Will current state of economy affect admission chances?

[Joey_C]

It seems like more people are deciding to stay in school because of the bad job market. More people will go to grad school and law school. Will this increase competition enough, as in a significantly higher GPA and LSAT score are needed to get admitted to many schools? What do people think about this?

[Ninja1]

I don't think you'll need a "significantly" higher LSAT and GPA, but you'll probably need something a little better for most schools than in years past. This last year, it seemed to me like a lot of places upped their LSAT target ranges by a point or two and were much less forgiving of low GPAs unless they had to be to find high LSATs.

[Youk]

There was far more WL movement this year than in past years, this includes some of the better schools.  Do believe the upcoming cycle will show more applicants willing to attend.  I think more applied this year, but less were willing to go into school and debt with uncertain job prospects.  Many probably waited to see what happens to the legal industry over the next year. 

But, I think it really depends on geographic location where you apply.  For example, I know for a fact there was a huge rise in applicants in Boston & NYC b/c of the legal and financial industries woes.  Several admission offices told me just that, but they were not certain a high percentage had a great application package and seemed like they were reaching in terms of reasons attending school.  (Yes, some in the financial world applied to law as hard as that may seem to believe for some on here.)

In DC the applicantion numbers included a typical bump as seen in past years and not a huge jump that one might expect. 

My takeaway from the conversations I had with admission offices - make sure you application package (esp personal statement) make it crystal clear why law school is right for you and why you are attending.

[IPFreely]

From what I've heard at my school (mid-T1), they had a huge number of applications and could pick and choose.  Even so, a LOT more people in the first round of offers sent in their deposits than the school had expected.  I don't think they even went to a second round of acceptance letters.

If I'd applied this year, I wouldn't have made it.