Academic Programs and Support

Sandra Day O’Connor Honors Program

The Justice Sandra Day O’Connor Honors Program at New England Law provides opportunities that can enrich your law school experience:

• Full-tuition scholarship: This prestigious merit scholarship covers full tuition for your entire law school career, an investment in your future that would otherwise be priced at more than $188,000.
• Specialized academic offerings and events: Honors Program students may participate in special events and other programming, such as academic discussions with prominent local practitioners, faculty meetings, guest lectures, and an informal end-of-year mixer with faculty and practitioners.
• Honors notation on your transcript: To receive this notation, you must be in the top 15% of your class (based on cumulative GPA) at the end of the academic year. Students who are not in the top 15% but otherwise remain in good academic standing may be eligible to continue participating in Honors Program activities.

Incoming students with exceptional academic promise are considered when they apply to the law school. Admissions criteria vary each year; here are the most recent entering class statistics.

You also may qualify for the program once you’re enrolled—although you won’t be eligible for the scholarship—if your cumulative GPA places you in the top 15% of your class. You will receive an Honors Program notation on your transcript denoting the number of years you’re in the program.

Academic Excellence Program

The Academic Excellence Program’s (AEP) Responsible Lawyering course trains all first‑year students in core competencies for legal analysis and exam success. Through skill‑building workshops, you’ll master case briefing, legal writing, and effective study strategies.

• Start Strong: In the first semester, you’ll receive training on how to succeed in law school. You’ll be trained to use key learning tools like case briefs and outlines to organize and enrich your growing legal knowledge. In the second and third semesters, personalized work with AEP faculty helps you optimize your performance as a legal analyst.
• Pre-Graduation Course Ensures Strong Bar Exam Performance: The final-semester course, Advanced Legal Analysis, is taught by Professor Robert A. Coulthard, a nationally recognized expert on teaching students how to succeed on the bar examination. Over the last five years, more than eight out of 10 of our graduates have passed the Massachusetts bar.
• Academic Excellence Collection: Our library offers a special collection of study aids that can be used according to the guidance of AEP faculty to supplement your course materials.

Top-Tier Bar Preparation Program

Designed and led by a recognized expert in test-taking skills and strategies, our comprehensive Bar Examination Preparation Program, held the spring and summer before the bar, provides you with the tools and resources you need:

• Advanced Legal Analysis course
• Multistate Bar Examination practice tests
• Individual and small-group tutoring
• Led by a recognized test-taking expert
• No additional cost
• Higher-than-predicted pass rates

Top 20

New England Law was ranked among the country’s top 20 law schools for bar preparation, which adds “the most value to their students when it comes to the bar exam.”

-National Jurist