For immediate release: September 27, 2002.
For more information, contact Jeff Bendix at 216-368-6070 or jxb34@po.cwru.edu.

CLEVELAND—The Case Western Reserve University School of Law saw a surge in the number of students applying to become members of the class of 2005, placing it among the top five law schools nationally in increased volume of applications.

The school had 2,434 applications for 220 slots, a 57 percent increase over last year's number of applications and the largest number in the school's history.

Other "firsts" for the class of 2005 include:

• The first-ever entering class where a majority of the students, 54 percent, are women
• Nineteen percent of the entering class are persons of color, the highest in the school's history

"We are extremely pleased that the curricular innovations we have introduced, along with the outstanding new faculty members who have joined us in recent years, have been met with such interest by our applicants," said Gerald Korngold, dean and McCurdy Professor of Law.

The greater numbers of women and persons of color in the class reflects the school's and the legal profession's ongoing commitment to diversity.

"We believe that a student body which reflects contemporary American society enriches the education of all our students," Korngold said.

Applications to the CWRU law school have increased 96 percent since 1977, compared with a national increase of 47.8 percent in the same time period.

Barbara Andelman, associate dean for enrollment planning and special projects, noted that in the past three years the school has created seven concentrations, enabling students to study topics such as law, technology and the arts, business organizations, litigation and health law in-depth. It has also introduced more than 75 new courses into the curriculum over that period.

"Our students have the opportunity to explore legal studies in breadth and depth," said Andelman. "Also, we've focused on communicating these changes to prospective applicants, which has resulted not only in a significant increase in applicants, but the highest-ever percentage of entering students among those we admitted."

Among the undergraduate schools represented in this year's entering class are Amherst College, the University of California-Berkeley, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Duke University, the University of Michigan, Northwestern University, the University of Notre Dame, the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, the College of William and Mary and Vanderbilt University.

–CWRU–

 

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