Frequently asked questions

Yes. You must have a four-year (baccalaureate) degree from a college that is accredited by a nationally recognized accrediting agency before you start law school.

If you are in the process of completing your degree requirements, and these requirements will be finished before the first day of law school (usually mid-August), then you are eligible to be considered for the upcoming entering class.

The only two prerequisites to be considered for law school are a four-year degree and an LSAT score that is five or fewer years old at the time you submit your application. Your baccalaureate degree may be in anything, as long as it comes from a college or university that is accredited by a nationally recognized accrediting agency.

All colleges and universities in the United States must be evaluated by a nationally recognized accrediting agency in order to become accredited. Most major public and private schools in the country are accredited by such an accrediting body. For example, The University of Akron is accredited by the NCA Higher Learning Commission. Consult the federal Department of Education website for more information on accreditation of schools and colleges.

Usually, colleges and universities do not offer undergraduate majors in law. Some do offer majors or minors in pre-law, and some law-related fields include political science, criminal justice, philosophy, and history. Oftentimes, students interested in law will choose one of these subject areas as a major and pursue a minor in pre-law. Some schools do not have pre-law curriculum at all, but most schools do have a pre-law advisor, who is usually a faculty member who helps to guide undergraduate students interested in pursuing law school.

Anything you like. There are no specific curricular prerequisites for attending law school. Some of the most popular majors for law students are political science, philosophy, history, English, and business administration. However, this does not necessarily mean that these are the best majors to pursue. Any major, minor, or class that develops your problem-solving, analytical thinking, writing, and reading comprehension skills will help you when you get to law school. Please see our student profiles page for lists of majors represented in our last several entering classes.

Akron’s full-time law program typically takes 3 years to complete, and the part-time program may be completed in 4-6 years. Thus, becoming a lawyer takes 7-10 years of education past high school. When you finish law school, you are awarded the Juris Doctor (JD) degree. As a final step, you must take the bar exam in the state in which you plan to practice in order to become an attorney. The bar exam is an intensive test that examines the skills and knowledge you have obtained in law school. Bar exams vary from state to state, and they are typically 2-3 days in length.

Here are a few things that you should do in order to prepare for law school:

• Get involved in pre-law organizations in high school (if possible) and in college
• Take a few philosophy courses to build your reasoning, arguing, and writing skills
• Pursue relevant employment as an intern or clerk at a law firm or court
• Challenge yourself with coursework designed to enhance your reading and research skills.

The most important thing you can do for yourself in college, whether or not you decide to go to law school, is to take classes and participate in activities that interest you, as opposed to only doing those that you think will look good on a resume when you start applying for jobs or to graduate and professional schools. LSAC has published on its website a comprehensive outline of ways that you may prepare yourself for law school.

It depends on the discipline of law you pursue, as well as where you practice. For example, lawyers who practice corporate law typically make more money than lawyers who work in public interest (public defender, legal aid, etc.). Lawyers who work in big cities usually make more money than lawyers who work in small cities because the cost of living is usually higher in larger markets. Also, lawyers who work in large, private law firms usually make more money than lawyers who work on their own or in smaller law firms. Starting salaries for lawyers can range from $25,000 per year to well over $100,000 per year.

No. This type of practice is called litigation, and only about a third of all lawyers are litigators. Many lawyers work for businesses and corporations, or facilitate transactions between individuals and/or businesses. Other lawyers serve as judges. Some lawyers go into education, or become legislators. There are many career paths available to people with law degrees, and not all of them involve the practice of law. LSAC has published on its website an excellent summary of some possible career options that law school graduates have.

Legal specialty areas are only important in that a law school with a well-known specialty area is more likely to be highly visible to many law firms in that specialty area. For example, Akron Law has a well-known litigation specialty, which means that a litigation law firm or a law firm with a significant litigation practice group may be more likely to hire an Akron graduate than one from another school with a less well-known litigation specialty area.

