Law School Admission Trends Interview

Ann Levine is a law school admission consultant who opened Law School Expert in 2004, and has been blogging about law school application issues since 2006. She is the author of two law school guidebooks: The Law School Admission Game: Play Like an Expert, and The Law School Decision Game.

I recently interviewed her about recent trends and changes in law school admissions. Our discussion follows.



1. In the past few years, the number of law school applicants has dropped significantly. How have law schools responded, and what does this mean for those applying now?

People applying to law school today have a greater chance of (1) getting into a school that would not have seriously considered them 5 years ago, and (2) getting scholarships to those schools. Of course, before you even get to the actual results of your admission decision, it also means more free applications to law school because schools are desperate for applicants and trying to protect their acceptance rates. In short, the downturn in applications is great for people who really want to go to law school.


2. You've said in the past that there are some instances in which you believe going to a non-"brand-name" school could be worthwhile. Has your opinion on that changed in any way? In what cases do you believe going to a lower-tier school might be worthwhile? 

I stand by this statement, but I want to be more specific. There was recent story in The Atlantic about for profit law schools. I will not help applicants apply to law school who will not make it through law school to practice law. And, yes, I can almost perfectly predict who they will be after nearly 15 years working in the land of law school admissions. But a reputable school located in the community where someone has a network and where they hope to build a career? Especially with a scholarship? Especially with solid career goals? And particularly for non-traditional applicants who understand what it is to hustle to build a career? Yes. Still worthwhile for those folks to attend a non "brand-name" school as you say.

Is BigLaw hiring from those schools? Not usually, except of course in their regional offices. But not everything is about BigLaw (although it may feel that way in your neighborhood of NY, Steve) but immigration law, family law, insurance defense law, personal injury, etc., are (non BigLaw) private sector fields that still have promise if people can sustain themselves on the lower starting salaries. (Which leads to your next question...)


3. How can law applicants use the downturn in applications to their advantage when negotiating financial aid and scholarship money? What should applicants be wary of?

Obviously, the thing to be wary of is job prospects! And I actually think applicants to top law schools are very aware of this, worried about this, and prepared for what they face. I see applicants to middle tier and lower tier law schools who aren't quite as educated about this issue, generally. This is of course a little ironic considering the difference in job prospects between these two groups of applicants.

Scholarships are absolutely negotiable, even if you applied Early Decision, believe it or not! (GULC offered money to two of my clients who were admitted under the binding early decision program). I have some tips for negotiating law school scholarships. The bottom line is that it never hurts to ask politely and professionally.


4. Relatedly, I've heard of some high-pressure tactics used by law schools to get students to accept offers of admission. Can you talk a bit about what sorts of tactics you've heard about, if any, and how students should handle them?

I've been shocked by this too - it's crazy. Columbia Law School's 2015 application actually makes you agree that you cannot double deposit. Washington University St. Louis threatened one of my applicants this year with a really strict deadline to withdraw other applications after he was admitted off the waiting list. These "intention" statements that many law schools send out to deposited applicants are really intimidating and I often get calls from frantic clients, "Am I binding myself? Does this mean I can't stay on another waiting list?" I advised one applicant this year to tell a law school he couldn't make a decision in three days and needed two weeks. They gave it to him. Another applicant was being bullied by a law school that said something along the lines of, "If you accept by X date, you can have $20,000 a year, but if you don't withdraw other applications by Y date, you're only getting $10,000 a year."

I understand why the law schools are doing these things, but I say to my applicants, "If you don't like how they treat you when they're trying to recruit you, you probably won't like how they treat you when you're actually a student there." (Of course, this is a bit idealistic since Admission offices are run separately from the faculty and career services and student services functions of law schools so it's not necessarily an indicator of how much they care about their students, but it's certainly fair for potential students to make the inference.)