Viewbook — Quick Facts

College Overview

• Consistently ranked among the nation's top 10 public law schools
• Student to faculty ratio is 12 to 1
• Increased ethnic and geographic diversity (student body represents 42 states, 2 countries, and 188 undergraduate institutions)
• Expanded curriculum includes more than 100 course offerings for second- and third-year students, as well as a variety of active learning opportunities
• Small class section approach for first-year students
• Loan Repayment Assistance Program established by students and alumni
• Wireless computing areas and over 1,000 data ports in the law building
• Law library ranked 14th in the nation
• Nearly 50 active student organizations
• A median GPA of 3.32 and median LSAT of 166 for 2005-06 entering class

Student Profile

• J.D. Students from 42 states, 2 countries, and 188 undergraduate institutions (representing 680 students in 2004-05)
• 36.8% are people of color — the highest percentage in Illinois public universities and Big Ten universities
• 14 countries were represented by 32 LL.M. students in 2004-05 (LL.M. students are integraded into J.D. classes)
• Student organizations that focus on diverse groups include Asian-American, Latino/a, African-American, international, Irish, Jewish, Muslim and Native American
• Increasing geographical diversity, with 37% of students from outside Illinois

College Community

• Nearly 50 student organizations
• Plenty of friendly competition (Beer Darts League, intramural basketball, chess boards in the Pavilion)
• Diverse groups, activities and conferences (organized around ethnicity, religion, politics, and issues like the environment, sexual orientation, and disabilities)
• Opportunities to interact with faculty outside the class (softball league, Peer's Pub, Take a Professor to Lunch program)

Faculty Overview

• Seven of the last 15 campus-wide awards for excellence in graduate teaching have been won by College of Law faculty (approximately 2,000 university professors are eligible)
• Student to faculty ratio of 12 to 1
• Professors who author textbooks, give Congressional testimony, earn pretigious fellowships, and edit leading journals
• Professors who are famously approachable and fun — they keep their doors open, join students for lunch, and even play in a softball league

Academics

• 12 joint degree programs offered in partnership with other presitigious University of Illinois programs
• A first year of core legal courses in small sections followed by a liberal approach to tailoring course schedules
• Numerous active learning opportunities, including clinics, Moot Court and scholarly journals
• Study abroad opoprtunities to enhance and broaden your studies

Joint Degrees

• Business Administration
• Chemistry
• Computer Science
• Education
• Human Resources and Industrial Relations
• Journalism
• Medicine
• Natural Resources
• Urban Planning
• Veterinary Medicine

Library

• The 14th largest law library in the nation, with 730,000 volumes
• 10 of our 11 library faculty have J.D.s in addition to Master of Library and Information Science degrees
• Our library holds a complete Blackstone's Commentaries on the Law collection — joining Harvard, Yale, and the Library of Congress as one of only four libraries in the nation with this distinction
• The updated facility has wireless Internet access and group study rooms

Champaign-Urbana

• Affordable housing close to campus (and everything else)
• The University's highly regarded Krannert Center for the Performing Arts
• Fitness equipment, classes, and leagues in the University's Intramural Physical Education (IMPE) building
• University of Illinois athletics — nine men's and ten women's Big Ten teams
• An award-winning public transit system, free for students

Alumni

• Private giving for the 2005 fiscal year included gifts from 1,757 donors for a total of $7,482,632 in gifts to support student scholarships, faculty research, and programs
• Nearly 10,000 alumni located across the country and around the world provide a solid base of support for the school and a network for students
• Alumni involvement is on the rise — 2005 saw a 20% increase in giving to the Law School Alumni Fund
• Alumni and students often collaborate — in the development of the Loan Repayment Assistance Fund, for instance — and come together for events like the Alumni-Student Career Conference and the Black Law Student Association reunions

Careers and Placement

• Bar passage rate: 91.2%; employment rate: 99.5% (Class of 2004 data)
• More than 50 Career Services Office events each year including career fairs, workshops, and conferences
• Other services include a résumé submission program, an electronic job bank, and coordination with employers from all over the country who come to Champaign-Urbana to interview students every year
• For the Class of 2004, careers were found in all areas: private practice (58%), business (11.8%), government and public interest (13.3%), judicial clerkships (13.3%), and academic (3.6%)
• Graduates ended up living and working in all regions of the country: New England (2.1%), Mid-Atlantic (2.1%), East North Central (72.3%), West North Central (3.6%), South Atlantic (8.7%), East South Central (0.5%), West South Central (3.1%), Mountain (3.1%), Pacific (2.1%), and foreign countries (2.1%)