DALLAS, Dec. 5, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- As thousands of aspiring law students are preparing take the LSAT between December 7 and 9, they will have a new option for where to send their scores, a new law school whose tuition rates might have some of them doing a double take. With annual tuition of $12,540 for resident students starting in the fall of 2014, UNT Dallas College of Law's tuition is just slightly more than half the national average of public law school tuition measured at $23,214 by the American Bar Association for 2012.
How can they do this? Being new has its advantages. "We do not have the burden of legacy costs," said Founding Dean Royal Furgeson. "The cost for libraries, for teachers and for administration is something we can control. We have these advantages as a new law school. And while we will do all we can to keep tuition as low as possible, we will not be sacrificing the quality of our legal education."
UNT Dallas College of Law is purposefully bucking the trend in legal education costs. Average tuition for public law schools has steadily increased over the past 27 years at the rate of nearly 10 percent per annum, according to the American Bar Association (ABA). In 1985, the average tuition was only $2,006. In 2012, average tuition at a public law school was $23,214, an increase of more than 1,000 percent. The average tuition at a private law school in 2012 was $40,634, according to the ABA.
Earlier this year, the UNT System Board of Regents approved a figure of $14,040 for annual tuition at the UNT Dallas College of Law. And then the Board immediately approved a $1,500 partial tuition waiver for both full-time and part-time resident students in the inaugural class of fall 2014. With the partial waiver, the total annual full-time tuition for resident students starting in fall 2014 comes to $12,540.
"A core goal of our College of Law is keeping tuition and debt low to the extent possible while still meeting our educational mission of excellence in developing practice-related competencies," Ferguson concluded.
UNT Dallas College of Law is a new public law school located in downtown Dallas, in a recently renovated historic building. Authorized by the legislature in 2009, the College of Law is now accepting applications for the inaugural law class, which will be seated in fall 2014.
UNT Dallas College of Law will: provide a legal education that is aimed at excellence in developing the full range of practice-related competencies; be a leader in best practices for legal education; widen access to legal education for qualifying students who lack realistic access due to cost, location, or the current dominance of the LSAT in admission and scholarship decisions; create opportunity through affordable tuition; and contribute to the legal profession and the Dallas-Fort Worth community. UNT Dallas College of Law is part of the UNT System. For more information, visit http://lawschool.untsystem.edu/.