UCI (UC Irvine) c/o 2015 Applicants (2011-2012 cycle) Forum

[legalabogada]

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[lawgeekgrl]

AAP? I'm too old. HAHAH. My sorority days were ages ago.

One can never be too old to celebrate life... just saying

[D1Swimmer]

My interest in ASW went from low to high really quickly after the last page of posts. 3 weeks can't pass soon enough!

[legalabogada]

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[lawgeekgrl]

My interest in ASW went from low to high really quickly after the last page of posts. 3 weeks can't pass soon enough!

It's hard not to get excited about the prospect of a cold U.C.I.P.A. !!!

[lrslayer]

HAHA this is true lawgeekgrl. BTW, by too old I mean 26. Which to me is the equivalent of being the token 40 year old.

i turn 30 in may so..... i guess i am the old
but i'm still gonna party!

[TrojanHopeful]

Staying at the Radisson in Newport...

[Green Glass Windows]

SOOOOO EXCITED! I'm serious though, I had no expectations for this thing until today.

[legalabogada]

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[gregucla10]

I imagine the price spectrum is huge, since you can technically stay anywhere.. but UCI recommends 5 hotels in the area, which offer "UCI rates". They are:
Atrium Hotel - $95
Crowne Plaza - $109 weekday, $89 weekend
Hilton - $129 weekday, $99 weekend
Radisson - $119 weekday, $99 weekend
Marriott - $99

[lawgeekgrl]

HAHA this is true lawgeekgrl. BTW, by too old I mean 26. Which to me is the equivalent of being the token 40 year old.

i turn 30 in may so..... i guess i am the old
but i'm still gonna party!

Age is just a number the same way the LSAT is just a number.

In the end, everything else is what really counts.

[TrojanHopeful]

Not sure about the other hotels, but the Radisson in Newport is only 2.9 miles away from the law school. Straight shot down Campus St.

[brogoc]

For those of you flying in to the Orange County airport, the Atrium hotel is right across the street so you can walk there easily. It's a nice place, close to the university, and they have a shuttle.

[splitbrain]

Muahaha $55/night at the Crowne Plaza thanks to Priceline

*flex*

[Munchkin318]

So jealous to all those going! I would love to visit the school but just don't think it's a contender with only a small scholly. Will live vicariously through my TLSers instead!

[gregucla10]

Also staying at the Radisson.. great location

[splitbrain]

Only thing I hate about the hotels in that area is that they all charge you $12-15/night just to park there...combine that with the parking at UCI...ugh...

Can we hijack a shuttle...or something? Carpool from the hotels...? Jetpacks...?

[aarias11]

All fun aside anybody have any predictions as to what ranking UCI will debut in? Someone from UCI Law was saying that they strongly believe it will debut in #19. I find it hard to believe any school can debut in the top 20 but that is just my opinion. What do you guys think??

[brogoc]

All fun aside anybody have any predictions as to what ranking UCI will debut in? Someone from UCI Law was saying that they strongly believe it will debut in #19. I find it hard to believe any school can debut in the top 20 but that is just my opinion. What do you guys think??

It's hard to predict. In terms of LSAT scores, GPA, selectivity, student-faculty ratio, etc I think #19 sounds about right. But 40% of the US News formula is determined by reputational surveys sent to faculty, lawyers, and judges across the country. And UCI has no reputation because it has no graduates. So who knows how well they will fare in those surveys.

[splitbrain]

All fun aside anybody have any predictions as to what ranking UCI will debut in? Someone from UCI Law was saying that they strongly believe it will debut in #19. I find it hard to believe any school can debut in the top 20 but that is just my opinion. What do you guys think??

There's always discussion about it, but realistically, absolutely no one can predict this right now with any accuracy. The most probable range is 17-45 (yeah...that wide...).

