Academic

2009 Law School Applications Are Mostly Flat. But Why?

By Dan Filler

In the last couple of days, we've finally seen a few stories reporting on law school application levels.  It's about time.  It has long been common wisdom that law school applications rise during economic downturns.  This  assumption (which has sometimes come true) is based on the sense that recent college graduates (i.e., folks in their early to mid 20's) will want to take advantage of a weak hiring market to add skills (and earning potential.)  Put another way, the opportunity costs of law school decrease during periods of economic weakness; it's less likely that you're trading a big financial windfall by leaving the job market.

This year, however, law school applications have been flat nationally.  More precisely, applications have gone up less than 1% this year - as compared to a 17.6% rise in applications in 2002 - following on the 2001 economic downturn.  I'm curious what's happening in other fields.  Although I haven't seen overall data, we know that applications for Harvard's Kennedy School Masters in Public Policy Program are up 35%, while Harvard's Divinity School applications are up 11%.  And Kaplan reports a 45% increase in interest in law, business and other graduate test prep programs.

Applications at a few schools are up -  Penn tells us they've seen a 6% rise in applications and Duke is up 4%.  Here at Drexel Law, interest has surged beyond all expectations: our applications are up 60% and the quality of our pool is considerably stronger than last year.

But if law school applications aren't rising overall, what accounts for that?  Some suggest that blogs like Above the Law have exposed the challenging job environment for lawyers.  Others think that concerns over student loans may be depressing applications.  Or perhaps there's simply a one year delay - and the teeming masses will be on our collective doorsteps come next fall.

Full post as published by The Faculty Lounge on February 26, 2009 (boomark / email).