BA/BS/JD Application Procedures

  1. Review the BA/BS/JD fact sheet [PDF] to familiarize yourself with the program's structure and admission requirements.

  2. Submit Drexel's application for full-time undergraduate admission.

  3. All BA/BS/JD applicants must submit a 1- to 2- page essay online. We do not accept essays submitted on paper. Please write your essay on the topic below.

  4. Attend an on-campus interview with the BA/BS/JD admission committee. Interviews are granted by invitation only.

Please note that applicants and students in the BA/BS/JD program are held to the same high ethical and conduct standards as law students and members of the bar. Accordingly, applicants and students should refrain from conduct that calls into question their character and fitness to practice law.

BA/BS/JD Essay Topic

Instructions

Read the following fact pattern and the accompanying policies and statutes. Respond to the questions by analyzing the facts presented with respect to the policies and statutes. The BA/BS/JD Admission Committee is interested in the quality of your writing, the depth of your analysis, and the skill with which you justify your conclusions. There are no right or wrong answers to the questions.

Your essay must be entirely your own work. You may not ask others to proofread your essay, and you must decline any offers of help that you receive. You may not discuss the questions or your answers with anyone. It is not necessary to conduct any research to answer these questions, and you may not do so. The BA/BS/JD admission committee reserves the right to ask you to complete a similar exercise under proctored conditions.

Some of the names used in this fact pattern are those of actual Drexel students. The Drexel University Police Department is real. Everything else, including the students' actions, comments, beliefs, etc., the policies quoted here of Drexel University, and the conduct and organization of the Drexel University Police Department are purely fictional. Any similarity between this fact pattern and actual events is an unintentional coincidence.

Fact Pattern

Fact Pattern: Barkha Patel (Patel) is a BS/JD student at Drexel University and a part-time officer with the Drexel University Police Department (DUPD). Patel is assigned to DUPD's anti-plagiarism task force (task force). The task force's mission is "[T]o deter plagiarism at Drexel University through any means necessary." Drexel's student handbook defines plagiarism as "the unauthorized or unacknowledged use of the work product of another in partial or full satisfaction of the academic requirements of any Drexel University course."

On June 25, 2009, Patel received an anonymous tip that Joe Sine (Sine) had received assistance from Kevin Birriel (Birriel) on an assignment in Honors 200. Honors 200 is a required seminar for all freshman students in Drexel's Pennoni Honors College. According to the tipster, Birriel informed Sine that the Honors 200 final examination would contain, among others, a question dealing with adverse possession[1] and the U.S. Constitution's Takings Clause. [2]

Acting on this tip, Patel accessed Sine's Drexel email account and located the following message from Birriel:

Joe: Just an FYI that you should REALLY know adv. poss. and the takings clause for Keener's Honors 200 final. I have it on EXCELLENT authority that there's gonna be a question on them. Good luck, K.B.

Patel next contacted Grant Keener, Sine's Honors 200 instructor, and asked to review Sine's final examination. Sure enough, there was a question dealing specifically with the 5th Amendment's Takings Clause on which Sine had earned 19 of 20 possible points. Keener indicated to Patel that Sine had earned more points on the Takings Clause question than anyone else in the class.

Based on the anonymous tip, her review of Sine's email account and Honors 200 final examination, as well as her conversation with Keener, Patel filed plagiarism charges against Sine. Sine has denied that he plagiarized anything and has filed a civil lawsuit against Drexel for invasion of privacy relating to Patel's unauthorized access of his email. A relevant Pennsylvania statute states:

Students in Pennsylvania's colleges and universities are entitled to a reasonable expectation of privacy with respect to their personal electronic communications. This expectation of privacy extends to student email, social networking sites and related methods of electronic communications. The fact that a student uses an email address issued by their college or university does not, in of itself, affect the expectation of privacy granted by this statute. Any college or university that violates this reasonable expectation of privacy shall be liable for damages. This statute shall not be construed as prohibiting any college or university from investigating students who are reasonably suspected of violating university policy or who pose a clear and present danger to the university community.

Essay Questions

  1. Will Sine be found responsible for plagiarism? Why or why not?
  2. Will Sine be successful in his civil lawsuit against Drexel? Why or why not?

[1] Adverse possession is the right of the government to condemn (take) private property for public use upon the payment of "just compensation", normally the property’s fair market value.

[2] "[N]or shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation." U.S. Const., Amdt. 5.