University of Miami 2Ls Will Get 'Waiver' To Offset Tuition Hikes

Miami 2Ls will not have to pay a tuition hike, because the Dean promised them they wouldn't...

The University of Miami School of Law has been one of the schools that has made real efforts to keep law school affordable and valuable for its students. You’ll remember that back in 2009, the school decided to defer some of its incoming class because there were just too many of them. The people who were not deferred just graduated as part of the class of 2012, and I bet they’re happy they aren’t competing with even more graduates for a job. The school’s dean, Patricia White has also fought to keep tuition low.

In fact, Dean White promised the class of 2014 that their tuition would not go up while they were at Miami. A tipster sent us in video of Dean white making the promise — along with an announcement that tuition would be going up at Miami for the 2012-2013 academic year.

But have no worries, Miami friends. After we contacted Dean White’s office, she told us that she’d be keeping her promise to the class of 2014…

A tipster sent in this video of a presentation that Dean White gave to the incoming 2014 class during law day — which is Miami’s day to recruit accepted students. At about to 10:30 mark, Dean White starts talking about tuition at the school:

Dean White says: “I’m keeping tuition as low as we possibly can. I’ve not raised it in two years for ongoing students and if you come here I won’t raise it once you get here.”

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However, our tipster also noticed that tuition for the ’12-’13 academic year was on the way up for rising 2Ls. It’s not a huge increase: it appears that tuition for went up from $39,848 for the ’11-’12 year to $41,408 for the ’12 – ’13 year. Here are the links that illustrate the increase:

http://www.law.miami.edu/finaid/pdf/2011/new_students_031711.pdf

http://www.law.miami.edu/finaid/pdf/2012/continuing_students_only_entering_summer2011_or_2011-2012.pdf

It’s not a huge hike, but it is a “raise.”

On Friday, we contacted Dean White about this discrepancy. She told Above the Law that she intends to make good on her commitment to the class of 2014. Here’s what she said:

In fact I will be honoring what I told the students. The members of the rising 2L class will be receiving tuition waivers equivalent to the amount of the increase. I will be sending out an email to them to this effect on Monday…

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We checked in with Dean White this morning and she said the waivers had been processed and that students would be receiving a confirmation email later today.

So, a happy ending and good news for rising 2Ls at Miami Law. Maybe other law students should take their talents to South Beach. At least they’ll know that they’ll know they’ll be paying the same price for all three years.

UPDATE (4:25): We’ve got the full email that Dean White sent to students. Check it out on the nextpage…