Diversity in the Admissions Process
RWU Law Non-Discrimination Policy
The law school seeks to admit a class of students well qualified to complete the academic program successfully. In doing so, the school considers each applicant's undergraduate record and LSAT score. Within the group of students deemed qualified, the law school, for several reasons, seeks to admit a class of students with varying backgrounds and experiences. First, in its judgment, a diverse group of students enhances the educational experience by ensuring an intellectually enlightening and challenging exchange of ideas both inside and outside the classroom. Moreover, in the law school's judgment, exposure to widely diverse people, ideas, cultures, and viewpoints helps prepare students to develop the skills and sensitivity necessary to succeed in today's increasingly diverse and global community. Finally, the law school recognizes that lawyers often assume leadership roles in their communities. Therefore, the law school believes that access to legal education and to the legal profession and the unique opportunities that come with membership in that profession should be visibly open to all qualified members of our heterogeneous society.
Thus, in making admissions decisions, the law school considers factors in addition to an applicant's undergraduate record and LSAT score. The law school gives serious consideration as well to the ways in which each applicant might contribute to a diverse educational environment. The law school will review each qualified applicant's file and consider, among other factors, an applicant's leadership qualities, community service, socioeconomic status, work history, advanced study, political and philosophical positions, unique talents or experiences, unusual hardships, race, color, age, sex, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, and disability status in making its final decisions. To assure that access to legal education and to the legal profession are visibly open to all qualified members of our heterogeneous society, the law school considers as one factor an applicant's race, color, sex, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, disability status and socioeconomic status in order to help open the ranks of the legal profession to those who have been historically underrepresented in the profession.