University of Pennsylvania, Law School Admission
University of Pennsylvania, Law School Undergraduate Program
University of Pennsylvania, Law School Application

The Facts

The University of Pennsylvania is a rather large, private institution located in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and has a combined graduate and undergraduate population of over 24,000 students. The university's law school, however, is significantly smaller, and is home to about 827 graduate law students. The average age of enrollment is around 24, and it is fairly rare to a student to enter directly from their undergraduate education. The school is perhaps best known for its diversity of teaching styles and methods, as well as for its excellent research resources and large amount of internship, externship, and clerkship opportunities. The school offers degrees in the JD, LLM, S/JD, as well as the LLCM. The law school also offers a wide range of joint degrees in the JD/MBA, JD/MA, or PhD in economics, the JD/PhD in public policy and management, the JD/MA or PhD in philosophy, the JD/PhD in American legal history, the JD/MA in Islamic studies, the JD/MCP, the JD/MSW, the JD/MBioethics, the JD/MA in public policy communications, as well as the JD/MD. Some of the most popular programs of study include courses in the areas of civil procedure, commercial law, constitutional law, corporation securities law, criminal law, environmental law, government services, human rights law, intellectual property law, international law, labor law, legal history, legal philosophy, property, as well as taxation.

Admission to the University of Pennsylvania's Law School is extremely competitive among the many students who apply; last year, over 5,190 students applied for admission to the school, and approximately 825 of those students were accepted. Eventually however, only about 255 of the admitted students actually enrolled for the coming semester. The admitted students had an average LSAT score ranging from 166 to 171, as well as an average undergraduate GPA of about a 3.7. Students are notified of their admissions status on a rolling basis, and are able to take advantage of the school's early application program if they so choose.

The law school has 144 faculty members, and most students agree that they are very accessible and truly care about the well-being and success of their students. The school has a very manageable student to faculty ratio of 13:1, and the small classes allow for plenty of interaction and discussion.

Employment Facts

100% of the most recent graduating class were able to find jobs within a few months of receiving their degree, and they had an average starting salary of about $125,000. Students are typically hired by national and corporate law firms, national fellowship organizations, public interest organizations, as well as by federal and state judges.

What's Good

"The faculty here is amazing, and its quite apparent that they really love what they are doing at this school."

"People tend to be very open here to all types of people and their subsequent opinions, which is rare."

"Philadelphia is a great city in which to build connections and get some real-world legal experience while getting your degree."

What's Bad

"There tends to be a lot of competition between students, and not of the friendly sort."

"There needs to be more graduate financial aid available. This school is not cheap in the first place."

"There isn't much on campus graduate housing, and the city itself doesn't have the most open housing market."

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