University of Miami School of Law Slows Growth of Tuition
We’ve talked a lot about law schools that are raising tuition. It borders on unconscionable for schools to pump up tuition at a time of deflationary legal salaries and a difficult job market.
So I was a little surprised when I received this email from a University of Miami School of Law student:
The Dean of UM just sent out an email announcing policy changes that are going to save students’ tuition money (up to a couple thousand $$$ per semester). This while other law school in America is trying to milk every last cent out of students.
A law school that costs less? To the bat mobile!
Unfortunately, Miami is not lowering tuition outright. Instead, the school is making sure that nobody is paying extra tuition. Here’s how Miami Law School Dean Patricia White explains it:
Dear Students,There are two tuition policy changes which I would like to announce and bring to your attention as you go about registering for next semester. Both of them are designed to help you cap your tuition cost in any given semester to the amount of the law school’s then full-time tuition semester rate (currently $18,709). Both of these changes will go into effect this Spring semester.
That’s still a hefty per semester cost. But the website Top Law Schools explains that it is not totally unreasonable given the state of legal education right now:
At $38,012, tuition at Miami is neither terribly high nor especially low. Considering also room and board (~$13,000) and miscellaneous fees (~$9,000 including books), the annual cost of attendance at Miami is approximately $60,000. Multiplied by three years and the total cost becomes almost $180,000. This is a hefty price-tag; but Miami is pretty good about awarding financial aid (to 32% of its students). Grants in 2007 ranged from $15,300 to $23,000, and the median was a strong $20,000.
Yeah, that’s a lot of money. But south beach is pretty awesome.
The biggest benefit from the change at Miami is that students can take classes at other schools in the University of Miami system at no additional charge. Maybe they can learn some skills that are more marketable than all this legal training?
Read the full email below:
UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI SCHOOL OF LAW — MEMO — TUITION
Dear Students,
There are two tuition policy changes which I would like to announce and bring to your attention as you go about registering for next semester. Both of them are designed to help you cap your tuition cost in any given semester to the amount of the law school’s then full-time tuition semester rate (currently $18,709). Both of these changes will go into effect this Spring semester.
1) Under our current rules, all UM Law students may take up to 6 credits of graduate level coursework in another UM department or school and count these credits toward their law degree. The rules describing what is allowed are set out in Chapter 16 of the Student Handbook. Unfortunately many of you have felt discouraged from taking advantage of this opportunity by our tuition structure. Rather than try to describe that structure in detail, let me just say that it often worked to impose an extra charge on students who took allowed courses outside of the Law School. This will no longer be the case. Your Law School tuition will now cover those nonlaw courses which you take and apply to your law degree. There will be no surcharge. I very much hope that this will encourage you to take greater advantage of what the University has to offer. Some of you are currently pursuing joint degree programs. I hope that the number of such programs will expand very soon. The tuition structure has made these programs more expensive than they need to be. The change described above will have the effect of capping the tuition cost of any given semester at the full-time Law School rate. One warning…we may not succeed in getting the University billing system adjusted quickly enough to keep you from getting tuition bills charging you more than $18,709. Please be patient and simply send the notice of any such charges to deanofstudents@law.miami.edu We will make sure that your bill is corrected. Please do not complain to the University billing folks!!
2) Under certain unusual circumstances students are allowed to request permission to take 17 credits in a semester. Permission to do this must be given by the Dean of Students. In the past. we have charged additional tuition for that extra credit (currently $1633). The full time rate has been limited to 16 credits. Henceforth, for tuition purposes, we will not charge additional tuition for 17 credits. This change will not affect the conditions under which permission to take a 17th credit will be granted.
I hope that these changes are helpful to you. TW
Patricia D. White
Dean & Professor of Law
University of Miami School of Law
Earlier: UC Hastings Law School to $50K (Non-Resident Tuition)
University of Miami Law School Puts Some Money into Public Service
(63) Comments
Comments
First
First, D. Marvin...
Elie, a bat mobile is a mobile (thingie over a crib) that (apparently) incorporates bats.
The Batmobile is Batman's car (which is what I think you were going for).
Toodles.
Elie, the sentence "That’s still a hefty per semester caught." is ungrammatical and completely nonsensical. What you were going for is incomprehensible.
Toodles.
Leave Mystal alone. It is very difficult to type with flippers, tusks, and 600 lbs of blubber.
"But south beach is pretty awesome. "
who the fuck do you think are, john quinn? you haven't earned what he's earned tubs
Elie, "South Beach," as a neighborhood of the city of Miami Beach, Florida, is a proper noun and thus deserves to be capitalized.
