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Monterey College of Law offers quality legal education accessible to students of diverse backgrounds who graduate and serve their communities in countless ways. On these pages, read about some of the important outcomes and impacts of MCL’s over 50 years serving Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Kern, and, most recently, Sonoma counties.
Outcomes and Impact Reports
Community - Service To Our Communities
Students, graduates, faculty, and staff support our local communities in dozens of ways, including donations, coordinated volunteer efforts, free or low-cost legal clinics, and free or low-cost mediation services through the Mandell Gisnet Center. Hundreds of service hours, valued at over $1,000,000, are provided annually across MCL’s four physical campuses and online locations.
Service - A Half Century of Service
A humble plan in 1972 to provide a quality legal education in a community law school setting with graduates dedicated to professional excellence, integrity, and community service has grown to four residential campuses and a Hybrid Online J.D. option that attracts students from across California. Many of MCL’s graduates are lawyers and judges who represent and serve the people of California across the state in more than a dozen counties. It is a legacy of service -- to Monterey County, and now, San Luis Obispo, Kern, and Sonoma counties – that few law schools of any kind can claim.
Student Success - Outstanding Student Success
MCL students benefit from the institution's decades of experience in providing top-notch legal education that equips them to practice law ethically and successfully. We design the programs and courses to provide the necessary skills and knowledge required of competent legal professionals. We use data from quizzes, exam scores, and other assessments to identify where each student needs to focus their efforts to achieve their academic goals. By using this information, we can help each student reach their full potential and succeed in their chosen program of study. At MCL, we take student success seriously.
Diversity - Students, Graduates, and the Legal Profession Representing Their Communities
Diverse experiences and perspectives foster innovation, engagement, and well-being in schools and society. A legal profession and court system that understands and represents the community it serves enables the justice system to offer greater fairness, and firms and legal departments to better serve their clients’ needs. MCL's enrollment and alumni reflect the communities it serves, and testify to the success that an "opportunity" law school can achieve when it prioritizes access to legal education and a learning community that is welcoming and supportive to all.
Student Support and Campus Pulse – Core Measures of Student Satisfaction
The Campus Pulse Survey measures key aspects of the student experience, from services and programs to the overall campus climate. MCL students report high degrees of goal achievement, very positive interactions with faculty, expectations and reality well aligned, a solid sense of belonging or connection to the law school, and overall support for the institution's commitment to valuing diverse experiences and viewpoints. Most (72%) would recommend the law school to a friend or colleague.
Curriculum and Teaching - Institutional Research (IR) Reports and Findings
MCL conducts ongoing quantitative and qualitative studies of the quality and efficacy of its academic and co-curricular programs, events and activities. The Curriculum and Teaching IR report includes several recent studies focused on student attainment of the skills, knowledge, habits of mind and heart, perspectives, ethics, and other attributes of contributing members of society and the legal profession, as they progress through the MCL curriculum. For discussion of summative evaluations such as bar exam and employment outcomes, see the Student Success Outcomes and Impacts Report.
View our Curriculum and Teaching Institutional Research (IR) Report
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