Students from Economically Challenged Backgrounds Given Opportunity to Pursue Dream of Education at Top Law Schools

NEW YORK, July 2, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Twenty college students and recent grads from modest economic backgrounds are gathering at the campus of New York University in downtown Manhattan this summer as part of the sixth annual Advantage Testing Foundation Training and Recruitment Initiative for Admission to Leading Law Schools (TRIALS) program. The initiative, created by the Advantage Testing Foundation in partnership with Harvard Law School and NYU School of Law, provides intensive LSAT preparation and pre-law counseling to help underrepresented students gain admission to America's most competitive law schools.

Four program participants from New York City are joining others from Alabama, Georgia, Ohio, Michigan, Louisiana, Texas and as far away as Hawaii for the intensive five-week curriculum. The program offers in-depth tutoring and LSAT exam preparation by Advantage Testing's most experienced tutors, as well as lectures and one-on-one guidance from prominent faculty of both host schools and other leading lawyers and legal scholars.

Conceived and launched by the Advantage Testing Foundation in 2009, the Trials program has prepared students for admission to all of the nation's top-10 law schools, with eleven alumni admitted to Harvard Law School in 2014 alone. All of the Trials alumni currently attending NYU Law receive full scholarship awards, three as Root Tilden scholars and one as an AnBryce scholar.

Currently, students from the bottom economic quartile make up only two percent of those enrolled in the country's top 20 U.S. law schools[1].

"While many of our nation's leaders are lawyers, the legal profession continues to lag other highly-skilled professions, such as medicine, finance and higher education, in achieving a diverse body of practitioners," said Arun Alagappan, founder and president of Advantage Testing and the Advantage Testing Foundation. "With Trials, we have the unique opportunity to support 20 deserving students as they pursue admission to leading law schools."

Mr. Alagappan personally provides much of the program's LSAT tutoring and mentorship. A graduate of Harvard Law School, he worked briefly at Sullivan Cromwell before serving as a federal law clerk on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Over the course of his career, Mr. Alagappan has prepared thousands of students for success on standardized entrance exams such as the LSAT. He and other Advantage Testing tutors continue to provide support and admissions counseling following the five-week residency, as Trials students apply to law school.

"Admissions departments of the nation's leading law schools recognize the benefits of enrolling student bodies that reflect the country's broader socioeconomic, racial, and ethnic diversity," Mr. Alagappan said. "We're proud to be introducing new perspectives to the legal profession with Trials, one student at a time."

About The Advantage Testing Foundation

The Advantage Testing Foundation is a 501(c) public charity formed by Arun Alagappan, President and Founder of Advantage Testing, Inc. The AT Foundation advances the proposition that increased inclusiveness and socioeconomic diversity in higher education will result in an influx of talent, creativity, and energy to the nation's leadership pool. Through innovative programs and partnerships, the Foundation helps students pursue their academic and professional ambitions and promotes new ways of thinking about access to higher education. The Advantage Testing Foundation is the public service arm of Advantage Testing, widely regarded as the nation's leading private tutorial and test preparation service. Drawing on the academic and institutional resources of Advantage Testing and generous public support, the Advantage Testing Foundation provides tutoring, test preparation, scholarship resources, financial assistance, merit-based scholarships, and academic and professional counseling to help students achieve optimal results in high school, college, graduate and professional school, and beyond. For more information, visit: http://www.atfoundation.org and http://www.advantagetesting.com.

[1] Richard H. Sander, Class in American Legal Education, 2011.

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SOURCE Advantage Testing Foundation