The American Bar Association Journal reports that annual law school applications are on the rise. Applications at Duke University School of Law and University of Pennsylvania Law School surged this year, raising 4 percent and 6 percent respectively. In spite of this, the national increase remains less than 1 percent.
Duke saw 6,300 applications this year, only 200 of which were accepted. At Penn, 6,169 applicants competed for 250 spots. Still, many predict that the major swell in applicants is yet to come.
“Often in times of economic downturn, there may be an increase,” reports Wendy Margolis of the Law School Admission Council, “but there may be a lag time between when people are getting really concerned” and when they actually apply to law school.
After the 2001 recession, law school applications increased by 17.6 percent. A similar increase is conceivable in the near future. Still, the price tag of law school tuition may be discouraging and in many cases preventative to applying.