Opportunity and support
The mission of the Office of Academic Excellence is to enrich each student’s learning experience by ensuring a smooth transition to law school and arming students with the skills they need to perform well in their courses and on the bar exam.
We encourage you to reach out to us at excellence @mitchellhamline.edu.
We give our students the support they need at every stage. We meet with students one-on-one to develop a customized plan for their success before they even start law school. In addition to our first-year course demystifying the law school experience by teaching students how to learn the material and do well on their exams, every student who wants a tutor, gets one.
We continue preparing students for the bar exam with several courses after the first year, leading up to our “Ahead of the Curve” program at the start of the final semester. Students receive a bar study plan customized to their needs and a dedicated bar coach.
We support graduates through one-on-one bar-prep tutoring, bar-prep workshops, and our weekly newsletter. It is filled with advice and strategies for staying motivated and maximizing bar studies from people who have done it.
Important note: We provide our students with abundant opportunities to learn bar-tested material and master their test-taking skills so that they have the absolute best chance to pass the bar exam. However, we cannot guarantee that any one student will pass the bar exam because, in the end, a student’s success on the bar has to do with how they choose to prepare. We are committed to our students passing the bar exam, and we support our students’ efforts to do that in every way we can.
Services
- Tutoring: One-on-one or group tutoring available during the day, in the evening, and on the weekends.
- Workshops: In-depth workshops to help you with a variety of skills. Available live and on demand
- Learning Communities: Regular student meetings led by high-achieving, upper-class students featuring exercises designed to improve your academic and non-academic skills and to help you succeed during your first year of law school.
You’ll find opportunities to learn and receive feedback on your performance at every step of your law school career. There’s a class, an assessment, one-on-one tutoring, or co-curricular programming to help you succeed and know where you stand.
- The first year is critical to bar passage
- Significant curricular and co-curricular programming in the first year
- Three bar preparation courses after the first year
- Continued bar preparation and planning throughout
- Courses are required for some students
- Courses are taken by almost all students
- Students see the value in the courses
We have seen a significant bar passage increase after the development of these courses and programming. Bar passage information is available on our ABA Required Disclosures page.
First year course
Legal Methods, all students, first semester
A one-credit course that students take during their first semester to help them develop the skills they need to succeed in law school and lay a foundation for bar passage.
Bar preparation courses
Bar Exam Primer
A summer course covering heavily tested areas of the bar exam. This course must be completed during the summer after a student’s first year.
Bar Prep Strategies: MPT
A two-credit course designed to teach, reinforce, and enhance the skills necessary for successful completion of law school and bar passage. Required for some students, open to and highly encouraged for all students.
Bar Prep Strategies: MBE and MEE
A three-credit course to be taken during a student’s last spring semester of law school that helps students learn substantive bar topics and key bar exam taking strategies. Required for some students, open to and highly encouraged for all students.
Office of Academic ExcellenceOffice of Academic Excellence
Themis bar prep at Mitchell Hamline
Mitchell Hamline has partnered with Themis to offer our students resources to help them with their law school classes, the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination (MPRE), and the bar exam. The cost for these Themis resources is billed as part of the Integrated Bar Readiness Fee for a total of six semesters.