Law Schools, Rankings

Which Law Schools Received The Most Applications For Fall 2015?

Which schools are on the dueling lists of the cream of the crop versus the cream of the crap?

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law_school LFIt’s now common knowledge that a law degree is no longer a key that will open the door to a lifetime of riches. Prospective law students now know that they may not be able to find a job after graduation, and for several years, this knowledge prompted them to stop applying to law school in droves, as they did in 2009 and 2010. In fact, according to the Law School Admission Counsel, the law school application scene has changed dramatically. In 2010, 73,118 people applied to ABA-accredited law schools, and in 2014, just 53,306 people did. What a difference a few years can make.

But even with the significant drop in applicants, some law schools were still able to convince thousands of would-be lawyers to apply.

Each year, U.S. News compiles a list of the 10 law schools that received the most applications. Not everyone can get into a highly ranked law school, so we compiled our own list of the top 10 unranked law schools that received the most applications.

Which schools are on the dueling lists of the cream of the crop v. the cream of the crap?

Here are the 10 law schools that received the most applications for full-time programs for the class that entered in Fall 2015, courtesy of the Short List blog of U.S. News:

Law Schools Most Full-Time Applications

Once again, representation from the top 14 remains strong, with Georgetown clinching the top spot. While prospective law students didn’t stray from the top 25 schools when submitting their applications, some of these law schools saw their applications drop from the fall 2014 admissions cycle — some by more than 700 applications. Ouch. It should be noted, however, that job statistics matter, and these are just some of the schools that may enable graduates to work as attorneys after graduation.

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In case you’re interested, here are the employment statistics for full-time, long-term jobs requiring bar passage for the class of 2014 (these statistics do not include school-funded positions; information for the class of 2015 is regrettably not yet available):

  • Georgetown: 69.6 percent
  • GW: 65.5 percent
  • Columbia: 87.2 percent
  • NYU: 86 percent
  • UCLA: 71.7 percent
  • Harvard: 85.8 percent
  • UC-Berkeley: 85.5 percent
  • Penn: 91.4 percent
  • Duke: 87.9 percent
  • WUSTL: 72.9 percent

So what do the full-time numbers look like at the other end of the spectrum? People are still applying to unranked law schools despite all the doom and gloom about employment and debt that’s delivered on a daily basis, but in much smaller numbers:

  1. Charlotte: 2,007 (67 percent admit rate for full-time students)
  2. Florida Coastal: 1,986 (72.6 percent admit rate for full-time students)
  3. San Francisco: 1,947 (62.5 percent admit rate for full-time students)
  4. Southwestern: 1,635 (61.1 percent admit rate for full-time students)
  5. California Western: 1,612 (71 percent admit rate for full-time students)
  6. Suffolk: 1,581 (71.3 percent admit rate for full-time students)
  7. John Marshall-Chicago: 1,495 (76.1 percent admit rate for full-time students)
  8. South Texas: 1,304 (65.8 percent admit rate for full-time students)
  9. Barry: 1,240 (61.1 percent admit rate for full-time students)
  10. New England: 1,230 (82.1 percent admit rate for full-time students)

When we compiled this list in 2012, things looked much, much different than they do today. Curiously absent from the top 10 list are Thomas Jefferson Law and Cooley Law, schools that have been long considered to be some of the worst offenders when it comes to offering overly rosy promises of employment success after graduation. It seems pre-law students have finally smartened up, as TJSL has fallen to 16th place (1,043 applicants with an 84.1 percent admit rate for full-time students), and Cooley has sunk to 23rd place (919 applicants with an 87.7 percent admit rate for full-time students). It’s also worth noting that while some schools have attempted to show scant standards, others have decided to admit just about everyone to keep the lights on.

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So there you have it: people continue to shy away from law school, but it certainly seems like unranked law schools seem to have been the hardest hit by the dearth in applications. We’re making progress in alleviating the stressed legal job market, but it’s still not enough. It may be best to put off applying for the time being.

10 Law Schools With the Most Full-Time Applications [Short List / U.S. News]

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