Total law school applicants down 16.7% from last year Forum

[Paul Campos]

As of Jan. 13, per ABA Journal. No info available on how the decline is distributed, i.e., whether it's consistent across the board or whether relatively fewer people with high numbers or low numbers are applying.

[splitbrain]

As of Jan. 13, per ABA Journal. No info available on how the decline is distributed, i.e., whether it's consistent across the board or whether relatively fewer people with high numbers or low numbers are applying.

My money's on no significant difference between the two groups, however I am interested to know if the drop is uniform among all tiers of law schools.

On that note, what a great time to apply...

[iamrobk]

As of Jan. 13, per ABA Journal. No info available on how the decline is distributed, i.e., whether it's consistent across the board or whether relatively fewer people with high numbers or low numbers are applying.

My money's on no significant difference between the two groups, however I am interested to know if the drop is uniform among all tiers of law schools.

On that note, what a great time to apply...

Yeah, should definitely help make OCI easier in a few years...

[MrAnon]

Smart money always gets out first. Dumb money keeps buying.

[splitbrain]

Smart money always gets out first. Dumb money keeps buying.

Yes because there is no such thing as cycles, the profession is doomed, and no schools give out scholarships or grants anymore...

[ryemanhattan]

Smart money always gets out first. Dumb money keeps buying.

Yup. You nailed it. That's exactly how Warren Buffet didn't become rich.

[MrAnon]

As of Jan. 13, per ABA Journal. No info available on how the decline is distributed, i.e., whether it's consistent across the board or whether relatively fewer people with high numbers or low numbers are applying.

My money's on no significant difference between the two groups, however I am interested to know if the drop is uniform among all tiers of law schools.

On that note, what a great time to apply...

Yeah, should definitely help make OCI easier in a few years...

For who?

[ryemanhattan]

As of Jan. 13, per ABA Journal. No info available on how the decline is distributed, i.e., whether it's consistent across the board or whether relatively fewer people with high numbers or low numbers are applying.

My money's on no significant difference between the two groups, however I am interested to know if the drop is uniform among all tiers of law schools.

On that note, what a great time to apply...

Yeah, should definitely help make OCI easier in a few years...

No, it shouldn't. There will still be the same # of law students, approximately. It should make this application cycle slightly friendlier/ more generous though, especially at lower ranked schools.

[caputlupinum]

Smart money always gets out first. Dumb money keeps buying.

For finance it's the other way around

[MrAnon]

Smart money always gets out first. Dumb money keeps buying.

For finance it's the other way around

no, its not.

[dolfan0516]

Smart money always gets out first. Dumb money keeps buying.

For finance it's the other way around

no, its not.

Yes it is. Dumb money panics and sells at the first sign of decline. Smart money knows thats the time to buy (more).

[timbs4339]

As of Jan. 13, per ABA Journal. No info available on how the decline is distributed, i.e., whether it's consistent across the board or whether relatively fewer people with high numbers or low numbers are applying.

My money's on no significant difference between the two groups, however I am interested to know if the drop is uniform among all tiers of law schools.

On that note, what a great time to apply...

Yeah, should definitely help make OCI easier in a few years...

Please be flame.

[MrAnon]

Smart money always gets out first. Dumb money keeps buying.

For finance it's the other way around

no, its not.

Yes it is. Dumb money panics and sells at the first sign of decline. Smart money knows thats the time to buy (more).

No this is still wrong. You are trying to hijack a colloquialism to make it fit around your idea.

[sunynp]

What does this even mean? What does finance have to do with law school admissions? Are you trying to say this is a good time to get into law?

[TatNurner]

Smart money always gets out first. Dumb money keeps buying.

For finance it's the other way around

no, its not.

Yes it is. Dumb money panics and sells at the first sign of decline. Smart money knows thats the time to buy (more).

You guys are all right, you are just talking about different stages of the cycle, where the smart/dumb money will behave differently depending on what is going on.

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[MrPapagiorgio]

Yeah, should definitely help make OCI easier in a few years...