With respect to education and learning about a given legal practice area, however, specialty curriculum is not extremely important. The J.D. degree is designed to be general in nature, so most of your learning in any given specialty will take place after you graduate from law school and start your legal career. LSAC has published on its website an excellent discussion of legal specialty areas.

Our application deadline varies and can be found here. Late applications may be possible though, depending on space availability. Because we admit applicants on a rolling basis, we encourage you to submit your application as early in the process as possible so that you can claim your seat in our entering class.

Click here for more information on our admissions philosophy and the kinds of things we consider when reviewing applicants for admission.

To meet our application deadline, you will need to take the LSAT examination administered in February before your intended semester of matriculation. For example, if you intend to enter law school in the fall 2015 semester, then you will need to take LSAT examination in February 2015. Depending on space availability, we may consider LSAT scores taken in June of the year in which you plan to start law school. Please contact us directly about space availability. We recommend planning your application a year in advance, as shown on the application timeline page.

The Admissions Committee will not accept LSAT scores any older than five years, as calculated from the date the application is submitted.

Because we understand that life schedules vary, we want to provide you with the flexibility of commencing your studies in January, May or August. Click here for more information on our spring start. Click here for more information on our summer start. Transfer and transient students may start in the fall, spring, or summer.

No. All applicants are eventually either admitted or denied. There is no “conditional” or “trial” admission program available.

In a sense, yes. If you would like to be considered for both full-time and part-time admission, please indicate that you are applying for admission to the full-time program in question 2 of the admission application, and answer “Yes” to question 4, which asks if you would also like to be considered for admission to the part-time program.

Applicants may be admitted as early as October and as late as August prior to the fall semester in which they wish to begin law studies. Decisions will be made on a continuous basis as files are completed throughout the year.

Only completed files will be sent to the admissions committee for decision. In most cases, a file is considered complete when the application form, personal statement, and law school report are received.

If an applicant checks “yes” to any of the Character, Fitness, and Bar Exam Clearance questions, detailed explanations of these responses are also required before the application is considered complete and able to be reviewed.

If an applicant chooses to print the application and mail it to us (as opposed submitting the application electronically), a $35 application fee is also required before the application will be reviewed.

Letters of recommendation are OPTIONAL. If a file is considered complete (see above), but no letters of recommendation are present, the file will be sent to the Admissions Committee for review without letters of recommendation. Due to our application volume, we cannot honor requests to hold application files until letters of recommendation arrive.

IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO ENSURE THAT YOU HAVE A COMPLETED LAW SCHOOL REPORT AND THAT ALL RELEVANT LETTERS OF RECOMMENDATION ARE INCLUDED IN THE REPORT! Check the status of your LSAC account and law school reports frequently at www.lsac.org.

Your best bet is to follow our application timeline in planning out your law school application. You need not complete these steps in the exact order shown on the timeline, but doing so tends to offer the smoothest path through the application process.

Yes. Most applicants do. When you apply, your physical application file is created in our office, and your law school report is requested electronically. As soon as LSAC posts your LSAT score and your law school report is complete, LSAC mails a paper copy of your application and law school report to our office. When your application and law school report arrive, our staff immediately sends it to the Admissions Committee for review.

CAUTION: Before applying, be sure that all of your letters of recommendation have been processed by the LSAC Credential Assembly Service and are a part of your law school report (you can check this by logging in to your LSAC account at www.lsac.org). Otherwise, your file may be sent to the Admissions Committee for review without any letters of recommendation.

The Credential Assembly Service serves to centralize and condense data about each applicant into a single law school report. Each law school report contains the LSAT score report, the LSAT writing sample, transcripts from each undergraduate school, a summary report of undergraduate work, and letters of recommendation (optional). For applicants who took the LSAT under accommodated conditions, details on their accommodations will also be included in the law school report.

All applicants MUST register for the Credential Assembly Service, including international applicants and applicants who did their undergraduate work at The University of Akron.

