University of Illinois College of Law, Urbana-Champaign, IL
by Heather Jung
University of Illinois College of Law campus
The college, which is a Top 50 law school, is located on the Urbana-Champaign campus, the largest campus in the University of Illinois system. In her letter of welcome to prospective students, Dean Heidi Hurd says students will "be surrounded by peers of remarkable intelligence, experience, and promise in a learning environment famous for its collegiality and cooperative spirit." She adds, "And you'll join a network of successful alumni some 9,000 strong who have found tremendous success in virtually every major U.S. city and over 60 countries."
Students obtaining their J.D.s can take part in specialty programs in areas of interest to them. The programs available cover Asian law, business law, criminal law, health law and policy, law and economics, and legal history. The college offers students 10 joint-degree options, which combine legal studies with studies in business administration, chemistry, computer science, education, human resources and industrial relations, journalism, medicine, natural resources, urban planning, and veterinary medicine. Students wishing to continue their educations after obtaining their J.D.s can do so through the LL.M. and J.S.D. programs, which are intended for students wishing to pursue careers in academia.
Bardeen (Engineering) Quad
According to the school's career services website, the class of 2004 reported that 79% of its students were employed at graduation and that it had a 99.5% employment rate nine months after graduation, with annual starting salaries ranging from $29,500 to $140,000.
According to the dean's newsletter, the school will initiate a new 1L curriculum starting with the class of 2010. In this new curriculum, substantive courses, such as those on civil procedure, Constitutional law, contracts, criminal law, torts, and property, will be assigned four credits. Other courses, such as legal research, writing, and advocacy classes, will continue to carry three credits; however, students will no longer be required to take criminal procedure classes or statutory interpretation electives during the first year, although they will be able to take these courses as upper-level electives.
The Quad
According to Hurd, "the adoption of this course schedule brings the College's 1L curriculum in line with that offered by many of the top-tier law schools in America and redresses a number of serious complaints that have been registered repeatedly by students, faculty, and staff. Curriculum reform is typically thought to be a devil's game, with variables so polycentric that to tweak one often causes a cascade of changes. It is a great tribute to the faculty that out of the hundreds of hours of discussion cumulatively devoted to this topic came a curriculum that virtually all believe will provide Illinois students with a superb grounding in the core disciplines that define the practice of law."
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