Academic Excellence Program
The West Virginia University College of Law has a newly established Academic Excellence Center to support students in their academic endeavors. The center, which opened two weeks before the 2009 – 2010 school year, is staffed by a director and several top-notch second- and third-year students known as Dean’s Fellows. Programs and services provided by the center are explained below.
Fall Programs for Incoming Students
The Academic Excellence Program (AEP) seeks to enhance the academic performance of all students in their first year of law school. Because new law students must rapidly adjust to the heightened expectations of a professional school, the Academic Excellence Program provides an array of services designed to empower first-year students to quickly integrate “how to learn” with “what to learn.” The program’s ultimate goal is to help students thrive in their first year of law school, not merely survive. To this end, the program provides (1) regular workshops on critical skills such as notetaking, outlining, time management, and test taking (known as Academic Excellence Fridays workshops); (2) helpful handouts with tips for success and other important information about resources available to law students; and (3) individual counseling to address the needs of students who could benefit from personalized assistance.
Incoming students who would benefit from additional support may also participate in the Fall Study Session Program (FSSP). Enrollment in FSSP is limited, and participation is by invitation only. Several factors are considered in choosing students to participate, e.g., whether the student has been out of school for a significant time, has a nontraditional background for law, has learning disabilities, speaks English as a second language, or has a GPA or LSAT score below the average of the incoming class.
The goal of FSSP is to help students maximize their performance in legal writing assignments and casebook examinations. Students in the program attend an intense orientation program (18 hours of instruction) prior to the start of the school year. During the semester, they devote two hours per week to the program: (1) one hour focused on general skill building during a group meeting with Professor Wigal, and (2) one hour in a small group study/review session for civil procedure class. The Dean’s Fellows lead the small-group reviews. In addition, a Dean’s Fellow assists Professor Wigal in implementing the skill review meetings and the Academic Excellence Fridays workshops.
Spring Study Session Program for At-Risk First-Year Students
A tutorial program is offered in the spring for students whose first-semester GPA is at 2.2 or below. Statistics indicate that students with the lowest law school GPAs are the least likely to pass the bar on the first taking. More...
Second-Year Program
At this time, no formal program is in place for second-year students. However, Professor Wigal continues to individually assist second-year students who participated in the College of Law’s more limited academic support program last year.
Third-Year Bar Preparation Workshops
The Academic Excellence Center also provides a Bar Preparation Shortcourse for all third-year students in the spring semester. More...
