Roger Williams University

The law school is located on the parent university's main campus in Bristol, Rhode Island. Bristol is a small harbor city with just over 22,000 people. Providence is about 17.7 miles away and has a U.S. District Court, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, the Supreme Court of Rhode Island, as well as a Municipal Court. However, as Providence is about a 33 minute drive from the law school, most likely students will not spend a significant amount of time in the city. Although, most alummi have chosen to practice in the state with just over 200 alumni practicing in Rhode Island and most practicing in Providence. There are also a significant amount of alumni (about 80) practicing in Massachusetts with most practicing in the Boston area.

The law school is not in any legal community hub, although Providence is a pretty large city with about a population of about 170,000. There are about 4 large firms (250+ attorneys), 8 medium sized firms (50 - 249 attorneys), and 25 smaller firms (10 - 49 attorneys).

Although the law school is not located in a large legal community, Providence is only 18 miles away and Boston is only 63 miles from the school.

	Roger Williams University
Public or Private	Private
Tuition	$34,565
Acceptance Rate	57%
State Bar Pass Rate	Massachusetts, July 2008 93% (Avg. Bar Pass Rate for MA 86.4%)
Employment Rate after 9 mos. from Graduation	91.5%
Employment Rate at Graduation	Not Available
Average Salary for Graduates in the Private Sector	$55,000
Student Body Population	556
LSAT score bottom 25th percentile of incoming class	149
LSAT score top 25th percentile of incoming class	155
Median LSAT of incoming class	152
Bottom 25th percentile of incoming class undergraduate GPA (UGPA)	3.0
Top 25th percentile of incoming class UGPA	3.5
Median UGPA	3.2

The Roger Williams University School of Law is the only law school in Rhode Island and is located in Bristol. The law school is a fourth tier law school founded in 1993 and became ABA approved in 1995 and fully ABA accredited in 1997. The law school offers a full time day program, but no part time programs. There are three in house clinics at the school: the Criminal Defense Clinic, Criminal Justice Clinic (representing children and their families at several community sites), and Mediation Clinic. The law school offers two specialty programs for J.D. students: The Marine Affairs Institute and the Public Interest Law program. The law school offers three joint degree programs: a JD/MMA (Master of Marine Affairs) in conjunction with the University of Rhode Island, a JD/MSJC (Master of Science in Criminal Justice) in conjunction with the parent Roger Williams University, and a JD/MSLRHR (Master of Science in Labor Relations and Human Resources) in conjunction with the University of Rhode Island.

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The law school's grading system employs a 4.0 scale with a corresponding letter grade i.e.:

A = 4.0
A- =3.67
B+ = 3.33
B = 3.0
B- = 2.67
C+ = 2.33
C = 2.0
C- = 1.67
D+ = 1.33
D = 1.0
D- = .67
F = 0.0

The mandatory grading curve for most first year courses requires each class to have a grade point average between 2.65 to 2.85; a little below a B- to a little above a B-.

The mandatory grading curve for required second and third year courses requires each class to have a grade point average between 2.80 to 3.10; just over a B- to a little above a B. This upper division course is a little easier than the first year curve and could neutralize the difficulty of the first year curve.

Overall, the curve does not seem as difficult as many lower ranked law school curves and seems relatively fair; professors are not required to fail a certain percent of their students and have a pretty good leeway in the required grade point average for each course.