New 2-Year College Is Designed as Path to Law School for Onetime Underachievers
New Hampshire legislators have approved a new two-year college that is designed as a path to law school for community college students who were onetime underachievers.
The founder and dean of the new college is Lawrence Velvel, the dean of the Massachusetts School of Law, the Concord Monitor reports. Velvel decided to open his new school in New Hampshire after learning that Massachusetts doesn’t permit colleges that offer only junior- and senior-level classes.
Velvel hopes the new school will give students from lower economic backgrounds a way to gain entrance to law school.
“A lot of people think that they cannot go to law school, that there is no way they will be admitted,” Velvel told the Concord Monitor. “It gives a chance to people who otherwise academically wouldn’t have the chance.”
The name of the new school—the American College of History and Legal Studies—reflects its limited mission; it will award a bachelor’s degree in only history and legal studies, the story says. Tuition is $10,000, lowered to $5,000 for those on a scholarship, and classes will be held only three evenings a week.
Those who earn good grades can combine their final year at the college with their first year at Massachusetts School of Law.
Velvel says America’s lawyers and leaders need a better grounding in history. “Unfortunately, one of the reasons our country keeps getting in trouble, particularly abroad, is Americans do not know about and do not care about history,” he told the publication.
