ENTRANCE REQUIREMENTS.
Regular Students.—Candidates for the degree of Bachelor of Laws must
have attained the age of eighteen years before entering the department, must
produce a certificate of good character from the school last attended or from
other satisfactory source, and must conform to the general requirements
following:
For Admission to the Department of Law the candidate must offer
fourteen units.
The Subjects accepted for Admission and their values in units are given
in tabulated form on page 180. The applicant for admission may enter (1)
by certificate or (2) by examination.
(1) For Admission by Certificate the candidate must file with the dean
of the University not later than September first a Certificate of Preparation,
made out on the blank form furnished by the University. This certificate
must come from some recognized institution of collegiate rank or from an
accredited high school; but admission by certificate from accredited public
high schools in Virginia is extended only to graduates from four-year high
schools. The certificate must bear in all cases the signature of the head of
the school; must specify the character and content of each course offered
for entrance credit; must give the length of time devoted to the course, and
the dates of the examinations; and must give the candidate's grades in percentages.
Each unit in the entrance requirements is the equivalent of one
full year of high-school work, including five periods a week of at least forty
minutes each during not less than thirty-six weeks. For schools in which
the number of periods given to any study, or the length of the period, is
below the standard here specified, the credit for such study will be reduced
pro rata. In the scientific subjects two hours of laboratory instruction will
be counted as the equivalent of one hour of recitation. High-school courses
in Physics and Chemistry, otherwise adequate, will be allowed half credit,
when individual laboratory work is not done by the student or is not attested
by proper note-books filed with the certificate. Certificates of preparation
from private tutors will in no case be accepted; students thus prepared
must, in all cases, take the Entrance Examinations.
(2) For Admission by Examination the candidate must present himself
for test at the University in June or September, according to the dates
given in the Programme of Entrance Examinations, which may be had by
applying to the Registrar. The examinations are held under the honor system,
no paper being accepted unless accompanied by the usual pledge. All
candidates who take their examinations at the times appointed are tested
free of charge. In case of delayed entrance, where the grounds of postponment
are good, the President of the University may admit the candidate
to a special examination, for which an additional fee of five dollars is
charged. The fee is payable in advance and is in no case returned. Satisfactory
certificates as to character and age are in all cases required.
SUBJECTS ACCEPTED FOR ADMISSION
| Subject |
Topics |
Units |
| English A |
Grammar and Grammatical Analysis |
1 |
| English B |
Composition and Rhetoric |
1 |
| English C |
Critical Study of Specimens of English Literature |
1 |
| English D |
History of English and American Literature |
1 |
| Mathematics A1 |
Algebra to Quadratic Equations |
1 |
| Mathematics A2 |
Quadratics, Progessions and the Binomial Formula |
½ or 1 |
| Mathematics B |
Plane Geometry |
1 |
| Mathematics C |
Solid Geometry |
½ |
| Mathematics D |
Plane Trigonometry |
½ |
| History A |
Greek and Roman History |
1 |
| History B |
Mediæval and Modern European History |
1 |
| History C |
English History |
1 |
| History D |
American History and Civil Government |
1 |
| Latin A |
Grammar Composition, and Translation |
1 |
| Latin B |
Cæsar's Gallic War, I-IV; Grammar; Composition |
1 |
| Latin C |
Cicero's Orations (6); Grammar; Composition |
1 |
| Latin D |
Virgil's Æneid, I-VI; Grammar; Composition |
1 |
| Greek A |
Elementary Grammar, Composition, and Translation |
1 |
| Greek B |
Xenophon's Anabasis, I-IV; Grammar; Composition |
1 |
| German A |
Elementary Grammar, Composition, and Translation |
1 |
| German B |
Intermediate Grammar, Composition, and Translation |
1 |
| German C |
Third-Year Grammar, Composition, and Translation |
1 |
| German D |
Fourth-Year Grammar, Composition, and Translation |
1 |
| French A |
Elementary Grammar, Composition, and Translation |
1 |
| French B |
Intermediate Grammar, Composition, and Translation |
1 |
| French C |
Third-Year Grammar, Composition, and Translation |
1 |
| French D |
Fourth-Year Grammar, Composition, and Translation |
1 |
| Spanish A |
Elementary Grammar, Composition, and Translation |
1 |
| Spanish B |
Intermediate Grammar, Composition, and Translation |
1 |
| Spanish C |
Third-Year Grammar, Composition, and Translation |
1 |
| Spanish D |
Fourth-Year Grammar, Composition, and Translation |
1 |
| Science A |
Physical Geography |
1 |
| Science B |
Inorganic Chemistry |
1 |
| Science C |
Experimental Physics |
1 |
| Science D |
Botany |
½ |
| Science E |
Zoölogy |
½ |
| Science F |
Agricultural (special schools) |
2 |
| Drawing |
Mechanical and Projection Drawing |
1 |
| Shop-Work |
Wood-Work, Forging, and Machine-Work |
1 |
Conditioned Students.—After the session of 1915-1916 no student with
conditions will be admitted to the Department of Law.
Special Students.—By special action of the Law Faculty an applicant
who is at least 23 years old, and who presents proper evidence of good character,
and of needful maturity and training, though unable to fulfill the foregoing
entrance requirements, may, in exceptional cases, be admitted as a
special student, and not as a candidate for the degree.
