The number of law school applicants may begin to increase.
The application process for law school is about to get a little more competitive. A recent survey conducted by Kaplan Test Prep revealed that the majority of law admissions officers expect the number of applicants to spike next year. The survey also showed that the number of available seats for class members actually decreased overall in 2014, making the pool all the more competitive.
“In 2014, GW Law welcomed in a startling 42% of its applicants.”
A steady decline
For the past few years, law admissions officers have watched the number of applicants drop year by year, reaching its lowest point last year. With the lack of applicants, many school’s admission standards have changed. George Washington Law School is one example of this trend. In 2004, the school had an acceptance rate of a mere 17 percent, allowing the school to attain a prestigious ranking. However, ten years later in 2014, the law school welcomed in a startling 42 percent of its applicants. That was the biggest rise in acceptance rates for the school, jumping by 13 points from the year before. Why the drastic increase in acceptance? Like many other law schools, admissions officers were desperate to maintain their tuition revenues. So, they decided to widen the pool to applicants that probably wouldn’t have been accepted ten years before.
Now, the scales are tipping the other way. With the rise of applicants, acceptance rates for many schools may go back down again, challenging the latest batch of fresh-faced law school applicants. According to the survey, 88 percent of law admissions officers believe they will see a significant increase in the number of applicants. This is quite a turnaround compared to last year’s numbers for the survey. Less than half of those polled felt the number of applicants would rise.
So are the admissions officers going to be wrong again? Probably not. In the last three LSAT tests that were administered – December 2014, February 2015 and June 2015 – the number of test takers steadily increased.
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