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Application Trends

Law Forums

Every fall, representatives of over 150 law schools travel the country to meet potential applicants.  Along with their visits to individual colleges, they attend conferences in hotels in eight major cities.  These conferences, known as Law Forums,  are organized and paid for by Law Services, unlike smaller recruiting events at individual colleges.

Every year thousands of hopeful prelaw students flock to these Forums to gather information, as do I.  However, I tend to be more systematic than they in gathering data.  I attend five or more Forums each year, attempting to interview at least 150 of the 170 schools represented. In addition to gathering statistical data, I try to get a feel for the prevailing mood of the admissions officers.  Their casual comments are often as important as the hard numbers in predicting how admissions will run at their school.

Of course, such casual comments aren't foolproof.  The Forums are held before applications are being submitted, so they represent a school's earliest view of the application year.  But an optimistic admissions officer will make very conservative offers in the early months, while a pessimistic one may take a few risks.  

When I return from each Forum, I post notes for you in my Recent News column.  I refer to my Forum notes frequently throughout the year in deciding which of my clients should apply where.  Of course, it's hardly the only data I look at -- more like a final confirmation or rebuttal of my sense of an applicant's chances at a school.  But  I've relied on my notes so much in 2003 and 2004, with applications so erratic, that I've archived those Forum notes here.  They'll show you the many omens I review in predicting  the future for my clients.  

Law Forum Notes for 2005 and 2006 have been inconclusive.  However, 2007 looks like it might be a year of big changes, so expect updates this year in the Recent News section.  .