Law school once again hot ticket for applicants

While the number of applications to law schools across the country is dropping, Penn's Law School is witnessing an increase the likes of which it has rarely seen before.

With two weeks left before the deadline, Penn has already received 30 percent more applications than last year's total, according to Assistant Dean of Admissions Derek Meeker.

"Penn is the hot school right now," Meeker said. "We have had around 5,200 in the past few years. This year we already have 5,600 applications."

Meeker attributed this increase to a variety of factors, including Penn's interdisciplinary opportunities, its distinguished faculty and the ongoing revitalization of Philadelphia.

"We have pretty much solidified ourselves as the leader in interdisciplinary studies, the most popular of these being business, where students can obtain a unique certificate in coordination with the Wharton School," Meeker said, noting that programs in health law, public service and bioethics are also very popular.

He added that Penn's campus and the surrounding area have played a role in attracting students.

"You also can't look past the money the University has spent on revitalizing West Philadelphia, and many people view Philly as a hip, affordable city," he said.

The school's faculty may be a major draw for potential students, as many are "experts in leading fields like election law."

But across the country, many other law schools are not seeing the same results as Penn.

According to the Law School Admission Council -- an organization that provides information for prospective law students -- applications for the upcoming year are already down several percentage points.

There has been so far a 5.6 percent decrease in applicants to American Bar Association-approved law schools, according to LSAC spokeswoman Wendy Margolis. "We don't know what the final number will be yet. Some schools have deadlines in February, others in March, and others have rolling deadlines, but this is the current percentage."

According to the organization, this 5.6 percent decrease follows a 17.6 percent increase for the 2002-2003 school year, a 9.5 percent increase in 2003-2004, and a 1.1 percent increase in 2004-2005 -- numbers that demonstrate a steady annual decrease.

"This could be because of the job market. When the economy improves, business school picks up a bit and people sometimes see better business prospects, but it is hard to say," Margolis said.

In addition, although not all applications are in yet, a December 2004 study by LSAC noted that more applicants have been applying earlier in the admission-year cycle, so a surge in applications before the deadlines is not likely.

Several of Penn Law's specific competitors for applicants, such as New York University and the University of Chicago, have seen either flat rates or small increases.

"We received just about 8,000 applications last year. Right now that number is closer to 7,000 ... but we expect at the deadline that the number will be about the same," said Remi Adegbile from the New York University Law Admissions Office.

University of Chicago Dean of Law Admissions Ann Perry predicted a 1 to 3 percent increase in applications there.

Perry said that the percentage increase this year is much lower than in years past.

"I think the application rates are leveling out. We have had much larger increases in years past," Perry said, "It is hard to guess why this is happening -- maybe because [of] the pick-up in the economy."

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