA in-state for 2L and 3L

That's kinda nuts. Out-of-state tuition might hit 60k at UCI by the time I graduate.

Definitely makes me appreciate the free ride even more...

With regard to rising tuition of colleges in general (not just law schools), I do sometimes wonder how long it'll be before nobody can afford a higher education unless they have rich parents... and the dream of America as a meritocracy promptly dies.

pany1985 wrote:With regard to rising tuition of colleges in general (not just law schools), I do sometimes wonder how long it'll be before nobody can afford a higher education unless they have rich parents... and the dream of America as a meritocracy promptly dies.

Well there's need based aid in college.

^think about that all the time lately.
i wonder as all other markets come crashing down and level out, if tuition rates will decline some as well.

That makes sense. Cali is broke!

I don't exactly think it'll ever get to a point where truly smart/talented people really can't find a way to get ahead, but tuition can only rise faster than inflation and wages for so long before there's a serious problem

i think the bottom schools will see a serious problem bc with nooo job security in the future, there's prob less people willing to pay sticker. but i'm not sure...

Does anyone know how many state dollars are used to subsidize a law student at, say, Berkeley? I believe the number is about 11,000 for a UG student.

Wow, this is going to make me seriously reconsider my options if I get off the UCLA waitlist. I would've taken it no doubt, but at these prices... yikes.

you'll be able to get instate after 1l, fwiw (which may not be enough now)

i swear i remember 3-4 years ago looking at uc tuition rates and they were ~19,000 for instate. that is one helluva jump.

deadatheist wrote:you'll be able to get instate after 1l, fwiw (which may not be enough now)

I think UC's don't let you do that. IIRC, if you're there for educational reasons you don't qualify for in-state.

Can someone definitely confirm or deny this?

i. can. def. confirm this.

pm if necessary, i don't shout out my buis on the web

I can't say from experience, but the financial aid officer at Berkeley told a group of students that nearly everyone that starts their 1L year out of state takes the necessary steps to qualify for in-state tuition by their 2L year.

Nevermind then. I had heard that from a Berkeley guy one time.

I would imagine the "necessary steps" (whatever they may be) are worth it to save yourself about 25 grand

Yes feeb... it's "establishing residency after 1st year for tuition purposes"

pany1985 wrote:I would imagine the "necessary steps" (whatever they may be) are worth it to save yourself about 25 grand

all this is info is at your disposal. here's some others besides utilities bills and more common forms of proof of res:s:

1. tax forms matter, so ask the school's residency experts what forms are needed/preferred specifically for your situation (lots of diff scenarios, say you worked during summer 09 in your homestate and fall 09 in CA) to help with your CA residency
2. where you do your banking helps a lot. did you transfer or open your bank account in CA; close your account in the homestate?
3. Summer and holiday plans are huge. if you can prove you have stayed instate during nonacademic periods, you're almost golden for residency. If you return to your homestate for the summer, it's almost like an auto-ding for a residency request. Granted, people spend summers working or interning in other states (DC or NY), but if these are your homestates, you'll need to learn how these plans will affect your residency. If you at least apply for CA jobs and internships, and can provide proof of these applications (your application, correspondence with hiring parties, etc.) that can help your case.

c&p'd from an old thread i shared this in

I didn't personally care to look it up since it doesn't affect me, but I'm sure that's useful moneysaving info to a lot of people

I *hope* but somehow i doubt hastings will keep rates as is if the other uc's are hiking it up

here is a history of hastings' rates:http://www.uchastings.edu/alumni/giving ... rison.html

goodness how i wish it was the 1958 rate--I have that much in my bank account and would be thrilled to pay right away:)!

kimins wrote:I *hope* but somehow i doubt hastings will keep rates as is if the other uc's are hiking it up

here is a history of hastings' rates:http://www.uchastings.edu/alumni/giving ... rison.html

goodness how i wish it was the 1958 rate--I have that much in my bank account and would be thrilled to pay right away:)!

You probably wouldn't want to be earning a 1958 lawyer's salary when you graduate though

I do think it's incredible that only 15 years ago, in-state was $4,000

it also kinda seems like they gotta hike it up to keep their ranking in world news report to in some cases increase it-----hiring new "quality" faculty and striving to keep their competitiveness----so we should all pay more so they fullfill their goals of being the "best"......* sigh *