National trends don’t phase the University of Idaho — first-year enrollment in the College of Law spiked in midst of declining admissions coast to coast.
Not only did the college show an increase in enrollment, it also received a higher number of total applications than previous years, said Jeffrey Dodge, associate dean of the College of Law.
“By having more applications, we were able to be more selective, then in turn, have a stronger yield with our students,” Dodge said. “They wanted to come here.”
While law school applications nationwide were down 17.9 percent this year, UI Law showed an increase of 11.9 percent.
Dodge said that the increase could be attributed to a stronger effort of marketing and public relations on behalf of the law school.
“We used electronic marketing campaigns, reaching out to new populations and students who maybe had never explored the University of Idaho College of Law,” Dodge said. “We’ve done mailings of brochures and prospective student view books and focused on new targeted regional areas.”
Another aspect of UI Law that has attracted more students is the reasonable cost of tuition compared to other schools.
“It helps that our law school has the 13th lowest tuition in the country and our employment prospects increased from the class of 2011 graduates to the class of 2012,” Dodge said. “So there is clearly a higher return on investment potential here at the University of Idaho College of Law than some other law schools.”
An additional consideration in the admissions process in the college is the focus on creating a diverse class of students.
Director of Admissions Carole Wells said she travels around the country to find prospective students she believes would positively contribute to the diversity of the school.
“Geographic diversity, age diversity, racial diversity, gender diversity, professional diversity, people from different economical backgrounds, first generation students,” Wells said. “Sometimes people have gone through a lot of struggles in their life and we like to be able to give students the chance to pursue a law degree.”
Wells said because the application pool allowed the admissions committee to be more selective, the students admitted this year will help pave the road to professional success.
“It’s a good learning environment, it’s not cutthroat, that competition edge really doesn’t exist here at Idaho,” Wells said.
Wells also said that although there are more students attending UI Law this year, she still plans on being as personable and one-on-one as she always has been with incoming students.
“Students are my friends by the time they start school,” Wells said.
Dodge and Wells both said they are pleased with the high numbers this year and expect to see more positive influences from this class in the following years.
“It’s great because Dean Dodge and I have been working hard for many months trying to put this class together and to see the fruits of our efforts,” Wells said. “It’s very rewarding.”
Amber Emery can be reached at [email protected]