When so admitted, such special student may qualify as a regular student,
and as a candidate for the degree, by fulfilling the entrance requirements
before the beginning of the second year of his work in the Law
School, and not afterwards.
Every applicant for admission as a special student shall make written
application to the Dean of the University, on a blank furnished for the
purpose, with detailed information as to his age, general habits, his educational
and business experience, and his general fitness to undertake the
study of law. Such application, together with such testimonials as may be
required, must be filed with the Dean of the University not later than August
1 of the year in which the applicant desires to enter the Law School. In rare instances, and for good cause shown, the requirement as to the time
of filing such application may be waived.
Every such applicant for admission as a special student must pass a
satisfactory examination, to be held at the University on the first registration
day of the session. This examination, which will be conducted by a
committee of the Law Faculty, will include the subjects of English, American
and English History, and Civil Government.
This regulation is subject to the General University regulation as to delayed
entrance examinations.
Special students who fail to complete 60 per cent of the work taken
during any session may be declared ineligible for re-admission the following
session.
With the admonition that over-zealousness is apt to beguile an ambitious
student into the assumption of more work than he can thoroughly
master in a given time, leading to cramming and inaccuracy, and often to
complete failure, the special student is free to select his own work, within
reasonable limits.
Admission to Advanced Standing.—No credit is given for attendance at
another law school, nor for time spent in private reading. The candidate for
graduation must spend three years in residence.
The Session begins on the Thursday preceding the nineteenth of September,
and continues for thirty-nine weeks. The first three days of the
session are given to registration, and all students, both old and new, are required
during that time to place their names upon the books of the University
and the rolls of their respective classes. Lecture courses begin on the
following Monday, and absences will be recorded against any student not
present, from the opening lecture of each course. Students entering after the
first three days, without satisfactory excuse, will be charged a fee for registration.
Late Entrance.—Students are advised that late entrance is a serious
hindrance to progress. The student who enters late must begin his work at
the point to which the several courses have advanced at the time of his entrance;
and credit for three years' attendance cannot be secured unless the
student is in actual residence at least thirty weeks per session. No registration
in absentia is permissible.
Expenses.—The necessary expenses of a student in the Department of
Law may be estimated at $350 per session of nine months. This minimum
estimate includes all university and tuition fees, board, lodging, washing
and books. An average estimate would be $450 per session, reckoning
board, lodging, washing and books at a somewhat higher figure. The university
fee applicable to all law students (including those from Virginia)
is $40; and the tuition fee is $100 for the regular work of each session. For
special students who desire to take selected courses, the tuition fee is estimated
according to the ratio which the work chosen bears to the whole.
Three Years' Course.—The course of study embraces three years of
thirty-six weeks each, exclusive of holidays. Residence, for three years,
with attendance of at least thirty weeks a year, exclusive of holidays, is
essential to graduation.
Plan of Instruction.—The course is planned with a view to acquainting
the student familiarly and practically with the principles of his profession.
Care is taken to teach him to think for himself, and to rely upon reason
and principle, rather than upon memory; it being considered better for the
student to follow principle to its legitimate conclusion, though this be at
variance with the decisions of the courts, than to arrive at a faultless result
by the exercise of memory or by accident.
The instruction is as thorough as possible, and is given partly through
text-books and lectures, and partly through the study of cases. While convinced
of the value of the combined text-book and lecture system, which
has prevailed for more than half a century in the Law School, the Law
Faculty have long appreciated the value that the study of cases possesses,
in illustrating the practical application of legal principles, and in forcing the
student to extract for himself the doctrine which the cases establish. The
enlargement of the course gives opportunity for more emphasis upon this
form of instruction, and the case-book will, therefore, be used more extensively
than heretofore—not as supplanting, but as supplementing, the textbook
and lecture.
The daily oral quiz has long been a marked and, as experience has
proved, a most valuable feature of the system of instruction. As cross-examination
exposes error and develops truth, so the daily quiz enables the
instructor to dicover and rectify misconception of legal principles on the
part of the student.
This oral quiz is supplemented by frequent written tests, the results of
which are carefully recorded, and, in the professor's discretion, are considered
in estimating the final grade of the student.
Practical Work.—In the course of Equity Procedure, Virginia Pleading,
Practice at Law, Code Pleading, Criminal Procedure, and Legal Bibliography
and Brief Making, special stress is laid upon practical work. In
the Pleading and Procedure courses, every student is required to draw, and
submit for correction and criticism, all of the principal pleadings, orders,
decrees, and other forms encountered in actual litigation. In the course
on Legal Bibliography and Brief Making, an intimate acquaintance with
law books and skill in their use are secured by lectures and demonstrations
in the presence of the books, followed by oral and written quizzes, and
finally by practical tests; and briefs on assigned topics are required to be
prepared according to rigorous standards. Much practical work is done in
the headnoting of cases on scientific principles.
Required for Graduation.—The degree of Bachelor of Laws (LL. B.)
is conferred upon such students as have attained the age of twenty-one
years; have satisfied the entrance requirements; have attended three full sessions
of the Law School; and have successfully passed the required examinations,
with satisfactory performance of assigned practical work.
More specifically, the candidate for graduation must have completed all
of the obligatory courses (see Outline of Courses, below), and at least two
elective courses, one of which must be either the course in Virginia Pleading
or that in Code Pleading.
It follows that of the courses termed "elective," a required minimum is
in fact obligatory—the candidate being permitted to exercise an election
among them.