From http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... &start=100:

(The blue text is my response, everything else is from apropos)

Look at the numbers. The US News methodology for 2012 was as follows:

40% Quality Assessment (25% peer; 15% judges)
-- The only good gauge we have for judges is Judicial Clerkship hiring, which was famously third to Yale and Stanford by percentage of students. Sure, it was a small UCI class, but this is a very positive sign.
-- We don't really have a good gauge for peer ratings. The only hint we sort of have is the poll Leiter took in 2010 (http://leiterlawschool.typepad.com/leit ... r-all.html). This is not anywhere near conclusive, but there were also no factors biasing this in UCI's favor. Plus, this was in 2010. UCI's rep has only improved.

This is a pretty tough thing to gauge - Leiter will probably positively affect the peer ratings (25%), but the remaining 15% of this score has a ~14% response rate, making this the biggest wildcard.

25% Selectivity
--Here we have good number to base this on, and UCI has the GPA/LSAT medians of schools in the high teens and low twenties. And UCI has a lower acceptance rate.

This ranking will be based off a future class, not that initial group. There is potential for them to drop the ball here, especially as guaranteed scholarships are no more, and they seem to be running pretty dry this cycle. That being said, if they can maintain their medians, then they're fine. I noticed their website does not show medians, though, only 25th and 75th percentiles. That's true. It is known now, though, that the LS dean has a mandate (or was given permission) to only increase class sizes while maintaining student numbers. This is what they've done so far (only minor variations), and I see no reason why they wouldn't continue. They seem to be in no rush to get to the projected 200.

15% Resources (incl. Expenditures per student, faculty to student ratio, library resources.)
-- This is harder to determine. But, there have been a lot of donations from rich OC folk, the faculty to student ratio is among the best, the library, from what I've heard, is excellent. So there's not much here that spells trouble.

10% is a pretty good portion of a ranking that we don't know about (regarding student expenditures). That being said, the student-faculty ratio will give them a boost, but it's only 3% of the total ranking.

20% Employment
-- This is really the big unknown. There are too many factors determining employment for a given school, and while things obviously look positive at UCI right now, the class size is small enough that it might be under-supplying lawyers right now, making for positive numbers now until they start oversupplying when they hit a class of ~200. No one really knows, but for now employment looks good.

I actually think this is the best thing going for them currently. That initial ranking will exclusively be based on that tiny first graduating class. They also made sure that group had 100% summer employment last summer. With ~59 students, this one's pretty easy. Same goes for bar passage (2% of ranking).

[uci2013]

Only thing I hate about the hotels in that area is that they all charge you $12-15/night just to park there...combine that with the parking at UCI...ugh...

Can we hijack a shuttle...or something? Carpool from the hotels...? Jetpacks...?

2 years ago parking was free at the Radisson. Can't say for sure if it still is.

[splitbrain]

Only thing I hate about the hotels in that area is that they all charge you $12-15/night just to park there...combine that with the parking at UCI...ugh...

Can we hijack a shuttle...or something? Carpool from the hotels...? Jetpacks...?

2 years ago parking was free at the Radisson. Can't say for sure if it still is.

Damn you, Shatner! Priceline keeps sticking me with these places that overcharge for parking. Last time I was in Irvine I thought I was getting an awesome deal at the Hyatt Regency and then BAM: $15/night for parking. Same thing this time with the Crowne Plaza. Boo!

[lawgeekgrl]

Any idea of when we receive financial aid packages info? I was wondering if it was on a rolling basis or a certain date, etc.

[TrojanHopeful]

Any idea of when we receive financial aid packages info? I was wondering if it was on a rolling basis or a certain date, etc.

When I spoke with Nazreen (financial aid) she said they would be sending it out sometime this month.

[lawgeekgrl]

Any idea of when we receive financial aid packages info? I was wondering if it was on a rolling basis or a certain date, etc.

When I spoke with Nazreen (financial aid) she said they would be sending it out sometime this month.

Good to know, thanks!

By the way, she didn't happen to mention the range of grant aid they're planning to give out this year, did she?