Widener University School of Law

The law school's Delaware campus is located in the city of Wilmington just couple of miles from the state of Pennsylvania and about 30 miles from Philadelphia. The campus is also 5.4 miles from the State Supreme Court, 6.4 miles from the state's County Courthouse containing the: Court of Chancery (court of internal affairs disputes for corporations), Superior Court (intermediary state court of appeals), Family Court, and Court of Common Pleas (state criminal court).

About 50% of all United States' publicly traded companies and 63% of the Fortune 500 companies have their legal home in Delaware. The state is famous for being at the forefront of business formation law. Although the city and state are rather small they have relatively large legal communities. The state has about 12 large law firms (250+ attorneys) all residing in Wilmington. There are about about 30 medium sized firms (50 - 249 attorneys) in Delaware with about 26 residing in Wilmington. This is a large legal community for a state with a population of approximately 870,000. Widener has over 650 alumni practicing in Delaware alone. If you are interested in corporate law this is a good location.

	Widener University
Public or Private	Private
Tuition	$31,950
Acceptance Rate	51%
State Bar Pass Rate	Pennsylvania, July 2008 75.28% (for the Delaware campus) 77.98% (for the Harrisburg, PA campus) (Bar pass rate for all first time takers, 88.87%.)
Employment Rate after 9 mos. from Graduation	82.8%
Employment Rate at Graduation	52.9%
Average Salary for Graduates in the Private Sector	$60,000
Student Body Population	879 (both campuses) 568 (Delaware campus) 311 (Harrisburg campus)
LSAT score bottom 25th percentile of incoming class for both campuses	150
LSAT score top 25th percentile of incoming class for both campuses	154
Median LSAT of incoming class for both campuses	151
Bottom 25th percentile of incoming class undergraduate GPA (UGPA) for both campuses	2.88
Top 25th percentile of incoming class UGPA for both campuses	3.46
Median UGPA for both campuses	3.15

Widener University's law school is a fourth tier law school that has two campuses one in Wilmington, Delaware and the other in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The Delaware campus has a Health Law Institute allowing graduates to earn a certificate in the health care law practice area. The Pennsylvania campus is home to the school's Law & Government Institute which offers students several certificates in various government related practice areas from constitutional law to legislative law.

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The law school uses a standard alphabetical grading system with a correlating 4.0 scale GPA. The law school requires all first year courses to have an average grade between a 2.3 and a 2.75. Meaning the curve is about a C- to a C+. This seems like a difficult grading curve that could negatively affect a graduates ability to obtain an associate position after graduation. As a graduate with a C average will not find it very easy to earn a position and most of the graduates will have between a C- to C+ average.

The law school's Pennsylvania location is located in the city of Harrisburg. The campus is about 6.2 miles from the Pennsylvania State Capitol complex, which houses the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania and the Governor's office, and 6.5 miles from the Dauphin County Court House. The city itself is not very large nor is its legal community. There are approximately 5 large law firms and 13 medium sized firms in Harrisburg. Widener has almost 200 alumni practicing in Harrisburg proving that a good number of alumni find associate positions in the state's capital. Even if you do not choose to practice in Harrisburg as the state's capital there are many legal education advantages for having the school in the city. For instance, students can attend Supreme Court hearings and the school can have the justices visit the school and speak with the students on legal matters.