Defying the odds, UCI’s law school will open this fall with one of the highest-rated student bodies in the country. Free tuition helps. In a move worthy of a Harvard (or Merage) business-school case study, UCI has tapped local law firms and other donors to fund full three-year scholarships (a roughly $100,000 value per student) for the entire inaugural class. The result: UCI will launch with student numbers rivaling, and even topping, the most prestigious competition. A median student grade point average of 3.65 and LSAT score of 167 puts UCI within the top 20 law schools as measured by U.S. News & World Report. Moreover, UCI accepted only 4% of applicants (110 of 2,741), the lowest rate in the nation; the next-best were Yale at 7% and Stanford at 9%. And 68 of the 110 students accepted by UCI have chosen to attend, a 62% yield rate exceeded only by Yale and Harvard. “Money was not usually a top factor” for why someone applied to UCI, Assistant Dean Charles Cannon says, “but it was really an important factor” when accepted students decided between UCI and another suitor. Challenges remain. Cannon says UCI is “very close” to having all of the $4 million it needs to pay for the first class (the amount needed is somewhat less than the tuition multiplied by the number of students because of UC student-aid offsets.) But he figures to maintain student averages next year, UCI will need to raise another $4 million to fund half-scholarships for a class that will be almost twice as large. And this during a deep recession. Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky devised the bold plan, which he says also depends on a top faculty, a low student-teacher ratio and publicity. For a leftist political scholar, Chemerinsky sounds very capitalistic: “I asked law firms and others to invest in this. They will benefit by our having a student body of the quality they want to hire. I see no tension at all between this and my other views” …
EE RR told the OC Forum he thought it was remarkable that someone as humble, gracious and mild-mannered as Pimco CEO and OCBJ Businessperson of the Year Mohamed El-Erian could be “at the top of the investment world” and even more, a die-hard New York Mets fan. El-Erian responded that being a Mets fan is why he was humble, otherwise, “I’d be a Yankees fan.” El-Erian said there is a 25% to 30% chance of another Great Depression. See Dan Beighley’s story, this page …
South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford and commentator Larry Elder headline the Lincoln Club’s annual dinner Friday at the Balboa Bay Club. Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher partner Bob Loewen succeeds Tustin commercial real estate developer Rich Wagner (RKW Development Corp.) as club prez …
Orangewood’s Orange Blossom Bash honors the Lyon family Saturday at The General’s new Lyon Air Museum next to JWA. Go to www.orangewoodfoundation.org.