YES. All applicants MUST register for the Credential Assembly Service, including international applicants and applicants who did their undergraduate work at The University of Akron. Registering for the Credential Assembly Service is the only way we will be able to receive your LSAT scores and official undergraduate transcripts.

If you have taken the LSAT more than once in the last five years, we will use your HIGHEST LSAT score in evaluating your application.

If you apply early in the application cycle and are deferred or denied, and then you re-take the LSAT at a later date in the same application cycle, the Admissions Committee will automatically re-review your application file when your new LSAT score arrives.

No. We will review all completed application files for admission, regardless of the grade point average or LSAT score associated with them. Keep in mind though, that, generally speaking, applicants with higher LSAT scores and better grades stand a better chance at admission. To get some idea of what competitive “numbers” look like, please see our entering class profiles.

A graduate degree will enhance your application as a qualitative factor in the admissions process, not a quantitative factor. Thus, your graduate GPA will not displace or be factored in to your cumulative undergraduate GPA. Graduate work is just one of many factors that the Admissions Committee considers when evaluating an application file, so the fact that you have a graduate degree does not automatically make you more attractive as an applicant.

Any undergraduate work that is completed after you receive your first four year baccalaureate degree would not be factored in to your cumulative undergraduate GPA, but, like graduate work, would enhance your application file qualitatively.

This depends on the severity, frequency, and date of the offenses. Minor offenses (such as a speeding ticket or a fine for underage consumption of alcohol) generally do not have a negative impact on the Admissions Committee’s decision regarding an applicant’s file, especially if such an offense is an isolated incident, and/or happened a long time prior to the application date. Severe offenses, such as felonies or major misdemeanors, as well as frequent transgressions, often do have a negative impact on admissions decisions.

The most important thing to consider when completing the Bar Exam Clearance Requirement section of the application (which asks about criminal offenses, among other things) is to be completely honest in answering all of these questions, because if there is a discrepancy between your law school application and your bar exam application, you may not be able to take the bar exam, which means that you may not be able to practice law. For more information on background problems that may keep you from taking the bar exam, please contact the Ohio State Bar Admissions Office at 614.387.9340. Click here for a list of contact information for other state bar admissions offices.

We ask this for two reasons. One is for the sake of consistency. As noted above, if there are inconsistencies between the admission application and the bar exam application, this can cause problems when it is time to apply to take the bar exam.

The second is a character issue. On rare occasions, the Admissions Committee comes in contact with an applicant that believes that traffic and parking laws do not apply to them. This suggests a disregard for the law, which is a serious problem for someone considering becoming a lawyer, and could adversely affect the admission decision made by the Admissions Committee.

If your driving record includes just a few minor moving and/or nonmoving violations, all of the resultant requirements (e.g., fines, driving classes, etc.) were satisfied fully and promptly, and you have never had your driver’s license suspended, you may submit a statement summarizing these minor moving and nonmoving violations. For example, "I have been driving for XX years and have received approximately X parking tickets and X speeding tickets. None of these were drug or alcohol related, nor did any result in the suspension of my driver’s license. All of these incidents resulted in minor fines, all of which were paid promptly."

Yes. As long as all of your undergraduate degree requirements will be completed by the first day of law school, you are eligible to be considered for admission. If you are in this situation and are selected for admission, the Admissions Office will need a letter from an appropriate official at your college or university (registrar, department chair, dean, etc.) indicating that your degree requirements will be complete prior to the first day of law school.

No. The Admissions Committee does not assign a reason for denial.

All admitted applicants are considered for scholarship assistance. No separate scholarship application is required.

In addition, returning law students may apply for upper division scholarships in the spring semester of each year of law school. These scholarships are mainly privately endowed awards and are primarily merit-based, although there are a few scholarships that are based on other factors, such as financial need. The upper-division scholarship application is distributed via e-mail in May or June of each year.

