EXAMINATIONS AND DEGREE.
The degree of Bachelor of Law is conferred upon those students who manifest
an intimate acquaintance with all of the subjects embraced in the course,
evidenced by successfully passing the written examinations, intermediate and
final, in each of the six classes.
The rule heretofore prevailing in this department has been to require applicants
for the degree to attend the lectures in all the classes, and to stand
all the regular written examinations on every subject in the course, during
the year of their candidacy, without credit for any class completed in a previous
year—except in the class of Constitutional and International Law.
With the beginning of the session of 1895-'96 a radical departure will be
inaugurated, by permitting a candidate to complete a portion of the course in
one session and the remainder the following session, without requiring attendance
upon the lectures, or further examination, in such classes as he
may have previously completed. But a re-examination may be required,
whenever, in any case, it may be deemed proper.
The enlargement and re-arrangement of the course, as mentioned, calls for
an increased number of examinations—from nine, as heretofore, to twelve,
under the new system in operation from the beginning of the session of
1895-'96; that is, two examinations, an intermediate and a final, in each
class. The general policy of the University is to permit students to elect
their own work, and to give them due credit for its satisfactory completion,
without regard to the time devoted to it. There is, therefore, no positive
rule forbidding students to undertake the whole course in a single year, or
withholding from them the degree in case of its successful completion. But
the student is warned that unless he has previously had exceptional legal
training he can scarcely hope to complete the course in a single year; and if
by extreme diligence and industry he should succeed in the effort, he will
find that he has acquired more than he has been able to digest.
No entrance examinations are held, and the whole course must be completed
here.
Candidates who attain a standard of seventy-five per centum in any Junior
class, but fail to reach the minimum grade required for graduation (eighty-three
per centum), are entitled, after matriculation, to stand an examination
at the beginning of the following session on the subjects comprised in the
class or classes in which they have so failed, and to receive the same credit
for the result as if achieved during the previous session. This will enable
the earnest student to make up during the summer any deficiency of the previous
year, and to go forward with his second year's course, unhampered by
work brought over from his first year.
Candidates for the degree, who in any session have less than one full year's
course to complete, may be required to take such additional work, and to
stand such additional examinations, as may be prescribed.
