The University of Texas School of Law

Introduction

The School of Law is located at The University of Texas at Austin. This location in the heart of the capital city provides ready access to the state legislature, the Supreme Court of Texas, the federal trial and appellate court, the offices of state and federal agencies, and the libraries and other main campus facilities. Recognized for its distinguished faculty and rich academic program, the law school has been a member of the AALS since 1907, was approved by the ABA in 1923, and is fully accredited.

Situated on the banks of the Colorado River, Austin is an eclectic city noted for its politics, scholars, rolling hills, film industry, and live music and restaurant scene. The University of Texas plays an important role in this metropolitan area of over one million people, and many entertainment and cultural activities cater to the student population.

Library and Physical Facilities

The Tarlton Law Library in the Joseph D. Jamail Center for Legal Research is one of the leading academic law libraries in the United States and one of the finest legal research centers in the Southwest. The library serves an academic community of over 1,100 full-time law students and 100 faculty members. In addition to the library's large print collection of over one million volumes, students also have access to databases, e-books, and electronic journals.

In 2010, the newly constructed Susman Academic Center was dedicated as part of the extensive renovation of the Tarlton Library. The fifth and sixth floors of the library were transformed into the Academic Center, which houses 54 faculty offices; 38 additional offices illuminated with natural light via skylights; 2 large, high-tech equipped meeting rooms, each of which can be flexibly subdivided into 2 or 3 separate areas; an expansive commons area with a two-story atrium; 2 faculty research areas; 6 additional conference rooms; and 4 seminar classrooms. The Susman Academic Center expands the Law School's available office and public spaces, and creates attractive, light-filled spaces for faculty and students to work and collaborate.

Faculty

The University of Texas School of Law has long had one of the most outstanding faculties in the nation, both in terms of scholarly distinction of the faculty members and their success in the classroom. More than one-third of the faculty is elected to the American Law Institute, one of the highest percentage memberships in the nation. Texas is also one of nine schools with four faculty elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the nation's most prestigious learned society. The law school has consistently hired the best and brightest young scholars, including eight former clerks for justices of the United States Supreme Court.

Texas enjoys a leadership position in many areas of legal study. The breadth and depth of offerings in several areas—constitutional law, environmental law, wills and estates, admiralty and maritime law, torts and product liability, labor law, jurisprudence, and philosophy—is matched by few schools in the country. With one of the largest faculties in the country, Texas is able to offer students coverage of all fields of law and exposure to truly diverse scholarly perspectives on legal questions.

Special Programs

The school offers clinical education courses for credit in such fields as actual innocence, capital punishment, children's rights, community development, criminal defense, domestic violence, environmental, housing, immigration, juvenile justice, legislative lawyering, mediation, mental health, national security, Supreme Court, and transnational worker rights. Internships are available to qualified students with the Texas Supreme Court, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, and the Third Court of Appeals. A limited number of internships are available for credit in the public service area. The law school also has an extensive trial-advocacy program boasting several national championships. There are a number of joint-degree programs—JD/MPAff; JD/MBA; JD/Master of Arts in Latin American Studies; JD/Master of Arts in Middle Eastern Studies; JD/Master of Arts in Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies; JD/Master of Science in Community and Regional Planning; JD/Master of Global Policy Studies; JD/Master of Science in Social Work; and JD/Master of Science in Information Studies—in addition to several combined programs with a PhD.

Enrollment/Student Body

As a public institution of higher education, the School of Law's nonresident enrollment is limited by the Texas Legislature to 35 percent. We currently have over 143 undergraduate institutions and 34 states represented in our student body. Please refer to the statistical information for details regarding the competitiveness of our student body.

Curriculum

All first-year students are required to take a full courseload, averaging 15 hours per week, in contracts, property, torts, civil procedure, criminal law, constitutional law, brief writing and oral advocacy, and legal research and writing. After the first year, the only required courses are professional responsibility, advanced constitutional law, a writing and research seminar, and a skills class. A student may design his or her course of study from an array of course offerings in many fields of law. These offerings include interdisciplinary and advanced public and private law courses.