Law students are not eligible for federal grants, but they are eligible for federal Stafford loans, direct PLUS loans, and alternative (private) loans. Stafford and PLUS loans are need-based, and alternative loans are based on credit. In order to become eligible for student loans, a student must complete the FAFSA. Click here for more information on loans, or contact the Office of Student Financial Aid at 800.621.3847.

There are no graduate assistantships available to law students. However, professors sometimes employ upper-division law students as part-time research assistants.

If you are a student in a joint degree program, you are eligible to apply for a graduate assistantship in the department in which you are enrolled for Master’s degree work. Graduate assistantships are only available to law students who have finished their first year of law school. They typically range in value from a few thousand dollars to full tuition for graduate and law tuition, plus a living stipend.

The faculty believes that the study of law is a full-time pursuit. Consequently, the University of Akron School of Law sets forth the following employment rules for full-time students.

First-Year, Full-Time Students:

The law school strongly encourages first-year, full-time students not to work. Students who nonetheless choose to work are prohibited from working more than 20 hours per week in any semester. In addition, a first-year, full-time student must meet with the Dean or his/her designee before working to discuss the consequences such employment may have on the student’s academic performance.

Second and Third-Year, Full-Time Students:

The law school permits second and third-year, full-time students to work, but strongly discourages working more than 20 hours per week in any semester.

The general rule is that once a student has lived in Ohio for twelve consecutive months, the student is eligible to become an Ohio resident and begin to pay resident tuition and fees. At present, the difference between resident and non-resident tuition and fees is just $100 per year. Students must go through some official motions and comply with a number of statewide regulations before officially becoming Ohio residents, however.

Click here for detailed information on becoming an Ohio resident, including information on Ohio residency for veterans.

Yes. The Office of Student Financial Aid sets a maximum financial aid budget, which includes not only tuition and fees, but also room and board, books, supplies, transportation, personal expenses, and loan fees. This maximum budget represents the total annual amount (including fall and spring semesters only – there is a separate application and budget for summer financial aid) that a law student may receive in all financial aid, including scholarships and loans. Thus, if the total financial aid budget is $30,000 and a student receives a $5,000 scholarship for that year, the student may borrow $25,000 in a combination of Stafford loans and PLUS loans (if financially eligible), and alternative (private) loans.

Click here for more information on tuition, fees, and the financial aid budget.

See the University’s tuition and fee remission policies. To the extent that you qualify for tuition and fee remission and receive an admissions scholarship, your scholarship award may be adjusted in accordance with University policy. Tuition-and-fee remission takes precedence over scholarship assistance.

We offer a number of combined degree options:

1. JD/MBA Program
2. JD/MTax Program
3. JD/MSA Program – Financial Forensics Program
4. JD/Master of Applied Politics
5. JD/LLM in Intellectual Property

Most law students apply for admission to a joint degree program during the summer before the first year of law school or during the fall semester of the first year of law school. In order to apply, the student must fill out a joint degree program application, as well as an application to the graduate department offering the joint degree (the College of Business Administration, the Public Administration department, or the Political Science department). Generally speaking, the earlier a student applies for a joint degree program, the better his or her chances are to receive a graduate assistantship, which can pay for up to full tuition and fees for the remainder of the joint degree program past the first year of law school.

Students who are admitted into the law program can use their LSAT scores in place of other graduate admission exams for joint degree application purposes. If a student’s LSAT score is at an acceptable level, the appropriate graduate admission exam is waived. If the LSAT score is not at an acceptable level, the student may be required to take the appropriate graduate admission exam. Joint degree students are ALMOST NEVER required to take graduate admission exams apart from the LSAT.

A joint degree program allows a student to obtain a J.D. and a master’s degree at the same time. Joint degree programs save students time and money due to credit transfer agreements that we have arranged with the graduate school. Click here for a detailed discussion of how this credit transfer arrangement works.

Joint degree programs typically require year-round attendance and add a semester on to the standard J.D. course of study. For example, a full-time student pursuing a joint degree would likely take three and a half years of year-round study to complete both programs, as opposed to three years with summers off for the J.D. program alone.

