It's anything but business as usual during this year's law school admissions cycle. That seemed obvious to the nearly 500 prelaw advisers and law school admissions officers who gathered in Washington in mid-June for a five-day conference of the Pre-Law Advisors National Council.

"It's quite competitive this year," said Heather Struck, assistant dean at Cornell University's College of Arts and Sciences and chairwoman of the organization. "I have seen, anecdotally, some very generous merit scholarship offers."

The University of Michigan Law School is ranked No. 10 by U.S. News & World Report, but a larger than normal number of its admittees are getting the nod from even higher ranked schools where they had been put on wait lists, said assistant dean for admissions Sarah Zearfoss. "Wait list activity is way up," she said.

Jessica Soban, assistant dean and chief admissions officer at Harvard Law School, declined to offer any admissions numbers until the fall, but expected "any trend to be consistent with what our peer schools report."

This admissions cycle hasn't been all that different from previous ones for top-ranked Yale Law School, said associate dean Asha Rangappa. Yale — which takes only about half as many students each year as Harvard's 400 — saw a 7 percent drop in applications. Still, Rangappa expected to enroll a typical first-year class of 205 students without relaxing its admissions standards.

Even Michigan admittees aren't immune to scholarship fever.

"Our second deposit deadline just passed, and a number of people came back to us and said, 'When I tried to withdraw from the other school, they said, 'We'll double your scholarship or give you a free ride.' " Zearfoss said. "It's frustrating for us because as a general policy we don't do a lot of negotiation. But it's also emotionally hard on the student. They just want things to be settled."

Even though Michigan increased its acceptance rate this year from the traditional one in five applicants to one in four, its incoming class still may end up slightly smaller than last year, she said.

lol "stop offering the kids more money! it's very emotionally taxing!"

Yeah law school is a buyer's market. UVA is having a 52K Fire Sale this fall.

considering there are still more applicants than there are places, it's still a seller's market.

At this point I wonder if already committed students should go back and ask for more. It doesn't seem like anyone has anything to lose by pushing for more this year. Keep going back and see what happens.

considering there are still more applicants than there are places, it's still a seller's market.

Not if schools want to maintain their medians for GPA and LSAT scores. The article says Michigan is going to have a smaller class. I presume that is so they can maintain those precious numbers.

Do you know what a seller's market is?
The fact that the school can have any selectivity whatsoever proves that it is a seller's market. Just because they either A) need to take in a smaller class, or B) need to be less selective, doesn't mean it's suddenly a buyer's market.

If they choose, Michigan could fill the entire class (and then some) with people willing to pay sticker, and still be selective.

Do you know what a seller's market is?
The fact that the school can have any selectivity whatsoever proves that it is a seller's market. Just because they either A) need to take in a smaller class, or B) need to be less selective, doesn't mean it's suddenly a buyer's market.

If they choose, Michigan could fill the entire class (and then some) with people willing to pay sticker, and still be selective.

I wonder why Michigan's assistant dean for admissions thinks they have a problem filling their class then.

In any event, the point is that this year is a good time to push hard for more scholarship money.

Because the assistant dean is either phrasing the issue incorrectly, or the assistant dean is an idiot.
The formula is simple:
send out X acceptances to admit Y students; lose Z students to other schools' waitlists and replenish with Z students from your own waitlist)
However, this year, the numbers that X, Y and Z represent, and therefore the ratios between them, have changed. The concept is still the same; however, if the dean is relying on the same numbers for X, Y and Z as 3 years ago, obviously the results are going to come out wrong. Not exactly rocket science

I think people should definitely push hard for money, but I think the t-14 still has a decided upper hand in negotiations. I'd be suprised if Michigan has issues filling a class - they filled up on summer starts and the WL FAQ from a week ago mentioned making like 10 more offers. Obv. that could change, but they WL tons of people, no?

Even though Michigan increased its acceptance rate this year from the traditional one in five applicants to one in four, its incoming class still may end up slightly smaller than last year, she said.

Yeah law school is a buyer's market. UVA is having a 52K Fire Sale this fall.

I realize that if you’re in the T6 the employers understand that they are dealing with the best and brightest, but you know what, ITE the bottom 25% of anything is a hard sell, IMO.

It's a buyer's market, but the currency here is GPA/LSAT. If you don't have the goods, you're not a buyer, you're just a guy willing to throw money at them.

yeah, but employers don't only want the best, they want the hardest workers, which is not necessarily the same thing. Someone who is top 25% at a local feeder school will probably be a better hire than someone who is bottom 25% at a T14, because if the smarter person at the T14 underperforms his/her peers at said school, odds are that same person will underperform as an associate*, whereas someone who's a little less smart (but still smarter than the average bear) who outperforms his/her peers has a good chance of at least holding his/her own as an associate*.
*this refers to both performance as an associate and surviving long enough as an associate

lol "stop offering the kids more money! it's very emotionally taxing!"

Thank you for bringing this new information to light. Now we know: hiring is about both school and rank. Maybe even about other things as well.