Law school applications skyrocket in D.C.
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Georgetown says it received the most applications ever for its law school. Photo: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Law school applications this year are off the charts nationwide and in D.C.
The big picture: A presidential transition year, changes to the LSAT exam, and more attention being paid to the law and courts are leading more people to apply to law school, observers say.
- Applications to nearly 200 law schools nationwide jumped 20.5% compared with last year, the Wall Street Journal reports.
State of play: Georgetown University Law Center has already received its most applications ever — 14,000. That's up 25% from last year. In fact, dean of admissions Andrew Cornblatt tells Axios, it's the highest number of applicants any law school in the nation has ever gotten.
- "I know it's stressful for students who — three, four years ago — would've been admitted with the credentials they had" but instead are on the wait list, Cornblatt says. The office hired extra part-time staff to read applications.
- Georgetown has 650 seats. And three wait-list levels.
Georgetown's last surge was during the pandemic, going into the fall of 2021. This time around, some applicants say, the current political climate is driving them to join the legal arena.
- "There's a perception that this is where the action is," he says.
American University's Washington College of Law tells Axios it's running roughly 15% to 17% ahead of last year's applicant pool. Howard University School of Law says it's seeing a 38.4% increase.
- Howard Law "traditionally enrolls 160 to 180 students per class," a spokesperson said in an email. "The last two entering classes were among the largest in the school's history — the Class of 2024 was the second largest, and the Class of 2023 was the fourth largest."
Between the lines: The competition makes it harder for those seeking a career pivot — especially in D.C., where people can't depend as much on federal jobs anymore.
Zoom in: Some law school hopefuls also say that the removal of the logic games section from the LSAT this cycle helped raise their scores, leading to more applicants.
- "When I found out that they were changing the test, I was ecstatic," a 2023 George Washington University graduate, Tyla Evans, told the Journal.
- Her LSAT score went up 15 to 20 points on the revised LSAT test.