Our joint degree programs are structured to keep students on pace to graduate with the J.D. in the standard amount of time for their chosen program. Returning to the example of the full-time student, that student would finish the J.D. in three years, take the bar exam in July following graduation, and then return to Akron in the fall semester to finish the graduate portion of the joint degree.

Students may start graduate school prior to law school, but this is not recommended for two reasons. The first reason is that this plan might require a leave of absence from graduate school, especially for full-time law students, in order to complete the core requirements of the J.D. program.

The second reason is that any credits earned prior to matriculation in the J.D. program CAN NEVER be counted toward the J.D. program. For example, if a student were to take 12 credit hours in the MBA program in the spring semester and then start law school the following fall semester, none of these 12 hours would count toward the J.D. program. There is nothing wrong with this, necessarily, but this plan could weaken the credit-transferring benefits that occur as a result of joint enrollment.

If you are a student in a joint degree program, you are eligible to apply for a graduate assistantship in the department in which you are enrolled for Master’s degree work. Graduate assistantships are only available to law students who have finished their first year of law school. They typically range in value from a few thousand dollars to full tuition for graduate and law tuition, plus a living stipend.

No. The only available joint degree programs are the ones listed above. However, students may take up to SIX (6) hours of graded, graduate-level credit in another unit within The University of Akron to count toward the J.D. degree. Students not enrolled in joint degree programs must secure written permission from the Assistant or Associate Dean at the School of Law before enrolling in any graduate courses. See list of graduate programs offered at The University of Akron.

Yes, as long as the joint degree program is different from the graduate degree you have already obtained. For example, if you already have an MBA and wish to pursue the J.D./MTax, this is permissible. Some of your MBA coursework may count toward the MTax program, but, as stated above, no coursework completed prior to matriculation in the J.D. program will count toward the J.D. program.

Full-time students typically have class four or five days per week. First-year classes begin as early as 8:30 am and end as late as 4:30 pm, but full-time students will never attend class straight through from 8:30 – 4:30. Full-time students usually have one to three classes per day. Upper-division full-time students may also take evening classes, which typically go from 6:30 pm – 9:30 pm and meet one or two days per week. Akron Law also offers some early morning upper-division classes, which run from 7:30 am – 9:00 am.

First-year part-time evening students typically have class from 6:30 pm – 9:30 pm on Monday, Wednesday, and either Thursday or Friday. Upper-division part-time evening students may have class any three nights of the week, almost always from 6:30 – 9:30 each night. Upper-division part-time evening students are also eligible to take courses during the daytime.

First-year part-time day students may be in class between three and five days per week, depending on the course schedule. Upper-division part-time day students have the option of taking a combination of day and evening classes and may also take early morning classes.

In order to accommodate students taking evening courses, the vast majority of summer classes are taught during evening hours, typically on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 6:30-9:30 for 10 weeks. Note also that some upper-division electives are only offered during evening hours, so there may be times in which full-time and part-time “day” students must take courses at night.

Students at Akron Law have tremendous flexibility in the way they complete the J.D. program. Part-time students may follow the traditional four-year path, or they may choose to follow an accelerated course of study that would allow for completion of the program in three and a half years. We also allow our part-time students to decrease the intensity of the program and stretch it out to five or six years. In addition, part-time students may switch to full-time status after the first year of law school, provided they earn at least a 2.50 accumulative GPA in the first year (by end spring or summer I or summer II) of study. Note that this option allows students who start out in the part-time program to complete law school in THREE years, provided that they take summer classes between the second and third year of law school.

Full-time students typically complete law school in three years. If a full-time student wishes to finish a semester early, however, that student may take summer courses after the first and second year of law school. This would allow the student to graduate in December of the third year, rather than May. This accelerated plan requires students to have at least a 2.70 accumulative GPA by the end of the spring semester of the first year of law school.

Click here for a full comparison of our full-time and part-time programs.

