Incoming students at the UCLA School of Law will have a tuition guarantee for the next three academic years, officials announced Thursday.
Under this guarantee, tuition and fees will not exceed $45,500 for the 2016-2017 academic year, and $46,000 for the 2017-2018 and $46,500 for the 2018-2019 academic years.
The school established a tuition guarantee for California residents who begin a three-year Juris Doctor program this fall, according to a press release. Although the guarantee does not apply to current students, tuition and fees at the school are expected to increase only minimally in the next three years, said Robert Schwartz, dean of admissions and financial aid at the law school.
University of California Board of Regents is not expected to increase the law school’s tuition anytime soon, Schwartz said. This allows the law school to implement this guarantee, he said.
Law school tuition for California residents stayed nearly flat since the 2012-2013 academic year.
In case tuition were to increase by the University, the law school would use funding from private sources to offer scholarships and cover extra costs, he said.
Many top-tier law schools’ tuition increases between 3 and 5 percent each year, according to the Law School Transparency Website.
For instance, the total tuition and fees for incoming law students for UC Berkeley is about $147,000 versus UCLA’s $138,000. USC charges students about $187,000 over these three years.
Incoming students who are non-California residents pay about $6,500 more per year, Schwartz said. Most of them will qualify for resident tuition by the second or third year of law school, he said.
Email Valero at jvalero@media.ucla.edu and tweet him @jvalerodailyb.