SCALES Program

Performance & Evaluation-Based Admission Program

SCALES (Summer College to Assess Legal Education Skills) is the Law School’s performance-evaluation-based admission program. For 120 years, we have provided promising law school applicants with an opportunity to obtain a legal education.

A wide body of research indicates that LSAT and undergraduate GPA are limited predictors of law school success. Indeed, we have found that strict reliance on LSAT and undergraduate GPA in the admission process may exclude scores of uniquely talented and deserving individuals from the study and practice of law.

Our SCALES program provides individuals who have records of achievement, but who did not gain admission through our traditional process, with an opportunity to demonstrate they possess the requisite skills and potential to succeed in our JD program and the practice of law. Candidates who successfully complete SCALES are offered admission into the JD program for the fall.

SCALES typically runs for approximately eight weeks, starting in late May, Monday through Thursday, between 6–9 p.m. Friday evenings are primarily reserved for faculty-candidate conferences, self-study, personal legal research, or voluntary small-group learning activities. Throughout the SCALES program, candidates are required to evince competency by successfully completing a series of intellectually stringent assignments and assessments in each required course.

Learn More Download SCALES Brochure

SCALES Success by the Numbers

Numerous students who matriculated via SCALES have landed Associate positions at top firms on the National Law Journal 500. Students who matriculated via SCALES have also been elected to hold key leadership positions within the law school, including SBA President, Student Senator, and UIC Law Review Executive Board member.

  • 50 % of SCALES Class of 2024 finished the academic year with GPA's above 3.00.

  • 33 % of the SCALES Class of 2024 made the Dean’s List.

  • 100 % of Fall 2021 SCALES students who passed the program enrolled in our JD program.

The SCALES Student Experience

SCALES candidates are required to complete a rigorous and specialized program of instruction and assessment by members of our full-time and adjunct faculty. The program provides each candidate with a culturally responsive learning environment rooted in high expectations of academic achievement. Students are assessed on their dedication and aptitude for increased levels of legal instruction.

Explore the student experience to learn more about SCALES courses and grading criteria.

Explore The Student Experience

SCALES Program Director

Sam Jones

Dr. Samuel V. Jones
Associate Dean for SCALES & Inclusive Excellence
Professor of Law
svjones@uic.edu
(312) 386-2866

About Samuel Jones, PhD

Dr. Samuel V. Jones is an award-winning Professor of Law and Associate Dean at the University of Illinois Chicago School of Law and one of Chicago’s leading public intellectuals on police conduct, sexual violence, and institutional justice.

Dr. Jones also serves as architect of the modern SCALES Program, UIC Law’s performance-based conditional admissions program widely regarded as one of the nation’s leading academic-success models for first-year law students. Although the SCALES pre-dated his tenure, in 2017, Dr. Jones executed a comprehensive operational redesign, rebuilding the curriculum, course syllabi, faculty selection and training models, grading architecture, instructional requirements, and operational framework. Drawing on educational psychology, military performance science and leadership models, he transformed SCALES into a data-driven, high-accountability academic training and assessment platform designed to produce elite outcomes among SCALES students.