Yes. We offer a great deal of flexibility in the way students complete the law program. Students must understand that changing classification from full-time to part-time or vice versa might result in extending the total time spent in law school. To change classification from full-time to part-time or vice versa, see the Assistant Dean of Student Services.

Yes – with careful planning.

Part-time students generally take 24 hours in the first year of law school (10 in the fall, 9 in the spring, and 5 in the summer). Full-time students generally take 30 hours in the first year of law school (16 in the fall and 14 in the spring). This means that a part-time student switching to full-time as of the beginning of fall semester of the second year is just six hours behind a similarly-situated full-time student.

These six hours can easily be made up over the summer after the second year of law school through traditional summer coursework, clinical work, intersession courses, or transient study at another law school. After completing these additional six hours of summer coursework, a student in this situation should have 60 credit hours, which is the same number of credit hours a student who had been full-time for the first two years of law schools would accumulate.

Thus, the student would be in a position to take 14 hours in the fall and 14 hours of the spring of the third year and finish law school in a total of three years. To change classification from part-time to full-time after your first year, see the Assistant Dean of Student Services during the summer immediately preceding the second year of law school.

Akron Law offers specialized studies in business, criminal, family, health, intellectual property, international, labor/employment, litigation, public interest, and taxation, as well as certificate programs in health law, intellectual property law and litigation.

Legal specialty areas are only important in that a law school with a well-known specialty area is more likely to be highly visible to many law firms in that specialty area. For example, The University of Akron School of Law has a well-known litigation specialty, which means that a litigation law firm or a law firm with a significant litigation practice group may be more likely to hire an Akron graduate than one from another school with a less well-known litigation specialty area.

With respect to education and learning about a given legal practice area, however, specialty curriculum is not extremely important. The J.D. degree is designed to be extremely general, so most of your learning in any given specialty will take place after you graduate from law school and start your legal career. LSAC has published on its website an excellent discussion of legal specialty areas.

For each hour in class, a law student can expect to spend 2-3 hours outside of class studying, reading, and preparing for class. Thus, a full-time student enrolled in 15 semester hours will spend 30-45 hours per week on out-of-class preparation. Likewise, a part-time student enrolled in 9 semester hours will spend 18-27 hours per week on out-of-class preparation.

Regular and punctual class attendance is required. It is the responsibility of the faculty to take reasonable steps to monitor student class attendance and to enforce this policy.

Some law students live on campus in various residence halls. For more information on on-campus housing for law students, contact Residence Life and Housing.

Most law students live off campus in neighborhoods throughout Akron and the greater Akron area. Most students live within 20 minutes of the law school, but some students commute from Cleveland, Youngstown, Wooster, Medina, Tuscarawas County, and even Columbus and Western Pennsylvania. Since Akron is a relatively small city (roughly 212,000 residents) with excellent access to Interstate highways, commuting to law school is indeed a realistic option.

The Admissions Office also maintains a housing newsgroup and a roommate connection newsgroup for admitted students interested in learning more about Akron-area housing and/or finding law student roommates. If you have been admitted and would like information on joining these newsgroups, please contact the Admissions Office at lawadmissions@uakron.edu.

Click here for general information on off-campus housing in greater Akron.

Yes. Akron has a bus system called the Metro RTA. People who live within Akron or nearby cities and suburbs (such as Copley and Cuyahoga Falls, for example) most likely would have no problem getting back and forth to the law school using the bus system. If you plan to use the bus system frequently, it is probably best to find a place to live that is close to an arterial street within Akron, such as Main, Market, or Exchange.

Akron is a relatively small city (roughly 212,000 residents) with little traffic congestion, so, unlike in many large cities, owning a car and commuting to school is indeed a very realistic option.

