2021 was the year everyone wanted to go to law school - Reuters
The year "2021" is seen on the tassel of Mark Dodge, 27, a graduate from The George Washington University Law School in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 13, 2021. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly
Dec 14 (Reuters) - When it comes to law school admissions, 2021 was one for the record books.
The number of applicants vying to be first-year law students this fall jumped 13%—the biggest year-over-year increase since 2002. That translated to 12% more 1Ls showing up on campus.
Law School Admission Test scores also shot up, with more than double the number of applicants scoring in the highest band of 175 to 180. As a result, the median LSAT score among the new classes at nearly every law school went up, with some jumping by a previously unheard of three points.
Andy Cornblatt, dean of admissions at Georgetown University Law Center, said the 2021 cycle was a “perfect storm” of the pandemic and current events pushing people to apply to law school.
“You had George Floyd; an economy that looked shaky at best; a presidential election like no other; RBG dying; and January 6,” Cornblatt said. “Add all those things up—it all felt like law was where the action was.”
The pandemic also interrupted early career paths for many, said Law School Admission Council President Kellye Testy, which prompted more people to apply to law school. Lockdowns also meant they had more time at home to study for the LSAT and prepare their applications, she added.
“There were a lot of people who might have done an interesting study abroad, or Teach for America, or spend a gap year in Italy,” she said. “But they couldn’t do any of that because of the pandemic, so it seemed better to apply now.”
Some law schools struggled to manage the influx of applicants, ending up with first-year classes that are significantly larger than they had planned for. Increased diversity was a welcome byproduct of the larger applicant pool, with a number of elite law schools admitting their most diverse classes ever.
But it was an extremely competitive and frustrating cycle for aspiring lawyers, said Dave Killoran, chief executive officer of LSAT prep company PowerScore. Some were shut out of schools they would been admitted to in any other year, he noted, while schools took more time than usual to make decisions—a further source of stress for applicants.
“Last cycle was the worst I can recall in 30 years,” Killoran said. “Expectations were out of line with what actually happened.”
The University of Michigan Law School saw a 42% increase in applications last cycle and hired an additional first reader to help wade through them all, said senior assistant dean Sarah Zearfoss. She also spent more than a few weekends reading through applications because there were too many to go through during the work week.
“It was certainly challenging,” Zearfoss said. “The volume exceeded anything we’d seen before. And the quality of the applicants was extremely high across the board.”
Demand for law school is already cooling off amid a relatively strong economy and the rollback of pandemic lockdowns. As of mid-December, the total number of people applying to start law school in the fall of 2022 was down 5% compared to this time a year ago. Admissions officials predict that the final applicant pool for the current cycle will be down anywhere from 5% to 13% over 2021.
“On a scale of one to 10, last year was a 10,” Killoran said. “This year is looking like an 8 or so.”
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source: https://www.reuters.com/legal/legalindustry/2021-was-year-everyone-wanted-go-law-school-2021-12-28/
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