Leaving the School
Voluntary Withdrawal
Any student who wishes to withdraw from the Law School must file a request for voluntary withdrawal with the Assistant Dean for Student Services. Approval will be granted or denied by the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs only after an investigation of the circumstances and consultation Assistant Dean for Student Services. Notification in the manner described in this rule and decanal approval are prerequisites to honorable dismissal from the institution or readmission to the institution below.
A student may appeal to the Dean of the Law School any adverse decision on a request for voluntary withdrawal. The Dean's decision is final.
The University permits a student who withdraws within the first nine weeks of a term to receive a pro rata refund of tuition paid.
Students who withdraw voluntarily from the Law School before successfully completing a minimum of one full-time semester may not seek readmission to the Law School in the manner specified in 4.a. below, but must submit a new application for admission.
Leaves of Absence
The Assistant Dean for Student Services or the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs must approve a student's leave of absence from the Law School. Leaves of absence typically are for one semester or one full year, and return to the school is set for a time certain when the leave of absence is granted. No readmission application is required for students who give notice of their intent to return to the School on the date specified.
Exclusion
Any student who fails to maintain the required scholastic average for any academic year is automatically excluded from the School of Law at the close of the spring semester in the year in which such failure occurs. An annual cumulative grade point average of 2.20 is required to continue in Law School at the end of the first year, and a cumulative GPA of 2.25 is required to continue after the second year and for graduation.
Visiting at Other U.S. Law Schools
In special circumstances, a student may spend the 3L year or one semester of that year visiting at another law school. Special circumstances include serious health or family reasons. A student who visits at another law school takes courses at that school, pays tuition and fees to the visiting institution at the rate of the visiting institution, but graduates from Carolina Law. A student who wants to visit at another school must speak with the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs to: (1) get permission to pursue the visit; (2) get approval for the specific law school; and (3) have all courses approved. Before a visit will be approved, a student must have completed all required courses including skills, RWE and WE credits.
A student approved to visit at another law school must be accepted at the approved school. Visiting students are not eligible for scholarships and grants from Carolina Law during semesters in which they visit at another school. Because of the time period required for receiving final grades from the visiting institution, graduating students may participate in UNC's graduation but may not receive an actual diploma at the May commencement ceremony.
Transferring from UNC
Any student who seeks to transfer to another law school must make an appointment with the Assistant Dean for Student Services to discuss his or her transfer request.
The Law Registrar will not process transfer application requests until the student has met with the Assistant Dean for Student Services. UNC will prepare two transfer applications without consultation with the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, but because of the amount of work required to process transfer applications, each additional application requires 60 day notice and approval from the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs.
See the
Enrollment section for information about transferring to UNC.
Readmission
Readmission After Voluntary Withdrawal
Students who have withdrawn from the Law School voluntarily, are in good standing and in compliance with the procedures for voluntary withdrawal above, may be readmitted provided they can complete the requirements for graduation within a five-year period from their original matriculation. The Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, in consultation with the Assistant Dean for Student Services and upon a student's application may extend the time period for completion of study to the maximum time period allowed by the American Bar Association's Standard on Course of Study in extraordinary circumstances, including financial, family, health, military-service-related, and other similar circumstances. In considering such an application, the Associate Dean shall consider the extent to which the student's absence has created excessively lengthy gaps in the continuity of the student's education.
A student who has withdrawn from the Law School without complying with the procedures for voluntary withdrawal in above is presumptively not entitled to presume his or her law study via readmission. The Associate Dean for Academic affairs, after investigation and in consultation with the Assistant Dean for Student Services, may consider a request for readmission from such a student if he or she finds that extraordinary circumstances prevented the student from complying with the procedures for voluntary withdrawal.
Readmission After Exclusion for Academic Failure
Students who have been excluded for academic failure may seek readmission. ABA Standards permit readmission after exclusion for academic reasons "upon an affirmative showing that the student possesses the requisite ability and that the prior disqualification does not indicate a lack of capacity to complete the course of study at the admitting school." See ABA Standard 505.
The following are the sole criteria for readmission to the Law School following any exclusion for academic failure. Each student admitted to the Law School is presumed to be able, through diligent effort, to complete law study without academic failure. No student who is excluded will be readmitted unless she or he persuades the Faculty Readmission Committee that there is a substantial likelihood that she or he will successfully complete law study if readmitted. The committee will give due consideration to all factors positively indicating such likelihood.
At the committee's discretion, such factors may include, without limitation:
- The degree and type of diligence exhibited by the student while previously enrolled as a law student.
- The existence, while the student was enrolled, of extraordinary circumstances beyond the student's control (serious illness, unusual hardship or qualitatively similar. circumstances) that adversely affected the student's diligence or otherwise contributed to his or her failure.
- The extent of any improvement in grade point average attained by the student from earlier to later semesters.
- The nature and extent of the student's experiences since exclusion.
- The extent of the student's understanding of the reasons for his or her failure.
- The extent to which the reasons for failure have been alleviated.
- Any other individual factors positively indicating that there is a substantial likelihood that the student will successfully complete law.