Law school admissions are more flexible for entering 1Ls, survey says; is a class size change expected?
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Law schools expect to see entering first-year classes in fall 2020 to be about the same size as last year, despite COVID-19 concerns, according to a survey of admissions officers by the test prep provider Kaplan.
Admissions requirements for the fall 2020 term have been more flexible, according to 67% of the 94 law schools surveyed, according to a Tuesday news release. That includes application deadline extensions and letting people apply with unofficial LSAT scores.
Many seats for the 2020-2021 school year are already filled with deferments, according to the news release. There was also a sense among respondents that law schools will have fewer scholarships because of declining revenues. Many admissions officers also advise against deferring law school, according to the news release.
The Law School Admission Council in August 2019 reported that the admissions cycle ending in July 2019 had 62,427 applicants. The entering 1L fall 2019 class had 38,283 members, according to the ABA’s data overview for that year’s Standard 509 Information Report.
Out of the 2019 matriculants, 36.7% had LSAT scores above 160, according to a TaxProf Blog article written Monday by Jerry Organ, a law professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law in Minnesota.
