Trying on a New Discourse: Perceptions of Law Students Enrolled in a Trial Admissions Program

Sep 2, 2026

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The study examines how non-traditional law students participating in a Trial Admissions Program (TAP) “try on” the language and practices of law school culture during a six-week period. Drawing on a view of legal study as entry into a new discourse community, the research investigates learners’ perceptions of their goals and motivation orientations, their understanding of the academic and social environment, and the literacy tasks required by the program. The project also considers how perceptions may predict performance outcomes.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages33

Reading Time1 h 23 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Method

Participants and Setting

# Trying on a New Discourse:Perceptions ofLaw Students Enrolled in a Trial AdmissionsProgram Dorothy H.Evensen,Ph.D.* ## I.INTRODUCTION The cover of Scott Turow's One L(1977)bears the portraitof a Harvard One-L—a youthful white male wearing a houndstooth jacket over a crew neck sweater over a Oxford cloth shirt.He sits in a cavernous library,surrounded by numbers of bulkylegal texts.The seriousness of the setting is matched by his stu-dious demeanor:pen poised above a clipboard,one hand ex-tended keeping place in an opened text.His eyes focus downupon what he has written,mouth set,brow somewhat furrowedas if contemplating the implications of an idea that may nothave occurred to him before,or the logic of an argument that onfirst glance appeared verbose,muddled,and incomprehensible. On a rainy Saturday morning in July,I survey the backs ofmore than fifty heads in a law school lecture hall.Students arebowed over notebooks furiously taking notes as a professor de-livers the relevant facts in a case involving the sale of usedbricks.Even from the back it is evident that this is a diversegroup,indicated mostly in terms of gender and ethnicity.Thegroup I am observing are not called One Ls,but TAPPERS,thatis,they are enrolled in a Trial Admissions Program(TAP)be-cause of their failure to meet one or more of the traditional lawschool admissions criteria:high undergraduate grade-point-averages or high Law School Admission Test(LSAT)scores.These students are engaged in “trying on”the discourse and themethods of law school culture for a six-week period;most believethat the objective is to determine whether they fit it rather thanseeing if it fits them.About seventy-five percent will continuefull-time employment while they attend,about fifty percent willhave to travel well over an hour to make the two evening clas- ses and one weekend day class;all have paid a substantialamount of money to attend.In the end,the average of two ex-amination scores will determine whether they are admitted tothe Fall class of One Ls.Although they have been assured thatthere is a seat available for each,they are aware that statisti-cally between sixty and seventy percent will gain admission. In the twenty years that have passed since the first publica-tion of One L,the student population of law schools has greatlychanged.Today more than half of each entering class is madeup of women,minorities,and students from working class back-grounds.Law schools,like all institutions responsive to princi-ples of equal opportunity and affirmative action,have willinglyopened their doors to previously underrepresented groups,buthave been less willing to explore curricular revisions necessaryto meet the diverse learning needs of these non-traditional stu-dents(Minnis,1994).Law school curricula are bound to an ide-ology of science in which law students are positioned to discoverthe objective standards of the law through a guided inquiry ofarchival cases(Granfield,1992).Since the turn of the century,mostly through the efforts of Christopher Columbus Langdell,the first dean of Harvard Law School,countless numbers of lawstudents have endured the stings of the Socratic method asprofessors challenge their reading,their thinking,and primarilytheir right to be a lawyer. While the methods of instruction have remained virtuallyunchanged,many law schools have responded to external criti-cisms and internal faculty concerns about underprepared stu-dents by instituting special programs that supplement the stan-dard curriculum,while leaving it virtually intact.Some lawschools have instituted a “bridge”or“academic support”pro·gram taken concurrently with first-year courses,that providessupplemental instruction usually focused on reading and writingskills;others offer an immersion program designed to give stu-dents falling short of admission criteria a sampling of law schoolculture prior to the beginning of studies,and make admissioncontingent upon success in the program(Wangerin,19

FAQs

What is the Trial Admissions Program (TAP) described in the document?

TAP is a special admissions law school program for students who fail to meet traditional admissions criteria. It involves a six-week period of engaging with law school discourse and culture.

What does the study focus on regarding students’ experiences?

The inquiry centers on students’ perceptions of their goals or motivation orientations, the academic and social environment, and the literacy tasks required by the program.

Why does the document connect legal study to a “new discourse community”?

It argues that studying law requires adopting new reading and writing ways, which can be analyzed both in context and retrospectively through metacognitive approaches.

Sep 2, 2026

Uploaded by Cart