Ohio Northern University has announced a reduction of tuition for the Pettit College of Law starting with the 2014-15 academic school year. Called The ONU Law Promise, this new initiative is intended to make an ONU legal education more affordable, to reduce student loan debt, to sustain academic quality, and to prepare students for long-term success in their legal careers.

Beginning with the 2014-15 academic year, the College of Law will reduce its tuition rate levels to 20-25 percent of its 2013-14 tuition rates (reduced by $8,926 to a rate of $24,800). While the tuition reduction helps make a legal education more affordable, everything else about ONU’s innovative law program will remain the same.

Rick Bales, dean of the College of Law said, “The ONU Law Promise is about affordable excellence. We believe every student should have the opportunity to receive a private legal education at a price that allows for long-term success and minimal debt.”

Current law students also will see the same reduction in tuition to $24,800. Many students – those with no scholarship or with a scholarship less than $8,926 per year – will see a net tuition decrease of up to $8,926 per year. Other students – those with a scholarship of $8,926 or more per year who maintain their academic requirement for their scholarship – will pay no more net tuition in 2014-15 than they did in 2013-14, because the tuition reduction will be offset by a commensurate reduction in their scholarship awards. All students will benefit, however, from the University’s pledge to not increase nominal tuition for the 2014-15 academic year.

ONU Law students also will continue to benefit from accessible faculty who inspire and support them, small class sizes that offer individual instruction, a diverse international network of students and alumni, and an innovative curriculum that melds theory with real-world experience to graduate practice-ready lawyers.

The College of Law at Ohio Northern University has consistently strong first-time bar passage rates (with 100 percent passing in February 2013), a second-in-Ohio rating for bar-required job placement, and a 45-year track record of providing high-impact, guaranteed clinical placements.