University of Minnesota--Twin Cities

Law School Overview

U.S. News Rankings

Ranking score and category

Rank Category Name #19 Best Law Schools

Specialties Locked in Environmental Law #11 in Healthcare Law Locked in International Law

Law School Overview

The Law School at University of Minnesota--Twin Cities has an application deadline of April 1. The full-time program application fee at the Law School at University of Minnesota--Twin Cities is $75. Its tuition is full-time: $36,820 per year (in-state) and full-time: $45,484 per year (out-of-state). The student-faculty ratio is 10.9:1. The Law School at University of Minnesota--Twin Cities has 180 full- and part-time faculty on staff.

The curriculum at the University of Minnesota Law School allows for students to elect courses in their first year. Minnesota law students in their first year can choose between a course in corporate law, international law, civil procedure, or law perspectives, in addition to mandatory first year courses. After the first year, law students have only two courses they are required to take. Second and third year students select most of their courses on their own and can choose to focus on one of the school’s formal legal concentrations—business law, health law and bioethics, human rights law, and labor and employment law—or from other areas. Students can also complete a dual degree or joint degree through other schools at the University of Minnesota, including a J.D./M.B.A. through the Carlson School of Management.

The Minnesota Law School has more than 20 clinical courses that offer experiential learning opportunities, and more than half of Minnesota Law students take a live-client clinical course before graduation. There school also has nearly 10 research centers and institutes, including the Consortium on Law and Values in Health, Environment & the Life Sciences and the Human Rights Center. The law school has a unique mix of student-edited, faculty-edited, and student-and-faculty-edited law journals, including the ABA Journal of Labor & Employment Law, Law and Inequality: A Journal of Theory and Practice, and the Minnesota Journal of International Law. There are also more than 40 student organizations to check out, from the Interfaith Law League to Theatre of the Relatively Talentless, or T.O.R.T., a group that puts on an annual law school musical.

Notable alumni of the University of Minnesota Law School include Melvin Steen, a founding partner of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, and Norris Darrell, former president of the American Law Institute.

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Year founded	1888
Public/private	Public
Law school designation	National

Admissions

Application deadline	April 1
Full-time program application fee	$75
Part-time program application fee	N/A
Admissions Phone	(612) 625-3487
Admissions E-mail	umnlsadm@umn.edu
Web site	http://www.law.umn.edu

Academics

Full- and part-time faculty	180
Student-faculty ratio	10.9:1
Total faculty	188

Student Body

Enrollment (full-time)	740
Gender distribution (full-time)
J.D. candidates graduating in 2011-2012	230

Cost

Tuition and fees
Full-time: $36,820 per year (in-state) Full-time: $45,484 per year (out-of-state)
Room and board	$10,188

Careers

Employed at graduation 2	64.0%
Median private sector starting salary	$110,000
Median public service starting salary	$50,000

Library

Total volumes and volume equivalents

1,102,355

* Law School Overview details based on 2012 data