Corporate Governance

Law School, Declining Applications, and Diversity

By J Robert Brown Jr.

The WSJ reports that the number of law school applications is down.  According to the article:

• The number of law-school applicants this year is down 11.5% from a year ago to 66,876, according to the Law School Admission Council Inc. The figure, which is a tally of applications for the fall 2011 class, is the lowest since 2001 at this stage of the process. The Council estimates that the application process is 86% complete, based on historical patterns.

The numbers will likely have disproportionate impact on particular schools, particularly those that did not see this coming.  Many others will have trouble maintaining the medians for grades and LSAT scores in their their incoming class, a very important component of the rankings in the US News (which just came out).  In the aggregate, there shouldn't be significant financial difficulty for law schools.  The 66,000 applications should be enough to fill the 50,000 slots that come open in law schools each year.

But there is a potential silver lining to this drop in applicants.  Law schools have not done a good job in ensuring diverse classes.  With law schools incurring a drop in applicants, many will have to look at a wider array of candidates.  Perhaps in doing so, this will cause admissions offices and committees to consider admitting more people of color. 

Full post as published by The Race to the Bottom on March 17, 2011 (boomark / email).