Last year, applications to American Bar Association-approved law schools dropped to 385,400 from half a million, according to InTheCapital.
For the fall of 2013, there were 10 law schools that stood out from the rest in terms of receiving full-time applications. Those 10 law schools are as follows from U.S. News:
| School (name) (state) | Full-timeapplications (fall 2013) | U.S. News Law School rank |
| Georgetown University (DC) | 7,257 | 13 |
| University of Virginia | 6,048 | 8 |
| George Washington University (DC) | 6,005 | 20 |
| University of California—Berkeley | 5,885 | 9 |
| College of William and Mary (Marshall-Wythe) (VA) | 5,849 | 24 |
| Columbia University (NY) | 5,797 | 4 |
| New York University | 5,730 | 6 |
| University of California—Los Angeles | 5,562 | 16 |
| Harvard University (MA) | 5,485 | 2 |
| University of Pennsylvania | 5,283 | 7 |
It seems as though law schools in the Washington, D.C. area are still very popular as four of them made the top 10 list from U.S. News for full-time applications received. Those four schools are Georgetown, George Washington, University of Virginia and William and Mary.
For the schools that responded to the U.S. News survey, the average number of full-time applications received at each school came in at just under 1,900.
At the GW law school, 42 percent of applicants to the school were admitted last year. This is an increase of 13 percent from the previous year. It seems as though the school has declined its selectivity in an effort to increase its tuition dollars as the industry continues to struggle.