Student-Edited Journals

The School of Law offers many student-administered, cocurricular activities that enhance the law students' regular studies. Student-edited journals include the American Journal of Criminal Law; Texas Environmental Law Journal; Texas Hispanic Journal of Law and Policy; Texas Intellectual Property Law Journal; Texas International Law Journal; Texas Journal of Oil, Gas, and Energy Law; Texas Journal of Women and the Law; Texas Journal on Civil Liberties and Civil Rights; Texas Law Review; Texas Review of Entertainment and Sports Law; Texas Review of Law and Politics; and The Review of Litigation.

Admission

Admission to the JD program at UT Law is competitive. For the entering class of 2011, approximately 4,759 applicants competed for 375 available seats. As a general rule, there are no presumptive numbers. Every application completed and submitted is reviewed in its entirety. Each applicant must take the LSAT and have earned a baccalaureate degree from an accredited college or university with a minimum grade-point average of 2.2 as calculated by the Law School Admission Council (LSAC), or have completed the equivalent of six semesters and expect to graduate during the current academic year. Each candidate must complete all application forms and fulfill all mandatory attachments as described in the application.

Financial Aid

A limited number of scholarships are available for first-year students on the basis of merit and financial need. The prestigious Townes-Rice Scholarship is offered to eight outstanding law students with full tuition and fees plus a $5,000 stipend for all three years of law school. The law school also offers an Equal Justice Scholarship for an entering student interested in a career in public interest. Scholarships and research assistantships are available for second- and third-year students. The law school administers several short-term and long-term loan funds for students with financial need, and the university offers substantial federally funded loan programs.

Housing

Approximately 95 percent of all law students live off campus. The Division of Housing and Food Services (PO Box 7666, University Station, Austin, TX 78713; telephone: 512.471.3136) has information regarding on-campus living. Other sources of information are classified ads in the student newspaper, the Daily Texan; apartment management services; rental agencies; and current students.

Career Services

Each year, nearly 500 employers participate in career services programs and recruit our students for summer and full-time positions through on-campus interviews, recruit-by-mail opportunities, and off-campus job fairs. Nearly 60 percent of on-campus employers are from outside the state of Texas.

Applicant Profile

The University of Texas School of Law

This grid includes only applicants who earned 120–180 LSAT scores under standard administrations.

	GPA
LSAT Score	3.75+ Apps	3.75+ Adm	3.50– 3.74 Apps	3.50– 3.74 Adm	3.25– 3.49 Apps	3.25– 3.49 Adm	3.00– 3.24 Apps	3.00– 3.24 Adm	2.75– 2.99 Apps	2.75– 2.99 Adm	2.50– 2.74 Apps	2.50– 2.74 Adm	2.25– 2.49 Apps	2.25– 2.49 Adm	2.00– 2.24 Apps	2.00– 2.24 Adm	Below 2.00 Apps	Below 2.00 Adm	No GPA Apps	No GPA Adm	Total Apps	Total Adm
LSAT score 175–180	31	31	24	21	22	12	14	1	2	0	4	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	1	99	66
LSAT score 170–174	253	243	191	155	102	30	57	6	16	0	6	0	2	0	1	0	0	0	8	5	636	439
LSAT score 165–169	437	332	470	239	254	22	120	3	35	0	6	0	10	0	2	0	1	0	41	18	1376	614
LSAT score 160–164	347	69	350	54	230	16	121	4	34	1	22	0	10	0	5	0	0	0	33	2	1152	146
LSAT score 155–159	151	17	191	8	154	6	91	0	55	0	18	0	10	1	5	0	1	0	17	0	693	32
LSAT score 150–154	70	2	93	0	106	2	69	0	44	0	21	0	9	0	2	0	0	0	8	0	422	4
LSAT score 145–149	22	0	51	1	42	0	39	0	23	0	15	0	15	0	1	0	1	0	6	0	215	1
LSAT score 140–144	5	0	14	0	20	0	27	0	15	0	13	0	7	0	2	0	3	0	7	0	113	0
LSAT score 135–139	2	0	4	0	6	0	5	0	6	0	0	0	3	0	0	0	2	0	2	0	30	0
LSAT score 130–134	1	0	1	0	0	0	2	0	1	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	8	0
LSAT score 125–129	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0
LSAT score 120–124	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Total	1319	694	1389	478	936	88	545	14	231	1	108	0	67	1	19	0	8	0	124	26	4746	1302

Apps = Number of Applicants
Adm = Number Admitted
Reflects 100% of the total applicant pool; highest LSAT data reported.