Boalt Hall School of Law recognizes that while admission to the law school is a highly selective process, students may have difficulty adjusting to the academic demands of the first year curriculum. Boalt is committed to fostering a supportive academic environment that allows students to achieve their full potential. To that end, the Academic Support Program ("ASP") provides academic advising, skills training, and support for first year law students during perhaps the most rigorous year of your studies.

To ease your transition into law school, you may choose to attend a weekly small group tutorial during your first-year Fall semester. Current second and third-year law students teach these tutorials. The weekly meetings, while tied to a specific course subject, are designed to introduce students to the basic skills necessary to succeed in all their classes. Thus, the weekly tutorials emphasize such transferable skills as case briefing, rule analysis and synthesis, outlining and exam-writing. The one-hour per week ASP meetings are optional; however, students in past years gained most through regular attendance, as each week's tutorial will build on previous material.

Each module of first year students will be assigned to a specific tutorial. The weekly meetings will be linked to your first semester torts or contracts class. The ASP sessions also will coordinate with your legal writing and research class. (The second or third year student teaching fellow who leads your ASP tutorial also will assist in your legal writing class, in addition to your legal writing TA.)

During your first-year Spring semester, the ASP sessions will review the substantive law of the relevant class, while continuing to teach skills such as outlining and exam preparation. Attendance at the tutorials is
completely voluntary.

If you have any questions about the program, or have concerns regarding your academic transition to law school, please contact the Director of the Academic Support Program, Bill Fernholz, in 375 Boalt. His phone number is 643-4447.