Half-off tuition

A man-bites-dog story in these times of state tuition hikes: The UC Irvine School of Law, open only since last summer, will provide scholarships covering at least 50 percent of annual tuition for students arriving next August. That would be about 20K for in-state students and 25K for out of state (the scholarships are funded by private - and unnamed - donations). The half-off deal is still serious money when compared to the school's first class, which gets free tuition all three years, but compared to other law schools it's a mere bag of shells. Plus, federal loans and other scholarships are available for the balance due. All of which is likely to make those 60 available slots a mite competitive. For the inaugural class, only 4 percent of the applicants were admitted. (National Law Journal)