Chuck Newton: South Texas College Of Law

My daughter goes to the University of Houston Law Center mainly because it is a state law school, a top tier school, and it is substantially cheaper. Because it is a public law school and the tuition is cheaper is is harder to get into due to the number of applications. My daughter is smarter than I am.

But UH's rival is my alma mater, South Texas College of Law. It is also the law school my from which my wife, Jane, graduated. And, we are both very proud to have attended STCL.

South Texas is a private law school and is accredited by the ABA. It is the oldest law school in Houston (which has three law schools) and is the third oldest law school in Texas. The law school is renown for its ability to win, continuously, all of the major moot court and mock trial competitions among law schools in this country. This is its contribution in the attempt to teach practical law and not just legal theory. Although we do not particularly care for U.S. News' law school rankings, it did rank STCL number one in the nation in its trial advocacy program. And, the school also has "The General Civil Clinic" which provides legal counseling to low-income residents of the Houston, Texas area.

One of South Texas' most famous alumni (that the school or nobody else much talks about) was Madalyn Murray O'Hair, who graduated from the school in 1952. She brought suit on behalf of her son to stop daily Bible readings in public school, Murray v. Curlett, which went to the Supreme Court and the decision of which banned pray in public schools in 1963.

Sometimes I think STCL feels a little self-conscience about the fact that it not affiliated with any larger institution and started in the Y.M.C.A in 1923. It has made several attempts to merge or join with Texas A&M University over the years, but the powers that be in Texas public universities seem to intervene to prevent this. Presently, STCL does offer a "3 and 3" program with Texas A&M University, which is a collaborative program between the two schools that makes it possible to get a bachelor's degree and a J.D. in only six years by entering STCL after your junior year at A&M and completing your bachelor degree at A&M with the completion of your first year of law school.

South Texas is part of a consortium of four independent ABA and AALS accredited American law schools, California Western School of Law, New England School of Law, and William Mitchell College of Law. The Consortium for Innovative Legal Education or CILE, combines resources designed to enhance and strengthen the educational mission of each school separately and all of them collectively. This unique partnership provides expanded opportunities for educational programs on a national and international basis. Students at South Texas can study abroad in London, Ireland, Malta, Prague, France, the Netherlands, Denmark and Mexico. (Nothing in Asia, especially Japan, which is really sad).

STCL does rank among the least expensive private law schools in the country, with its full time tuition at $20,640 a year. This last year STCL did give out $3.5 million in scholarships.

My wife and I applied to law schools at the same time. We had difficulty getting accepted to the same law school. Out of the blue (and I am not sure why) I wrote Dean Garland Walker about this problem and he had mercy on us two and accepted both of us immediately. We entered together, we took every class together, we graduated together, we studied for the bar exam together (with a newborn who is now in law school), and we have practiced law together every single day of our lives since. It has been wonderful if not challenging.

My only complaint about STCL is that they lost out on getting my daughter because, although they did finally get around to accepting her, the school did so very late and then left us hanging on any financial aid available. This was despite the fact I contact the dean myself and, especially, despite the fact that my daughter was a 4.0 graduate of The University of Texas in Japanese and had a relatively good LSAT. UH, which is not only cheaper to attend, accepted my daughter quickly (despite the fact that it is harder to get into) UH than STCL), and immediately told her what it would give her in scholarships. In this regard, I think STCL missed out for being dilatory. I can tell you from experience, that the one thing quality students do not need or appreciate is being left hanging for months and months when it is pretty obvious that they meet the qualifications for acceptance.

My wife and I do, however, very much appreciate for South Texas for what it offered and did for us.

Comments

I think that highlighting these smaller and lesser-known schools is very cool. It's important for prospective law students to be aware that they have high quality choices in legal education that allow some fleibility and economy in the process.

Posted by: PerGynt | December 08, 2007 at 12:24 AM