Toodles.
This is clearly a reaction to the negative press D. Marvin Douchebag brought on this illustrious university. Or it could just be that nobody wants to live in the shithole that is Miami to attend a sub-par law school.
Also, if you enjoy South Beah so much, there's a diet I'd like to try...
QUINN'S STILL GOT IT
I am the egg man
They are the egg men
I AM THE WALRUS!
missed a "c" there. Guess I should CHECK ME SPELLING
You mean, I may be able to petition the university to allow me to take 17 credits in a semester?!?!? Kick the tires and light the fires bat man, that makes the $200k worth of debt with no possibility at subsequent gainful employment sound spectacular.
An entire 32% of law students get financial aid, and the rest end up paying $180,000? Where do I sign up?
This reminds me of the old Jimmy Dean Sausage commercials, which proudly proclaim the meat product to be "seventy three percent fat-free!!"
Didn't they do something similar last year? Good on you, MiamiU
An entire 32% of law students get financial aid, and the rest end up paying $180,000? Where do I sign up?
This reminds me of the old Jimmy Dean Sausage commercials, which proudly proclaim the meat product to be "seventy three percent fat-free!!"
CUCKOO KACHOO!
Who the fuck cares?? I passed the bar exam!
I am afraid to think about what might happen if Mystal the Walrus happened to waddle through a puddle of radioactive waist.
pfft. If you're going to shell out top dollar for a law school, at least make sure its a strong national school like Columbia, Fordham, or BLS
This would never happen in Texas. We are at least civil to one another down here and treat each other with class and respect.
Locke Lord Houston
The tuiton cuts were made possible by the departure of D. Marvin Jones from the tenured faculty.
Little Known Fact:
Mystal has held a grudge against the City of Miami ever since an incident several years ago where he ran aground and was beached.
The incident made the fourth page of the Miami Herald.
I like this Toodles character. Funny. Says what I'm thinking.
I don't like Elie. Moron. Says what stupid people are thinking.
8 for the win. In fairness, other UM peer schools like thomas cooley would NEVER do this, regardless of the motivation.
@6 lol
Why the blatant atl trolling for ttt UM? Seriously? it isn't even aba accredited, is it?
Are you shittin' me my-stall? You slimy fucking walurs looking piece of shit! I'm gonna rip your balls off so you can't contaminate the rest of the world! I will motivate you to write a good article if it short dicks every cannibal in the congo!
@8 - It is completely the reaction to the lawsuit that brought this on. When you realize that you've got a professor (and I use the term lightly) like that, you know you've got to do something to get people to sit through a class with him.
If you invested $180k in condos in Miami you would lose your money slower.
Are we really going to gripe over whether it's "bat mobile" or "Batmobile"? Really? Seriously?
I understand this school took about 200 extra students for its IL class this year. They should be able to reduce tuition a bit, and the students will face that much increased competition for OCR and jobs when they graduate.
31, didn't they encourage students not to attend?
This while other law school in America is trying to milk every last cent out of students.
It is clear that we all know who educates this moron.
30 = D. Marvin
28: It'd be worth taking his class. How many students do you think will try to work the word "friable" into class discussion?
Dean White left point 3 out of her memo -- students who take any classes taught by Professor Donald Marvin Jones will be given $1,000 tuition credits as liquidated damages.
This year's welcome party for new students will be hosted in D. Marvin's Mercedes.
Once certain little hall monitors (they are too petty to be even considered gunners) tasted blood in the water during the Professor Jones feeding frenzy they are hungry for more typos so they can raise their hands in cyber class.
This ain't federal court kiddies, it’s a blog written in real time and on the fly—and it is harder than it looks. I would like to see one of the little typo nitpickers guest blog here for a day with their posted photo and posted real names/bio’s and see how they fare.
Thank you Professor Donald Jones for keeping our costs at bay!
C'mon Elie, proof read your posts.
By the context (including author), "To the bat mobile!" is clearly supposed to be "To the fat mobile!"
I ran aground at South Beach.
Since "Brownie" at FEMA was too busy being racist, I guilted volunteers into pouring water on me for days to keep me cool while they got the hydraulic lifting crane.
Victimology: Get What's Yours
38 = I couldn't agree more. Let's start with Roxana, shall we?
37 - rumor has it that he is also going to bring some $20 sluts to the party.
Doesn't anyone else think that education should be free?
44 = communist.
