Virginia Law School founded by Thomas Jefferson in 1819

Virginia Law School is in the top 10 Law Schools in the United States and offers almost 50% of their 1^st year acceptance seats to students who live in Virginia. The first measure for each applicant is the LSAT/GPA index is a key qualifier. Admissions are looking for scores on the LSAT from 166 to 171 and GPA's from 3.59 to 3.89. Admissions at Virginia Law School say every application is considered that comes through their doors.

Applications sent in by November each year will get a response in December. The school's tuition was $38,500 in the past year with full-time enrollment of 1,175 students.


Virginia Law School makes a strong offering in the following fields of law with an outstanding teaching faculty:
 

• Commercial law
• Constitutional law
• Corporation Securities law
• Labor law
• Tax and
• Intellectual property law
• Human rights law
• Environmental law

Charlottesville, Virginia is a town of 130,000 and maintains a small town feel. The students are very satisfied with the learning environment and the social opportunities offered. While there is some graduate student housing, the majority of students live off campus. Virginia School of Law makes everything available to students to locate the right housing to fit needs and budgets. It is advised that students start early in their search for housing. The average cost for housing was $15,000 in the past year.

Other important averages about the cost of attending Virginia Law School are the average pass rate of students taking the bar exam which is 97% and the state average for all students in the state which is around 73%. Almost 97% are hired upon graduation and almost 99% hired 9 months after graduation. These are very good statistics for the Virginia Law School and their graduates.

Virginia Law School produces lawyers with high legal acuity and a personal sense of equipoise. The Law School was named in American Lawyer magazine as one of the top law schools of two which have graduates working in the nation's top 100 law firms.

It was the conviction of Thomas Jefferson that a beautiful environment fosters learning. The law school has lovely gardens and lawns surrounded with trees. The school grounds also feature new classrooms along with the historical buildings used at the time the school was founded. Other features include seminar rooms, moot courtrooms, computer labs, and new dining halls, offices for student government, and student lounges where the students can interact. The student library is perhaps one of the most amazing with a three story reading room.

Throughout the history of Virginia Law School it is interesting to note some significant events that reflect the changing practice of law.

1909 Three years of study for law degree is compulsory
1921 Women gain admittance to the School of Law
1922 University mandates students must have two years of college prior to entrance
1923 Elizabeth N. Tompkins graduates from the Law School as the first woman
1958 John F. Merchant is the first graduating African-American

Virginia School of Law has a great list of attributes any student would like to find in a law school. Perhaps you will find yourself there in the future.