Top Law Schools Still Accepting Fall Applications 4-6 Months Late

It's almost August and informal reports indicate that top law schools are still accepting applications for the fall class.

It's been almost a decade of horror stories from law grads. Common complaints included accumulating six-figure debts, graduating to a life of doc review (if you're lucky), and earning less than a typical art major earns. So it's no surprise that law school admissions have suffered.

The surprise really is that some top 50 law schools are still scrambling to fill their seats. One would have expected that only unaccredited and second tier law schools would have dealt with this problem.

An aspiring law student with apparently very high LSAT scores sent emails to all of the top 50 law schools inquiring if they were still accepting applications as of July 24, reports the ABA Journal. This date was typically about four to six months after most cutoff dates for sending in applications.

To his surprise, the student heard back from 28 of the top 50 schools with favorable news. He could still seek admission into the fall class even though it was only a month away.

Some of the schools still accepting applicants included the top schools in Chicago (University of Chicago and Northwestern), the top schools in D.C. (Georgetown and George Washington), and Ivy League schools like Cornell. In addition, many of the top state schools were also looking to fill seats like UCLA, the University of Texas, and the University of Michigan.

Law school admissions may have seen its heyday when the decade-long economic stagnation first hit in the beginning of the 2000s. But as the economic slump continued, going to law school to wait out the rough economic times no longer seemed a viable option. Now the top law schools may be feeling the heat trying to find students willing to fork over hundreds of thousands of dollars for a degree of questionable utility.

Related Resources:

• Most top law schools still accepting applications for fall class (Inside the Law School Scam)
• Yale's New Law PhD Program for JDs Who Want to Teach, Not Bill Hours (FindLaw's Greedy Associates)
• You Can Fail the Bar Exam and Still Have an Awesome Career (FindLaw's Greedy Associates)