Students

Class Work at Other Law Schools
In exceptional cases, law students are allowed to visit for the third year at another law school. The student should have a compelling reason, such as to keep a family together, or sometimes to take advantage of a special concentration of law that we do not offer. The Law School must be ABA accredited and one that our Dean thought was worthy of our student visiting; the student would have to be a fairly strong student. Our Dean would make the final decision as to whether to approve the visit. The student would be required to make all of the contacts with the other school. All courses must be approved prior to the student registering for them and the grades would transfer as “Pass”. Grades at another school do not affect the gpa here. Students spending a semester away are not ranked with their classmates here.

Students who plan to do work at another law school must obtain the written approval of the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, prior to the undertaking of the work. When approved work is completed away from The University of Alabama School of Law, the credit earned will be applied toward hours needed for graduation and will be recorded in the student’s record; however, grade points earned in courses and seminars away from the School of Law will not be used in the School of Law’s computation of the student’s overall grade point average. When Alabama law students taking classes in other divisions or at other law schools, ask to transfer credit, credit for grades below “B” will not be transferred. Approval of planned work at another law school does not necessarily alter the residency requirements of the School of Law. Normally, permission to do work at another law school is given only under unusual circumstances.

The student is responsible for providing us with an official transcript from the school they were attending at the end of each semester and a final transcript before we accept the credits and certify them to take the Bar. We traditionally do not accept letters from the Registrar certifying the courses and grades; the burden is on the student to have this information forwarded (for instance, schools will not release transcripts if the student has an outstanding tuition account) to ensure we do not certify a student to the Bar without the official transcript to evaluate and have the courses on record. Students will not pay tuition at our Law School, but will pay at the school they are visiting. The student must make all financial arrangements, including any consortium financial agreement. The student should stay in close communication with the University of Alabama Law Registrar. If a student visits another law school and is a scholarship recipient at Alabama’s Law School, the scholarship will not be applied toward his/her tuition during visiting status. Scholarship recipients must notify the Admissions Office if they intend to visit at another law school.

Work Transferred from Other Graduate Divisions on Campus
A student may take up to 6 hours of graduate work from other divisions of The University of Alabama so long as (1) there is prior approval by the office of the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, (2) the student articulates in writing how the class enhances his or her law school curriculum, and (3) the student makes a “B” or better in the course.

A student may not transfer credit from other schools and divisions that was earned prior to the time the student matriculated as a law student. Other divisions on campus may charge a fee to students outside their division who enroll in classes.

Summer Programs at Other Schools
Students who wish to transfer credit from a summer program at another ABA-accredited law school should follow the procedure set out above. Permission to enroll in summer classes at another ABA-accredited law school is granted more often than permission to transfer work from other law schools and completed during the regular academic year.

Distance Education
Students may take up to 12 hours in distance education courses, but are limited to no more than 4 hours in one semester. Students may not enroll in distance education courses until they have completed all first-year requirements.

Transferred Students from Another Law School
A selected number of students each year are allowed to transfer from other law schools with advance standing. These students must complete a transfer student application. The admissions process is very similar to the regular admissions process.

The Law School will accept no more than 30 hours of credit from another school. An evaluation of credit is done on a case-by-case basis. The Law School may require particular courses of transferred students. Students wishing to transfer will not be able to transfer C’s (including C+, C, and C-) or their equivalents.

Usually transferred students will not have class ranks.

While transfer students may be considered for graduation honors, a transfer is not eligible for Order of the Coif. Transfer students may be considered for honors if the Alabama law gpa is within the honors categories. However, a calculation will be made considering the Alabama courses and all courses taken at the other school (not only those transferred) and the student’s honor category can be no higher than the Alabama gpa.