Kaplan’s 180 Live Recap

Thanks to everyone who joined us Wednesday night for the 180 Live law school admissions survey episode, in which we dug deep into all the newest information from admissions experts from 127 schools!  We saw in-depth questions from our stand-out viewers on Twitter, and our experts were definitely impressed by the quality of audience participation.  In turn, we were excited both by all of you and by our awesome panel:

• Kenneth Kleinrock, NYU School of Law
• Anne Richard, University of Virginia School of Law
• Stephen Brown, Fordham University School of Law
• Rob Schwartz, UCLA School of Law

For those of you who didn’t get the chance to attend, worry not!  We are here to provide you with a recap par excellence, including information from the survey results and the debates and discussions of our four illustrious in-studio personalities.  In total, our panel checked out 21 of the many questions we posed to law school admissions offices, starting with the much-talked-about decline in law school applicant numbers and what that means from the admissions office side of the glass– and for your advisees, the applicants.

Decline in Law School Applicants

Anne Richards of UVA Law indicated that she noticed that more of the applicants seemed “serious” about their decision to pursue law school, which was seconded by all. In some ways, the decline in law school applicants has separated those who looked at law school as something to try out or an option available if someone wasn’t sure what he or she wanted to do, and those who were determined to be an attorney and applied to law school to fulfill their lawyerly dreams and ambitions. Kenneth Kleinrock of NYU Law pointed out that this is actually a great time for that kind of driven, focused, goal-oriented applicant, because those students have more choices open to them than previously, as well as putting more students into the competition for scholarship funds.

Fewer bodies in the applicant pool also led to the shrinking of class sizes for many schools (especially schools outside of the top tier), but 55% surveyed said they did not foresee anymore downsizing, although 44% also said they were not too confident in a forthcoming rebound in numbers. NYU’s Kleinrock also pointed out that in some ways this could have been expected, because right after the recession hit in 2008, record numbers of people turned to law school as a career-furthering option, leading to inflated expectations.  Stephen Brown of Fordham Law made the point that although a smaller pool certainly was an opportunity for students, that didn’t mean that law schools (especially top schools) were at the point of desperation (as some media outlets might indicate), and admitting people just to admit people.  The quote of the night might have come from Richard, who noted that no good law school is going to just fill seats with bodies; law schools are interested in students who are likely to succeed.

Application Details

Robert Schwartz of UCLA Law helped give us a good timeline for prospective students; since law schools use rolling admission (admitting people as they receive and review applicants, instead of waiting until the application deadline to make decisions), it is in the best interest of students to get applications in as soon as possible.  Schwartz indicated that anytime by Thanksgiving gives students the best chance in terms of timing– so your advisees should get to work on those applications if they have been procrastinating.  One corollary consequence of the decline in applications, however, has been the increase in admission of students from the wait-list and admissions using later LSAT scores.  A rather staggering 78% of schools indicated that they had accepted some Fall 2013 students using a June 2013 LSAT score.  It still is always better to get that application in early, but there is a better chance for late comers in this leaner period.  Keep in mind, however, that scholarship money is allocated early, and late admissions and wait-list acceptances are much less likely to see merit-based scholarship funds, although all of our experts indicated that the way that money is allocated and spent on students varies widely from school to school.

Unsurprisingly, 58% of the schools responding to our survey indicated that the LSAT score is the single more important factor in an application; they also confirmed as true something we have been saying for a long time: the LSAT is so heavily weighted not just because it is the only uniform factor (though of course that is important) between applications, but because it tests skills that are important for success in law school. 95% of the schools we surveyed indicated that was the case, and on our panel Kleinrock put it simply: if you have big problems with the skills tested on the LSAT, you will probably have big problems in law school.  About a third of the schools also indicated a low LSAT score was the biggest application killer– but almost equal was how detrimental a poorly written personal statement could be to an applicant’s chances.  In a general discussion of how closely admissions offices police the internet and social media tracks of potential students, we found that not a lot of time is generally spent googling applicants– but admissions offices do pay attention to law school boards, etc., so let your advisees know that they should tread carefully when releasing information about scholarship money, admissions, and other similar information.  Also, information gleaned from the internet should be read with a grain of salt– when in doubt, your advisees should feel free to call the admissions office of the school.  That’s a much better place to get information from than an anonymous and/or random stranger on the internet.