Law Schools

Law School Applications Could Be A Bust -- Or A Boom -- Thanks To COVID-19

Law schools should be prepared for anything at this point.

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Over the course of Trump’s presidency, law school applications have experienced a resurgence of sorts, climbing by about 8 percent in 2018, and going up by another 3 percent in 2019. This phenomenon became known as the Trump Bump, as college students were pushed to pursue legal careers due to the country’s oftentimes chaotic political climate. Many hoped that the increase in applications would be here to stay, but unfortunately, it seems that the Trump-inspired surge in law school applicants was no match for the global pandemic.

According to the latest data from the Law School Admission Council, applications are down 2.5 percent from last year at this point in the cycle. In June 2019, law schools had received 95 percent of all applications for the upcoming fall semester. But should we be expecting a sudden uptick sometime soon? Thanks to COVID-19’s disruption of a major part of the application process — namely, the administration of the LSAT — it could happen. Here’s more on that from Karen Sloan of Law.com:

[LSAC] canceled both the March and April in-person LSATs due to the coronavirus. But it rolled out a pared-down, online version of the exam in May. The LSAT Flex, as the remote exam has been dubbed, is being administered for the second time next week and again in July. Thus, it’s possible that schools will see a wave of late applications from people who planned to take the LSAT in March and April but had to take the May LSAT Flex instead. (Score from that first LSAT Flex, which approximately 10,000 took at home, will be released June 5.) There is typically a surge of applications submitted immediately after an LSAT score release, noted council president Kellye Testy in an interview Wednesday.

“COVID created a period where nothing happened, and it shifted the timeline down,” Testy said. “What we might have usually seen happen on May 1 could happen more like May 30 this year. Right now, we’re 2.5% off last year. I personally think it’s amazing that it’s only 2.5% given all the disruption.”

Plus, we could also be looking forward to another onslaught of law school applicants thanks to the economic downturn that’s been caused by the pandemic, just like what happened with the recession. “In the short-term, going to professional school—be it business school, law school or something else—is a good idea because it’s a refuge from an inhospitable job market, and the job market will be better three years from now,” said Professor Bernie Burke, who studies the economics of legal education.

Testy said she has heard from many applicants who say that they didn’t originally intend to pursue law school this fall but are going that route due to canceled job offers and internships. Many law schools have extended their application deadlines to accommodate those latecomers, she noted. Meanwhile, a council survey of law school applicants found that the vast majority are still planning to enroll this fall despite uncertainty over what form their education will take.

“It’s at 85% or more, of those who have decided they still will attend,” Testy said. “They don’t love that it might be online, but that wouldn’t significantly affect their decision.”

In other words, law schools should prepare to batten down the hatches — either for a loss of revenue due to a decrease in enrollment, or a large increase in their seat capacity (virtual, as it were, at least for the Fall 2020 semester). Let’s see where we end up when all is said and done for the current application cycle. Best of luck!

Law School Applications Are Down. Will COVID-19 Spur a Late Comeback? [Law.com]

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Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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