Kaplan, the prominent test prep company, conducts an annual survey of law school admissions officers. This year, those admissions people expect to be swamped by even more people clamoring to get into law school. Here’s the stat from Kaplan’s press release:

Law School Applications Continue to Climb: 56% predict an increase in applications this year, while only 6% predict a decrease – 25% predict application numbers to remain flat, while 13% were not sure.

Last year saw record or near-record numbers of applicants to law schools. So this year is going to see even more applicants? This is getting ridiculous…

Yesterday our resident therapist, Will Meyerhofer, urged people to think before jumping into law school. Clearl, that’s not happening. As the WSJ Law Blog points out, Kaplan’s study reveals that prospective law students can’t even figure out whom to ask for a recommendation:

The survey reports that 87% of law school admissions officers who answered the survey say they have received a negative letter of recommendation about an applicant. According to the survey, 15% report that a poor letter of recommendation is actually the biggest application killer.

That. Is. Embarrassing. But it’s also strangely predictable. We are talking about prospective law students here. We’re talking about people who can’t figure out that there are too many law schools, can’t figure out that there are too few legal jobs, and (for the most part) can’t give you a reason for going to law school in the first place, other than one based on wishful thinking or pure fantasy. We shouldn’t be surprised that these people can’t even figure out which professors like them.

See, figuring out whom to ask for a recommendation requires basic self-awareness. Clearly a lot of people who are applying to law school don’t have that capacity.

Who Loves Ya, Baby? (Figure That Out Before You Apply to Law School) [WSJ Law Blog]
Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions Survey [Kaplan]

Earlier: The Cart and the Horse