No, it shouldn't. There will still be the same # of law students, approximately. It should make this application cycle slightly friendlier/ more generous though, especially at lower ranked schools.

Exactly. Applying may be easier, but schools will still fill the classes.

God there is a lot of derp in this thread.

[iamrobk]

Yeah, should definitely help make OCI easier in a few years...

No, it shouldn't. There will still be the same # of law students, approximately. It should make this application cycle slightly friendlier/ more generous though, especially at lower ranked schools.

Exactly. Applying may be easier, but schools will still fill the classes.

God there is a lot of derp in this thread.

Fair enough. Guess I should have said "hopefully" instead of "should," in only because it will (in theory, anyway) lead to lesser qualified people at higher schools, who may not be as prepared. But we'll see.

[MrAnon]

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We are entering the "return to normal" stage.

[ColtsFan88]

Yeah, should definitely help make OCI easier in a few years...

No, it shouldn't. There will still be the same # of law students, approximately. It should make this application cycle slightly friendlier/ more generous though, especially at lower ranked schools.

Exactly. Applying may be easier, but schools will still fill the classes.

God there is a lot of derp in this thread.

Fair enough. Guess I should have said "hopefully" instead of "should," in only because it will (in theory, anyway) lead to lesser qualified people at higher schools, who may not be as prepared. But we'll see.

LOL, I doubt it.

[MrPapagiorgio]

Yeah, should definitely help make OCI easier in a few years...

No, it shouldn't. There will still be the same # of law students, approximately. It should make this application cycle slightly friendlier/ more generous though, especially at lower ranked schools.

Exactly. Applying may be easier, but schools will still fill the classes.

God there is a lot of derp in this thread.

Fair enough. Guess I should have said "hopefully" instead of "should," in only because it will (in theory, anyway) lead to lesser qualified people at higher schools, who may not be as prepared. But we'll see.

I knew what you meant in equating drop in applicants with less qualified applicant pool, but it's doubtful. The best schools (that afford the best options at OCI) will still be filled with the same quality applicants. That won't change. Don't expect to see schools in the T14 drop their 25/75's by any significant amount. The most qualified applicants will still be applying.

[hung jury]

The best possible scenario long term is that schools that can afford to do so react by trimming classes in a median-USNEWS ranking war.

[splitbrain]

What does this even mean? What does finance have to do with law school admissions? Are you trying to say this is a good time to get into law?

There's confusion as to what should be represented by that graph and, generally, what the focus of this thread is.

Some people have been talking about the simple idea of going to law school, while the main topic of the thread is obviously a lot more objective and quantifiable: the number of applicants.

Then there's the speculation of what this means for current applicants, even though we don't have any statistical analysis to show what effects, if any, large variations in applicants has on the individual applicant. (I was just being optimistic earlier...or whatever...)

tldr: We're all just speculating (read also: doing our best) based on the limited info we have.

¯\(°_o)/¯

Edit: either way,

[lobolawyer]

I think the market is striking a natural balance. Weeding out some of the degree mills (hopefully).

[TatNurner]

What does this even mean? What does finance have to do with law school admissions? Are you trying to say this is a good time to get into law?

There's confusion as to what should be represented by that graph and, generally, what the focus of this thread is.

FYI I was just talking about finance (i.e. responding to a side discussion). I dont think you can make a direct comparison between financial markets and changes in law school applications, even though some jargon/concepts from finance could be used to describe what seems to be going on with the number of people applying to law school.

Mr Anon, in his last post, seems to make a interesting point though, that this could perhaps be a false bottom in terms of things getting better, and that applications will shoot up again in coming cycles as people start thinking law school is a winning game again, before we come back and hit a real bottom, much lower than the one we are in right now.

Of course, this is all speculation, and there are a lot of mixed/messy analogies in there, but I hope you get what I mean

[Gail]

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We are entering the "return to normal" stage.

I don't think that the next 5 years will be nearly as bad as people think they will. The economy will improve at a decent clip in 2012 and will be even better in 2013.