By SARAH L. OSTLER
The J. Reuben Clark Law School at BYU has distinguished itself since it was founded in 1973. Many students consider law school an option, but actually applying is an entirely different matter.
Although it is not a necessary step, the Pre-Law Advisement Center in 2240 SFLC, offers help to students looking to apply to law school.
“The advisor knows what law schools are looking for,” said Carolyn Maddox, a senior, majoring in humanities, from St. Louis.
Before an appointment with the advisor is set up, students must check out a two-hour video on preparing for the Law School Admissions Test and applying to law school. The video is designed to answer questions students usually have.
After they have watched the video, students may attend a group meeting which serves as a follow-up to the video, said Barbara Davis, secretary for the Pre-Law Advisement Center. At the meeting, the center’s advisor, Eileen Crane, answers any questions not made clear by the video.
Once a student has completed these steps, they may set up a one-on-one interview with Crane.
Anywhere from 650 to 750 students apply each year, said Scott Cameron, dean of admissions for the law school.
The application process selects approximately 150 students each year who meet the high academic and admissions criteria.
“The advisor recommends you take Philosophy 205,” Maddox said.
However, she said there are no set prerequisites for law school.
Prior to entering law school, a student must have earned a bachelor’s degree so that they are assured “the soundest possible foundation for the study of law at the graduate level,” according to the BYU J. Reuben Clark Law School Bulletin.
“The greatest worth lies in courses that truly challenge the intellect,” according to the bulletin.
Maddox was told to play logic games to help increase her ways of thinking.
BYU offers a class to prepare students to take the LSAT. The video in the advisement center recommends studying for two hours a day in preparation for the LSAT. Practice tests are offered every week or two, Maddox said.
Maddox plans on taking the LSAT in June 1998 and entering law school in the fall of 1999. The advisement center recommends taking the LSAT a year prior to entering law school because the application process is so rigorous.
Besides having high scores on the LSAT and a high grade point average, students must also write a personal statement and have three letters of recommendation for admission into the BYU Law School.
The law school uses an index based on the undergraduate GPA and the LSAT score, Cameron said. While there is no minimum score requirement, it is possible to project a student’s chances for admission.
“We keep statistical information for prior years to determine (a student’s) chances,” Cameron said.
Besides the numerical information, the law school takes into consideration the letters of recommendation, trends in a student’s grades, patterns in courses taken, the LSAT writing sample, and any graduate work and outside work while in college, according to the bulletin.
Of the students who were admitted this fall, 34 percent were female and 66 percent were male. That percentage breakdown is about the same for each of the current classes, Cameron said.
All first-year students have many resources available to them. Weekly tutorial sessions, small-section reviews and appointments with the director of the Legal Writing Clinic all provide support designed to help meet the demands of law school.
The newly expanded Howard W. Hunter Library is “one of the most technologically advanced law libraries in the world,” according to the bulletin.
All students are assigned their own study carrel “with direct high-speed access to the Internet, including e-mail, all CD-ROM services of the library, file services, and print services,” said H. Reese Hansen, dean of the law school, in the bulletin.
First-year courses “emphasize established fundamentals of law and are intended to provide the foundation for courses available in the second and third years,” according to the bulletin.
The law school also offers several joint degree programs. Students can work for their law degree as well as a master of business administration, master of public administration, master of organizational behavior or master of accountancy in four years.
“About 6 to 10 percent of the students in each class are in the joint degree program,” Cameron said.
The law program takes three years and each of the business degrees is two years. Since many of the classes are similar, a student can work for both in four academic years.
The law school has 24 faculty members who obtained their degrees from schools such as Harvard, the University of Chicago and BYU.
Tuition per semester for the law school is $2,475 for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and $3,715 for non-members.
Admission applications can be submitted beginning in September of the year prior to expected entrance. The deadline is in February. Most students can expect to be notified by April 1 of their admission status.