All students at The University of Akron taking more than 5 credit hours pay a transportation fee of $115 per semester ($75 for the summer). Students who plan to commute may request a parking permit through the My Akron Student Information System after they have enrolled in classes. The transportation fee covers the cost of the parking permit, so there is no extra charge for parking, but students are responsible for going to My Akron and requesting their parking permits themselves before the start of each semester. Student commuter parking permits (“C” permits) may be used in any “C” or all-permit parking lot or deck on The University of Akron campus. Most of the parking lots and decks on campus are designated all-permit.

Because of the law school’s location on the west edge of campus, parking for law students is generally fairly good. Parking areas for law students, in order of preference, tend to be lot 34, lot 43, the E. J. Thomas Hall parking deck (lot 28), the Polsky parking deck (lot 49), the South Campus parking deck (lot 39), and the North Campus parking deck (lot 26). Note: the School of Law is the C. Blake McDowell law center and West Hall – buildings 27 and 41, respectively. Law students are always advised to add a 20 to 30-minute cushion to their planned travel time to allow for parking and walking to the law school, ESPECIALLY during the first two weeks of each semester, when the parking situation is the most hectic.

Click here for more information on Parking Services.

No.

Yes. Law students have all of the same privileges as every other student on The University of Akron’s campus.

Owning your own computer is not a requirement, but most students at Akron Law do have laptop computers. All of our classrooms have ample electrical outlets, and the University’s computer network is wireless, which means that students can access the Internet and the University network from virtually any point on campus. The University of Akron’s Computer Solutions store also has arranged for student discounts with many major vendors.

One of the unique nicknames in all of intercollegiate athletics belongs to the University of Akron. Originally Zippers, athletics director Kenneth "Red" Cochrane officially shortened the nickname to the Zips in 1950. Twenty-five years earlier a campus-wide contest had been conducted to choose a nickname for the University’s athletics teams.

Suggestions submitted by students, faculty and alumni included Golden Blue Devils, Tip Toppers, Rubbernecks, Hillbillies, Kangaroos and Cheveliers. After a three-way vote - one by the student body, one by the University lettermen and one by the local sports writers and faculty representatives - the winner was decided on January 15, 1926.

The winner, freshman Margaret Hamlin, suggested "Zippers" the name of a very popular rubber overshoe (over 500,000 sold the first year) invented by Akron’s B.F. Goodrich Company. She received a prize of $10 for the winning suggestion, which was inspired by the $6 pair of rubber shoes, the "Zipper Boot." Permission to use the name was granted by the Goodrich Company.

Goodrich introduced its rubber galoshes in 1923 and it made a lasting impression on the world. The footwear featured an ingenious invention, a slide fastener with interlocking metal teeth. With a quick pull of a tab, the overshoes opened wide or sealed shut.

The product’s original suggested name was the "Mystik Boot," but the name just did not work for Goodrich President Bertram G. Work.

"What we need is an action word," he told a group of sales representatives. "Something that will dramatize the way the thing zips."

From that he said, "Why not call it the Zipper?"

The evolution of Zippy, The University of Akron’s mascot, began in 1953 when the student council, under president Dave Frye and committee for a mascot chairman Bob Savoy (an All-American diver for UA), decided the University needed a mascot.

"Zippy" the kangaroo was officially declared UA’s mascot on May 1, 1953.

The selection of the kangaroo for a mascot brought forth the wrath of The Buchtelite and the Akron Beacon Journal as the name was chosen without the benefit of a campus-wide vote. There was support for the new mascot with defenders saying, "the kangaroo is fast, agile, and powerful with undying determination – all the necessary qualities of an athlete."

It is difficult to imagine such dissent given that Zippy is one of the most beloved symbols of the University. In fact, during an eleven week national mascot contest, Zippy defeated all challengers. Zippy, after a first-round bye in the playoffs, cruised to victories over Syracuse’s Otto in the semifinals and Minnesota’s Goldy Gopher in the final to become the 2007 Capital One Mascot of the Year.

