What You Can Learn from Catalogs

The screening documents provide thumbnail sketches of many law schools arranged for easy, if superficial, comparison. But how do you get details about the offerings of any one law school?

Each law school publishes an annual catalog or bulletin, which is the starting point for all your research on that particular law school. Your campus probably maintains collections of old catalogs. Prelaw advisers sometimes keep them in their offices. Here at Bradley we have a collection at the placement center and a microfiche collection in the library. Fraternities and sororities often have collections also. You can use these reference sources for browsing, but many law schools are changing rapidly. If you're serious about a school, you should obtain a copy of its current catalog. You can call, or write to the school's admissions office at the address given in the Official Guide, or the address printed on the school's advertising poster on your prelaw adviser's bulletin board. If the school has a poster, you can often save a few pennies by using the postage-paid postcards stapled to it.


Allow two or three weeks if you call and six weeks if you write. If the catalog hasn't arrived and if you haven't gotten a postcard saying that you will receive a catalog as soon as the printer gets the new one printed, write or call again. Law School Admissions Offices are more efficient than they used to be, but requests for publications can still sometimes get lost.

The catalog is the absolute authority for the school's admission requirements, deadlines, fees, courses of study and graduation requirements, course offerings, academic policies, and similar rules. Some catalogs are very soberly printed in black-and-white typeface, to encourage you to think of them as contracts specifying what you'll have to do as a law student. Law school catalogs provide many pages of detailed information on the qualifications and activities of their faculties, their unique special programs, and their physical facilities and resources.

But catalogs are also a form of advertising. Many are now printed on slick paper, awash with color photos of gleaming modern build-ings, smiling, happy students, and the marvels of local scenery. At professional meetings, prelaw advisers sometimes make jokes about catalogs that appear to be designed by the same people who do the brochures for tourist sites, retirement condominiums, and investment real estate.

That doesn't mean that the information inside is incorrect. It will always be factually accurate, especially on curriculum requirements. But beyond that, it's what the law school wants you to know, presented in the most attractive way. On student life, catalogs are often . . . shall we say, rosy. If you see a photo of students frolicking in a pool, you can assume that there will actually be a pool there. But you can't assume that as a law student you'll have much time to swim in it. Similarly, catalogs simply leave out what is unattractive. You can't go to them to determine whether student life is stressful because class instruction emphasizes pressure. Nor will the catalog tell you if the campus has a parking problem, or a crime problem, or if there's poor morale among the faculty.

Other Law School Publications

Law schools sometimes publish leaflets, brochures, and even videotapes. Like the catalogs, these specialized materials are combinations of information and promotion. Some of them are pure advertising fluff; one recent promotional videotape I received alternates attractive shots of the cityscape around the law school with interviews of sweatshirt-clad law students earnestly explaining how much the faculty cares, really cares about them. I'm not sure what you can learn from such things, although the pictures are attractive and the sound track contains very upbeat music.

But other leaflets and brochures describe special programs and facilities not fully discussed in the catalogs. Many law schools have special brochures on financial aid, minority programs, and similar matters not of concern to all applicants. As with catalogs, brochures will be factually accurate but won't dwell on the school's shortcomings. (One law school takes great pride in pointing out that its new building, which houses classrooms and libraries, is fully wheelchair-accessible. But it doesn't mention that the cafeteria, which is in a separate, older building, is accessible by wheelchair only with difficulty.)

Sometimes law schools send bunches of these specialized brochures along with their catalogs. But to be sure that you will get everything you need, you should mention any special needs or interests when you order the catalog.

Law schools also publish newsletters and magazines directed at alumni and philanthropies; these often discuss recent campus activities, awards, and honors won by faculty members and notable achievements of students. You may occasionally come across otherwise obscure information. In the Winter 1991 issue of Southwestern Law, the demographic profile of Southwestern University's Law School's most recent freshman class, details of minority enrollment, and recent bar exam success rates can be found hidden among reports on alumni association activities, profiles of photogenic students, and annual fund drive reports. Valparaiso Law School's most recent newsletter contains a discussion of campus placement activities. Many law schools have been opening new buildings recently, and the dedication ceremonies are a favorite topic of alumni publications.

Don't be overly impressed by a newsletter's reports of the achievements of faculty and students. All law schools can point to a record of accomplishment; as an undergraduate, you don't have the knowledge to tell which honors and distinctions are important and which are not. Still, the newsletters will give you an idea of what, and how much, is happening on campus. In my experience, newsletters are often most valuable for their discussion of clinical programs, moot courts, and similar student activities.

If you show an interest in some law schools, they will put you on their mailing list, and you will receive these newsletters in the mail. If you have friends or relatives who are attorneys, ask them to pass along any newsletters they may receive.