Is Law School Admissions Turning a Corner?

It is no secret that law schools have had it rough the last few years. Since 2010, the number of applicants to law school has dropped by 28,100 applicants (32%) from 87,500 applicants in 2010 to 59,400 applicants in 2013. This drop played prominently in the media and was likely exacerbated by bandwagoning bloggers. Whether the attention was overzelous is debatable, however, law schools heard the call to action and are reinventing legal education to better prepare lawyers for the challenges of the 21st century. It appears that these changes are making an impact and the precipitous downward trend in law school admissions may be turning a corner.

According to the latest (1/24/14) Current Volume Summary distributed by LSAC, applicants are down 12.6% nationally. Although the drop is in the double digits, it represents the smallest drop in applicants at this point in the application cycle since 2011 when the law school recession first began (down 12.3% on 1/28/11). 

Much more interestingly, however, for the first time since 2012, when LSAC began consistently publishing applicant trend data based on LSAT scores, there is actually an 8.5% increase in applicants who scored a 175 or higher on the LSAT. Moreover, there is only 0.7% decrease in applicants who scored between a 170-174 and that margin is quickly narrowing. It is possible that there may be growth in the 170-174 range by the end of the year. 

Although this growth is only happening at the top of the LSAT range, it could signify a significant change in the future as higher "quality" applicants return to law school.  2014 will likely be another down year nationally but as law schools reinvent themselves 2014 may also be the turning point where students begin to return to the legal profession.