Pace University School of Law Dean David Yassky says the school’s two recently announced affordable-education initiatives are an attempt to compete with state-supported law schools around the country for the best of a dwindling pool of prospective law students.
A tuition matching program will allow students throughout the U.S. to attend Pace for the in-state tuition rate for public law schools in their home states. Pace Law also froze its full-time tuition at $45,376 for next year.
“As our reputation grows we find ourselves competing with state-supported law schools that often have highly subsidized tuitions, so if we want to get the best students from around the country we have to be competitive with those schools,” said Pace Law School Dean David Yassky. “That”™s why we”™re telling students right off the bat, you can come to New York, get a quality legal education in the heart of the world”™s legal marketplace and you can do it affordably. That”™s the message to prospective students.”
Out-of-state students qualify for the matching program as long as they meet certain criteria, including a ranking in the top 50 percent of applicants, said Pace Law spokeswoman Joan Gaylord. The tuition break is renewable provided a student remains in good standing.
In-state tuition rates at public law schools across the country are substantially lower than Pace”™s, according to a press release from the university. This year”™s tuition at the University of Arkansas Law School is $14,508. In-state resident tuition rates for public law schools in Florida, Texas and Massachusetts are $22,230, $33,162 and $18,402, respectively. The program could save out-of- state students tens of thousands of dollars on their legal education, according to Pace.
Yassky said since the recession, applications to law schools have decreased by half because students are concerned about the affordability of education and debt.
At Pace, application numbers decreased by more than 50 percent from 2011 to 2014, according to information the school submitted to the American Bar Association. Enrollment numbers stayed steady from 2005 to 2011, at around 750 students each year. By 2014, however, enrollment had declined to 507 students.
Yassky, who joined Pace Law School as dean last spring, said the school looks at its tuition strategy on an ongoing basis. The new program is an effort to get quality students from across the country. Most of the student body is from New York, he said. The vast majority of students in recent entering classes were residents from New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Pace has responded to the recession by increasing its financial aid budget in the past few years, Yassky said.
“We are already devoting a pretty healthy budget to financial aid for students and what this does is just make it clear to students from around the country that we will compete for the best students with the low tuition of subsidized schools,” he said.
Yassky said the need for legal service is growing with regulations becoming a part of economic life. He said in a couple of years, there will not be enough lawyers to meet the demand. Pace is trying to do its part, he said.
