Number of Applicants to ABA-Accredited Law Schools from 2006-2015*
Has The Decline In Law School Enrollment Hit It’s Lowest Point?
A collection of legal educators are becoming cautiously optimistic that the upcoming academic year will be the low point for law school enrollment statistics. The educators predict that the number of law school applicants next year will be the first steps towards recovery from the five-year plunge.
Alfred Brophy, a law school professor at the University of North Carolina, told the National Law Review of his own optimism.
“The long, dark days of declines are over, for the time being,” said Alfred Brophy, who works in tracking law school enrollment. “How much of a turnaround it will be, I don’t know. But if I’m a dean, I’m going to the central administration and saying, ‘Hey, keep us afloat for a little bit longer. Things are getting better.’ ”
These high hopes are fueled primarily by two specific data points. The first of these statistics is the number of applicants to American Bar Association-accredited law schools, which only declined 2 percent compared with the previous year. The reduction is the smallest in over four years, according to the Law School Admission Council (LSAC). In contrast, the total number of applicants has fallen more than 10 percent each year from 2011 to 2013.
The second promising statistic is an increase in the number of people taking the Law School Admission Test (LSAT), which increased in each of the three testing dates since December. The increase spiked last month, with a monumental 6.6 percent jump.
Although the optimistic attitude has its caveats, the statistics certainly are promising. For details on the methodology behind the optimism, read the National Law Journal’s full article here.
Source: National Law Journal
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