Easier Law School Admission: LSAT / GPA Medians Falling

Back in April, I wrote a great deal about the declining number of law school applicants and what that means for law school admissions (easier admission, perhaps?)

Yesterday, a few news articles yesterday covered the issue in more depth, providing a valuable update re: what may happen for anyone applying to law school this fall.

Here's the introduction to an ABA Journal article titled, "Law Schools Could Be Admitting 80 Percent of Their Applicants This Fall, Statistics Suggest":

If you are an aspiring law student with low grades and scores on the Law School Admission Test, this could be your year. 

University of St. Thomas law professor Jerry Organ explains why in a post at the Legal Whiteboard that chronicles declining enrollments from 2010 to 2011, along with declining credentials of entering classes. He estimates that admission rates could possibly top 80 percent this fall. 

Seventy-five of the 197 law schools ranked by U.S. News & World Report, or about 38 percent, suffered from triple declines in 2011—in enrollment, and test scores and grades of entering students, Organ says.

Jerry Organ compiled the data on which that article is based, in a blog post titled, "Comparison of 2010 and 2011 Enrollment and Profile Data Among Law Schools." Here's the first substantive paragraph of his post:

PROFILES IN DECLINE -- Between 2010 and 2011, 111 law schools had a decline in their LSAT/GPA profile, 59 had an increase in profile, and 27 had a mixed profile. (A decline means across six possible data points, 75th, median, and 25th for LSAT and GPA, more scores went down then up; an increase means more scores went up than down; a mixed profile means the same number of scores went up as went down. For example, if a school had an LSAT/GPA profile in 2010 of 160/156/153 and 3.82/3.65/3.45 and an LSAT/GPA profile in 2011 of 160/156/152 and 3.83/3.64/3.43, this would be a decline in profile – down on three parameters and up on one parameter.) The average 75th LSAT has dropped from 160.2 to 159.9, while the average 25 LSAT has dropped from 155.2 to 154.3. The median scores for the 75 and 25 fell from 160 and 155 for LSAT to 159 and 153.

Here's the PDF direct from Jerry Organ providing all the data.

Click through to the articles linked above to read all the juicy details. This is great news for anyone applying this fall.