Law Schools, Student Loans

Recent Grads Are Drowning In Debt, Think It’s Too Easy To Get Into Law School

It's a little ironic, don't you think?

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Lawyer DunceIn the wake of the Great Recession, thanks to the incredibly high debt levels and joblessness of those who had graduated into the worst legal employment market in decades, a great number of prospective students decided that they didn’t want to be dealt a similarly raw deal. Those prospective students didn’t waste their time applying to law school, which caused many law schools to lower their admission standards — and raise their tuition — in an effort to keep both their classrooms and coffers full.

For years now, law schools’ past transgressions in student quality have led to record low bar passage rates in states across the country, and most recently, the lowest Multistate Bar Examination scores in the recorded history of the exam. Some recent law school graduates are insulted that they’re being blamed for the dumbing down of the legal profession, but others agree that cycle after cycle after cycle of lax law school admissions have had an embarrassing effect on their livelihoods, essentially lowering the value of their already egregiously expensive degrees.

According to a recent survey of about 350 recent law school graduates performed by Kaplan Bar Review, nearly two-thirds think law schools ought to raise their academic standards when deciding who is allowed to attend. That’s right, 64 percent of graduates surveyed from the class of 2016 — graduates who may have benefited from their schools’ lazy credentialing policies — think law schools’ academic standards need to be raised. Tammi Rice, vice president of Kaplan Bar Review, agrees that this is a bit ironic: “On one hand, law school graduates recognize that perhaps getting into law school has become easier than in previous years, but on the other hand, though they may not realize it, these lower academic standards might have played a role in why they got in.”

Students with lower academic qualifications are paying top dollar to attend law schools that leave them with untenable debt situations. According to the latest data from U.S. News, the average cost of tuition and fees at private schools for the 2016-2017 academic year was about $43,020, while the average in-state and out-of-state costs of tuition and fees at public schools were about $26,264 and $39,612, respectively. More than half of those surveyed (58 percent) by Kaplan described their debt loads as “unmanageable,” and exactly half said they were unsatisfied with the amount of financial aid their alma mater provided to them.

“Student debt continues to understandably be a concern for law school students. We encourage all students and prospective students to be as thoughtful as possible when thinking about how to finance their legal education. For instance, consider tuition, and anticipated starting salary at the law school you plan to attend or are currently attending. Those numbers are publicly available and aspiring attorneys should do this important research,” added Rice.

Whether these law school graduates are able to pass the bar exam or not, the only thing that’s certain in their futures is the size of their debt load. Perhaps law schools ought to take the advice of their recent graduates and raise their admission standards so that more of their alumni will be given the opportunity to get the high-paying jobs that will allow them to pay down their debts in a timely fashion.

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Kaplan Bar Review Survey: Law School Graduates Want Law Schools to Raise Their Admissions Standards [Kaplan]

(Disclosure: Kaplan Bar Review is an Above the Law advertiser.)

Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky is an editor at Above the Law. She’d love to hear from you, so feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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