Attention law school shoppers: It’s now cheaper to get a JD from the University of Arizona
The University of Arizona’s law school plans to drop tuition and tout the lower prices as it markets to students in bordering California.
The university’s James E. Rogers College of Law is cutting tuition by 11 percent for in-state residents and 8 percent for out-of-state residents, report the National Law Journal and the Arizona Daily Star. The cuts apply to current as well as new students, interim law dean Marc Miller told the NLJ.
Arizona residents will now pay annual law school tuition of $24,381, about $3,000 less per year. Nonresidents will pay $38,841, about $3,500 less per year.
The law school had a 13.5 percent drop in first-year students this school year and a 36 percent decrease in applicants since 2005, the Daily Star says. This year, applications are down about 10 percent compared to this time a year ago, the NLJ says. On a national level, law school applications are down about 17 percent this year.
According to the NLJ, the move appears to be the first significant drop in law school tuition since application totals began to decline in 2011. “It offers evidence that the list prices for a law school education, which have far outpaced inflation for more than a decade, are beginning to reflect supply and demand,” the story says.
At the same time it cuts tuition, the law school will reduce the amount of scholarship money available. It also plans to offset lost revenue by expanding its master of laws and doctor of juridical science programs and offering a new LL.M. for nonlawyers, the NLJ says.
