Law Schools Cut Class Sizes after Applicants Wise Up
Finally, a sensible response by law schools -- cutting class size.
For the past decade or so, the legal job market has been terrible for new grads. And yet law schools kept on admitting more and more students, creating a glut of highly qualified, overly educated, unemployed people.
The law school bubble had to burst eventually, didn't it?
Accused of running diploma mills, and only caring about tuition and money, law schools have even been sued by current and former students who accused the schools of providing misleading and overly optimistic data about starting salaries and employment.
Law schools may finally be taking a step in the right direction by cutting class sizes, reports The Wall Street Journal.
Ten of the roughly 200 accredited law schools are planning cuts in admissions. This is a major move as fewer students mean less money for the schools, and the cuts also serve as an admission that the legal job market may not be as coveted or lucrative as commonly thought.
When the economy experienced a downturn previously, law school applications tended to trend up as unemployed grads sought something productive to do while waiting for the economy to turn, reports the Journal. With law schools experimenting with cutting class size, recent grads may now have to find something else to do.
New college grads should take heed though. Making minimum wage, doing nothing, or even traveling to Europe, is likely cheaper than spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to receive a law degree that probably won't help you land a job.
This year, there were 44,495 law school grads, up significantly since 2006, reports the Journal. In the meantime, law hiring is at an 18-year low. So yes, cutting class size makes a lot of sense.
Related Resources:
- At Least 10 Law Schools Plan to Reduce Incoming Classes (ABA Journal)
- Law School Applications Drop 14%. Will Tuition Follow Suit? (FindLaw's Greedy Associates)
- More New Lawyers Going to Small Firms Than BigLaw: ABA Survey (FindLaw's Greedy Associates)
- A Record 1/3 of Law Grads' Jobs Don't Require Bar Passage (FindLaw)