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The GW Hatchet

AN INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SERVING THE GW COMMUNITY SINCE 1904

The GW Hatchet

Serving the GW Community since 1904

The GW Hatchet

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American University leader accuses GW Law School of poaching students

A top leader at the American University Washington College of Law accused the GW Law School of poaching students in a Facebook post this week.

Anthony Varona, the associate dean for faculty and academic affairs at American University’s law school, wrote that he thought GW’s move to bring more than 50 transfers from American University was “downright predatory” and caused “quite a bit of disruption” at the school. Varona’s post was republished on the TaxProf Blog on Wednesday.

GW’s law school enrolled 97 transfer students this year, 54 of which had attended American University during their first year in law school.

GW also enrolled 539 first-year students. Their average GPA (3.71) and LSAT score (165) matched those of the fall 2013 class. But universities don’t have to factor transfer students’ scores into the data they submit annually to the American Bar Association.

Sophia Sim, the GW Law School’s associate dean for admissions, told the Wall Street Journal’s Law Blog that GW “does not actively solicit for any transfer student, by virtue of our location and robust curriculum we attract a strong transfer pool.”

“GW Law selects transfer applicants based on their prior law school performance because the best indicator of how well a student will do in law school is how well they have already performed in law school,” she told the Journal.

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