Dick Hansford, UA student council advisor, liked the kangaroo when Akron chose "Zippers" as its nickname. He recalled the suggestion was also inspired by a popular comic strip at the time called "Kicky, the fighting kangaroo." No one recalls who made the arrangements for the first costume, but a paper-mache head was produced along with a brown furry uniform that zipped up the back. Pete Demming debuted that first mascot uniform in 1954, at the inaugural Acme-Zip Game – not as "Zippy" but as "Mr. Zip"

The first known printed reference to the mascot as "Zippy" was a 1965 Zip football press brochure. The Buchtelite’s first use of the name "Zippy" came Sept. 24, 1965, in an identification of a photo of the cheerleaders listing "Mascot – 'Zippy' – Charles Huettner."

Yes. The University of Akron School of Law is fully accredited by the American Bar Association and has been since 1961. This means that graduates of Akron Law are eligible to take the bar exam in any state.

In order to practice law in any given state in the U.S., lawyers are required to pass a bar exam, which is an intense, multi-day exam of legal concepts and professional skills. The bar exam is somewhat different in each state. In addition to the state-specific bar exam, many states also require law school graduates to pass the Multistate Bar Exam (MBE) in order to become a licensed attorney. For more information on bar exams, consult the National Conference of Bar Examiners and the Law School Admission Council.

No. The faculty at Akron Law focus on teaching law students legal concepts and professional skills, rather than "black letter" law. Most states in the U.S. have very similar laws and legal systems, so the concepts and skills students learn at Akron Law will serve them well on out of state bar exams and in out of state legal practice. Almost all law school graduates take a state-specific commercial bar exam preparation course just after graduation to refresh these concepts and skills and to fill in some of the state-specific information that might be tested on the bar exam.

Typically, 15 to 20 percent of Akron Law graduates find jobs out of state immediately upon graduation. Overall, roughly 35 percent of Akron Law alumni live outside Ohio, so there is a very strong Akron Law alumni network in just about every major market in the U.S., which makes moving out of state much more realistic. For more information on out-of-state placement, contact our Career Planning Office and our Alumni and Development Office.

All international applicants to the traditional (3-year) J.D. program, regardless of level of education or prior experience, MUST TAKE THE LSAT. There are no exceptions to this policy. More information about registering for and taking the LSAT.

Applicants to our 2-year JD program for foreign-trained attorneys are not required to take the LSAT.

Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) or International English Language Testing System (IELTS): Students in our traditional JD program and in our two-year accelerated International JD program should be prepared to read and discuss legal materials. Because class preparation and participation is demanding, students with English limitation may struggle. For this reason, we utilize the TOEFL and IELTS exams to ensure that you will not unduly struggle in the classroom.

Required scores on the TOEFL IBT (internet based test) are a 102 and 610 for the PBT (paper based test). Register for the TOEFL.

Required score on the IELTS is a 7.5. Register for the IELTS.

Effective Fall 2023, TOEFL/IELTS waivers will not be granted for international/non-native English speaking students.

All international applicants to the J.D. program, regardless of level of education or prior experience, MUST TAKE THE LSAT. There are no exceptions to this policy. We will only accept LSAT scores that are no older than five years at the time the application is submitted. Click here for more information on registering for and taking the LSAT.

All law school applicants must register for the Credential Assembly Service. Click here for more information.

All admitted students, domestic and foreign alike, are considered for merit based scholarships, which range from approximately $3,000 per year to full tuition.

The University of Akron School of Law does not have need-based scholarships for entering students.

Scholarships may be used to cover the cost of tuition only. Books, fees, living expenses, etc., are always the responsibility of the student.

Please also note that international students are not eligible for federal financial aid, so any costs not covered by scholarships are entirely the responsibility of the student.

As long as international students enroll in at least 9 hours per semester, which is the typical load for a part-time law student, they can attend part-time without any problems. For the purpose of F-1 Visa status, graduate students must be enrolled in at least 9 hours. Anything less is part-time, as far as the USCIS is concerned.

The University of Akron has an Office of International Programs that assists students with official paperwork and other transition issues.