North Carolina Lawyers Weekly
North Carolina Central University School of Law has been named one of the nation’s 10 “most popular” law schools in a ranking released by U.S. News & World Report last week.
The listing is based on an analysis of admission yield – the percentage of students accepted by a school who choose to enroll.
In the rankings compiled for 2010, Central’s law school placed ninth, with a yield of 49.6 percent; of 415 applicants accepted by the school, 206 subsequently enrolled.
“We were honored to receive the recognition,” said Raymond Pierce, dean of the law school. Nationally the average yield rate is around 30 percent.
Pierce he believes the high admission yield rate reflects the quality of instruction, the school’s emphasis on practical skills training and its affordability.
In addition, Pierce said he believes the school’s evening program that allows transitioning professionals to continue to work while they pursue their law degrees was a big factor.
While the day program offers 170-190 seats, only 35-40 seats are reserved for the evening program, he said, making it extremely competitive. “We’re getting people from the Research Triangle Park, mid- to upper-level executives,” he said.
In North Carolina, only the Charlotte School of Law also has an evening program.
In the rankings, Yale Law School took the top spot, at 80.4 percent, followed by the law schools at Brigham Young University, Harvard University, Southern University, Liberty University, the University of Oklahoma, Regent University, the University of Memphis, N.C. Central and the University of New Mexico.
The data encompasses 180,479 acceptances and 49,054 enrollments, making the nationwide yield 27.2 percent.
Rankings were not available for other North Carolina law schools. The yield rates, based on raw numbers from U.S. News & World Report, were as follows: 46.5 percent at UNC; 36.5 percent at Elon; 27.6 percent at Campbell; 22.7 percent at Duke; 16.4 percent at Wake Forest; and at Charlotte, 18.8 percent for the full-time program and 41.2 percent for the part-time program.
By SYLVIA ADCOCK, Staff Writer
