Few things bump up law application numbers like a volatile political environment and how absurdly difficult it is to get a job right now. Deciding to go to law school is choosing to bet on yourself under normal circumstances, but our rapidly changing circumstances will make it hard to know what you’re getting yourself into three years from now. Despite that uncertainty, there’s been a huge jump in the amount of people applying for law school. Reuters has coverage:
The current pool of applicants to American Bar Association-accredited law schools is 33% larger than it was this time last year, according to newly released data from the Law School Admission Council.
…
“In my 26 years of staring at the [council’s] volume summary report, I’ve never seen a cycle starting this much up,” said law school admissions consultant Mike Spivey, who predicted that the applicant pool will further expand through November before tapering down to an increase of about 20% over last year’s total count.If this trend continues, it could lend itself to higher law school tuition costs. Say you get an acceptance letter from The School You Actually Want To Go To (W2G for short) and a similarly ranked school you’re Willing To Go To If You Must (IYM). Once upon a time, it may have been a good idea to leverage your IYM acceptance against W2G — make up some sob story about how much you’d rather go to W2G but IYM is offering a better scholarship package to see if W2G could match or exceed what they were offering. Back when W2G schools were competing for top talent, the leveraging may have worked. But if this keeps up, W2G could just tell you to kick rocks — there will be a bunch of students who are willing to take your spot with less fuss and more funding because the number of applicants keeps ticking upward.
As reasonable a response to uncertainty is, applying to law school is still a gamble. Will these future lawyers enter a job market that finally dealt with the AI in hiring? Or will people still be using AI to craft cover letters and resumes only to get assessed by some companies’ AI filtration system to no avail until heat death comes for us all? Bracketing aside the AI screening issue, competing against other highly qualified candidates won’t stop at getting into law school — they’ll have to compete for jobs with those same high performers when they all graduate.
As much as students may risk while kicking the job search can down the road for three years by going to law school, the time was going to pass anyway. Setting yourself up to succeed is generally preferable to waiting. Best of luck!
US Law School Applicants Increase 33%, Boosting Competition [Reuters]
Earlier: U.S. Politics Drives Law School ‘Application Boom’
Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s . He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who is learning to swim, is interested in critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at cwilliams@abovethelaw.com and by tweet at @WritesForRent.
The post Tough Times Make A Buyer’s Market For Law Schools appeared first on Above the Law.
