Thursday, November 14, 2013

Dickinson law school to provide grant to Pennsylvanians

http://cumberlink.com/news/local/communities/carlisle/dickinson-law-school-to-provide-grant-to-pennsylvanians/article_ee126fb4-5870-11e3-a590-0019bb2963f4.html

CARLISLE — Penn State University Dickinson School of Law is giving state residents a new reason to consider the law school.
The school will provide a renewable, annual grant of $20,000, available through the Commonwealth Scholars program, for Pennsylvania residents who are applying to the law school.

Maybe this marks a trend of returning to the notion of state-supported law schools.  Tuition at a private school is understandably higher than at a state school.  But in the last decade or so, even the state schools have hiked up their tuition to private-school levels.  State schools should be more affordable for residents of the state, so this is a move in the right direction.

My first year at DSL was 1977-1978.  Back then, the state gave a small grant to Pennsylvania residents.  I was from Maryland so I didn't receive it.  But then, I think even without the grant, my tuition was only about $1500 per semester.  (That's the number I remember; maybe someone else can confirm.)   I paid for the first year of law school (including living expenses) with a $5,000 inheritance and got a student loan for $10,000 to pay for the last two years, so I think my memory is accurate.  (I also had what they called a "library scholarship" for middler year, which means I worked in the law library.  For third year I worked for Dean Wilks.)

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