Law Schools

What's Up With This Law School Tuition Cut?

This law school tuition cut may not be as purely selfless as they advertised, but it's still welcome news.

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You may have heard that the Texas A&M University School of Law is slicing tuition for some students by 15 percent next year. Welcome news without a doubt, but before we rain accolades on the school, let’s put this tuition cut in its proper context.

The Artist Formerly Known As Texas Wesleyan claims to be making these changes to relieve future students of crippling debt. Aww, that’s very thoughtful. And it may be sort of true, to the extent that state schools — ideally — serve the public good, but rather than exhibiting pure magnanimity, it seems as though this formerly private institution is really moving itself in line with its new public school cohort. As Sara Randazzo of the WSJ Law Blog reports:

The changes will kick in next fall, three years after Texas A&M acquired the law school, which was previously a private institution called Texas Wesleyan University School of Law. The move aligns Texas A&M with the majority of public law schools, which have lower rates for in-state residents.

Public law schools accredited by the American Bar Association charged in-state students a median price of $22,209 in tuition and fees in 2013, the most recent year available, compared to $33,752 for out-of-state students.

Texas A&M is moving its in-state tuition down to $28,000, making it a tad on the pricier side, which is a bold move for the 149th best law school in the country, but A&M is hoping to move out of that morass of mediocrity in the near future. As the WSJ further reports:

Texas A&M Law’s first-year class size has dropped steadily since it turned public, which the school says is by design, as its number of applicants has risen. The school enrolled 133 first-year students in 2015, down 45% from the 243 who started there in 2013. The smaller class size has helped the school get to a student faculty ratio of almost 11:1.

More applicants and more selective. Sounds like someone has their eyes on the U.S. News formula. And if cheaper tuition and higher standards is the hot new way of gaming the system, we’re all in favor.

Another Law School Cuts Tuition, This Time in Texas [Wall Street Journal Law Blog]

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