Demand for Law Degree Continues to Climb, Albeit Modestly
The number of law school applicants nationwide increased 3% this year, but the percentage of those with highest LSAT scores slid 20%.
August 05, 2019 at 02:27 PM
3 minute read
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Demand for a law degree is still on the rise, but the so-called Trump Bump that helped fuel an 8% increase in law school applicants in 2018 looks to be tapering off.
The number of applicants to law schools accredited by the American Bar Association increased by 3.2% during the 2019 application cycle, which recently closed. This year, 62,487 people applied to a J.D. program, up from 60,536 in 2018, according to the Law School Admission Council.
While more modest than the previous year, the growth of this year’s applicant pool is still good news for legal educators. The size of the applicant pool fell 39% between 2010 and 2015, and remained relatively static until 2018’s sure of 8%. Thus, two years of sustained growth—cumulatively 11%—is a welcome development for law deans who have struggled with declining enrollment and resulting budget shortfalls.
However, the news was not as upbeat for elite law schools that compete heavily for students with top undergraduate grades and LSAT scores. The number of applicants with LSAT scores of 175 to 180—the highest possible—fell nearly 20% this cycle. But that score band represents such a small fraction of the overall applicant pool that the decline appears more significant than it really is for schools, said Law School Admission Council president Kellye Testy. The number of applicants with LSAT scores of 175 to 180 was still nearly 30% higher this cycle than it was two years ago, according to council data.
Still, that cohort of highest LSAT scorers should be monitored, Testy said. “It’s a number we want to watch because those students have a lot of choices about different fields they go into,” she said.
Overall, the 3.2% national increase in applicants signals that legal education has entered a period of stability, Testy said. “I think schools are feeling pretty content because they’ve set a target and have been able to reach it with the quantity and quality of the applicants they were looking for,” she said. “There is probably still some lingering hope that it will jump up again like it did last year, but I think people are just more realistic. There has been a greater understanding of the market and how we need to think about enrollment in relation to the employment market.”
The National Association for Law Placement last week reported that the Class of 2018 enjoyed the highest employment rate in a decade, largely due to fewer law graduates competing for jobs.
Not all schools saw their applicant pools expand. Data from the council shows that 84 schools had applicant increases, nine saw applicants stay the same, and 109 saw a decline in applicants. Each region notched an uptick in applicants except for the Midwest, which experienced a 1.4% decline.
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