Wednesday, December 03, 2003

Moving to the Middle of Nowhere, Far from the State Capital, will Make Us Stronger!


Patriot-News
Copyright (c) 2003 Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved.

Wednesday, December 3, 2003

Letters

Moving law school would strengthen it

Many people are concerned that moving Dickinson Law School to University Park will deny students practical legal experience in the midstate. Look at this situation from the eyes of a prospective law student. Dickinson Law is a third-tier school (not in the national top 100 - U.S. News & World Report).

Moving the school to University Park could only improve their national reputation because students would have access to the Penn State's world-class academic resources.

This could mean that more joint and graduate law degrees (LL.M. and S.J.D.) could be offered.

Other state-funded law schools, such as Pitt and Temple, are situated at their respective school's main campus and they can boast two important characteristics over Dickinson Law: 1) Better national rankings (both are second-tier schools) and 2) lower tuition.

As of now, Dickinson Law costs roughly $30,000 a year with room and board. Temple and Pitt charge around $20,000 a year for the same package, plus you're going to a higher-ranked law school.

Temple, for example, has the best trial advocacy program in the nation (yes, even better than Harvard and Yale). Which do you think is the better deal?

The opposition fears relocating Dickinson Law will detract from the midstate and break the tradition of having a law school in Carlisle for more than 100 years.

Move Dickinson School of Law to University Park and lower tuition, then you'll have a truly competitive Penn State law school.

KYLE C. KOPKO
Enola

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