The only people "saving" any money are those taking non-law classes or taking more than the necessary credits. What's that, two people? And even those folks are paying the same as everyone else, they're just not paying extra. Some savings! REBATES FOR ALL!
45 thinks European countries like France are communist countries. You clearly never will attend a preeminent peer law school. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.
- not 44
@ 47. Love the Billy Madison inspired comment. Love. It.
-45 ( yet another bleeding heart liberal that attended a preeminent peer law school)
Texas bar results are out!
Great strategic move by UM.
Now, all those future law students thinking, "I have offers from HLS, CLS, NYU and UM but where will I go?" Will be saying, "UM for me!"
(I'm conflicted now. Part of me thinks UM should be congratulated for this move but another part just cant help being a dick. Probably too much time reading the comments on ATL.)
UM to $0! The true value of a JD from that school upon graduation! But at least you'll get to learn a thing or two from the pimps and hoes on "south beach" which is located just south of the north beach.
Nice... a Pat White in Miami that doesn't suck and wasn't a waste of an early 2nd round draft pick
Whatever happened to Carlos Huerta ?
Considering that 60% of UM students get Biglaw, this makes The U an even stronger investment than it already was!
I love the people making fun of UM and the people educated there. I'd be willing to bet that the disparaging comments come from people that go to law schools ranked only slightly higher and even then probably come from asshole's ranked near the bottom of their class. The haughty attitude you walk around with because you went to a name school doesn't go far in making you seem any better or smarter than a UM student, specifically @33 who wanted to douche on the student who sent this post to atl because of his typo. Where do you go to school? what is your class ranking? If you're already working where do you work? Even if you graduated highly in your class and work as a slave for big law (which i doubt because apparently you have enough time in your day to troll atl) you're probably miserable, so honestly, go fuck yourself. There are bright students and dim students at every school, even the best. Lastly a typo doesn't make you dumb, it makes you not care enough to spend time editing an email you send to a blog... so in summation, go fuck yourself everyone that has an attitude because they go to a top ranked school, I'm probably smarter than you and I pay a lot less to go to school. Lastly, we're all gonna be just as miserable when we graduate and I doubt you'll be any more likely to get a job than me.
Great, so when you graduate from a crappy law school and can't get a job, you'll have saved a few bucks.
Also, #54, if you are going to attend said crappy law school, you'd better grow a thicker skin, because you're going to be looked down on for a long time, son.
54,
If things were that great at Miami, you wouldn't have such a chip on your shoulder.
Further, if you're probably smarter than I am, and you want to pay less for law school, why didn't you go to Florida (#51) in-state for $12,339 rather than Miami (#71) for $36,594?
It would make sense for the school to offer a discount --or a refund, even -- to students taking classes with Prof. Jones.
57 pwned 54 so bad that his great grandkids will feel it. BOOM!
why is ATL obsessed with U. Miami? And why are there so many haters?
UM might be somewhat of a shithole - but at least its not a complete shithole like FIU - thats a cesspool from Hialeah....
I'm a 3L at UM and have a job lined up for after graduation. I have also taken Professor Jones, twice, and think that he is a great professor.
Things that have been said about UM that are true- we do have a lot of students that end up in BigLaw. But most of this is because the big law firms down here almost can't help but to hire UM grads, there are SO many of us down here. Go to any BigLaw website and see how many UM grads they have at their Miami office.
Dean White thinks she is doing something great here by letting us take more credits than we need- no one is going to graduate early because UM has this "residency requirement" which means you have to have a certain number of residency hours per semester/credit to graduate, so in the end you may just end up getting screwed by having to enroll in a final semester of the school only taking 3 credits which your scholarship doesn't cover, and it costs a fortune to live in Miami so even if you get a job, you lose.
I'm a 3L at UM and have a job lined up for after graduation. I have also taken Professor Jones, twice, and think that he is a great professor.
Things that have been said about UM that are true- we do have a lot of students that end up in BigLaw. But most of this is because the big law firms down here almost can't help but to hire UM grads, there are SO many of us down here. Go to any BigLaw website and see how many UM grads they have at their Miami office.
Dean White thinks she is doing something great here by letting us take more credits than we need- no one is going to graduate early because UM has this "residency requirement" which means you have to have a certain number of residency hours per semester/credit to graduate, so in the end you may just end up getting screwed by having to enroll in a final semester of the school only taking 3 credits which your scholarship doesn't cover, and it costs a fortune to live in Miami so even if you get a job, you lose.