Survey finds fewer first-year law students

A recent survey of law schools by test prep company Kaplan shows that almost 50 percent of accredited law schools had smaller incoming classes this year, The National Law Journal reports.

“With the supply of new lawyers outpacing the available number of positions for new lawyers, this is the most critical time for legal education,” said Jeff Thomas, the director of Kaplan’s prelaw programs. “Our survey shows that law schools are taking much-needed action to better prepare new lawyers for the changing job landscape, while at the same time accepting fewer students, as they know jobs will not be easy to come by.”

The Law School Admission Council, which distributes the LSAT, also recently reported that the number of people who took the exam last month dropped by 16 percent from a year ago, while the number of people who took the test this summer was down by 6 percent.

One positive note: the Kaplan survey showed that 47 percent of the schools in the survey increased the total amount of financial aid they give to incoming students.