Law school apps hold steady

As Grey's Anatomy draws more prospective doctors every year, Law and Order fans seem to be turning to other fields.

In a survey of 190 law schools conducted by Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions, half of the schools reported a decline in applications during the past two years, with a 17.4 percent drop in 2007.

Penn Law and its peer institutions, however, continue to attract a sizable applicant pool.

As of Jan. 10, the admissions office for Penn Law reported a decrease of only 28 applications from the previous admissions season, a drop of 0.6 percent.

"The caliber of Penn Law School has been on the rise, like Penn's undergraduate admissions," said Renee Post, Penn Law dean of admissions. "We are attracting the best and the brightest."

Admissions expert Ann Levine of lawschoolexpert.com, a law school admissions consulting firm, said there has been a growing interest in the top law schools because students feel it will increase their job potential.

"People who want big firm jobs feel they need to go to a top-10 or top-25 law school, or they won't get hit [with job offers] from the large firms," Levine said.

Washington University in St. Louis, another high ranking law school, reported that the number of applications has been increasing annually due to more awareness of the school, said law school admissions spokesperson Anna Donovan.

Levine suggested that the drop in applicants cited in the Kaplan report could be attributed to decreasing interest in regionally based law schools.

For example, University of Miami Law School, which does not rank in the top 25, reported a decrease of 1 to 2 percent last year in law applications.

A number of factors could contribute to the decline in interest in law school, including the state of the economy and growing student awareness of the hard work required for three years of law school.

But despite the data provided by Kaplan, universities are not overly concerned.

Post, for instance, cited a second report by the Law School Admissions Council, which found that the number of applications has remained nearly constant with the previous admissions season.

And other reports, including one by the American Bar Association actually reported a steady increase in law school enrollment since 2000.

Representatives from Kaplan Test Prep were not available to comment for this article.

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